WEEKLY NEWS

Straight actor Pedro Pascal’s new role as a gay man sparks debate

Tegan Jaggard she/her

Massey representatives say queer actors bring authenticity and personal experience to queer roles that a straight, cis actor may not be able to achieve.

Short film Strange Way of Life, starring straight men Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal as two cowboys who fall in love, premiered at Cannes Film Festival this month. The film has sparked debate of weather straight, cis people should play queer roles.

Connor Mcleod, Diversity and Inclusion Advisor for Massey, said, “We need to recognise the value queer and trans actors bring to their performances due to their personal experiences and authentic insights”. He felt it was important to recognise the “potential harm cis-het performers may cause or perpetuate due to caricaturising queer people or not addressing the invisibilisation of our people”.

While Mcleod wouldn’t advocate for a blanket ban of non-LGBTQIA+ actors playing queer-centred roles, he would encourage creators to “explore the delicate balance between inclusion and erasure, and to consult our communities along the way”. He said it was important to consider the wider context being that LGBTQIA+ people face a range of inequities and barriers both within the entertainment industry and in wider society.

Distance rainbow rep for Te Tira Ahu Pae, Carlee Gregory, said, “Ideally, queer roles would be played by queer actors to lend authenticity”. However, “whether the actor is the right fit for a part is more important than their real-life sexuality”. Gregory said, “there is no corresponding controversy when queer actors play straight characters”.

Director of Strange Way of Life, Pedro Almodóvar, is a Spanish writer whose movies are often progressive and challenging traditional ideas, including themes such as transgenderism and homosexuality.

The debate gets more complicated as Almodóvar himself is openly gay, however, he does not see himself as a “gay filmmaker”.

Rather, the director’s films focus on the universal feeling of passion between people of all sexualities. Strange Way of Life revolves around a pair of former hired gunslingers in the Old West. The two reconnect after working together more than 25 years earlier. However, it soon becomes clear that the reason for their meeting is not strictly friendly or coincidental. The short film was released overseas to the public in Spanish theatres last Friday.

Thief sneaks into Massey design lab “on a quest”

Sammy Carter (she/her)

Despite four police officers, two security guards, and three students, a thief has managed to escape with student property by climbing through vents and jumping down from ceilings. On Tuesday the 16th of May, a man came into the Wellington concept design lab and left with a tote bag full of student belongings.

Design student Shaun Henderson was the only person to witness the entire incident.

“He kept saying he was on a quest, and he kept saying he was Luke Skywalker,” Henderson said. After arriving to Uni at 9:15am, Henderson was alone at the lab when a man wandered in at 9:40am.

The man tried on past student’s cosplay and prop projects and kept a helmet on most of the time to cover his face.

Student witnesses said the man was very skinny, blue or grey eyes, and had a tattoo on his right forearm, potentially of a sword. He was wearing grey sweatpants and a black T-shirt with a graphic on it.

After half an hour, Master student Sara Fernańdez arrived, and the man ignored the students as they asked him to stop touching stuff that wasn’t his.

Eventually the man spoke up, Henderson said, “He was real adamant that it was his and that he was gonna take it all.”

Henderson called security around 10:25am, but they took longer to get there than he expected. After calling security twice, they showed up around 15 minutes later.

The man continued to explore and started filling up his tote bag with stuff while security and the students waited for police to arrive.

Just before police arrived, the thief ran into a small, unlocked door that led up to the vents.

“He scuttled up real quick,” Henderson said.

A police officer ran up after the man, but after hearing a loud thump the students turned around and the man had jumped down from the ceiling vents at the other side of the room and was running away.

“He drops down behind us and just runs out of the building”.

Henderson said, “He wasn’t there mentally as far as I know. I asked if he was on anything and he said, ‘No, I wish I was’.”

The man’s tote bag was full when he left, however, only a few stolen things had been identified including Fernańdez’s tripod and another student’s EFTPOS, bus, and Massey swipe card. These have since been deactivated.

The thief attempted to take a student’s Xbox and glasses but gave it back to the student when he asked nicely. In response to Henderson’s experience of security taking 15 minutes to arrive, a Massey University spokesperson said a member of security, who was already in the building, attended the scene as soon as they received the call.

“There has been an increase in training for security around recognising students at risk and the introduction of standard operating procedures for incident response, which are regularly reviewed.”

The spokesperson said Massey had taken steps in recent years to ensure campuses are safe, including increased lighting in poorly lit areas, and security cameras in car parks and around building entrances.

Witness Sara Fernańdez is an international student from Colombia, “The fact that everyone can enter, it was spooky for me at the end of the day.”

“I think that is the most frustrating, that he escaped with the police here,” she said.

“He told me, ‘I am a Jedi’.”

She approached him to make sure he didn’t take more, “When I touched him, he reacted like ‘don’t touch me’… He was such a crazy man.”

The university has since put locks on the doors to the lab vents and added a 24/7 swipe card access to Block 10 and the lab entrance. It has also increased security in the area and was looking into getting design students lockers for their valuables.

If you find yourself in an unsafe situation on any Massey campus, you can call security on 0800 627 750.

‘So wholesome’: Students show off their creations at Massey Halls market day

Sammy Carter (she/her)

A Wellington Massey Hall market day was a safe space for students to show off their artistic creations for the first time.

Students sold crochet, crystals, paintings, drawings, jewellery, and much more at a market day at first year hall, Kāinga Rua, on the 16th of May.

Flatmates Tamar van Niekerk and Anovshka van Boekhout-McKenzie were drawing one-minute portraits for $2 dollars each.

The pair were inspired by Wellington market, PARK(ing) Day, where an artist was doing one-minute paintings, “I thought it’s something we could do,” Boekhout-McKenzie said.

Niekerk said it was their first time ever doing a market stall and it made it fun having people they knew around, “It’s not too intimidating.”

“It’s been so wholesome”, Niekerk said. After such a good experience, they wanted to do more markets together. The artists had their two other flatmates and friends at the stall supporting them.

Phoebe Ingram started crocheting a year and a half before deciding to sell a table full of chunky yarn beanies and more.

“We saw that the halls were doing a market day and my mum told me, ‘you need to get involved’.”

“It’s a nice introduction to a larger scale market,” she said, “It’s a cosy start off kind of thing.”

Ru Allpress had her business called Ru Creates for five years, starting in Year 9 with scrunchies, and evolving into jewellery and tote bags. Her table had a range of handmade treasures, from her own artwork, to earrings, to knitted scarfs.

The business revolved around whatever she wanted to create, evolving with her new hobbies and interests.

She loved trying lots of hobbies and crafts, “I have way too many art supplies”.

“I love Spotlight. Going through the bead aisle is so fun,” Allpress said. Danica Waters and Lucas Omidyar had almost completely sold out of their crochet creations after an hour. Waters said, “We were really worried we weren’t gonna sell anything.”

“It’s nice having it as a smaller event, it’s nice having people you know around.”

Eli Armstrong had been running a crystal business for 3 years. While he used to do around 12 markets a year, it was his first market since starting university.

He said it was a chill event to get back into it, “It’s not a stressful environment.”

The business, Celestial Creations, all started when Armstrong was bored in Year 10 and went to Spotlight and bought beads to make jewellery. In 2022, his small business won him the Young Enterprise Scheme and he left high school a year early to study at Massey.

Originally from Palmerston North, Armstrong felt it was nice to bring a piece of home to Wellington and show his hall friends.

Second year student, Tay, was sharing a table with the creations of her three flatmates, Jaisy, Will and Bell. With her hall’s bedroom filled with plants, Tay made 60 cuttings of a golden poco plant.

Tay said she would do another market day at the halls, “It’s fun here”. It was design student Lucia Stoneman’s first market day. She was selling cat stickers, “They’re doodles from my books, really obscure little cats”.

She said she’d not only enjoyed the market but learnt a lot.

New social platform

Kāhui

Irarau aims to create more rainbow inclusive spaces at Massey campuses

Maisie Arnold-Barron (she/her)

Massey’s Wellington campus, usually empty of all life on Fridays, was full of excitement from the launch of a new queer platform, Kāhui Irarau.

One of those at the launch on the 19th of May, second-year student Pfuma Mahowa said Kāhui Irarau fulfils a need for more rainbow support on campus.

“It’s really beneficial to have a community that aids young people who might be coming to their identities with a safe and positive space.”

Over the years, there had been concerns from students that Massey needs to offer more support for rainbow and takatāpui communities.

Mahowa said, “It just proves that Massey is open to everyone. Having a space for another group of people is amazing and expanding it into our community ensures everyone’s safety. I think it’s just the best.”

Kāhui Irarau is a Massey-run social platform that promotes, plans, and hosts events for rainbow and takatāpui staff, students and their whānau.

Kāhui Irarau’s policies strive to make Massey safer and more inclusive. According to Kāhui Irarau policy: Staff are encouraged to use genderinclusive language, campuses will have easily accessible gender-neutral bathrooms, all accommodation halls must accept all gender identities and provide “rainbow focused spaces”. At the Kāhui Irarau community launch event with drinks and nibbles, Amy Heise, executive director of the student experience at Massey, said a challenge to further resource rainbow communities had been discussed for over three years.

Connor Mcleod, Massey University diversity and inclusion adviser and visionary explained how the brand got its name. “Kāhui’ is a gathering, as a constellation, or as a flock of manu (birds). ‘Irarau’ either speaks to your gender, your life principle, and unique genetic makeup.”

The design and artistry of Kāhui Irarau was led by Michael Kelly, the creative director of Toi Rauwhārangi Massey College of Creative Arts and his entirely queer creative team. The colour palette was carefully curated and inspired by native birds: tūī, kererū and kākā.

Kāhui Irarau’s first significant events were held at Massey’s rainbow orientation week, with over 600 students in attendance.

The rainbow events were picking up momentous attention across all three campuses. Gunch (lunch but gay) was the final Wellington rainbow orientation event that 85 students attended.

Mcleod said, “Our rainbow and takatāpui people, we are natural to this country, and we are natural to this Earth. We’ve always been here, and we always will. We might have different feathers, and we might have different voices, but that’s who we are and we belong here.”

Massey alum and staff member Kiran Morar said the platform’s launch acknowledges Massey’s prominent queer culture.

He said, “Historically, Uni Q’s have had to be student managed. A universityrun rainbow platform is a nice focus on our growing queer populations at our Wellington and other Massey Campuses.”

Kāhui Irarau hosted a Queer affirming Glitz and Grab at Wellington campus and the Manawatū campus last week. The Auckland event will take place this Tuesday 30th of May in the Student Lounge.

All event donations go to Gender Minorities Aotearoa, a nationwide organisation run by and for transgender people.

Follow @kahui_irarua on Instagram and Facebook to stay updated on upcoming events and initiatives.