HARRY POTTER 2.0?
The Wizard of New Zealand
As of 2018, Christchurch, New Zealand, is home to nearly 400,000 people, many of whom lead pretty normal lives with normal jobs. Ian Brackenbury Channell, though, isn’t one of them. His job title: The Wizard of New Zealand.
For most of his early career, London-born Channell worked as a sociology lecturer, community organizer for adult education programs, and cultural affairs officer at universities. But his passion, it seemed, lay with the more countercultural. In the late 1960s, while he was a student at the University of New South Wales pursuing a PhD in sociology, Channell organized a group called “ALF” (“Action for Love and Freedom”), which hoped to usher in “The Fun Revolution.” He saw this as a new path that disapproved of both the Marxism and capitalism movements of the time.
The group made Channel into a public contrarian—and it also made him unpopular with many. In 1969, he was kicked out of his PhD program for failing to do the work to progress in his studies. The vice chancellor at the University of NSW appreciated his work as a community organizer, however, and wanted to keep him on campus. Channel came up with an idea: If he couldn’t be a PhD student, maybe he could be a wizard. Amazingly, the vice chancellor agreed. That year, the school had its first-ever University Wizard—a paid position funded in part by the administration and also through student union funds. The salary wasn’t much, but the role gave Channel what every aspirant wants out of a first job: A foot in the door and a line on his resume.
After the 1970 school year, Channel’s time as the University Wizard ended, but his career was on the right path—if you aspired to be a professional wizard, that is. In 1971, he convinced the University of Melbourne to hire him to lead a theretofore nonexistent cosmology department—a role which came with the use of a lecture hall where Channel could teach the next generation of wizards. The job, however, did not come with any pay. So, after the 1974 school year, Channel relocated to Christchurch, hoping to find new opportunities for those pursuing the magic arts.
Amazingly, he found success. Unlike Harry Potter or Gandalf the Grey, Channel wasn’t capable of casting spells, but he did have a way with words. Shortly after moving to Christchurch, he began visiting the city’s center, Cathedral Square, dressed in a black cloak and pointed black hat (and yes, he had a shaggy gray beard). He carried with him neither wand nor staff but rather a ladder, which he climbed to give himself a perch to speak from. The square became his classroom, and he’d give lectures to passersby on the major topics of the day or whatever else he’d care to discuss.
At first, the local authorities weren’t pleased, seeing his schtick as an unwelcome disruption to the peace. The people, however, loved him, and the Christchurch City Council had no choice but to let him stay. Ultimately, they came around about the idea of having a wizard in their midst and, in 1982, made him official by naming him the first-ever Wizard of Christchurch. Eight years later, Prime Minister Mike Moore promoted him to Wizard of New Zealand, and in 2009 he was even awarded the Queen’s Service Medal by the New Zealand government for his service to the nation.