Business journalist Rod Oram was our Sir Graham Douglas Orator for 2017, and shook off all preconceptions of what he might do by delivering what Metro magazine described as an “impassioned performance” as part of the “opening night of the year”.

This piece is highly poetic and jumps backwards and forwards in time, with extensive quotes from diverse characters from the history of Tāmaki Makaurau. Alongside Rod’s words, the performance includes a soundscape by Rod’s daughter Celeste Oram.

Rod draws on the ideas explored in his book Three Cities: Seeking Hope in the Anthropocene for this piece. In that book he looks at the fundamental changes required in politics, economics and technology in order to sustain the human population in its current habitat: planet Earth.

Rod Oram has over 40 years’ experience as an international business journalist. He has worked for various publications in Europe and North America, including the Financial Times of London. He is a frequent public speaker on business, economics, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.

Celeste Oram is a composer whose work explores new media and strategies for composition and annotation. Her work has been performed, recorded and broadcast in Aotearoa, Australia, America and Europe.