A portrait of Tumai Tawhiti, last of the Cannibals

I haven't really been able to delve into my special interests whilst here and that's not a bad thing. I have gone back to my green roots (I wanted to be a conservationist when I was a child) and been expanding my sphere's of knowledge in the multi-issued intricaties of that which is Community Development Work. But I've been reading up about Maori history and finding the same old story here as in the rest of the world where the British came and plundered. This is a postcard I found at the weekend.

It's a potrait called Tumai Tawhiti The Last of the Cannibals by a famous artisit Charles Goldie. I like it. I don't know why. I just do. And I was curious to find out about this character but all I can find online is info about the artist. Was he really a cannibal or is this just another derogatory labelling of the Other by the colonisers gaze?

On a lighter note: Pikopiko  are the 'young curved fern shoots served as a Maori delicacy' ...yet to try them but they sound sweet and delicious. This is them on the cover of my 2010 diary I bought this morning in the city centre. I went to visit Dr. Love Chile, a Community Development policy researcher at Auckland university (AUT). I'm planning for my PhD in the next 4 years. After visiting here and applying unsuccessfully for the Commonwealth Scholarship just before I left, I realise it's something I'd really love to do.

And this is my desk as it is today. Notice the Peace Lily; just like mine in Edinburgh at home, but bigger. That New Zealand sunshine's good for the green growing things...