Sharing Stories to Inspire

Supported by the Trust, our 2020 Inspiring Explorers are busy delivering their outreach programmes following their trip to Antarctica. Our Inspiring Explorers are interacting with school students around the world, developing educational and video content, designing virtual reality and augmented reality resources as well as creating artwork and music. All the Inspiring Explorers are committed to sharing their stories within their communities, giving presentations and inspiring others to explore.

Antarctic Inspired Artwork

A’aifou Potenami’s experience as part of the 2020 Inspiring Explorers Expedition™ has led this Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate student to explore his time on the Antarctic Peninsula during art class. His first Antarctic inspired artwork is made using printmaking techniques.

A’aifou says the piece was created as an artwork of remembrance, the act of making the postcard reminding him of his time away in such an astonishing and beautiful place. The artwork is based on a photo of the team in Antarctica in their kayaks.

“I thought it would be really awesome to include the icebergs in the background to show how big they are in contrast to a silhouette of our team that went down to Antarctica,” says A’aifou.

An important aspect was to show the beauty and colours of the Antarctic environment; mesmerising iceberg blues and the green, yellow and red of the sky. A’aifou is now working on a second artwork.

Environmental Education

Owain John’s desire to share his Antarctic experiences is expressed through his social enterprise, Squawk Squad. Squawk Squad’s vision is to inspire a generation of tamariki (children) to become kaitiaki (guardians) of Aotearoa-New Zealand through education and action by building a world-class environmental education platform and running digital programmes that empower collective action.

With footage shot during the expedition, Owain has created an eight week environmental adventure to Antarctica where New Zealand school children learn about climate change and Antarctica’s relevance to the world. One topic focuses on the early explorers to Antarctica and connects students with the Trust’s work and the spirit of exploration. Teachers signed up to the programme receive curriculum-linked lesson plans focused on Antarctica with climate change causes and solutions. More than 200 teachers and 4000 students aged five to twelve are taking part in Squawk Squad’s programme.

See more at https://education.squawksquad.co.nz/

‘On Satin Waters’

Ihlara McIndoe, a music and law student at the University of Otago, has had the first of three classical music pieces she is composing performed at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery as part of her community engagement programme.

“On Satin Waters is inspired by our final day kayaking in Antarctica, when it was particularly dark and foggy and the water was like a giant black sheet of satin, so still and reflective that the bright blue of the looming icebergs were mirrored in it. It was surreal and overwhelming.”

On Satin Waters was composed for violin, viola and pre-recorded electronics (composed of water and ice recordings taken during the expedition), and was performed by Nathaniel Otley and Mark Menzies as part of the Explorations concert series of environmentally inspired works.

Inspiring Lecture

Laurette Siemonek, a senior policy analyst for the Ministry for the Environment, recently gave a lecture on her experiences to the Antarctic Peninsula to Dr Cliff Atkins’ students from the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington. The lecture forms part of the Trust’s ongoing association with the University.