An Uncommon Vision: exploring the past to reimagine our urban future

Join NZ Herald Senior Writer Simon Wilson in conversation with Catherine Knight, author of An Un Uncommon Land.

Catherine’s newest work, An Uncommon Land, weaves together ancestral family stories and wider social and environmental history to trace the process of enclosure and the rise of private property, and offers a compelling vision for a regenerative, recommoned future.

'An Uncommon Land' will be available for purchase and author signing at the event (payment by cash or bank transfer).

Dr Catherine Knight works in public policy, with a focus on creating liveable cities through better urban form integrated with public and active transport. Catherine is an award-winning environmental historian and author of several acclaimed books including Beyond Manapouri: 50 years of environmental politics in New Zealand and Nature and Wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand. She has a strong interest in post-growth and wellbeing economy and writes on these topics on Newsroom, The Spinoff and on Substack. Catherine is also an Honorary Research Associate at Massey University. 

Simon Wilson is a senior writer with the NZ Herald, where he contributes feature articles, columns and news reports on politics, climate change, city building and social issues. He was previously a magazine editor (Metro, Cuisine, Consumer) and his many awards include feature writer of the year (twice), best opinion writer, best reviewer, best first-person essay, magazine of the year (Metro and Cuisine) and two awards from NZIA. He is the author of HomeGround: The story of a building that changes lives (2022) and editor of The Journal of Urgent Writing vol 2 (2017).

This event will be filmed and made available on The Urban Room YouTube Channel and Auckland Conversations website.