title: Unvoiced: A Fairytale

authors: Sobótka, Ruth Keeling

subjects: dystopian fiction

abstract: Outside the apartment, the Catastrophe is raging. After the Emergency six years before, a combination of nuclear ruin, atmospheric deterioration, epidemic disease and internecine warfare has emptied the City streets. Only children, curiously immune to both the crippling illness and war politics, venture out through the urban pollution to collect supplies and conduct business, ostensibly in their parents’ names.

Anna, mother of two teenage boys, is holed up inside and attempting to stay sane. Formerly a lawyer and relapsing frequently with the new disease, she conducts online affairs under a pseudonym, promoting the underground spread of health-preserving vaccines. Her absent husband, Seb, has long been conscripted to the Front. Anna’s mothering of her children is inflected by complex interdependence and power inversions, honed through long years of domestic isolation. One of her two boys is a daughter, Honey, whose distorted childhood freedom of the street is now threatened by her oncoming puberty. Honey assumes the boyish identity, Jack, which allows her to keep leaving the house, but this places her at risk of infection as well as on-street conscription if identified as an adult. Jack’s relationship with her mother becomes strained, as she grapples with her own maturing body, her mother’s ill-health, the looming restrictions of adulthood and her delegated role as her mother’s Voice.

Meanwhile, in a setting as yet untouched by the Catastrophe, Southland Kiwi farmer Nick views the global situation pragmatically, with an agricultural eye. Only partially aware of the dystopia outside the still-locked borders of New Zealand, Nick’s isolated rural community seems far-distanced from such cataclysmic events. Now suddenly, a strange new disease begins spreading amongst the young cattle Nick is grazing on his family farm. Suspecting that some part of the Catastrophe has reached the far South, Nick begins to research online, and he becomes obsessed with the disasters occurring outside New Zealand. As he invests more in his online persona, the international Catastrophe and the people living through it become more urgent to him than the issues of his own farm and family.

Spanning the fractured global story of our times, Unvoiced: A Fairytale draws on a range of voices from our post-pandemic moment. This unfurling dramaturgy of disorder juxtaposes divergent perspectives, news-clippings, flashbacks and fever dreams to weave a twisted fairytale in five Acts. Its flickering reportage of tentatively connected storylines explores a near-future in which disaster-hardened adults become entrapped in worlds of their own making, while the younger generation become carriers of disease, sexual violence, cynicism and disabling propaganda. Personal and social trauma embeds in family narratives and becomes intergenerational. New forms of identity and relationships unfold in the digital landscapes which connect us loosely, shaping personalities and raising troubling questions about who and where we really are. Which parts of our lives are merely invented, and by whom? What do we really know about our world, and how do we know it? Is the Catastrophe already upon us, or has it been fabricated online, and within us, by paranoid and sickening minds? 

Through haunting fragments and unfinished stories, woven with wistful nostalgia for what we have already lost, Unvoiced: A Fairytale warns of the potential human devastation arising out of the nightmarish conflagration of war, politics, disease and climate catastrophe.

text: Unvoiced: A Fairytale Outside the apartment, the Catastrophe is raging. After the Emergency six years before, a combination of nuclear ruin, atmospheric deterioration, epidemic disease and internecine warfare has emptied the City streets. Only children, curiously immune to both the crippling illness and war politics, venture out through the urban pollution to collect supplies and conduct business, ostensibly in their parents’ names.

Anna, mother of two teenage boys, is holed up inside and attempting to stay sane. Formerly a lawyer and relapsing frequently with the new disease, she conducts online affairs under a pseudonym, promoting the underground spread of health-preserving vaccines. Her absent husband, Seb, has long been conscripted to the Front. Anna’s mothering of her children is inflected by complex interdependence and power inversions, honed through long years of domestic isolation. One of her two boys is a daughter, Honey, whose distorted childhood freedom of the street is now threatened by her oncoming puberty. Honey assumes the boyish identity, Jack, which allows her to keep leaving the house, but this places her at risk of infection as well as on-street conscription if identified as an adult. Jack’s relationship with her mother becomes strained, as she grapples with her own maturing body, her mother’s ill-health, the looming restrictions of adulthood and her delegated role as her mother’s Voice.

Meanwhile, in a setting as yet untouched by the Catastrophe, Southland Kiwi farmer Nick views the global situation pragmatically, with an agricultural eye. Only partially aware of the dystopia outside the still-locked borders of New Zealand, Nick’s isolated rural community seems far-distanced from such cataclysmic events. Now suddenly, a strange new disease begins spreading amongst the young cattle Nick is grazing on his family farm. Suspecting that some part of the Catastrophe has reached the far South, Nick begins to research online, and he becomes obsessed with the disasters occurring outside New Zealand. As he invests more in his online persona, the international Catastrophe and the people living through it become more urgent to him than the issues of his own farm and family.

Spanning the fractured global story of our times, Unvoiced: A Fairytale draws on a range of voices from our post-pandemic moment. This unfurling dramaturgy of disorder juxtaposes divergent perspectives, news-clippings, flashbacks and fever dreams to weave a twisted fairytale in five Acts. Its flickering reportage of tentatively connected storylines explores a near-future in which disaster-hardened adults become entrapped in worlds of their own making, while the younger generation become carriers of disease, sexual violence, cynicism and disabling propaganda. Personal and social trauma embeds in family narratives and becomes intergenerational. New forms of identity and relationships unfold in the digital landscapes which connect us loosely, shaping personalities and raising troubling questions about who and where we really are. Which parts of our lives are merely invented, and by whom? What do we really know about our world, and how do we know it? Is the Catastrophe already upon us, or has it been fabricated online, and within us, by paranoid and sickening minds? 

Through haunting fragments and unfinished stories, woven with wistful nostalgia for what we have already lost, Unvoiced: A Fairytale warns of the potential human devastation arising out of the nightmarish conflagration of war, politics, disease and climate catastrophe.

year: 2025

title: The viability of waste copper chromium and arsenic treated timber reinforced polypropylene as a sustainable building material

authors: Nelson, Jacob Martin Bruton

subjects: Natural fibre composites

abstract: The aim of this thesis was to investigate the viability of wood-plastic composites (WPCs) produced from wood flour and fibre derived from waste copper chromium and arsenic (CCA) treated timber for use as a sustainable material in the construction sector.

The research included an assessment of mechanical properties and the leaching of heavy metals from the wood-plastic composites, and the results were compared to material requirements in the building sector provided through literature and New Zealand building standards. Mechanical and chemical methods were used to prepare wood flour and fibre samples from waste CCA treated timber for use in wood-plastic composites. Composites were produced through compounding using a twin screw extruder or a custom sigma blade compounder and then injection moulded for material testing. Composites produced using an extruder with 40 wt.% bleached fibres and 4 wt.% MAPP, increased tensile strength (TM) from 18.5 MPa for the polypropylene used for the matrix to 27.6 MPa; Young's modulus (YM) was increased from 0.84 GPa to 2.33 GPa.

Comparison of mechanical performance with commercial WPC properties suggests that waste CCA treated timber could be used as a raw material to produce WPC for semi-structural applications. The modulus (2.33 GPa, in the highest performing composites) was roughly three times lower than commonly used commercial timbers used in structural applications. The creep performance was not measured for a time frame long enough to be indicative of the 50 years required for structural application. Therefore, further research is required to investigate whether the low modulus and creep performance of the WPC is acceptable for a structural material in the construction sector.

One of the largest concerns with using waste CCA treated timber as a reinforcement material in WPC was the inclusion of heavy metals and the potential for leaching. Arsenic was considered the most toxic of the heavy metals in the CCA treated timber. Processing of the waste CCA treated timber to obtain fibre was found to reduce arsenic concentration by up to 99.94 % in the best scenario. Furthermore, arsenic in leachate from composites was found to decrease from 41.29 to 0.07 ppb when comparing wood flour composites to digested and bleached fibre composites. The concentration of copper, chromium, and arsenic in leachate from composites produced with chemically obtained fibre was found to be significantly lower than the maximum allowable drinking levels in New Zealand. Therefore, indicating the application of composites produced with wood fibre from waste CCA treated timber can be regarded as safe even in scenarios that involve human contact with the material.

A life cycle analysis study found that the use of an alkali digestion process to obtain fibre significantly increased the environmental impact compared to the processing required to obtain wood flour. In a study of a potential commercial scale process, ultrasonic treatment and hydrogen peroxide bleaching as secondary fibre treatments were the largest contributors to environmental impact in the preparation of wood fibre. Thus, the results suggest that chemical treatments should only be employed to produce wood fibre when the highest mechanical performance or lowest leaching levels are required for the application of the wood-plastic composites.

text: The viability of waste copper chromium and arsenic treated timber reinforced polypropylene as a sustainable building material The aim of this thesis was to investigate the viability of wood-plastic composites (WPCs) produced from wood flour and fibre derived from waste copper chromium and arsenic (CCA) treated timber for use as a sustainable material in the construction sector.

The research included an assessment of mechanical properties and the leaching of heavy metals from the wood-plastic composites, and the results were compared to material requirements in the building sector provided through literature and New Zealand building standards. Mechanical and chemical methods were used to prepare wood flour and fibre samples from waste CCA treated timber for use in wood-plastic composites. Composites were produced through compounding using a twin screw extruder or a custom sigma blade compounder and then injection moulded for material testing. Composites produced using an extruder with 40 wt.% bleached fibres and 4 wt.% MAPP, increased tensile strength (TM) from 18.5 MPa for the polypropylene used for the matrix to 27.6 MPa; Young's modulus (YM) was increased from 0.84 GPa to 2.33 GPa.

Comparison of mechanical performance with commercial WPC properties suggests that waste CCA treated timber could be used as a raw material to produce WPC for semi-structural applications. The modulus (2.33 GPa, in the highest performing composites) was roughly three times lower than commonly used commercial timbers used in structural applications. The creep performance was not measured for a time frame long enough to be indicative of the 50 years required for structural application. Therefore, further research is required to investigate whether the low modulus and creep performance of the WPC is acceptable for a structural material in the construction sector.

One of the largest concerns with using waste CCA treated timber as a reinforcement material in WPC was the inclusion of heavy metals and the potential for leaching. Arsenic was considered the most toxic of the heavy metals in the CCA treated timber. Processing of the waste CCA treated timber to obtain fibre was found to reduce arsenic concentration by up to 99.94 % in the best scenario. Furthermore, arsenic in leachate from composites was found to decrease from 41.29 to 0.07 ppb when comparing wood flour composites to digested and bleached fibre composites. The concentration of copper, chromium, and arsenic in leachate from composites produced with chemically obtained fibre was found to be significantly lower than the maximum allowable drinking levels in New Zealand. Therefore, indicating the application of composites produced with wood fibre from waste CCA treated timber can be regarded as safe even in scenarios that involve human contact with the material.

A life cycle analysis study found that the use of an alkali digestion process to obtain fibre significantly increased the environmental impact compared to the processing required to obtain wood flour. In a study of a potential commercial scale process, ultrasonic treatment and hydrogen peroxide bleaching as secondary fibre treatments were the largest contributors to environmental impact in the preparation of wood fibre. Thus, the results suggest that chemical treatments should only be employed to produce wood fibre when the highest mechanical performance or lowest leaching levels are required for the application of the wood-plastic composites.

year: 2022

title: Te ahi tawhito, te ahi tipua, te ahi nā Mahuika: Re-igniting native women’s ceremony

authors: Murphy, Ngahuia Aroha Grace

subjects: Native women's ceremony

abstract: This research examines the multiple ways in which Māori, and Hawai’ian and Native American women, are re-activating feminine ceremonial forms and recovering sacred relationships with customary feminine deities. Attention is focused on the creation of personal ritual practices that respond to contemporary decolonising and ecological contexts.
A mana wahine theoretical and methodological framework motivated by emancipatory agendas that seek to facilitate transformation is used. Key to mana wahine projects is the creation of space for Native women to define themselves and their own stories and knowledges. This is important because Native women’s voices, knowledge and ritual histories continue to be marginalised. Furthermore, debased colonial renditions of femininity, which have been reproduced, perpetuate patriarchal and colonial politics that engender discord in Native communities today.  
The study used a suite of complimentary methods to engage 45 Native women and men. Interviews and kōrero (discussion), ceremony, mana wahine wānanga (women’s sacred learning space), Native sacred site visits, solicited journals, collaboration in ritual theatre productions, and analysis of mana wahine artworks as discursive texts were employed to gather stories of spiritual continuation that are unique and largely unchartered in academia. 
The empirical material is organised around four themes in four different chapters. The first of these empirical chapters re-interprets colonial ethnographic material alongside karakia (incantations), mōteatea (songs), cosmological and tribal stories, to reveal bold examples of Māori female ritual leadership. The second empirical chapter comprises an analysis of key colonial processes that have attempted to erase Native women’s ritual ontologies and the strident expressions of Native women’s resistance to colonial imperatives. The third empirical chapter investigates the multiple channels through which Native women are restoring their ceremonial lives. The fourth chapter investigates rerenga atua (menstruation) rituals that celebrate the Native feminine body as a cosmological site of communion with feminine deities. 
The rich weave of Native women’s stories of ceremony, old and new, threads into decolonising Indigenous scholarship around the world that also seeks to recover the sacred feminine as a key site of Native sovereignty. These discussions reveal a self-renewing Native belief system based on vibrant and evolving rituals that respond directly to current socio-political, spiritual and ecological realities.

text: Te ahi tawhito, te ahi tipua, te ahi nā Mahuika: Re-igniting native women’s ceremony This research examines the multiple ways in which Māori, and Hawai’ian and Native American women, are re-activating feminine ceremonial forms and recovering sacred relationships with customary feminine deities. Attention is focused on the creation of personal ritual practices that respond to contemporary decolonising and ecological contexts.
A mana wahine theoretical and methodological framework motivated by emancipatory agendas that seek to facilitate transformation is used. Key to mana wahine projects is the creation of space for Native women to define themselves and their own stories and knowledges. This is important because Native women’s voices, knowledge and ritual histories continue to be marginalised. Furthermore, debased colonial renditions of femininity, which have been reproduced, perpetuate patriarchal and colonial politics that engender discord in Native communities today.  
The study used a suite of complimentary methods to engage 45 Native women and men. Interviews and kōrero (discussion), ceremony, mana wahine wānanga (women’s sacred learning space), Native sacred site visits, solicited journals, collaboration in ritual theatre productions, and analysis of mana wahine artworks as discursive texts were employed to gather stories of spiritual continuation that are unique and largely unchartered in academia. 
The empirical material is organised around four themes in four different chapters. The first of these empirical chapters re-interprets colonial ethnographic material alongside karakia (incantations), mōteatea (songs), cosmological and tribal stories, to reveal bold examples of Māori female ritual leadership. The second empirical chapter comprises an analysis of key colonial processes that have attempted to erase Native women’s ritual ontologies and the strident expressions of Native women’s resistance to colonial imperatives. The third empirical chapter investigates the multiple channels through which Native women are restoring their ceremonial lives. The fourth chapter investigates rerenga atua (menstruation) rituals that celebrate the Native feminine body as a cosmological site of communion with feminine deities. 
The rich weave of Native women’s stories of ceremony, old and new, threads into decolonising Indigenous scholarship around the world that also seeks to recover the sacred feminine as a key site of Native sovereignty. These discussions reveal a self-renewing Native belief system based on vibrant and evolving rituals that respond directly to current socio-political, spiritual and ecological realities.

year: 2019