Ever heard about the famous, Precious Mckenzie? The weightlifter who is widely known in New Zealand, England, South Africa, basically, known around the world, has been an inspiration to many.. This amazing man was originally from South Africa though he eventually immigrated to New Zealand, where he got more fame.
Born on 1936, Precious had a difficult early life. At the age of 3 he was hospitalized because he developed a rare chest condition which could have affected him badly but fortunately he survived this major problem. This is why he was named ‘Precious One’.
McKenzie wanted to work in a circus as a gymnast. The people who he asked if he could work there said something terrible actually. This is, that he had the wrong skin colour. This attitude is absolutely dimwitted, according to me because everyone should get treated equally not because their skin tone is different.
Though McKenzie couldn’t become a circus man he then thought of becoming a weightlifter. Showing great talent he gained the Natal Bantamweight Title but didn’t make it into the Empire or Olympic Games because of his skin colour. Later he then immigrated to England hoping to find more opportunities and where they won’t discriminate.
Not so long after in England he married a woman called Elizabeth and had fathered two girls, Vanessa and Sandra. After that he competed in the Olympic games and had records and that’s when he reached international interest and also came to New Zealand.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
Precious McKenzie
Cruz and I have written this together about a weightlifter, Precious McKenzie:
The weightlifter's face, hard like a stone looked as if he was about to punch anyone that came in his way, bar to his chest and about to do the final lift.The crowd had gone wild as soon as the weightlifter, Precious McKenzie gripped the bar and with a grunt he pushed all his weight into the air. Now that was success!
The weightlifter's face, hard like a stone looked as if he was about to punch anyone that came in his way, bar to his chest and about to do the final lift.The crowd had gone wild as soon as the weightlifter, Precious McKenzie gripped the bar and with a grunt he pushed all his weight into the air. Now that was success!
'Brown Bother'
Click here if you would like to watch Joshua Iosefo's poem.
Recently at Mt Roskill Grammar a Prefect, Joshua Iosefo wrote a poem about something very important. ‘Brown Brother’, which is the name of the poem was about stereotypes. Why did he write this poem? Well this is because all the prefects had to write a speech but Joshua’s unique idea was to write a poem. This poem got discovered on youtube by Campbell Live, as his friend, Rashad had uploaded it and they screened it on national tv.
I think the message behind this poem was very strong and important. To me it meant not to listen to stereotypes because, if you do that it limits yourself and it’s racist. One of the other things that it reminded me of while listening to this poem is that it doesn’t matter what skin tone/colour you are you shouldn’t ever mock anyone this is whether you’re white, brown, dark-skinned or anything else.
Some of the examples he gives during his poem, which I reckon are quite important are:
- ‘And whenever someone tries to breach my comfort zone, or whenever I don’t have anything else to say in defence in an argument I’m just going to that you’re a racist. That your words are a mockery to my skin tone and my colour.”
- ‘Do not be afraid to be the change. Not a change in skin tone or colour, but a change of mind-set.’
This poem to me means that though we may be different colours, we shouldn’t be a stereotype and label people and put them in a group in your heads because that’s just wrong! Also we, people shouldn’t be afraid of who we are because we’re afraid of others judging us. In your life there will many ups and downs but you should always have to keep your head up and strive to succeed and don’t be limited by what other people expect in you. Most importantly Joshua Iosefo's message was to never limit yourself and be who you are.
Recently at Mt Roskill Grammar a Prefect, Joshua Iosefo wrote a poem about something very important. ‘Brown Brother’, which is the name of the poem was about stereotypes. Why did he write this poem? Well this is because all the prefects had to write a speech but Joshua’s unique idea was to write a poem. This poem got discovered on youtube by Campbell Live, as his friend, Rashad had uploaded it and they screened it on national tv.
I think the message behind this poem was very strong and important. To me it meant not to listen to stereotypes because, if you do that it limits yourself and it’s racist. One of the other things that it reminded me of while listening to this poem is that it doesn’t matter what skin tone/colour you are you shouldn’t ever mock anyone this is whether you’re white, brown, dark-skinned or anything else.
Some of the examples he gives during his poem, which I reckon are quite important are:
- ‘And whenever someone tries to breach my comfort zone, or whenever I don’t have anything else to say in defence in an argument I’m just going to that you’re a racist. That your words are a mockery to my skin tone and my colour.”
- ‘Do not be afraid to be the change. Not a change in skin tone or colour, but a change of mind-set.’
This poem to me means that though we may be different colours, we shouldn’t be a stereotype and label people and put them in a group in your heads because that’s just wrong! Also we, people shouldn’t be afraid of who we are because we’re afraid of others judging us. In your life there will many ups and downs but you should always have to keep your head up and strive to succeed and don’t be limited by what other people expect in you. Most importantly Joshua Iosefo's message was to never limit yourself and be who you are.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
Replicating Harata Rewiri Tarapata by Charles F. Goldie
This term, the extension year 7 and 8 group have been focusing on a great New Zealand artist called Charles Frederick Goldie. Extension teacher, Mrs Tele'a gave us a project. In this we had to get one of Charles F. Goldies paintings and replicate it using Hyperstudio. This was a tough job but I persevered, did my best and have came up with this piece of art.
Above I have tried to reproduce the painting called Harata Rewiri Tarapata, which is a very ancient painting. The woman in this artwork is the widow of the late Chief Paul Tukane of Orakei. Her tribe was Nga Puhi.
Above I have tried to reproduce the painting called Harata Rewiri Tarapata, which is a very ancient painting. The woman in this artwork is the widow of the late Chief Paul Tukane of Orakei. Her tribe was Nga Puhi.
The official artwork was painted by the great Charles Frederick Goldie. This is an oil on canvas painting and it was painted in 1906. Do you realized that this painting is now 106 years old?
One thing that really made me think about this painting is of the sitter. I wonder why she looked sad, was it just because she wanted her painting to be like that or maybe there was something about her life which could have been a little depressing.
I think my image turned out the way I wanted and I’m actually really happy how it did turn out. One of the hardest parts throughout drawing this was the colour. That was because the background had a lot of texture and it was quite hard trying to get colours which were close to the actual one but at the end I endeavoured my best and I’m quite happy about it.
* Pt England Gallery of Fine Arts
If you live in New Zealand, Auckland, why don't you come along to the Point England Art Gallery which is being held in the Hall at Pt England School. Artworks from students all around our school have been put in this gallery. Here are the times you could come and visit:
Tuesday 26th - Thursday 28th = 9 am - 7 pm
Friday 29th = 8am - 3pm
Friday, June 1, 2012
Comparing and Contrasting
Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso were artists and also lifelong friends. Matisse was on born on December 31, 1896 at Le Cateau-Cambresis, France and Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 at Malaga, Spain. They first met in Paris, where they went on to develop their own style of art. Matisse’s style of work was fauvism whereas Picasso’s was first an impressionistic style but then he became interested in cubism.
Weeping Woman illustrated by Picasso and Woman With a Hat created by Matisse were both oil on canvas paintings AND they were both about woman. The difference between these two fabulous painting was that Weeping Woman had strong, intense emotions and Woman with a Hat had no emotions at all. In Matisse’s painting, he was experimenting with a different style of painting. Picasso on the other hand was conveying the suffering of war.
Another thing that was similar in both paintings were the bright, vibrant colours. In Weeping Woman you could clearly see the shading changed from yellow to orange. Woman with a Hat was different. It had very unrealistic colours used (Fauvism).
Weeping Woman had clearly defined lines. They are sharp jagged lines which accentuate the artwork. Matisse’s artwork was way different in this. Many lines were blurred, the colours were mixed and smudgy. He used defined shape.
Weeping Woman illustrated by Picasso and Woman With a Hat created by Matisse were both oil on canvas paintings AND they were both about woman. The difference between these two fabulous painting was that Weeping Woman had strong, intense emotions and Woman with a Hat had no emotions at all. In Matisse’s painting, he was experimenting with a different style of painting. Picasso on the other hand was conveying the suffering of war.
Another thing that was similar in both paintings were the bright, vibrant colours. In Weeping Woman you could clearly see the shading changed from yellow to orange. Woman with a Hat was different. It had very unrealistic colours used (Fauvism).
Weeping Woman had clearly defined lines. They are sharp jagged lines which accentuate the artwork. Matisse’s artwork was way different in this. Many lines were blurred, the colours were mixed and smudgy. He used defined shape.
These two artists were great and both amazing at art. It’s great how they were both life-long friends. These two artworks may still be about woman, sadness and war but at the end of the day they are both amazing artworks.
Kiwi Kick
Wind gusted towards my face as my hair flew side from side. The freezing air attacked my skin and not so long after I had goosebumps. As my teeth chattered “Ahhh, It’s so COLD!”, I huddled and quickly put my jacket on and started jumping. That’s my way of getting warmer.
We were at the courts, sitting down waiting for Mike & Sam to start talking about what we were about to do. I already knew this was Kiwi Kick which is basically where we, Pt England School learn to play rugby but a safer way. Every class is scheduled once a week to be playing with another class. Us, room 20 are with room 22.
Sam told us what we were going to be doing. Which was learning a few techniques. First off, we learnt the drop punt which is basically where we hold the ball with both of our hands, position the ball straight in front of your stomach and drop the ball where your leg will kick the ball slightly and the ball will bounce back to you. Since I ain’t the type of sport type of person, It took me a while to figure out how to ACTUALLY do it properly. Well that’s what I thought?
Not long after Sam blew the whistle, signalling that time was up to practice that previous technique. We get repeating the same process of learning a few techniques. By the end we had only learned 3 skills, which I took pretty long doing.
As kiwi kick came to an end. “Over the next few weeks will be learning more skills and at the end we’ll have a few games of Kiwi Kick. So yeah, could you make two neat lines for your teachers.” Sam said. We headed back to our classes to continue with the rest of the day.
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