“We re currently living in alert level 1 with 26 deaths – one of the lowest deaths per capita in the world. So I’d say we ve done rather well. Especially given that many other countries are lurching from one lockdown to the next.” Looking overseas, there are hundreds of people dying every day from the virus. “It s astonishing really,” she says. New Zealand’s death toll of 26 people is in stark contrast to the more than 500,000 deaths recorded in the United States since the start of the pandemic. Globally, more than 2.49 million people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. For general comparison, that number is roughly equivalent to half of New Zealand’s population.
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF
In traditional times, it was often a son that would take on a family farm. Those times are changing.
It s more common than ever to see a woman picking up a belt sander, fire hose or heavy-duty tool.
Stuff reporter Georgia Forrester chats to wāhine who are smashing stereotypes in traditionally male-dominated industries. Sisters Ailie and Nina Jaine make for a pretty extraordinary duo. The two Canterbury women, aged 31 and 29 respectively, have teamed up together to take on their family farm, near Mt Somers. The sheep and beef farm, named Cravendale, is where Ailie and Nina spent the majority of their childhood. It was an upbringing spent mostly outdoors, tailing lambs, camping, and collecting pinecones to sell for pocket money.
New Zealand Steel workers Linnea Karlsson and Jessica Halim are women working in traditionally male environments.
It s more common than ever to see a woman picking up a belt sander, fire hose or heavy-duty tool.
Stuff reporter Georgia Forrester chats to wāhine who are smashing stereotypes in traditionally male-dominated industries. Jessica Halim has been around machinery and tools since before she can remember. Some of her earliest memories are of being in her father s shop in Indonesia, which they lived above, and counting out bolts. She remembers watching her father cut the chain of a chainsaw to size, and helping him fold the cool metal away into the cardboard boxes.
Navy Commodore Melissa Ross has often been one of the few women on deck in her workplace.
It s more common than ever to see a woman picking up a belt sander, a fire hose or handpiece.
Stuff reporter Georgia Forrester chats to wāhine who are smashing stereotypes in traditionally male-dominated industries. Melissa Ross knows what it s like to be a woman standing out in a sea of men. Ross (Ngāpuhi) is the deputy chief of the navy. In 2019, she became the first woman to achieve the rank of commodore in the Royal New Zealand Navy s history, and the first woman to become second-in command.