2 About Us Salient is published by, but remains editorially independent from, the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA). Salient is funded in part by VUWSA through the Student Services Levy. Salient is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA). The views expressed in Salient do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor, VUWSA, or the University. Twitter www.salient.org.nzInstagramFacebook@salientmagazinefb.com/salientmagazine@salientgram Complaints Complaints regarding the material published in Salient should first be brought to the Editor in writing (editor@salient.org.nz). If not satisfied with the response, complaints should be directed to the Media Council (info@mediacouncil.org.nz). 04 16—18 28—29 06—11 22—24 26—27 33—35 12—15 36—38 Letters & Notices Shades of Red: Maoism and Radical Politics in 1970s(Feature)SalientCulture News From 1989 to 2022: Student Activism Endures (Feature)Columns Law School’s Culture —It’s PublishingThe(Feature)ComplicatedNewScene:LiteratureandinAotearoa(Feature)Entertainment Find Us CONTENTS
VUWSA exec members should get voted in because they were the best candidate for the job, not because they were the only candidate who bothered to put their hand up. Salient exists, in part, to hold VUWSA to account. So give us people to hold to account.
Year in, year out, I hear students complain about how “VUWSA doesn’t do anything and sucks at engaging with students”. But students also suck at engaging with VUWSA. It takes two to tango, and our indifference towards VUWSA is spinning the association into student politics oblivion.
Ralph himself said that it’s frustrating when candidates have to run unopposed because there is no one to challenge them during the election debates. Along with wanting more students to run for exec positions and vote in the VUWSA elections, Ralph wants to see more students engage with VUWSA throughout the year.
VUWSA receives higher levels of engagement when shit hits the fan and students are responding reactively to an event. Examples include the 2020 Rent Strike, the VUW name change saga, and the Feb 2022 protest occupation of Pipitea campus. But students should also engage with VUWSA Ngā manaakitaanga, GosaviJanhavi(she/her) proactively. Examples of events that get low student engagement are the Student Services Levy consultations, Sustainability Week, VUWSA budget setting, and VUWSA AGMs and IGMs. Ralph dreams of the day that over 100 students show up to their procedural events and have robust debates about how VUWSA should operate … instead of just coming through for the free pizza.
Nominations for the 2023 VUWSA executive are open right now, and they close on 13 September. VUWSA isn’t some unattainable political organization run by a cabal. It’s literally your students’ association—so run. This week’s From The Archives issue reflects on the past and explores how archives can help us navigate the future.
3www.salient.org.nz
I am a firm believer that if you don’t like what happens in your community, you should do something about it. So it rubs me the wrong way when students complain that the VUWSA executive is “useless”, but refuse to run for VUWSA themselves or even vote in the damn elections. Anyone. Can. Run. For. VUWSA. For the 2021 executive election, 23 candidates stood for the ten available roles. For the 2022 election, the number of candidates dropped to 15. In that election, a whopping six positions only had one candidate nominated. There were so few candidates that VUWSA ran a by-election at the start of 2022 to fill the Campaigns Officer and Equity Officer roles. Most shockingly, the position of 2022 VUWSA President ran unopposed. The small selection of students who voted had two options: ‘Ralph Zambrano’ or ‘No Confidence’.
In our news: the anti-mandate/anti-government protestors return to Parliament grounds for the second time this year, students feel the weight of the hospitality worker shortage, we interview Paul Eagle for our final mayoral candidate profile, and more.
VUWSA Feels Obsolete Because Students Won’t Engage
In our features: Max does a fascinating deepdive on Maoism’s stronghold over Salient in the 1970s, Maia explains why student activism hit differently in the 1980s, Bridget gives an overview of Aotearoa’s publishing landscape, and I investigate the ineffable culture of Law School.
Editorial
If you’re keen to write for the Sport Issue, hit up editor@salient.org.nz ASAP. Do it right now, there is no time to waste. Hurry. Send your letters and notices to editor@salient.org.nz if you’d like them published on this page
But our News Editor Beth is tired of being forced to report on rugby games when she doesn’t know whats going on.
The Wellington Law Revue takes young Wellingtonians (largely students at Victoria), mixes in satirical wit, a dash of student humour and politics, splashes of song craft and visual shenanigans and delivers a musical stage show. The show is a real labour of love, is written by students and is entirely volunteer run. This year’s show, Tomorrow When the Law Began, follows an underground movement consisting of law students battling against the rise of ex-Vice Chancellor, Grant Gilead and his cronies. Shows run from 8-10 September in the university’s Memorial Theatre. Tickets can be found at Eventbrite or through www.wellingtonlawrevue.com
The Workers’ Rights Advocacy Service Do you have a PSA that needs to be heard?
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Law Revue 8-10 September
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Trouble At Work? Contact the WRS.
The Workers’ Rights Advocacy Service supports low-income workers with initial free legal advice, research, and, where necessary, legal representation for employment issues. If you’re worried about your contract, think that some of your rights as an employee might have been breached, or anything else, then get in touch. The service is run out of the Wellington Central CAB. We’re open from 5:30pm every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Email us at: wrs@jk.org.nz. Walk-ins welcome. This is an opportunity for local artists to have themselves and their work profiled in TheSalient.Artissue is about all forms of art, with a specific focus on visual art. Visual art can be interpreted as any form of art with a visual element to it! Artists could do so by putting together their own one page artist profile, and sending us a few examples of their art. Alternatively, they could arrange to have someone else profile them. Artist profiles and artwork are due on 12 September and should be sent to Heredesigner@salient.org.nz.atSalient,welovesports coverage.
VUWSAEXECUTIVEVUWSANOMINATIONS20232023 Nominations are for the 2023 Student Executive! Passionate about student issues and want to create change in your community? For nominations and election info, head online to: vuwsa.org.nz/vuwsa-elections OPEN NOWOPEN NOW OPEN NOWOPEN NOW
A Protest Pictured, A Counterprotest Captured:
Parliament’s Grounds Divided
Words by Azaria Howell (she/her)
The protest at Parliament had not a mask in sight.
Strangely, Tamaki’s Freedom and Rights Coalition played openly gay singer George Michael’s ‘Freedom’ to a crowd of supporters from a large speaker on Parliament lawn. Tamaki had previously come under fire for stating that earthquakes are caused by homosexual people. He has also previously incorrectly stated that Christianity is an official religion of Aotearoa, claiming that Islam is a “false religion”. Calling him a controversial figure would be an understatement. Yet Brian Tamaki attracted over 2,000 protesters to Parliament, many who support him for his leadership of Destiny Church. Salient was on the scene of both protests. There was a lot of political tension and heightened security due to what happened last time.
A tale of two protests: Tuesday 23 August saw Brian Tamaki’s Freedom and Rights Coalition march to Parliament to put political leaders on “trial” for “crimes against humanity”, most notably for vaccination mandates which protestors claimed had caused harm to New Zealanders. These protesters were met with over 300 counter-protesters blasting Lily Allen’s ‘Fuck You’ amidst other pro-LGBTQIA+ songs and pride flags. Counter-protestors supported mask-wearing and the efficacy of vaccination and science, and stood against Tamaki’s anti-queer stance.
The wide array of protest signs indicated there was a smorgasbord of issues being protested against, including three waters, vaccine mandates, the media, and the United Nations.
Kathy stated that Parliament’s land was “owned by the people”, giving the protestors a right to be there. She claimed to have received permission from Māori elders
* Names have been changed.
Protestors marched to Parliament’s grounds from Civic Square, while counter-protestors gathered at the Wellington cenotaph. Political candidates showed up to the counter-protest, including mayoral candidate Tory Whanau and other local council hopefuls.
Green Party MPs also attended, pictured under a sign stating “love community, hate fascism”. In a statement on the evening of the protest, co-leader Marama Davidson said “As the protesters return home tonight, the underlying deep and foundational harms of colonisation and poverty that became a feeding ground for alt-right extremism will still be there.”
CW: Mentions of Homophobia, Antisemetism, Apartheid, Islamaphobia
Members of the VUWSA executive, including President Ralph Zambrano, also attended the counterprotest.
Zambrano said VUWSA “strongly believe in and support the right to protest, but do not support views and platforms which promote misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information.”
Salient spoke to protestors to get a better idea of the message they were trying to send to Parliament.
Kathy* said she wanted to end all restrictions related to Covid-19, including mandates for healthcare workers and those in the aged care sector. She was motivated to protest by her daughter, a teacher who had not been able to teach in schools for over a year due to vaccination mandates.
News 6 News
“People who maybe would have done three to four shifts in the past only want to do two or three,” he Hesays.said the minimum wage increases prevent him from raising wages any more, saying he can’t afford “almost $4 more an hour per person on top of the fact that every single one of our suppliers is doing the same thing.”
“It’s happened multiple times,” she said. “I’m like, I already have two jobs, I can’t get a third job.”
* Names have been changed. to protest on Parliament’s grounds and stated she “felt safe” with the protestors, as the counterprotest exuded “violent energy”. When the fire at the last anti-mandate protest was mentioned, Kathy stated that it was “planted” in order to make protestors look bad. She had attended the last protest, saying the “freedom village was very Anotherpeaceful.”protestor,
When the removal of most vaccination mandates was mentioned, Sarah said that mask mandates also needed to be scrapped, as they are “silly”.
Words by Beth Mountford (she/her)
Open-to-close shifts mean Lucy misses out on lectures during the day. “I used to watch them after work, I don’t anymore…It takes it out of ya mentally for sure,” she said.
Another third year student and hospitality worker Lucy* said that the cafe she works for is “so understaffed”. She had spoken to her manager about hiring more people, but they said “they would rather keep the staff small and do open-to-close shifts” than hire more people to work less hours.
Other protestors compared Covid-19 restrictions to Apartheid and the Holocaust. Tamaki stated that Auckland had “became the largest concentration camp in the country,” after previously going into lockdown for multiple weeks. In a speech to supporters on Parliament’s grounds, Tamaki said “[Jacinda] Ardern split up families with her vaccine apartheid.” Dispelling chatter that anti-mandate protesters were conspiracy theorists, Tamaki said “we’re not fruitcakes and we’re not extremists.” Tamaki announced the formation of a new political party called Freedoms NZ at the rally, combined with members of VisionNZ, The New Nation Party, and The Outdoors and Freedom Party. Sue Grey, leader of The Outdoors and Freedom Party, rejected claims that they would be joining Freedoms NZ. Grey took to social media to air her frustration, stating “Brian Tamaki has jumped the gun re: declaring us in his umbrella party [...] It was inappropriate for him to do what he did today, saying that Outdoors & Freedom was going under his umbrella.” After Tamaki addressed the protestors, an illegitimate trial with the “people’s jury” proceeded, which, unsurprisingly, found Jacinda Ardern and the government allegedly guilty for “crimes against humanity.” 7www.salient.org.nz
On a team as small as hers, she said “you kind of make friendships with your managers and boss, so then you feel really guilty if you don’t work.”
Olivia*, a third year student at VUW who recently started a new hospitality job, says her boss frequently asks whether she has any friends who want to work for him, and offers to pay them more than wherever they currently work. She has also been offered additional jobs by the owners of other hospitality businesses, who come to find her while she is at work.
Karl Tiefenbacher, owner of Kaffee Eis, says that over the last two years he has seen a decrease in the amount that students want to work.
Sarah* who mentioned she was standing for the Hutt City Council, stated that vaccine mandates were a form of “medical discrimination”.
The New Zealand hospitality sector is facing major labour shortages due to low levels of migrant workers who usually support the industry, and poor job conditions. As a result, students are being depended on to keep businesses afloat.
Students Hold Up Hospitality Sector in Wellington
After Hours Health Care Free Through Practice Plus Students registered with Mauri Ora are able to access Practice Plus, a virtual consultation service, at no charge until 12 November. Practice Plus offers online health consultations with GPs between the hours of 5pm to 10pm on weekdays and 8am to 8pm on weekends and public holidays. The service allows users to wait in a queue for the next available GP or book a scheduled appointment. Use the code VUW200 to access the free service.
Born Slippy
Policy.nz have launched their website refreshed for the upcoming local elections across the country. Tooting itself as “the complete guide to the NZ local elections 2022”, you can browse the policies of candidates running for mayor, local and regional councils, and local boards. You can add the policies you find most appealing to a favourites list. Some candidate responses are yet to be added to the website, so check back again if you see some that are missing. Find the tool at policy.nz/2022
A Bite-Sized Look Into the Big Stories
New Degree Just Dropped—Bachelor of Global Studies Te Herenga Waka has announced the launch of a new degree. Beginning in 2023, students can enrol in a Bachelor of Global Studies: “an intercultural, multidisciplinary degree” setting students in the direction of being able to “solve complex problems and lead positive change.” To do this, Associate Professor Sally Hill says students “will be able to work across disciplinary areas to bring information, people, and perspectives together.” The degree will draw on the academic areas of Politics and International Relations, Development Studies, Earth Sciences, Geography, History, Modern Languages, Philosophy, and Social Policy and Administration.
News Headline Junkie:
by
VUWSA Subsidise Council Rubbish Bags
Supposed Potato Shortage Leaves Hunter-Lounge Curly Fry-less
In a problem that makes the city look really precarious, slips have been causing havoc after recent heavy rain. They have been bursting retaining walls, crushing cars, and severing water and sewerage connections. As of 30 August, the Wellington City Council had reportedly cleared 170 slips and were working on another 226 known slips. A report from RNZ counts 670 slips in seven weeks. Stuff reports one Karori resident lost four metres of their backyard. Slips are not a new problem for Wellington. The Council have stated “we spend on average $4 million each year putting up walls and strengthening/upgrading existing walls for slips”, yet the slips persist.
Policy.nz Launches Tool For Local Elections
Students will soon be able to purchase council rubbish bags from the VUWSA office at the discounted rate of $3 per individual bag. Usually the bags retail at the slightly more unreasonable price of $3.29 per individual bag. VUWSA Equity Officer Gwen Palmer Steeds says the subsidy is coming from the VUWSA executive budget and the rubbish bags will remain “discounted as long as we stock them unless a future exec reverses that decision.” There is not currently a start date for the subsidy.
Kelburn Campus’ Hunter Lounge has recently erected a small sign on the bar which reads “Due to the Potato shortage we cannot serve Curly Fries…” While the sign reads as if everybody knows there is a potato shortage currently plaguing the nation, Salient have struggled to pull together any evidence to suggest that this is so. While there have been reports of a potato shortage in the US, only one (1) news article mentioned a global potato shortage which may or may not extend to New Zealand. According to Potatoes New Zealand, we have “over 200 potato growers” and a 10,591 hectare growing area. It seems suspicious that such a fruitful potato economy would have been wiped out without a peep. We love you Hunter Lounge, you can tell us the truth.
Source: Policy.nz
Words Beth Mountford (she/her)
8 News
Some key provisions in this plan concern the future of housing in Wellington. The Council predicts an increase in population over the next few decades and acknowledges that the current housing shortage drives up the price of rent. The District Plan proposes densification of housing in and around the city. It also proposes to allow six storey buildings to be built in high density residential zones close to the city centre and three storey buildings to be built in medium density residential zones, with some exceptions for Character Precincts. Character Precincts have different rules which are intended to balance the character of an area with current and future residential needs.
Words by Mika Hervel (he/him) Council From You
Want To Hear
Source: Erin Gourley, Stuff 9www.salient.org.nz
Character Precincts are in older suburbs including Berhampore, Newtown, Mt Cook, Mt Victoria, Aro Valley, and Thorndon.
Wellington City
To make a submission, you can check out the Proposed District Plan on the Council’s website here: make-a-submission.and-bylaws/district-plan/proposed-district-plan/wellington.govt.nz/your-council/plans-policiesAlternatively, you can get a submission form from the Council’s website and email it to PDPsubmissions@wcc.govt.nz to make a submission.
The District Plan also seeks to address the climate crisis by planning development in Wellington in accordance with the goal of being a net “zero emission city” by 2050. To achieve this, Wellington City Council is keen to increase intensification and build the city to be compact. This will reduce the amount people have to travel with private vehicles and increase the supply of housing, as well as prepare for issues like sea level rise. The Council is also keen to increase the connectedness of the transport system and encourage people to switch from using private vehicles to using other forms of transport. To do this, the District Plan prioritises what the Council calls “micromobility” options, which include bikes, electric scooters, and skateboards. The Council wants to provide facilities to make transport options other than private vehicles easier for people, as well as integrate new transport facilities and options with the existing transport network of buses and trains. When making a submission, it might be worth checking if the suburb where you live or want to live is a Character Precinct. How would you balance the character of the area you live in with residential needs? Would more housing and cheap rent closer to the city and university be beneficial to you? It could also be worth thinking about whether Wellington City Council is taking the climate crisis seriously enough. The Council has declared a climate emergency. Does this plan live up to that declaration in your view? Is net zero by 2050 fast Alsoenough?consider whether you think changing the transport system to prioritise public transport and options like bikes is a good idea. What sorts of facilities would be helpful for you to use public transport or bikes and scooters more easily?
News Mika’s Minute
Until 12 September, Wellington City Council is asking for submissions on the Proposed District Plan. The District Plan looks at the major environmental and planning issues in Wellington, including things like housing and climate change, and seeks to respond to these issues.
Source: Facebook
As local elections approach and the Wellington City Council mayoralty race heats up, Salient sits down with the main players at a location of their choosing to share a drink and discuss their ambitions for Pōneke.
Asking to meet at popular Willis Street cocktail bar Pop, Eagle joined the news team in ordering the tap espresso martini. He expressed his disapproval over the other candidates both opting for wine during their interviews by voicing a full-throated “boo” which hummed throughout the bar. He kindly paid for our drinks, while joking with the bartender about whether she required his ID. Why is he running?
When asked if issues like swimming pools and libraries are really top priority compared to the housing and climate crises, he said that housing is a long term goal but Wellingtonians have a “ravenous appetite” for the “here and now” like our water infrastructure.
Campaigning to reign in council’s finances, Eagle wants to “run the ruler over council spending” yet refused to name anything specifically he would cut spending on.
10 News
“Wellington has been going backwards—and that’s no secret.” Eagle said there was “a surge” in people asking him to run.
“It’s been a struggle to get things done as a member of Parliament when your council is so dysfunctional.”
This week we met with current Labour MP Paul Eagle (Waikato Tainui, Ngāti Naho, Ngāti Tīpa), who is campaigning to get back into Council after previously serving as deputy mayor from 2016 to 2017.
News
His main goal is to “restore the mana” of Wellington through a “back to basics” approach which will focus primarily on “parks, pools, pipes, and potholes” as well as our “run down” libraries.
He then contradicted this by saying he is “definitely” willing to take the Council into debt for “intergenerational” issues “like climate change, housing, [and] transport.”
Words by Ethan Manera (he/him)
Utilising an array of metaphors for why he should be mayor, Eagle called the council a “buffet”, a “waka”, and even a “shiny car”, adding that he’s the metaphorical mechanic to fix it.
Eagle is running as an independent candidate, a decision which he says enables him to best advocate for the needs of Wellington even when it goes against party lines. His decision to run sparked controversy after he previously ruled it out, promising Rongotai constituents he would fulfil his full term as MP.
“I know others will talk about emissions and other things in terms of transport but I wanted to be a bit different,” he said.
“That’s aspirational! If we don’t have a plan with a target it never gets done,” he said.
Eagle does not yet have a climate policy but said his main goal is adaptation. He referred to the recent speight of landslides in Wellington and said “we’ve just gotta get trucks and people out there and sort it.” His plan for climate change “goes back to the jigsaw puzzle again” adding that “we need a plan for the long term, hard stuff.” He proposed to set up “a taskforce of community and experts to talk to council about addressing this right now. We can’t wait.”
He believes that students are a “key part” to Wellington’s arts and culture scene but says they need better housing to be able to contribute.
“The students make the city hum, they’re like the buzzy bees of the city”.
Eagle supports aspects of the current bike network plan but says the five year timeframe is not “practical” or “realistic” and would rather take a community “jigsaw puzzle” approach which consults with each neighbourhood individually.
Source: WWC 11www.salient.org.nz
“I think she’s an amazing wahine Māori [...] it’s hard enough with all the stereotypes, our people cannot bear to see two Māori fighting,” he said, even going as far to say that if he were not running, he would vote for Whanau.
Opponents His campaign has not been without criticism, but Eagle is not losing sleep over his critics. “I don’t think I should be alive according to Twitter,” he joked.
After ordering our second round of espresso martinis, Eagle began criticising the current Council for their lack of action on housing, saying there is “no reason” they have not doubled the social housing stock.
Housing In addition to owning his family home in Island Bay, Eagle is a landlord, owning a residential investment property. “The wife owns one, I own one and we rent it out,” he said, but acknowledged that property investment has contributed to the housing crisis.
Despite not having released any housing policy, when challenged by Salient Eagle created an impromptu policy, pledging to “at least” double the current social housing stock in Wellington.
Transport When previously serving on council, he garnered a reputation for his rigid opposition to cycleways, and has been quoted as saying the council has an “unhealthy obsession” with them. However he believes that his views on cycleways have been misrepresented, speaking in the third person he said, “What Paul Eagle is doing is reflecting some of the here and the now [...] he’s reflecting the mood of the people.” He does not yet have an official transport policy.
Eagle said he’s “really into” increasing density, specifically in Newtown “and some parts of the city”, adding that it “will help the supply get up.” He doesn’t want a one size fits all approach, saying the city is like a jigsaw puzzle and each neighbourhood should have a say in what they want for their community.
Climate Change
Eagle also wants to shake up Let’s Get Wellington Moving by “getting rid of the brand” and putting spades in the ground. He said the program is “a scary big beast” and “people are just sick of it”.
He backs the Government’s current half price public transport fares policy, saying “I’m hoping the Government will keep paying the bill” but would not commit to implementing discounted fares if elected mayor despite it being “pretty high on the priority list”.
Arts As his flagship policy, he wants to create a “world class arts precinct”. He thinks the city has lost its mojo as the arts and events capital and wants to bring it back. “We’ve got to retain the vibe,” he said.
His message for incumbent mayor Andy Foster is “You’ve had your shot, your time’s up.” But when asked about opponent Tory Whanau, Eagle took a more tender approach.
WORDSFEATUREBYJANHAVIGOSAVI
Nathan Tse graduated with a BCOM/LLB(Hons) from VUW in 2019 and is a solicitor at Russell McVeagh. He was the 2020 President of the New Zealand Law Students’ Association (NZLSA), and the 2019 President of VUWLSS.
12 LAW—IT’SSCHOOL’SCOMPLICATED
To those who have never walked its hallowed halls, Law School is both ostentatious and illusive. A cool kids club to some, a pretentious prison to others. Students who have never touched a LAWS paper with a ten foot pole have their own ideas about what it means to be a Law student. Assumptions and accusations run wild: Law School is an elitist, competitive, toxic, and cliquey place full of rich, white, poncy brats who turn their noses up at other Sodegrees.what is the culture of Law School? I spoke to a variety of current students and alumni to try to whittle down the answer to this complicated question. What mechanisms give Law School such a unique culture when compared to other faculties at VUW? Longevity, location, and student societies. The Bachelor of Laws (LLB) is one of the longest undergraduate degrees at VUW, typically taking at least four years to complete. Most Law students do a conjoint degree or double degree, which usually takes five to six years to complete. The LLB is also highly prescribed; until students get to their third or fourth year of study, all courses are compulsory. This means Law students are in the same classes with the same peers for multiple years, affording them time and proximity to get to know one another.
Nathan says the culture of Law School is “set by the people” and describes the people as Nathan“peculiar”.picked up Law in his second year of university and found it to initially be “quite an intimidating environment” for shy or reserved students. In his first year at Law School, Nathan didn’t make any friends. “All my friends from the halls that studied Law were the year ahead of me, and the Law students in my year had their own cliques from high school or from the halls,” he said.
Being a lawyer can be conflated with being outgoing, charismatic, bold, and even brash. He wonders if these perceptions attract Type A personalities who feel the need to be “on” 100% of the time.
Manraj Singh Rahi is the current President of Victoria University of Wellington Law Students’ Society (VUWLSS). He explains that the location of Law School isolates Law students from the rest of the University, which contributes to the perceived clique-y culture. The Law School has been situated in the Old Government Buildings since 1996, which have a rich political and colonial history. Walking into Law School, the air is thick with legacy and self importance. “Law students also have a common room - its very high school prefect-y vibes,” Manraj points out. Law School’s student societies including representative groups for Māori, Pasifika, Asian, and Rainbow students, and the Feminist Law Society. They all maintain a busy calendar full of social, academic, sporting, and career events. Long standing social events include Law Ball, Cocktail Night, and Law Camp, where second year students get wasted and bond. Certain halls of residence such as Weir House also have a history of attracting Law-hopefuls. These traditions create consistent and meaningful engagement amongst Law students and allow for a ‘culture’ to exist, thrive, and be passed down.
What kind of relationship do Law students have with one another?
(SHE/HER)
CW: Transphobia
SCHOOL’SCOMPLICATEDCULTURE
What makes Law so competitive?
13www.salient.org.nz
One of the cornerstones of Law School’s culture is its perceived competitiveness. The narrative that students are in competition with each other is established before they even enter Law School. When Molly came to VUW’s open day in 2008, it was emphasised to prospective students that while enrollments for first year law were very high, only 300 students were accepted into second year. She attended a lecture about Law run by Professor Grant Morris and his research assistant, a second year student who already had a Russel McVeagh scholarship lined up. The research assistant was shown off as a model student and Molly felt like the message was “if you can’t be like her, why are you Competitivenesshere?”
Many interviewees agreed that surviving the heavy academic load and mental pressure of Law School created strong friendships and camaraderie between students. Interviewees also emphasised how involvement in student societies had been instrumental to their wellbeing.
Caleb Turnbull is one of the current Co-Presidents of the Pasifika Law Students’ Society (PLSS) and says the friendships he’s formed there are the main reason he’s stuck with Law. He’s immersed himself within the Pasifika and Māori community at Law School, which he describes as “really positive” and void of competition. Caleb explains that “most of us stick together because it’s slightly less of a safe space outside of our cultural community” and that it’s easier for them to navigate Law School together because they’re “naturally collaborative people”.
Molly McCarthy graduated with an LLB/BA from VUW in 2015. She now works as an independent barrister at the Woodward Street Chambers. Molly said the best thing she got out of Law School was “going through baptism by fire” with her mates. After graduating, they were able to laugh over unifying experiences, like how they thought Professor Grant Morris would be “the decider of their Mollyfutures”.spokeabout the importance of maintaining balance while studying Law. Although Molly befriended a lot of Law students while attending Weir House, her closest friends at Law School weren’t involved in VUWLSS and had “one foot in and one foot out of Law School”.
He recognises that this stereotype was mostly untrue, and that even those “on” personalities were “genuinely nice people” who were easy to talk to because “they do the talking for you”.
is also embedded into different phases of the LLB. First year students are placed in direct competition with one another to get into second year Law. Several interviewees spoke of Grant Morris’ infamous warning, which he used to deliver on the first lecture of every LAWS121 course: “Look to your right, look to your left. Only one of you will make it into next year.” Molly deliberately did not spend much time at Law School because she did not like the culture. “People kept asking about grades and working out where you stood compared to them.” From his experience in NZLSA, Nathan learned that other universities’ Law Schools had a worse competitive culture than VUW—“you hear of stories of students at other Law Schools stealing each others’ notes”. As Law School places so much value on academic excellence, Claire Downey, one of the current co-directors of Rainbow Law, “felt like crap” when having to repeat papers. Repeating some first year papers left Claire out of swing with her original year group, knocking her confidence and making it harder for her to participate. Now in her final years of study, Claire has secured an internship and feels she “turned out alright”.
He pointed out the Honours board was filled with “names of predominantly white, ex-private school students [...] none of which addresses the underlying privilege of most students who make it into second year law.” Why are privilege and elitism synonymous with Law School?
What kind of relationship do Law students have with faculty?
Claire echoed Molly’s sentiment. She said that while the faculty is “pretty amazing on the whole”, she felt she was only doing “averagely well” at law and wasn’t worth the lecturer’s time if she wasn’t “the smartest or loudest person in the room”. She added, “nine of out ten times, the people who feel entitled to taking up a lecturer’s time after class are cis het white men.”
Nathan wasn’t the only one to call out private school kids for influencing the culture of Law School.
Repeating papers is common at Law School, but not enough students speak openly about it. Once students make it to second year, they’re competing to get a clerkship, get into Honours, and become a tutor or research assistant.
Sasha Borissenko is a New Zealand journalist who received her LLB from the University of Otago in 2012 and has extensively reported on the law Sheindustry.attended Knox College at Otago University in 2007-2008, where she says “private school kids brought their private school culture” of misogynistic, patriarchal values. She became close friends with many Law students who attended private schools, but recognised that “Law School is privilege personified”. She even recalls students wearing suits to class. She loved her time at Law School and maintained that the culture of privilege wasn’t the school’s problem, it was to do with the kinds of students it attracted.
William Morrison, the other Co-President of PLSS, said that while PLSS did not previously have the best relationship with faculty, Professor Petra Butler
Nathan says the whole system is “built on meritocracy”. Only the top 30 or so students in each penultimate year are offered entry to the Honours programme, which comes with privileges of 24 hour access to the Law School, access to an office, and the ability to work closely with faculty.
She points out how “students can get all the way up to electives and still fail a paper like Ethics.”
Unless involved in a rep group, students and alumni said they had minimal direct contact with lecturers.
In her time at Law School, Molly attended all her lectures and found it was hard to approach the faculty “unless you were a star student”.
In Caleb’s experience, the faculty “did their best to help out Māori and Pasifika” and were good with giving feedback and granting extensions.
14 Features “LOOK TO YOUR RIGHT. ONLY ONE OF YOU WILL MAKE
Nathan said that students often learned about career opportunities through VUWLSS events. These events were given naming rights by a sponsor. Typically only big corporate firms could afford the going rate of sponsorship. As a result, most students would apply for highly competitive clerk spaces at big firms, further perpetuating the idea that to be a Law student was to be in a constant rat race.
Sam Uffindell, a National MP, has made headlines after his history of violence while attending King’s College and the University of Otago resurfaced. This has sparked national conversations about the culture of private schools and the privilege they breed. Private school kids are not inherently bad people, but their overrepresentation in Law School contributes to the conception that Law studies are only for the wealthy and privileged. Manraj says the culture is changing. “Not all students are from King’s and Auckland Grammar anymore, not everyone’s parent is a judge”. He also maintains that to brand all Law students as coming from privilege is to dismiss the work that Ngā Rangahautira and PLSS have done to make Law School a more diverse space.
A powerful moment for Manraj was when an alumna he had invited to speak at a careers event admitted to him that she had her reservations about attending a VUWLSS event. At her time at Law School, VUWLSS was full of “white privileged men from King’s College who wore Country Road jumpers”, but she was pleased to see how diverse the current VUWLSS executive was.
How is the culture changing?
15www.salient.org.nz
RIGHT. LOOK TO YOUR LEFT. MAKE IT TO NEXT YEAR.” maintained a great relationship with them as the current Acting Dean of Law.
However Covid-19 has meant current first, second, and third year law students feel disconnected from Law School as they haven’t been able to attend as many events as older students. Manraj notices that the once-full common room now hosts a few stragglers at best—it’s disheartening.
Today’s students are redefining what it means to study Law. Deconstructing decades of toxic Law School culture is a slow process, but by the sounds of it, they’re halfway there.
William said that faculty felt inaccessible in the early years of Law as “brown students feel more whakamā [than other students] to reach out”. But he added that this inaccessibility was “a student mentality” which people grew out of further along their LLB. Does the culture of law school accurately reflect the profession of law?
Manraj is very proud of the recent work VUWLSS and other student societies have done to improve the culture of Law School.
VUWLSS also now hosts a ‘Careers In Focus’ panel, which exposes students to careers in small firms and prevents them from exclusively fixating on competitive jobs in big corporate firms.
On the whole, Molly did not believe the culture of Law School was an accurate reflection of the culture of the legal profession in Aotearoa. She says the cliques that existed during her time at Law School don’t exist in the profession itself. After graduating and entering the workforce, Molly also realised there were so many ways of practising law and using an LLB that were not limited to mainstream corporate firms. The perception of limited job opportunities became just that—a perception. She no longer felt like she needed to “do her best since day dot, otherwise the doors will close on her”.
VUWLSS has new positions on their executive that focus on equity and wellbeing. They also offer nonalcoholic tickets for the ball; cheaper tickets which cater to non-drinkers and dismantle the idea that to attend a law school event is to get wasted.
The phrase “look to your left, look to your right, only one of you will make it into next year” is now banned by the Law School, and Manraj points to previous faculty members like Dr Carwyn Jones who have pushed to make first year Law less competitive.
Nathan found the high-pressure demands of his LLB to reflect the demands of clients in legal practice, but said the competitiveness and elitism was unique to Law School. “I don’t see anything for me and my colleagues to compete for—we’re teammates.”
Claire says that Law School is still home to bigotry and homophobia. She recalls hearing transphobic opinions being shared in class and remembers lecturers who have made snide comments about pronoun usage. But she also believes the culture of Law School is becoming more welcoming to queer people. Claire was excited to see that queer students felt safe enough at this year’s Law Ball to dress in defiance of gender binaries. She also points out that this year’s ball was the first to have gender neutral bathrooms.
WORDS BY JANHAVI GOSAVI (SHE/HER)
In recent years, VUWLSS has made a determined push for diversity within their executive; from the four most recent presidents, three have been POC and two have been women.
SHADES OF
The stakes: extremely low.
The battlelines: inscrutable and esoteric.
FEATURE MAOISM AND RADICAL POLITICS IN 1970S SALIENT
Photo: Editor Peter Franks, dressed as a Chinese cadre, reads aloud from Mao’s ‘Little Red Book’ to his staff members in the Salient office in 1973.
The communist faction power struggle was a regular fixture of Salient’s content in the 1970s, an extension of the wave of student political activism of the period. In the early 1980s, those involved moved on from student politics and the groups they represented faded from view. But for a few years, it was a defining feature of the culture and discourse which surrounded Salient
16 Features A spectre is haunting Wellington. The spectre of It’scommunism.the1970s, and on the campus of Victoria University of Wellington, competing communist factions vie for the levers of student political power.
The battlefield: the pages of Salient.
Words by Max Nichol (he/him)
In the red corner, we have the Maoists of Salient Many, though not all, of the editors of Salient and a number of regular contributors in the 1970s were ardent Maoists. They were associated with a semi-secret group called the Wellington Marxist-Leninist Organisation, later the Workers’ Communist League. These individuals, as well as a handful of VUWSA executive members, were part of a global wave of young communists who drew inspiration from the disruptive teachings of Mao, rejecting the staid bureaucracy of the USSR. During this period, a number of VUWSA members and Salient editors were part of state-sponsored visits to China, organised as part of China’s international Indiplomacy.theother red corner, we have the Trotskyist Young Socialists. They were the youth wing of the Socialist Action League, a Trotskyist political party founded at Vic in 1969. They rejected both the conventional RED:
The Maoists had a significant degree of control over Salient, where editors and contributors were aided by allies on the VUWSA executive. As a result, Salient essentially blocked the Young Socialists from accessing the paper. 1975 editor Bruce Robinson wrote that nothing his Trotskyist opponents submitted was worth publishing: “They treat their readers and supporters as having the level of intelligence of Butchildren.”editors did frequently publish their opponents’ letters of protest. Much of the drama unfolded in the Salient letters page. Young Socialist Tony Lane wrote to Salient in 1975, accusing Robinson of the “narrow-mindedness peculiar to followers of Mao in refusing to print articles that presented the views of your political opponents on the left.” Robinson responded with a snarky and dismissive editor’s note. It was this basic pattern of accusation and dismissal that characterised much of the discourse between the Maoists and the Trotskyists in the pages Salient. In 1977, fed up with not getting a fair share in Salient, the Young Socialists started an opposing newspaper titled Censored Salient. Here they let their antagonists at Salient know what they thought of them, to balance the record for Salient’s readers: “Students who have been reading Salient this year will have noticed the hostile attitude of the editors towards the Young Socialists group on campus … Salient has become the factional rag of [1977 editor] David Murray and his buddies.” At least some of the animosity came across as polemical posturing, more tongue-in-cheek than hammer and tongs. The tone of the rivalry was captured in a single image: an ice-pick hanging in the public window of the Salient office in 1973. The Salient editors hung it there as a niche but deliberate provocation—Leon Trotsky’s killers allegedly used an ice-pick to assassinate the communist theorist at his home in Mexico City in 1940.
THROUGHOUT THE 1970S,
Likewise, the Young Socialists were involved in activism and protest in Wellington across many of the same issues. Both groups were closely attuned to politics overseas, seeking to contextualise these currents for a student audience in New Zealand. Salient and the Young Socialists also had close links into trade unionism in Wellington. Throughout the 1970s, articles about trade unionism and class politics were practical expressions of Salient contributors’ communist ideology. Its contributors were staunch advocates for the rights of working people, encouraging solidarity between students and workers. Not everyone involved in Salient fell along these factional lines. Some were friends with one or another faction, but drew their political views from other experiences. Others explicitly rejected the dogmatism their peers engaged in. The 1976 Salient editor John Ryall made it clear that he would not indulge in mud-slinging. He wrote that in previous years “Salient’s role has been to keep pushing the ‘correct line’ until those who dare to rebel are so tired of fighting that they submit … You either accept the analysis and become a radical, or reject it and become a reactionary.” An active trade unionist, Ryall carried this view forward in Salient, which stayed largely independent of factional tussling. For many students, the disagreements between campus communists were unintelligible and alienating. Some students resented that their compulsory student union membership fees were
ARTICLES ABOUT TRADE UNIONISM AND CLASS POLITICS WERE PRACTICAL EXPRESSIONS OF SALIENT COMMUNISTCONTRIBUTORS’IDEOLOGY.
17www.salient.org.nz
Communist Party of New Zealand as unimaginative and conservative and thought other emerging communist groups such as the Salient Maoists were brash and disorganised. It was along these lines, informed largely by international communist theorists and the distinctions between them, that much of the disagreement between these groups proceeded.
Amongst this in-fighting, plenty of principled and meaningful political action took place. Many of those contributing to Salient during the 1970s were dedicated activists to causes such as opposition to the Vietnam War, anti-Apartheid, women’s rights, and anti-nuclear action. During this period, editor Roger Steele also inaugurated the first two editions of Te Ao Mārama, which focused on Māori issues. These issues, now guest-edited by Ngāi Tauira, have become an annual staple of Salient
Photo: “JGH” (probably John Henderson, a Salient regular in the mid-1970s) and “BR” (1975 editor Bruce Robinson) having a high-minded and meaningless conversation about communist theory in Issue 22 Salient 1975.
18 Features being used to represent a political view they didn’t agree with. Whether they were conservative, or simply not as radical as those writing for Salient, not all students were interested in buying what Salient was selling, nor in their beef with other campus Onecommunists.student
Despite the efforts of the PSA, a strong rejection of Salient’s politics came in 1982. A loose coalition of student politicians who ran as “the Moderates” swept to power in the 1982 VUWSA elections. Their platform was simple. They felt it was an open
For most of the 1970s, the mode of political analysis in Salient centred around consistent support for trade unionism and class politics. While the Maoists of Salient never had total control over the publication, much of this analysis stemmed from the efforts of Maoist editors and writers who used Salient as a platform for their ideas. Though often high-handed and arguably detrimental to the cause, their stoush with their Trotskyist rivals reflected a sincere belief that the issues at play were existential to the future of communism in New Zealand. The ideological tension which littered the pages of Salient, and the principled political action both sides engaged in, stands as testament to a fascinating and important moment in the history of communism and organised labour in this country.
in 1978 instructed Salient editor Simon Wilson to resign immediately, “or your office will be terminated by the glorious revolution, a group of people who believe truth and honesty not the leftist bullshit dribble that you shit out of your screwed up Andrewmind.” Beach also eschewed factional divisions during his editorship in 1979. He helped form the Progressive Student Alliance, a group intended to bring all leftists on campus under one banner. This new group felt that divisions between leftist groups had caused progressives on campus to become “more self-centred rather than trying to enlist mass support … The resulting split, while important, was along fairly intricate lines.”
secret that VUWSA and Salient were stacked with radicals associated with the Workers’ Communist League. It was time for an executive which would focus on issues more relevant to students. Clearly their message found a willing audience amongst the student body, or at least those who bothered to vote.
By the time the Moderates took power, the influence of communist factions of all colours was already declining at Vic. Those involved had graduated and moved on. Salient maintained a broadly progressive, left-wing stance throughout the 1980s, but it was no longer so influenced by communism or trade unionism. In the 1980s, with the threat of user-pays education becoming more pressing, VUWSA was reformed to focus more on lobbying for student interests in education policy. The new constitution curbed its ability to take strong political positions across a spectrum of issues. This is, by and large, the state of affairs VUWSA still abides by.
WHETHER THEY WERE CONSERVATIVE, OR SIMPLY NOT AS RADICAL AS THOSE WRITING FOR SALIENT, NOT ALL STUDENTS WERE INTERESTED IN BUYING WHAT SALIENT WAS SELLING, NOR IN THEIR BEEF WITH OTHER COMMUNISTS.CAMPUS
Lost Gaze, Naomi Parte, 2022.
Source: Grant Buist, Salient 2008 Source: Salient 1989 22 Features FROM 1989 TO STUDENT2022:
Words by Maia Ingoe (she/her)
CW: Mentions of Transphobia, Apartheid, Sexual Violence Students are a fiery bunch. We enter university, an institution full of new people and new ideas, and we have a hunger to change what’s wrong with the world. Students have a rich history of being at the forefront of activism, from the 1970s and 80s to now. But 2022 looks a lot different to the 80s: university takes place via Zoom, students work one or more jobs to pay exorbitantly rising rents and struggle to afford the basics, and we pay thousands of dollars per class. We leave university burdened with debt. The costs of being a student consume so much of our time, leaving little energy for activism. Barriers limiting students’ role as the critic and conscience of society began with the introduction of student fees in 1989.
The first issue of Salient in 1989 focused on the newly-minted policy to charge fees for university education and create a loan scheme for students, which at first was intended to be provided by private banks. Andrew Little, then-president of the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA), is quoted on page seven as saying, “Providing excellent education is no longer the aim. The aim becomes profit making.” Set in the background of a new swath of neoliberal policies, the introduction of student fees significantly changed the way universities operated and the experience of being a Frankstudent.McLaughlin was the Vice-President of NZUSA in 1989, a time that was fraught with change for the national student union. Prior to the introduction of a student fees policy by the Labour Government, student unions had an international focus and
Source: Salient 1989 23www.salient.org.nz
In 2008, an article published in Salient by editor Tristan Egarr explored the history of activism and VUWSA. Between the 60s and 80s, students were involved in anti-war protest, feminist outcry, and anger over the Springbok Tour. Engagement in international movements was strong, but as the article writes, full-time students during past decades were able to “devote themselves to politics and protest”. Why? In 2008, Salient put it down to the introduction of internal assessment—without the time between exams, students could no longer “go around occupying buildings and getting arrested”. The rising cost of renting and the increase in student fees since 1989 meant students were engaging more and more in part-time work.
If students were struggling to find time to engage in radical protests in 2008, it’s gotten even harder in 2022. The People’s Inquiry into Student Wellbeing, released in July, found that two thirds of students regularly cannot afford their basic needs. That includes food, clothing, bills, and healthcare. On average, those living in a shared flat spend 56% of their income on rent, and 68% of full-time students have at least one job to support them alongside study. Students are meant to be the critic and consciousness of society: but if we’re struggling to meet our basic needs, it gets harder and harder to call decision makers out.
Student fees were introduced in the context of increasing costs, increasing student numbers in tertiary education, and a wish to improve the availability of university. The main two concerns around student fees at the time, Frank said, were around equity and accessibility of education, and the nature and quality of services. NZUSA committed to a campaign against the ‘Learning for Life’ policy and advocated against the banks providing student loans. Thankfully, they were 1989successful.issues of Salient reported on then Associate Minister of Education Phil Goff finding himself trapped in a swath of student protestors in the Hunter Carpark, having to escape to Parliament on foot to escape the anger over the student loan scheme. NZUSA and other student unions led protest marches and events against the student loans policy and the privatisation of university education. On 20 July 1989, over 4000 students joined by teachers, polytechs, and secondary schools marched upon Parliament, led by Andrew “No Loans” Little (as reported by Salient). Salient reported protest signs saying “Stop the fees!” and belittling Phil Goff. While Frank says engagement wasn’t like it was in the extremely active 70s, students still attended meetings and briefings in the hundreds, wanting to know about how the change in Government policy would affect them. With the pressure of loans today, he thinks students are more focused on achieving their academic objectives—“I didn’t discover the library until the third year,” he said of his first degree, laughing.
attempted to influence issues of global concern, such as the Apartheid regime in South Africa. But because university life as it was known was set to significantly change, student unions turned to focus on reforms close to home. “We had to find the balance between international matters but also focusing on factors that affected students in New Zealand and their access to education, which in our view was core to what we were about,” said Frank.
ACTIVISM ENDURES
While it’s the protest event that gathers crowds and media attention, 80% of the work to make long-term change happen occurs behind the scenes, Jahla said. “The way I think about it, there are agitators and collaborators. 20% of the work is done by agitators—that’s the protesting—and 80% is collaboration: meetings, organisation, negotiation. And it’s not sexy, it’s not glamorous. But as organisers, it’s not just about us. It’s about creating a space for people to channel their emotions. Being angry at injustice is a kindness.” Students have gathered to express that anger at many issues in the last few years. More than a thousand people gathered at the trans rights rally outside Michael Fowler Centre last year to protest an event by trans-exclusionary group Speak Up for Women. Students joined the mass protest in 2020 to support the Black Lives Matter movement and draw attention to problems with policing in Aotearoa. In 2018, students marched upon Parliament to demand funding for tertiary students’ mental health services—resulting in the start of the Piki counselling Forprogramme.Tamatha Paul, ex-VUWSA President and Wellington City Councillor, her first protest experience in Te Whanganui-a-Tara was formative for the way she does politics. She joined a crowd of people assembled by criminal justice organisation JustSpeak. They gathered outside Judith Collins’ office at the Ministry of Justice to protest the placement of a trans woman in a men’s prison, which had resulted in serious assault. “It made me realise that politicians, decision makers, and people with power can and should be held to account by massive crowds of people.”
Illustration: Aaron O’Leary
Activism isn’t always a protest; it’s in the power of existence and drawing attention to what’s important. Despite the challenges students face, the fire of discontent is far from extinguished, and student activism will endure.
There’s no doubt that protest, politics, and activism are still an integral part of student culture. But when students struggle to meet the basics, engaging in the issues that matter to us becomes harder. “For our marginalised populations, existence is resistance,” said Jahla. “Simply coming to university and existing in this space is resistance.”
Dedicated engagement in every political issue is inevitably draining for students. But showing up for the issues that matter to you, be that climate action, sexual violence prevention, healthy housing, criminal justice, or anything else, can be done everday.
Many question whether the great age of protest between the 70s and 80s has passed. Despite all the pressures of survival in this pandemic age, students are still organising and fighting for what matters to them. Last year, the student-organised Let Us Live rally gathered hundreds of people at Courtenay Place to express outrage at sexual violence in our city, and call for changes such as funding for sexual harm prevention, redesign of urban spaces, and sexual violence prevention in alcohol environments. Organiser Jahla Lawrence said it was those clear aims which meant the protest had a tangible outcome. Sexual violence prevention was added to the Pōneke Promise and a Sexual Violence Prevention Action Plan was created, which Jahla is now working on with Wellington City Council.
Features
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“Students in all societies across the world play a huge role in being the critic and conscience of society,” Tamatha said. “That’s why conservative, libertarian parties, like Act, and even the National Government, do all they can to make it impossible to be a student and to afford to live as a student. Because if you get too much time on your hands, you’re gonna start criticising, and suggesting a change from the systems that we have in place, namely neoliberalism and capitalism.”
“Students in all societies across the world play a huge role in being the critic and conscience of society”
Words by Bridget Scott (she/her)
Students would be forgiven for thinking our national publishing scene ground to a halt after World War II. However, Victoria University of Wellington and wider Wellington are home to a thriving and growing literary scene that’s been making space for a new cohort of young writers over the past few decades.
LITERATURE AND PUBLISHING IN AOTEAROA
The most obvious example is the International Institute of Modern Letters, residing in the Bill Manhire House on the edge of Kelburn campus. Described by the institute’s Director Damien Wilkins as the “home of Creative Writing” on campus, this program is separate from the English department and runs a number of workshops for undergraduate students, as well as the flagship Master’s program. These workshops lean heavily on collaboration to create a community of writers. Workshops are structured as small groups of 10-12 people who take turns getting to know each other’s work and offering reciprocal feedback, while being guided by an experienced, published author. That sense of community is part of the institute’s commitment to the New Zealand literary scene. Damien describes the environment as “facing outward towards the literary community… focussed towards the writing that will happen”. This is nurtured by the relationship between the institute and Te Herenga Waka University Press. The publishers and editors of the Press act as external examiners of folios produced by Master’s candidates. Over time, a pattern has been established of this resulting in emerging writers’ Master’s manuscripts being picked up as long term publishing projects for the Press.
FEATURE
26 Features THE NEW SCENE:
For most people, their first exposure to the literature of Aotearoa starts in high school. Dusty copies of James K. Baxter’s poetry and printouts of Katherine Mansfield’s ‘The Doll’s House’ are passed around to ambivalent kids, and they’re forever associated with English class.
One of these is We Are Babies Press. Launched at the beginning of 2021 and run by Carolyn DeCarlo, Ash Davida Jane, and Stacey Teague, they are seeking to overcome the gatekeeping of traditional publishing to give space to voices that otherwise aren’t elevated. They’re off to a flying start after publishing their first book Whai by Nicole Titihuia Hawkins, which won the Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry at the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
Te Herenga Waka University Press, alongside other university presses, form the main vehicle for publishing in Aotearoa. But they are not the sole operators. Independent publishing houses have grown over the past few years, seeking to give a broader range of authors the opportunity to send their words into the world.
For readers looking to expand their horizons, the options are limitless with creative, funny, and striking writers like essa may ranapiri, Tayi Tibble, and Hera Lindsay Bird widely published in print and online with increasing international recognition. Ash points students towards the recently published poetry collection by Jordan Hamel entitled Everyone is Everyone Expect You for a “funny and touching” exploration of the ‘classic kiwi male’. Damien Wilkins recommends the short stories of Breton Dukes for “wonderfully subtle” discussions of “ugliness and potential” in masculinity, set in Dunedin. For those interested in range, an issue of Starling is the perfect sampler to survey a bunch of voices in one compelling package. Literature fills us up and sets us free. Diving into the new canon of writing from Aotearoa is a special opportunity to see ourselves and our country reflected in a new light. Opportunities for writers continue to emerge, thanks to our uniquely small but passionate literary community. Through creating new independent spaces to share work, a greater range of diverse voices are being heard, and the publishing scene is shifting to accomodate a new generation.
For students looking for opportunities to share their work, Louise encourages anyone thinking about submitting to Starling to “definitely do it.” She recommends making sure work is edited and proofread, reading some previous issues, and knowing what makes your voice unique. Doing so means you’ll be joining a community of writers creating Aotearoa’s new portfolio of innovative and exciting writing.
27www.salient.org.nz
Ash points to We Are Babies’ unique ability to empower their authors as a key reason for their success. She says that independent publishing is a great opportunity for authors to retain greater creative control over their work, and Babies’ personal approach helps authors fully trust the team supporting them. That personal touch is driven by the realities of working in publishing in Aotearoa: it has to be performed alongside their day-jobs. We Are Babies meets once a month in a living room to plan, while Stacey and Ash edit on the evenings and weekends when their work schedules allow. The small team means that responsibilities are shared, so tasks like sales and publicity are spread across the team. But this is also what makes We Are Babies special. The only step of their process done by an outside team is the printing by Wakefield Press. But their ultimate vision is to produce books from start to finish, including printing and binding, in-house.
The work involved in penning a full book or manuscript is not a task for the faint hearted. For those working with shorter forms, literary journals tend to fill the void. Traditionally, Aotearoa’s journals have been led by the university presses through publications like Sport and Landfall, run by Te Herenga Waka University Press and University of Otago Press respectively. However, the internet has allowed new online journals, including publications like the Pantograph Punch or Sweet Mammalian, to rise in what Damien Wilkins describes as “guerrilla acts” of publishing.
Ash says this spirit is representative of Aotearoa’s literary culture. The small size of the community means that everyone lifts each other up, it is uniquely encouraging, and writers “know your readers because your readers are your friends.” In this environment, “the art that comes out is so personal” in a way that is really special.
One of the most prominent of these has been Starling. Launched in 2016 and edited by Louise Wallace and Francis Cooke, Starling produces two issues a year filled with writing by young New Zealanders under the age of 25. Speaking to Louise, she explains that Starling was launched to help young writers who might struggle to get published while competing against established authors. This has truly blossomed. Today, Starling receives between 150-200 submissions for every issue— enabling young voices to be heard earlier and be better reflected in the publishing scene. Louise describes this as reflecting an encouraging upwards in the literary scene: “I don’t think diversity has been well represented in the past and is now starting to really flourish, and that’s exciting.”
Whina: Bringing Her Story to the Screen
Photo: Dame Whina Cooper in the 1960s. Source: Ans Westra.
One of my favourite parts of the mid-year break was going with my Mum to see the biographical film Whina, co-directed by Paula Whetu Jones and James Napier Robertson. Not only was it an incredible film, but it was also a reminder of just how impactful it can be when history is translated onto the screen. Whina, released in June of this year, is a powerful film that tracks the life of Dame Whina Cooper. Weaving between different key moments in her life, it includes her pivotal time as a Tai Tokerau leader. It depicts the famous hikoi of 1975, when at 80 years old, Dame Whina led around 5,000 Māori land protestors from Te Hāpua up north all the way to Parliament. This effort made Māori land rights a national issue. The film also explores her experience as a Māori woman breaking cultural and gender barriers, as well as her life as a daughter, wife, and mother. Paula Whetu Jones and James Napier Robertson’s film paints a powerful portrait and executes their portrayal of the ‘Mother of the Nation’ with dignity and humanity. While some biopics have the tendency to remove humanity from those they are portraying, Whina does the opposite. It portrays Dame Whina in a raw and realistic way. In an interview with Women in Film & Television New Zealand, director Paula Whetu Jones describes how it was important for the portrayal to be “true to Whina and her world, her shortfalls as well as her successes.” This shines through clearly in the film. The film follows her triumphs and struggles, but she never strays from who she is and her vision.
The film also encapsulates a significant amount of our country’s history. We are offered an insight into many social changes that took place in New Zealand across Whina’s lifetime. In perhaps one of the most moving moments of the film, archival footage from a 1975 news clip shows thousands of land protestors marching over Auckland’s Harbour bridge. This serves as a reminder that Whina is not just a film, it is very recent history.
Whina demonstrates the power of putting history onscreen and bringing the stories that have shaped both today and the future to life. As Jones states in her interview with WIFTNZ, her aim in making the film was “that everyone in New Zealand [would] have the opportunity to know who Whina Cooper was and what moulded her into the iconic woman she became.”
Source: NZ Herald Archive.
Photo: Whina (2022), directed by James Napier Robertson and Paula Whetu Jones. 28
Photo: Dame Whina Cooper and her granddaughter Irenee Cooper set off for Parliament.
Words by Erin Cutts (she/her)
Culture Reviews
Reviews
Truly Friday performed their solo debut for a soldout show at The Pow Wow Room on 10 August, with a run time of around 90 minutes. Truly Friday are a musical comedy duo comprised of Jackson Herman and Nathan Roys, and their show featured special guests Andre Moffat and Max Valentine. The night was off to a flying start with footage being played of an over-the-top shootout and Truly Friday being chased on foot to the venue, complete with a desperate “the show must go on” from their manager. It was an intro I was talking about for days afterwards and really showed the kiwi ingenuity of these two. Lest they leave the sold-out bar in suspense, they immediately jumped onto the stage and into a ballad about their dating explorations. They sang of manic pixie dream girls and slightly psychotic True Crime obsessives—never before have a pair of kiwi guys had such interesting love lives! They didn’t let the show get dull for even a moment, singing hit after hit about everything from leaving dogs in cars to the universal truth of hating school. Highlights included anthems about spending quality time with your dad at the pokies and the complex relationship we all have with ripper rugby. Showing that their super stardom hasn’t gone to their heads, Truly Friday gave up the stage for local talent. A stunning guest performance was given by Andre Moffat, performing his hit ‘Two Limo’s’, which had me and half the room crying with laughter. Truly Friday were also joined by Max Valentine for a rap song that tapped into the homoerotic subtones of every all-male performing group ever, called ‘Why Can’t I Kiss My Bros’.
Truly Friday—A Sensation on a Wednesday Night!
Words by Lily Pearl (she/her)
Nathan took the lead with a song about his envy that he will never get to experience lesbian sex—a concern I’m sure many men have. I would tell you how it went, but I was pissing myself with laughter the entire time. Even their drinks were getting in on the act, with Jackson’s beer showing amazing comedic timing for an impromptu premature ejaculation gag. The night culminated in a meat raffle and the promised display of Jackson getting his chest waxed in front of a slightly overly enthusiastic crowd. After chanting from the crowd, they also performed their banger ‘Crate Day’ to round out the night. These two boys from Wainuiomata and Papamoa absolutely knocked it out of the park, and I can’t wait to see what else they have in store for the Wellington comedy scene. Are they the next best thing since Flight of the Conchords, or are they even better? 29www.salient.org.nz
I Te Herenga Waka P R D E ! Monday 5–Friday 30 September Events include: Fully catered lunch for LGBTQIA+ students & staff | The Hunter Lounge, Thursday 8 September, 11 30 am 1 30 pm Out of the Ashes: Celebrating Queer Histories | National Library Wellington, Thursday 15 September, 5.30 8 pm Pride Drag Performance starring Harlie Lux and Yonic K | Hunter Lounge, Friday 23 September 7 9 pm Find out more: wgtn.ac.nz/pride ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 7 P M S E P T E M B E R 1 2 T H A L A N M A C D I A R M I D 1 0 2 - 1 0 4 B e t h e r e o r b e s q u a r e ! Your chance to take part in picking next year ' s executive team! Available in-person and over Zoom. 30 Columns
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1 – PatronScan ID scanners. Along with Vinyl Bar, Dakota, Residence and Lulu, Shady are now using this system which scans your photo ID, so we know who visited our bars and any unacceptable behaviour is easily trackable to the individual through our CCTV and Patron Scan system More bars are adding Patron scan to their toolbox too! Get banned from one bar, you’ll be banned from all our bars. It’s as simple as that.
If you have any questions about any of our systems and procedures, please reach out.
Much love, The Shady Lady Whānau 1 priority www.shadylady.nz
2
Recently, we’ve introduced new tools and systems to ensure your safety and security during your night out in town. Here’s what we’re doing:
If you, or anyone you know of experiences unwanted attention and are made to feel unsafe in any way, please talk to one of our team members at the bar, or on the floor. We have clearly identifiable CREW shirts on, and understand that any situations involving sexual harassment and violence are number 1 priority. If you do not feel comfortable discussing this with a crew member at the time please reach out to us by email or social media, or to the Police.
Expanded CCTV. We are installing additional CCTV cameras throughout the bar so that any unacceptable behaviour can be found quickly and those responsible identified, and individuals identified through our PatronScan system and the appropriate action taken.
Our Pōneke Promise – Your safety is our No.
Words by Francesca Pietkiewicz (she/they)
The Salient Podcast was a weekly podcast we ran under Salient Podcasts which overviewed the Salient magazine that week. Matt did an amazing job of establishing Salient Podcasts in and amongst the beginning of the pandemic. I was extremely lucky to have him still on board as editor last year, as I swooped into the podcast manager role for the first time. 2021 was when we laid the foundations for what Salient Podcasts has become this year. My goal was to get us consistently into the magazine. We’ve done that, so I’m stoked.
SALIENT PODCASTS
I learned something surreal this year that made this all feel like a big cyclical wonder. My journey with student media, radio, and journalism started back in 2014: my first year of high school. I became a student radio host, with a slot on Friday lunchtimes with my best friend. The majority of the time, we were too scared to speak, edging the mic fader up for a breath and a giggle before continuing to blast our favourite tunes across Wellington High School. Lots of early Childish Gambino and Channel Orange by Frank Ocean. This continued on into 2015—the year a new friend and I began hijacking the Te Herenga Waka campus to ‘study’ (like we had anything to revise, it was Year 10). It was the year I read my first Salient and pasted a centrefold on my wall for the first time. In 2018 I applied for a journalism internship at Wellington Access Radio. Now here’s the surreal thing: Kristen Paterson (previous station manager at Access Radio, now general manager at PBS radio in Melbourne, and the person who helped launch my career in podcasting at 17) was one of the co-launchers of VBC back in 2007! I had no idea until this year, my second year as Salient Podcasts manager. 33www.salient.org.nz
From The VBC to Salient F.M. to Podcasts
For this week’s podcast page, I look back into our archives and explore the beginnings of not only Salient Podcasts but Salient F.M. Salient F.M. had its beginnings as the Victoria/ Vic Broadcasting Club (VBC) in 2007. VBC was originally started to take the place of still-running RadioActive as a new campus-based uni radio. VBC remained until it was reclaimed to partner with Salient as Salient F.M. in 2015. This was the result of interest from the Salient editors at the time to join forces with VBC as well as an almost shut-down of the station between 2013-2014. 2014 VUWSA President Sonya Clark stepped in and VUWSA took control of the station—the reason we’re still here today. Salient F.M., under station managers Nav Nair and Jazz Kane, and Salient editor Kii Small (2018 Salient F.M. manager and co-founder of podcast collective Coalesce), had its final year as a radio station in 2019.
From what I’ve heard, VBC/Salient F.M. had an intensely loyal cult following. It’s end was deeply mourned by many. But 2020 is where I come in. In 2020, I started working as the Salient podcast producer alongside the podcast manager Matt Casey (2021 Salient editor and host of the late radio-show-turned-podcast Young Matt Show).
PASIFIKA STUDENTS’ COUNCIL Te Pōuli. The Darkness. Words by Edwina Harris (she/her) In the beginning, there was darkness. Only the hushed whisper of my cousin’s voice filled the room. There was an essence of fear when they spoke. Not because of what they were saying, but out of fear of being caught staying up later than we were supposed to. In a small bedroom, in the suburb of Waitangirua in Porirua, eight children huddled to hear secrets about Tokelau. Secrets, as our parents never passed on these stories. Why? Because the missionaries forbade their parents from doing so. “Ko te tama a te manu e fafaga i nā ika, ko te tama a te tino e fafaga i nā kupu.” This Tokelauan proverb translates to: “The children of birds are sustained with fish, the children of people are sustained with words.” This small bedroom became a safe space that sustained my hunger for learning Tokelauan histories through storytelling. Kae (but), these spaces are not acknowledged by pālagi education. I cannot cite in an essay a song about a pregnant Hina being pulled into the ocean by a coral witch, without linking it to an archive. I cannot write about the movements that tell the stories of blackbirding into a Word document without linking it to an archive. I would lose so many marks if I wrote “My cousin told me… My mother told me… My ancestors passed on a song…” These forms of Pasifika literature have little space in academia because they barely exist in the archives. Academic institutions like the National Library of New Zealand imply that only if it is recorded there can a historical account be true and legitimate. For something to be accepted as Pasifika literature, it needs to be accepted by pālagi. There are approximately 1,633 results that show up when searching for Tokelau through the NatLib online database. Approximately 1,393 items that I can request to see only if I physically enter the building. Like a kidnapper, they allow me to pay money as ransom for high-resolution copies of documents and photographs of my ancestors. Of my history. Pe vēhea la (but how can) our people access, narrate, and challenge colonised records of our histories? How can we ensure nā kupu (the words) we leave behind will be enough to sustain our descendants? How can we bring life to the partial records that are hidden away in darkness? We need more Pasifika people who can speak up in these spaces. More Pasifika narrating and explaining our stories. More Pasifika people to record our oral histories, our visual literature such as tapa, and to emphasise the importance of place names, songs, and actions. More acknowledgement that this is not all that exists in our histories. More Pasifika-led projects like the Pacific Virtual Museum (digitalpasifik.org), a NatLib supported project, created “By, With, and For” Pasifika. Less nonPasifika stating that it does not exist and it cannot be used because their own records do not have it. This way, our stories can be brought to the light and shared openly. Not kept in secrecy, like how we did back in the beginning when there was darkness. 34
Tēnā tātou i tēnei taraimeta tuarua! Ahakoa ngā uauatanga o te tau, ngā pūkei mahi nunui i whakaputua e ngāi pūkenga, ka oke tonu me kore e paku ea ngā taumata tiketike o te whare wānanga, i te wā itiiti noa. Inā te whakahōhā. Me ui te pātai—kei te pēheatia e koe tō hauora? Māmā noa iho te pīia o te hauora. I te nuinga o te wā, kāore e taea te aha mō ngā pānuitanga e rau whārangi te roa, ngā tuhinga roa e mate ai tō kimikimi kupu e paku tata atu ki te 5000, e mate ai rānei tō whakakore kupu e paku tata iho i te 1000. I te nuinga o te wā he moemoeā noa iho te whakatutukihia o ngā mahi i te wā e tika ana. Mō tēnei, kāore i kō atu i tā Mason Durie—‘te whare tapawhā’. E whā ōna pakitara, taha whānau, wairua, hinengaro me te tinana. He pēnei i ō te whare nui i runga i tō marae, i, ina taka tētahi, ka hinga te whare katoa. Nā whai anō me manaaki ngā pakitara e whā. Ngāwari te kī ‘me whakatā ki te tiaki i a koe anō’ engari anō mō ngā tauira, kāore i te pērā te māmā o tērā mahi ahakoa he rite tonu te pōhēhē a wai ake. Ko taku whakautu, ko Whakaarotau, taku tino hoa. Mei kore māua i piri i ngā tau tata, kua pai ake tōku hauora. He pēnei te nui o ngā mahi i te pōro hukarere. Ka tīmata iti nei ngā uauatanga, ā, ka nui haere, tae noa ki te mutunga, kua mohunga. Nā, whakaarohia tērā hui whakahōhā take kore, ko tērā pepa, ko tērā mahi e uaua ana kia whakatutukihia. Anei tētahi whakaaro, whakarārangihia ō haepapatanga me āu mahi, āu whakapaunga kaha. Ko ngā mea e whā kei raro iho—me whakakore. Moumou wā te aro ki kaupapa kē atu mēnā kāore koe e tiaki i a koe anō. Kāore e whai take me kāore koe i te 100% i te korenga ōu e tiaki i ō pakitara. Me maumahara ake, ehara tātou i te atua roro nui, kotahi rau ngā ringaringa, he toka ōna kōiwi, he raupā te kiri katoa. He tauira noa iho! Mōhio whānuitia ngā take ka puta ina nui rawa—ka pāngia koe e ngoikore, e mānatunatu, e māuiui, e pōuritanga rānei. Ina pērā, nui atu te ara kia hoki atu ki tō 100%. Taka te wā ka riro mā tangata kē hei whakakapi i te korenga ōu e noho pai ana. Mō te whakatā, ehara i te mea he pai mōu anake. Whakaarohia tō iwi! Kia kaha tā tātou tiaki i a tiaki anō—whakatā, whakakorikorihia tō tinana, whāia ō kaingākau, ngā āhuatanga e māma ai ngā whakahōhā o te whare wānanga.
Manners Cuba Street Taranaki Street Courtenay Place EVERY TUESDAY IN SEPTEMBER ICED DRINKS $3 AMERICAN HOT DOGS $4.90 EVERY DAY IN SEPTEMBER NGĀI TAUIRA
hauora? Words by Mason Lawlor (he/him; Ngāti Pāhauwera, Ngāti Maru)
Kei te pēheatia e koe tō
Te Reo Māori: kōrero o mua, kōrero nehe, hītori, whakapapa Word of the Week: History New Zealand Sign Language: Sudoku SPLENDID 85 Ghuznee St, Te Aro, Wellington www.splendid.nz@splendid.nz 36 Entertainment
Scan the QR code for puzzle answers: Down 1. Talkative (5) 2. Classic liberal maxim: all men are created _____ (5) 3. Catch (3) 4. Determined (4, 4) 5. German Riesling region (5) 7. Leg muscle (4) 8. Coordinator of workplace agitation (5, 6) 9. Put two and two together (3) 12. Suffix with solid (3) 16. 15 items or less checkout at a supermarket (7, 4) 17. Alpaca cousins (6) 18. Defective car (5) 19. _____ up, unearth (6) 21. I believe _____ (2, 3) 22. Smoke, for short (3) 25. Made of small parts (8) 29. “Gangnam Style” singer (3) 30. Xerox competitor (5) 31. Commission for a commerical (2, 3) 32. Vic Uni library readings application (5) 34. “Rack City” rapper (4) 35. Headlice (3) 37. MMA org. (3) 1. A skilled gardener (5, 5) 6. “Barbie Girl” music group (4) 10. German ‘and’ (3) 11. Epididymal hypertension (4, 5) 13. Help (3) 14. Man’s best friend (4) 15. A coward (6, 5) 20. Itself, in a legal Latin phrase (5) 21. Business abbr. (3) 23. A group of deer (4) 24. Mythical human-lion-scorpion hybrid (9) 26. Nintendo competitor (4) 27. Lead-in to X, Y, or Z (3) 28. “Thank You” singer (4) 29. Medal given to a military hero (6, 5) 33. Businesses abbr. (4) 35. How the National Party often vote (3) 36. With 40A, interesting people, or a clue to 1A, 11A, 15A, and 29A (9) 38. Verb suffix (3) 39. Duck (4) 40. See 36A (10) Crossword: Rainbow Word Wheel Across How many words can you make with these letters? All words must contain the letter in the centre circle. I AL N T L S E E 37www.salient.org.nz
38 Entertainment Aries Cancer Taurus
Capricorn Aquarius
Seriously, your mind seems absolutely fixated on something this week. I hope it’s something cute like a new obsession with goldfish videos, and not you mulling over an event from the past. Libra, you can’t buy your identity because ‘who you are’ isn’t ‘what you own’. Sure, you’ll achieve a bit of self expression, but you won’t find yourself in custom jewellery from Instagram or novelty Daiso purchases. Sometimes you focus too much on yourself and end up in a bad head space. Right now, it’s like you’re holding a microscope up to yourself. Spend time with people who’ll help you get out of your head. We all know one of your favourite things in the world is [insert obscure but still boring interest here]. Indulge and explore that interest a little further. You can never know too much about what you love. General chaos is happening around you, but you seem to be immune. One by one, all of your friends and family are falling victim to Mercury Retrograde. But you are totally fine. As a Gemini, I’m jealous... Mercury Retrograde is here and it’s coming for you Gemini. Bolt the doors! Close the curtains! PRAY IF YOU NEED TO! Because Mercury Retrograde knows where you are and it doesn’t fuck around.
LibraScorpioSagittarius
Pisces Gemini Leo Virgo
What are you obsessing over?
I’m just here to applaud your generosity this week! Woah, I wish I had a friend like you Aquarius. Selfless acts should never go unrecognised. Thank you for being you. It’s time to change the old routine and not be so stuck in your ways! Something is on its way to shake up your old habits and force you into a bit of healthy change. “Like, I feel like every [week] has a new energy, and I feel like this [week] is really about, like, the [week] of just realising stuff. And everyone around me, we’re all just, like, realising things.” - Kylie Jenner It appears you’re shifting into a money mindset. I like it. I’ve never known Leo to be so frugal. Penny pinching seems to suit you and you’re becoming more creative with how you get your income. I don’t know what it is about Cancers and their almost impressive ability to find something to panic about in any given situation, no matter how good it is. Calm down. Life is fine. Stop freaking out. I don’t want to joke about your Mercury Retrograde. It looks a little serious... No I’ll stop, I’m freaking you out. Oh, but it does look a bit—no I’m shutting up now. It’ll be fine. Everything’s fine.
Sub-Editor Tessa Keenan FeaturesEditor Ronia Ibrahim Staff Writer Bridget Scott SocialManagerMedia Seren Ashmore ManagerPodcast PietkiewiczFrancesca ManagerWebsite Annalise Scott Staff Writer Maia Ingoe Staff Writer Zoe Mills news@salient.org.nzchiefreporter@salient.org.nzdesigner@salient.org.nzeditor@salient.org.nzpoetry@salient.org.nzfeatures@salient.org.nz This week’s lovely centrefold is brought to you by: Naomi @_LNT.ARTParte Mika NiamhHervelVaughnMaxNicholAaronO’LearyLilyPearlErinCuttsMasonLawlorEdwinaHarrisJuliaCorston The Salient Team News Editor Beth Mountford News Editor Azaria Howell Chief Reporter Ethan Manera Editor Janhavi Gosavi Designer Alice Brown You can thank these people for your weekly fix. 39www.salient.org.nz Contributors Contact Us Centrefold Artist
