Salient issue 03

3 SALIENT

20 MARCH 2017

Slam #2 Real Harry Baker

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alive and you’ll know that I meant it.

It’s a known fact that milk helps for healthy teeth to grow so I dedicate this to those who put their teeth on show.

I don’t just mean the winners I don’t just mean the dreamers.

I dedicate this to the grinners I dedicate this to the beamers.

Not that docile, placid over-practiced photo-static selfie face. That mildly tilted slightly stilted nicely filtered “help me” face.

I mean that proper smile, could cross the Nile crocodile wicked grin. That extra fat Cheshire cat, lips stretched to max to fit it in.

None of that sugar-coated fake, that leaves you looking like a mumblecrust or insecure lips demure, no fun unless “I’m drunk enough.”

It’s that genuine, friendly grin.

Beckoning to let you in.

That totally, colon D* cannot help but show the teeth.

At times almost undignified it may be asymmetric but you’ll see in my eyes I’m still

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So you can have your manufactured packaged acting happy selfie-style.

I’d rather keep it simple cheeky dimples, with a healthy smile.

Anchor, go strong.

Youtube Anchor Go Strong.

* :D

COLENSO0030_REAL

Editors — Tuioleloto Laura Toailoa and Tim Manktelow

Contact — editor@salient.org.nz 04 463 6766

Designers — Eun Sun Jeong and Ellyse Randrup

Level 2, Student Union Building Victoria University of Wellington PO Box 600, Wellington

News Editor — Brigid Quirke

Printing — Service Printers 258 Taranaki Street, Wellington

News Reporters — Alex Feinson, Henry Badenhorst Juer, Mahdhi Osman, Marc Daalder, Siobhan O’Connor, Sofia Roberts, Tim Manktelow

Paper — Sun 90gsm Salient is printed on environmentally sustainable paper, with vegetable ink, and is completely FSC approved.

Feature Writers — Salote Cama and Laura Toailoa, Shariff Burke, Cavaan Kareem Wild

Typefaces — Wedge by Bruce Rotherham, Adobe Caslon Pro by Carol Twombly, Humanist521 UBd BT

by Eric Gill

Chief Sub-Editor — Georgia Lockie Distributor — Josephine Jelicich Section Editors — Annelise Bos (Podcast), Cameron Gray (Games), Finn Holland and Mathew Watkins (Film), Hanahiva Rose (Visual Art), Katie Meadows (Television), Kimberley McIvor (Books), Olly Clifton and Lauren Spring (Music), Sean Harbottle (Theatre) Contributors — Ben Leonard, Tessa Cullen, Aidan Kelly, Rory LenihanIkin, Tamatha Paul, Kahu Kutia, Jasmine Koria, UniQ, Courtney Varney, CanDo, Josh Brian, Sasha Beattie, Joe Morris, Salote Cama, Jessica Lim, Shannon Harrison, Louis Reeve, Benjamin Clow, Puck, Aubergine, Celeste Advertising — Grace Gollan grace.gollan@vuwsa.org.nz 04 463 6982

About Us — Salient is employed by, but editorially independently from, the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA).

Salient is a member of, syndicated, and supported by the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA).

Salient is partially funded by Victoria University students, through the student levy. Opinions expressed are not necessarily representative of those of VUWSA, ASPA, Service Printers, or the editorial staff.

Complaints — People with a complaint should first contact the Editors and then, if not satisfied with the response, complain to VUWSA. Salient — 20 March, 2017 Volume 80, Issue 3

CONTRIBUTORS & COLOPHON

CONTENTS Editors’ Letter.........................................8 Letters...................................................6 Notices..................................................7 News General News......................................10 Protests against rape culture draw hundreds.....................................13 Airing Victoria’s Laundry… again..................................14 Politics Political Round-Up.............................16 The Trump Front.................................17 The Party Line....................................17 Interview Chris Eichbaum.................................18 Opinion Retirement age increase highlights importance of intergenerational fairness................................................20 — Aidan Kelly Flat out of options — what’s going on with Wellington’s rental madness?...................................21 — Rory Lenihan-Ikin Columns Presidential Address............................22 VUWSA.............................................22 Ngāi Tauira..........................................23 One Ocean..........................................23 Shit Chat............................................24 From Within the Fallout Zone...........25 The Queer Agenda..............................26

Access Denied.....................................26 SWAT.................................................27 Postgrad Informer...............................27 Features The Culture of Shame: Talanoaga ma Witch Bitch, FAFSWAG ..................28 — Salote Cama and Laura Toailoa Capital C............................................34 — Shariff Burke Lament under the long white cloud ........................................42 — Cavaan Kareem Wild Arts Poem...................................................47 Visual Art...........................................48 Food....................................................50 Books..................................................51 Music & Podcast.................................52 Twitter................................................54 Games.................................................56 Theatre................................................57 Film....................................................58 Music.................................................60 Puzzles................................................62 Horoscope..........................................63

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If you don’t want to write for us — write to us!

Salient welcomes, encourages, and thrives on public debate. Send us your honest feedback, be it praise or polemics.

LETTERS

DATE: 15 MARCH 2017 SUBJECT: Hey! Thank you for the feedback :) Dear Editors…

You've outdone yourself so far this year with some excellent news pieces (kudos to Sofia on the “Fake News” piece) and articles... like actual substance in Salient this year. So much so that when I pick up a Salient mag it's got some bloody weight to it. I’m pretty chuffed.

To balance out this enthusiasm, on a more critical note, Trump doesn’t deserve his own column in the political round-up. It’s feeding his disembodied ego that floats around the globe like nuclear fallout. You’re pandering to an invisible leech that laps up publicity faster than the University can take student money. The same attention is where I’m pretty sure he gets his ‘strong-man’ brand and the constant orange facial glow from. Don't feed the leeches! Far more interesting international news topics can be found with things like the upcoming elections in European countries like Germany, France, and the Netherlands, and the flux of far-right nationalism and waning leftist momentum for the EU project. Just a thought… ;) Ta, Attic salt Letters must be received before 5pm on Tuesday for publication the following week. They must be 200 words or less. Pseudonyms are fine but all letters must include your real name, address, and telephone number — these will not be printed. Letters will not be corrected for spelling or grammar. However the Editors reserve the right to edit, abridge, or decline any letter without explanation.

Email: editor@salient.org.nz with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line.

Post: Salient c/- Victoria University of Wellington Hand-delivered: Salient office, Level 3, Student Union Building (behind the Hunter Lounge).

WORK & TRAVEL

AMERICA 12 MONTH WORK VISA

WWW.IEP.CO.NZ | 0800 443 769

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NOTICES VUW HANDBALL CLUB

Are you good with your hands? // Are you familiar with balls? // Do you like it rough? // Not getting enough action?

Then do we have the sport for you!

Come join the VUW Handball Club on Monday nights, 6.00–8.00pm at the Kelburn Campus Rec Centre. No experience needed, just turn up. Bring a mate (or two) and your best ball game.

Men and women are most welcome — we all train together. See you there!

VIC UNI TOASTMASTERS

Get into the swing of Toastmasters!

Use your voice! Ace that job interview!

Never know what to talk about? Let us help you!

We are on every Tuesday, 12.00– 1.00pm, SU219, Kelburn campus.

All welcome! For more info email: victoriauniv@toasmasters.org.nz

VICTORIA ABROAD — ATTEND AN EXCHANGE INFORMATION SESSION!

Why not study overseas as part of your degree?!

Study in English, earn VUW credit, get Studylink and grants, explore the world!

Weekly Information Sessions: Every Wednesday at 12.50pm, Level Two, Easterfield Building.

Drop-in times: Tuesday & Wednesday, 1.00–3.00pm; Thursday & Friday, 10.30–12.00pm Website: http://victoria.ac.nz/exchange

CAREERS IN FOCUS — WORKING IN SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED LAW FIRMS

Careers and Employment and the Law Students’ Society are bringing to you an evening of panel discussion and networking with a range of Vic law graduates working in small to medium sized firms. Come along and hear where your law degree can take you. Recent graduates will share their experiences of working in smaller law firms. Network with grads over refreshments.

Monday, March 27, 5.30pm–7.30pm at the Salmond Room, Level Two of Law School. Sign up on www.victoria. ac.nz/careerhub today! Hurry, places are filling fast!

ADAM ART GALLERY — PUBLIC PROGRAMME

Tim Corballis on Fiona Amundsen Friday, March 24, 12.00pm

Wellington writer and ongoing collaborator with Fiona Amundsen, Tim Corballis, discusses the photographer’s work in Out of Site.

Tim Corballis is the author of novels Below (2002), Measurement (2002), The Fossil Pits (2006), and his recent book R.H.I (2015), as well as a substantial body of short fiction, essays, and art writing.

A listing in our notices section is free for all VUW students, VUWSA-affiliated clubs, and not-for-profit organisations. If you would like to post a notice please email editor@salient.org.nz and include NOTICE in the subject line. There is limited space in this section so notices will be prioritised at the discretion of the editors.

Editors’ letter

We hope you’re more settled here and finding your momentum in going to class, doing readings, starting assignments, and taking care of yourself throughout.

It is hard thing to read about, let alone talk about, but this week Cavaan Wild confronts our shockingly high youth suicide rates and his personal experience of tragedy, economic decline, and despondence in Taranaki. Tied into Cavaan’s narrative is the legacy of colonisation which frames the experiences of both Māori and Pākehā.

The anger that runs through his piece targets the culture of silence that surrounds suicide — silence that envelops our past and our present; silence that takes lives. The piece is confronting and we have included a trigger warning but we implore you read it if you can, and to talk about mental health issues with your friends and whānau, and combat this deadening silence.

In our interview with Pacific artist collective FAFSWAG, a similar message is repeated: “The literal cost of not doing this work is human life.” FAFSWAG address the external silencing of Pacific peoples by the coloniser, but also the internalised silence within Pacific communities when it comes to gender and sexuality.

In such a prestigious institution as a university, certain forms of knowledge are systematically excluded and devalued. There are ways of knowing that cannot be found in printed words in dusty libraries, or from your highly qualified and eloquent lecturer. There are voices that are missing from this place, narratives that don’t live here. Yet. *** Despite this institution holding the core ethical values of “respect, responsibility, fairness, integrity, and empathy” and being committed to “civic engagement, sustainability, inclusivity, equity, diversity, and openness,” it continues to exploit the labour of prisoners. In a behind closed-doors, rub-shoulders type, informal contract with the Department of Corrections, the university employed people to clean laundry over the summer on wages between $0.00 and $1.00 per hour.

This issue was exposed by Salient in 2015 and the university said it would cease exploiting prison labour, come 2017 the practice continues. In the name of responsibility, fairness, integrity, and empathy, and in the interest of civic engagement, equity, and openness — take a stand and challenge the Department of Corrections over their slave wages for prisoners.

Act in accordance with your principles.

— Tuioleloto Laura Toailoa and Tim Manktelow

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NEWS GWRC POTENTIALLY UNDERCUTTING UNIONISED BUS STAFF STAFF AT AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY GO ON STRIKE LOWER HUTT, HIGHER CUT? DIRTY SHIPS ABORTION, BILL NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE UPDATE TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT PROTESTS AGAINST RAPE CULTURE DRAW HUNDREDS AIRING VICTORIA’S LAUNDRY… AGAIN

POLITICS POLITICAL ROUND-UP THE TRUMP FRONT THE PARTY LINE

10 10 tender documentation on was made on December 7, 2016, after the documentation had been circulated to the bus operator market.

This request was refused on Concerns have been raised by the grounds of privacy, confidentiality, Council of Trade Unions (CTU) as and public interest concerns. the Greater Wellington Regional Wagstaff spoke to Salient about Council (GWRC) seeks to secure a the stipulations in the tender process, new contract for the bus services in and said “I understand that the tenthe Wellington region. ders are extremely specific in terms The GWRC has spent more than of the types of buses, the numbers of $5 million of its $7.7 million budget buses, the routes, the times, even the for use of outside contractors in the fabric on the seats is stipulated. The tendering process for new contracts. most important, single thing which A preferred tenderer has not yet been is not regulated is the cost of labour. selected.

So they are creating an equation Six law firms, including two firms where they hope bus companies will specialising in employment law, have tender by being competitive at lowbeen employed by the GWRC to ering the cost of labour.” oversee the process.

When asked to respond to allegaTramways Union President, tions that the council was seeking to Kevin O’Sullivan, and CTU Pres- cut the wages and conditions of bus ident, Richard Wagstaff, have ex- drivers, Barbara Donaldson, chair for pressed concern that the process will the Regional Transport Committee, compromise the wages and working said, “who has made this story up?” conditions of bus drivers and staff.

“We don’t actually set [bus driver Wagstaff stated, “I think the council and staff ] rates or conditions, so we is deliberately arranging things so can’t determine the mix of wages [...] that they can reduce costs by cutting but we would expect whoever wins wages of bus drivers.” the tender to have good quality sysThe GWRC refused an Offi- tems, good employee practices, and cial Information Act (OIA) request that will be considered as part of the made by Wagstaff in 2016 request- tenders.” ing access to the relevant tender docThis differs from the most recent umentation, on grounds of privacy tender process for the rail service and confidentiality. in the region. A letter to Annette In an email between Wagstaff King from Wayne Hastie, the Genand GWRC Chief Executive Greg eral Manager for Public Transport, Campbell on August 26, 2016, Wag- responded to queries about labour staff stated that “I do not accept that force issues on August 1, 2016: “Una confidential viewing by me of these like the rail process, GWRC plans [tender] documents, especially if it is not to directly intervene in the bus only the segments of the documents labour market by prescribing staff that related to the conditions for bus transfers or labour rates and condidrivers and staff, could in some way tions. […] Our employee intervenjeopardise the tendering process. [...] tions in the bus tender does differ to The fact that the council has refused the approach taken in the rail tender to be open and transparent with the process which required the transCTU about the provisions in the fer of certain staff from Kiwirail to tender documents or the criteria Transdev.” developed for assessing the merit of When questioned about the emtenders gives us cause for concern.” ployment law firms involved in the A further request to view the process, Donaldson said, “two em-

GWRC POTENTIALLY UNDERCUTTING UNIONISED BUS STAFF

News NEWS ployment lawyers were used to answer questions the Union had asked us. [...] That’s the only thing they were employed for.”

Stuff reported that the CTU had offered to sit down with the regional council, at no expense to ratepayers, to work through the process.

Wagstaff is concerned that the two employment law firms involved were hired in pursuit of the best tender process to reduce wages and conditions in new contracts.

“This has been happening in other parts of the country — and the result has been that companies are winning these tenders off the existing companies, because they can bid with much lower estimated wage costs [...] whereas the current company already have collective agreements in place with the staff and the Union, so they can’t cut [these costs].”

Wagstaff suggested the “cost cutting exercise” is at odds with the expenses involved in the tendering process itself.

“If you divide the number of bus drivers by the amount they are spending on this tender process, it comes to over $10,000 a bus driver.

It’s crazy.”

— Brigid Quirke

STAFF AT AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY GO ON STRIKE More than 1000 Auckland University staff members went on strike for half a day on March 16 after pay disputes with the university.

The decision came after several months of negotiations between the Tertiary Education Union (TEU) and the university regarding a pay increase proposal by the union. The proposal included a 1.2% pay increase in 2017, followed by a flatrate pay rise of $1,200 in 2018, and an increase of $3,500 for those at the

11 bottom of the professional pay scale.

It was rejected by the university in favour of a 1.2 % increase for two consecutive years, with a commitment to discuss the merits of a flatrate rise after the first year.

Had the TEU accepted this proposal, members would have had no recourse if the promised discussions were unsuccessful, as it is illegal to take strike action during the term of an agreement.

John Egan, the Academic Co-President of the TEU at Auckland University, said “[w]e don’t take the decision to go on strike lightly.”

The decision has been met with support from university students and staff throughout New Zealand.

Wayne Linklater, the Co-President of Victoria University’s TEU branch, stated: “When an employer is intransigent, we need to stand together [...]. Shame on the leadership of Auckland University for not working with the will of its staff to help the lowest paid.”

The Auckland University Students’ Association (AUSA) President Will Matthews also pledged support, saying “AUSA has supported our local TEU branch throughout this process, and we are happy to be standing with them for this strike.”

— Henry Badenhorst Juer

LOWER HUTT, HIGHER CUT? Lower Hutt Mayor Ray Wallace recommended on March 14 that the Hutt City Council “support, in principle,” the living wage — and said he would encourage the Chief Executive to seek ways to pay the living wage to Council staff.

The living wage is the hourly rate required for a worker to survive and live off. It is estimated by the New Zealand Family Centre Social Policy Unit and has been raised, effective July 1, to $20.20 — the minimum wage is $15.25.

News Wallace wants to implement a living wage for all Hutt Council employees. However he suggested that a provision of the Local Government Act may forbid the Council from paying employees anything but the most cost-effective wages.

Wallace told Salient that, “[t]he legal advice that we’ve been given to date has given us a little bit of reason for caution.” Hutt City Council has received separate and conflicting legal opinions from Wellington City Council and employee unions, and Wallace said they are seeking an independent legal opinion before moving forward on the issue.

The move also faces political opposition — Wallace said that both the Taxpayer’s Union and the local Chamber of Commerce “were there in full force, spreading brimstone and fire.”

However Wallace remains convinced that his recommendation is the right thing to do. “We want everyone to have a wage so they can be productive members of their community, look after their family — particularly the children — and have a good family life.”

Victoria University is not currently a living wage employer. When questioned by Salient about the wage guidelines for 2017, Vice-Chancellor Grant Guilford said, “we’re not being guided per se by the living wage [...] but from memory I think it was $1200 we gave to all staff as a pay increase for this coming year, no matter if you’re in the lowest level or the highest level [pay bracket], which quite quickly moves the bottom end up in relation to the top end.”

The $1200 increase was the outcome of the latest round of bargaining between the university and the TEU and applies to all academic, professional, and general staff. It does not apply to those contracted to work at the university by a third party, such as cleaners.

— Marc Daalder

DIRTY SHIPS Victoria University Lecturer Bevan Marten has criticised New Zealand’s failure to ratify an international convention which limits pollution from ships as “embarrassing.”

New Zealand is one of only four countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that have not ratified Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships.

Annex VI was introduced in 1997. It sets limits on sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from ship exhausts, and prohibits deliberate emissions of ozone-depleting substances. 88 other countries have ratified the convention.

In a research article published in 2016, Marten stated that “the country has not overlooked this development on the basis that it has an equivalent, or even a more stringent set of laws, and has therefore declined to support a lesser international standard.”

In a press release, the Ministry of Transport stated that it has begun work to investigate whether NZ should ratify Annex VI, and had committed to provide advice to government on the issue by September 2017. The statement pointed out that “New Zealand has a modest level of maritime traffic compared to other international levels.”

Marten has said he will “keep the pressure on” until the convention is ratified. “All that they are saying is that it’s going to be looked into, they will consult with the industry, and see what they recommend. [...]

It’s modest, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to address it. Maritime transport is a globally significant — if not the largest — contributor to air pollution.”

In addition to the environmental impacts of air pollution, New Zealand’s inaction on the issue may pose significant health risks.

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News

“The ship emissions release sulphur oxide, which is a known carcinogen. [...] The World Health Organisation standard for sulphur oxide emissions has been breached at the Port of Auckland from time to time. [...] It’s a known human health risk, so even if it’s not a massive amount of shipping, if you were at Auckland waterfront, it’s something you’d want to be addressing.”

— Brigid Quirke

ABORTION, BILL

dealt with through a conscience vote, and was “quite happy” if his vote against liberalisation was to “set a tone of not rushing into big changes in abortion law.”

Last week, England and Wales voted in favour of a Bill that would decriminalise abortion in their respective countries.

— Siobhan O’Connor

rections policy needs to listen to the lived experiences of prisoners. “If we want to make positive changes then they are the people who know best what this experience is like and what support they need.”

In 2014, more than 2000 remand prisoners were held in custody awaiting trial for periods of three months or longer.

— Mahdhi Osman

NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE

A man who was detained without charge has criticised the Criminal Prime Minister Bill English dis- Procedure Act 2011 and the wider missed recommendations from the New Zealand prison system.

Abortion Supervisory Committee Jeff, whose name has been (ASC) when he stated on a recent changed, was allegedly a potential Q+A interview, in response to a ques- witness in a criminal pre-trial heartion as to whether he was in favour ing last November. After Jeff refused of liberalising abortion laws, “I’m to testify, Judge Alistair Garland ornot, and I wouldn’t vote for legisla- dered he be detained. tion that did.”

Under s 165 of the Act, a witThe ASC described the current ness can be imprisoned for a period laws, some of which have stood un- of seven days if they refuse to give changed for 40 years, as “clumsy and testimony, without being arrested, outdated.” In a recent press release, charged, and convicted. This can be Family Planning’s Chief Executive renewed for a further seven days at Jackie Edmond described them as the discretion of the Court. old, discriminatory, expensive, and An initial appeal made to the inconsistent. “Our laws should be in High Court found that the decision line with current medical care and of Judge Garland was lawful. recognise women’s autonomy and After spending 48 days in the rights.” remand wing of Christchurch Men’s Currently, abortion is only legal Prison, the man spoke to Stuff and if two certifying doctors agree that said he was worried about the cost of a continuation of pregnancy would his detainment for the taxpayer, esseriously harm a woman’s physical or pecially considering he thought that mental health. Sexual violence and his detention was “coercive [rather] extremes of age are not technically than punitive.” grounds in themselves for an aborJeff ’s time in prison provided tion. him with an insight into the realiLabour Leader Andrew Little ties of prison life: “it's very different expressed his concerns when he also when you experience it.” appeared on Q+A, saying “we should His experiences also highlighted not have it in the Crimes Act, it’s not some perceived inefficiencies of the a crime.” He added that Labour sup- criminal justice system. He said, “I ports a review of the law, however he believe in justice. But so many of acknowledged that it would be put to those guys are in there because why a conscience vote. they are criminals is not addressed.”

English said he supported issues, Katie Bruce, Director of Justlike changes to abortion law, being Speak, said that New Zealand’s cor-

UPDATE TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT On March 15, Justice Minister Amy Adams introduced a bill into parliament that would overhaul aspects of the Domestic Violence Act 1995.

Changes include making the process for obtaining a protection order easier for victims, as well as allowing earlier intervention to connect victims and perpetrators to services that may reduce the risk of violence.

The Bill also includes provisions to help those in need without the necessity of them having to go to court, and creates three new offenses — non-fatal strangulation, coercion to marry, and assault on a family members.

Amy Adams suggested that New Zealand has “the highest reported rate of intimate partner violence in the developed world.”

A press release from Adams’ office stated that authorities “respond to over 110,000 family violence incidents a year, yet an estimated 80 per cent of incidents are not reported to Police.”

The announcement came a week after a bill, proposed by Green Party MP Jan Logie, that would give victims of domestic violence up to ten days' paid leave passed its first reading in Parliament.

— Tim Manktelow

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News

PROTESTS AGAINST RAPE CULTURE DRAW HUNDREDS Hundreds of protesters turned out at Parliament last Monday in response to predatory and offensive comments made by Wellington Boys’ College students on a private Wellington Boys’ College Facebook page.

One of the comments claimed: “If you don’t take advantage of a drunk girl, you’re not a true WC boy.” It received over 70 likes.

The comments came days after four year nine students from St Patrick’s High School in Silverstream were suspended for sexual harassment of staff.

The protest was aimed at addressing rape culture within high schools, as well as being a wider call for the inclusion of consent education within the New Zealand high school curriculum.

In a statement released prior to the protest, Wellington Girls’ College students Sorcha Ashworth, Selome Teklezgi, Narjis Al-Zaidi, and Mia Fiumu said they felt that the comments “were a tipping point that required action” and that they “highlighted the existence of rape culture and disrespectful attitudes towards women.”

The protest was attended by around 500 people, many of whom were high school students. The speakers included Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett, Green MP Jan Logie, and Wellington Labour MP Grant Robertson. Bennett described the protest as “incredibly powerful,” however was heckled repeatedly by people calling for governmental action and better funding for organisations like Rape Crisis.

The location of the protest was changed from outside of Wellington Boys’ College to the Parliament lawn due to legal and safety reasons, as well as a desire to stress the wider issue outside of the original comments.

Students on the private Wellington Boys’ College Facebook page had called on people to “bring your cars and run them all over.” The comment attracted several likes, and a reply which suggested — “livestream it.”

Fake Facebook accounts were also created with the purpose of messaging Wellington Girls’ High students, and publically condemning the backlash against the comments.

Wellington Boys’ College Principal Roger Moses condemned the comments made by his students, saying those who made the comments were “normally good lads” and were “shattered” by what had happened. In an interview with John Campbell, Moses cited pornography and social media as factors leading to the students’ behaviour.

New Zealand Association of Counsellors spokesperson Sarah Maindonald questioned Moses’ message: “Because they’re usually ‘good lads’, we can excuse this behaviour? That's a really mixed message, you know, that ‘lads make a mistake’.”

In an interview with RadioNZ, a Wellington College student, when asked about the comments, said, “I think it’s just a joke that’s been blown out of proportion really. Obviously it’s not a nice thing to say, but obviously there’s no intent in it — he obviously didn’t mean it.”

Wellington Boys’ College declined to comment to the matter, referring Salient to a “PR Consultant” who also declined to comment.

The school went through a disciplinary hearing the day after the protest, where the two students who made the original comments were suspended for five days, stripped of their leadership positions, and barred from future sporting and cultural competitions. The school was working with Wellington Girls’ High, the police, and Rape Crisis.

At the protest, Wellington student Norma McLean said that “for generations our grandmothers, our mothers, have put up with this, and we stand up here today for them and ourselves. I don't want to stand here in front of you today and say I hope to see a better future for my daughter.

No, I want to see change now, for my generation.”

— Sofia Roberts

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News

AIRING VICTORIA’S LAUNDRY… AGAIN

Two Victoria University of Wellington halls of residence, Joan Stevens House and Weir House, have been found to still be using the laundry services at Arohata Prison in Tawa during trimester three of 2016–2017.

Salient became aware of this after a request was made under the Official Information Act in December 2016, and confirmed in a further request in February 2017.

Victoria University claimed to have ceased using the services in May 2016 after the university was exposed, in a 2015 story by former-Salient Co-Editor Emma Hurley, as having been using the laundry services at Arohata Prison to clean bedding and bathroom items like towels and bathmats for Victoria University Campus Services, Human Resources, and Weir House.

The laundry services at Arohata Prison are currently only used during trimester three as both Weir House and Joan Stevens House provide fully made beds to groups during the summer. The laundry services at Arohata Prison are used to clean after each group stays in the hall.

These laundry services are not required during trimester one and two for Weir House and Joan Stevens House as students are expected to provide their own bedding and bathroom linen, and use the internal communal laundries.

Victoria University acknowledged that an “informal historic agreement that was never recorded in writing” has existed between the university and the Department of Corrections — who contract the services out to Arohata Prison — since the late 1990s to use labour from the prison for laundry services.

Victoria University confirmed that “[t]he services are also a minor administrative transaction whereby the cost of the services does not require a formal contract to be entered-into, under the University’s Procurement Policy.”

In September 2016, Victoria University Vice-Chancellor Grant Guilford was questioned

about the use of prison labour for laundry services in a student forum, to which he responded that he could not comment on the situation.

When asked by Salient in February 2017 if he could now comment on the issue, he said, “no, not really.”

“I think in general, the same principles of fairness should apply to prison labour as any other labour. I would not like to think that we’re associated with some sort of financial rort whereby people are paid less than they deserve [...] I was assured that this wasn’t the case, but I haven’t dug into it personally to see if it is.”

When Salient said that the information about prison labour had been received from Victoria University in response to an Official Information Act request, the Vice-Chancellor said “I’ll have a look at that, then.”

VUWSA President Rory Lenihan-Ikin declined to answer Salient’s specific questions about the university’s use of prison labour in trimester three. VUWSA’s communications advisor responded: “We have spoken to the university about this and have been assured that while previously they had been using prison labour for laundry services, no current services anywhere in the university use prison labour.”

It is understood that the university is not using prison labour for laundry services in trimester one.

Lenihan-Ikin was made aware by Salient of the specific time period in which labour at Arohata Prison was used.

According to the Department of Corrections, there are 16 women who work in the laundry service at Arohata Prison which “provides commercial laundry services to the Prison and contract work for external clients as required.”

The Department of Corrections work programmes in prisons are described as “an important stepping stone in the rehabilitation of a prisoner and… gives prisoners real work experience, employment skills and job stability, making it easier

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for them to find work on release — which makes it less likely they’ll re-offend.”

The women who work in the laundry services earn a National Certificate in Laundry Washroom Procedures Level One as part of the many re-education and work programmes operating at the prison.

In response to a request placed by Jeremy Roundill under the Official Information Act in late 2016, the Department of Corrections National Commissioner, Jeremy Lightfoot, stated that 5553 prisoners were engaged in “some form of employment managed by the Department inside and outside the prison grounds.”

Prisoners who are engaged in this form of employment are eligible for an allowance ranging from $0.00 to $1.00 an hour for their work. Over a three month period the average amount of hours worked by a prisoner was 84.57.

Lightfoot also stated that “most prisoners in the working prison environment will be paid the incentive rate of between 20 and 60 cents per hour.”

Lenihan-Ikin responded to the issue of pay equity, stating that “VUWSA supports the living wage for all workers, which includes university workers and contractors. It’s important that people are paid fairly for the work they’re doing.

We would like to see Victoria University become leaders in this respect.”

Salient spoke to a representative from prison abolitionist group No Pride in Prisons who believe that “incarcerated people are some of the most highly exploited workers in the world,” as they are “not guaranteed the same basic rights as workers on the outside, including… a minimum wage.”

They said that Victoria University should be “absolutely condemned for using prison labour.

The fact that it has continued […] for over a decade, even after being criticised, shows us just how much capitalist institutions exploit” cheap labour

News

like those in prison “to the fullest.”

They also saw the verbal nature of the contract between Victoria University and the Department of Corrections as “extremely unethical,” and as a way for Victoria University “to obscure just how exploitative their employment practices are, and makes it much more difficult for them to be held accountable.”

The representative from No Pride in Prisons encouraged Victoria University to “examine why they have continued to use [...] exploitative employment practises for their laundry services,” and “cease using prison labour and look for alternatives.”

— Alex Feinson

16 date the legislation is, the committee frustratedly notes that it still refers to doctors exclusively as “he.”

Time for a change then? Well, not according to the PM. English Abortion Law When Bill English took the said that the legislation had “stood reigns of the National Party last De- the test of time” and did not require cember, the promise was for more revision.

Meanwhile, Labour’s Andrew of the same. While the “Boring Bill” label may have stuck, English’s Little committed to review the law if staunch political ideology has proven elected. Deferring to his newly mintthat narrative to be quite misleading. ed deputy, Little said he agreed with Nowhere is that more apparent than Ardern that abortion should not be a criminal offence. on issues like abortion.

Staunch ideology is not someDuring an interview last week, the Prime Minister was asked thing we are particularly used to seewhether he would stand in the way ing from New Zealand politicians. of abortion law reform if he won the The populism of Key’s government election. English’s response was that and Labour’s slow drift toward the his position was already well known centre have made it increasingly difand he would not be deviating from ficult to tell left from right. But unthat. When pressed, he said that any der English, that looks to be changpush to reform the law was really just ing. “Boring Bill” or not, the Prime Minister is putting his stake in the an attempt to “liberalise” it.

English’s position, marking a ground. stark difference from his predecessor, is that he is a social conservative and Battle for Hauraki-Waikato With the recent announcement a devout Catholic. He voted against marriage equality and is steadfast- of Kīngi Tuheitia’s support for Rahui ly opposed to both euthanasia and Papa in Hauraki-Waikato, the Māori electorates look set to be some of the abortion reform.

The law governing abortion in most important battlegrounds in the New Zealand has remained relative- election.

Until recently, the endorsement ly stagnant for the past 40 years. It was introduced with the landmark would have been an unusually polit1961 Crimes Act and formalised in ical move for the Kīngitanga leader.

1977 with the Contraception, Ster- However, after a speech last year ilisation, and Abortion Act. As a re- criticising Labour, the King has sult of those two pieces of legislation, made his political leanings more exabortion is a criminal offence in New plicit.

Papa has extensive connections Zealand. That is unless at least two doctors formally agree that there is with Te Kīngitanga and Waikaa serious danger to the physical or to-Tainui. He currently chairs Te mental health of the pregnant per- Arataura, the iwi’s executive branch.

He is expected to be officially selectson.

The Abortion Supervisory Com- ed as the Māori Party candidate for mittee, a government body charged Hauraki-Waikato this week. In Waiwith keeping an eye on the law, has kato, the King’s endorsement will called for a major review. In their mean a lot.

The announcement also deepens most recent report, the committee noted the significant technological the divide between Labour and the and social changes that have oc- Māori Party, at a time when tensions curred since the law was first passed. are already running high.

In his speech at Pārāwera marae, If you’re wondering just how out of

POLITICAL ROUND-UP

Politics News POLITICS Tuheitia described the sitting MP, Labour’s Nania Mahuta, as a backbencher and lacking mana within her party. He also questioned why she had been passed over for the deputy leadership despite serving longer than Jacinda Ardern.

In response, Mahuta said that the Kīngitanga had never supported her candidacy despite her holding the electorate since its creation in 2008.

She claimed to have previously been told that this was because Te Kīngitanga was an apolitical organisation.

Andrew Little was more blunt, saying that the King was “abusing his office” by endorsing Papa. This follows his previous comments questioning the Māori Party’s achievements as coalition partners in government. Little faced backlash last month after claiming that the Māori Party was not “kaupapa Māori.”

The Māori electorates have been increasingly a focus for Labour after the Māori Party signed a non-compete agreement with the Mana Movement. The deal means that the Māori Party will not oppose Mana in Te Tai Tokerau. In return, Mana will not contest any of the remaining six electorates.

The King’s endorsement also raised the ire of New Zealand First leader Winston Peters. Peters said that the King was under undue influence from his former advisor, the now president of the Māori Party, Tukoroirangi Morgan.

These are extremely important developments for Te Kīngitanga, and the wider Waikato region. They could also have a big impact on the general election results. If the King’s support and a deal with Mana are enough for the Māori Party to wrestle a few seats from Labour, it could make them an influential coalition partner.

— Ben Leonard

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Politics

THE TRUMP FRONT

President (RIP Hils, we still rooting 4 ya). “Such a nasty woman” — October 20, 2016. “If Hillary Clinton BIG news from ol’ U S A this week can’t satisfy her husband, what makes team — DJ Trump has successfully her think she can satisfy America?” reached his 50th day as President. — retweeted on April 16, 2015.

Did I think he’d make it? No way Such fun! Wouldn’t it just be suJosé. Did I potentially think that per cool to be a woman in the US Trump-o would make it to office, right now, living with such a modfigure out that being a big old Pres- ernistic, equality-driven, socially-libident was way too rough, and try to eral dude as the singular leader of opt out in week one? You bet I did. your country!

Nonetheless, here we are, over a — Tessa Cullen month into his presidency, and we haven’t been blown up by any rogue American missiles! I don’t know THE PARTY LINE about you guys, but I’d call that a fricken success.

Following International Women’s Day on March 8, our pal Don On the Spinoff, on February 27, leaddecided to pay tribute to all the gals ing electoral law expert Andrew Geddis in his life, and sent out a classic, ex- reported that a changed interpretation clamation mark filled, tweet: “I have of the Broadcasting Act 1989 “allows tremendous respect for women and everyone and anyone who isn’t a party the many roles they serve that are or candidate” to now run attack adverts vital to the fabric of our society and which disparage politicians on broadour economy!” So, in a fun and fresh cast media (television and radio). Do twist, I thought it’d be a super fun you think the new interpretation of time to put a spotlight on all those the Broadcasting Act could impact this times where Trump-o perhaps year's election?

DIDN’T show “tremendous respect” for some of the other women in Vic Labour Labour is extremely concerned his life.

Case One: May 7, 2013. Trump-o at this new interpretation of the tweeted: “26,000 unreported sexual Broadcasting Act. While the court assaults in the military — only 238 case that led to it was about protectconvictions. What did these geniuses ing the right of artists to free speech expect when they put men and wom- (a worthy cause), it has potentially en together?” Hmmm. Perhaps don’t opened the door to something wider attempt to normalise rape culture @ and more malicious.

It could let a small minority of don.

Case Two: In a 1994 interview wealthy individuals and big busion ABC, Don-don was quoted say- nesses control the debate on our ing that “[…] putting a wife to work screens and even influence the reis a very dangerous thing.” Um no sult. We’ve seen the terrible results thx! Hate to break it to ya old mate, of these kinds of laws overseas, parbut we do not in fact live in 1863 an- ticularly in the US, where having a ymore, and women can successfully shit-ton of money is essential to leave the house and have thriving ca- being a voice in the political debate. reers without their father’s (or hus- The effect of this would be to stifle progressive voices in particular; this band's) permission.

Case Three: Literally every word is why you’ll see conservatives enthuhe said about Hillary before, during, siastically supporting this interpretaand after running against her for tion of the Act. This is not the New

Zealand way — we pride ourselves on our equality. Labour hopes that this unintended consequence does not occur.

Young Nats — Lower North Island The base of this issue is one of freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is a principle the Young Nats staunchly stand by and it plays into our party’s founding purpose of supporting individual responsibility and freedoms.

However, this must be balanced with protections to limit any slanderous or untrue statements being advertised.

Overall, we don’t believe this new interpretation will lead to a major impact on this year’s election. The focus of the election is on the various political groups vying for Parliament, and New Zealand has a proud tradition of remaining policy-centred and avoiding attack politics to the extreme.

Being free to express a political opinion is key to an open and frank election process and will hopefully lead to a more consensus based government for New Zealand.

— Sam Stead If you are a representative of a youth political group and wish to participate in this section, please email editor@salient.org.nz

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• INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS EICHBAUM • Chris Eichbaum is the Acting Vice-Provost (Academic and Equity) at Victoria University.

Salient sat down with him to discuss student representation, accountability, and what to do when your lecturer is a bit shit.

where the review team has provided its final report and recommendations there, you also get, at the level of the academic board, the student reps asking questions. [...]

In some respects the system encourages [course coordinators] to make decisions, about assessments for a course, well in advance of starting so the students know that coming into the course there’s this [assessment]. [...] But another option that I’ve tried, is to say, “how *** would you like to be assessed? How do you feel you learn best? What modes of assessment, lets say its a second or We are interested in the idea third year class, have been really useful in terms of your of co-creation of learning, learning?” Sometimes you get statements like, “I know which — in our understanding what we don’t want. We don’t want any group work.” [...]

— is the partnership and The area is referred to as “reflective learning.” And that’s collaboration between not so much co-production as the student owning the students and governance. process of learning in a first person kind of way. [...]

Practically, what does it mean for students? Words like We’ve recently finalised our Learning and Teaching ‘collaboration’ seem great, but Strategy for this university. The VUWSA president at a basic level what does that last year was a member of our Learning and Teaching mean in terms of consultation committee. [...] The strategy that we’ve arrived at [has] or the decision making processes generally been received as an interesting, provocative, within our university? creative, and positive document. It is that way, in no small part, because of the student voice, through the VUWSA The ideals and labels, president. like co-creation and coproduction, are all very well, but what do they mean? I One of the main experiences students have for their own think the answer to that is input is tutor and lecturer feedback. But for a lot of students, in a number of parts. One it’s unclear to them how that is taken on board. It seems very part is to acknowledge that discretionary in terms of who’s going to be taking this advice students are a partners in the on board, or who’s introducing this reflective type of learning. governance of the institution, and that means [they are] Another way you get co-production is obviously through a member of the Council. a system of student feedback on courses and teaching, and [...] that is vital. As you know, we’ve moved from a paperbased to an online system. There have been challenges in We’ve got academic reviews that but we’ve ironing out the wrinkles, and we’ll end up in programs that have been with a very robust system. [...] completed. These always include consultations with Part of this goes to the professionalism of the teachers, the students who are, without kind of commitment they make to this institution, and using the business model, part of it goes to having quality assurance in place that has the consumers of what’s a feedback loop built into it. One of the positive things coming through from these of the course outline system now is that you are required, programs. So they’re part of year to year, to say, “this is the feedback the last time this it. Once you get to the point was evaluated, and this is what I’ve done about it.” And in

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doing that you're honoring the course. We’re now nearing the end of a long overdue review of tutoring. There was whole bunch of issues in that, including recruitment, training, tutors and assessment, moderation. The review tells us that while we’re doing some things really well, there’s room for improvement in some areas. [...] I’ve talked about reflective learning in terms of assessment, but we need good, reflective professional practice by those who are responsible in course design and delivery as well.

Do you think Victoria could or should incorporate more of a decision based role for students, in terms of collaboration with lecturers and course coordinators?

I think the architecture’s pretty good. [...] This place has put its hand up and said “we want this institution to be run properly,” so we have systems in place that are as robust in terms of financial management and human resource management as any other organisation, but, what makes this institution different and special is that students and staff are active participants in the governance. I think the challenge is to say, “we’ve put that flag in the ground.

But if we look at it in terms of cascading down through the other things that we are doing, how do we make that a reality as well?”

You talked a lot about student reps. From a practical perspective, when a class rep goes to a course coordinator or a lecturer and says “the class is having this problem,” in most situations we would hope that two parties can figure something out. But if that doesn’t work, then what happens?

Is there a system in place in which the student rep can go further, or for the course coordinator to be held accountable?

One would hope that the nature of the relationship between the class rep and the course coordinator would be such that if an issue came up it can be disposed of. [...] Obviously the class rep has recourse to VUWSA and VUWSA could make representations on behalf of students on a particular course. Or it may be that the advice that VUWSA would give is “okay, take it to the next level up.” So you’ve tried the course coordinator, is there a program director of that course? After that, you’ve got the Head of School.

Interview

As a former Head of School myself, I would say it would be absolutely appropriate for a class rep, if issues were not properly resolved to the satisfaction of the rep or the students that he or she was representing, to raise that with a Head of School. [...] We need to ensure through our systems that when an issue is raised, we are responsive to that, and we are partners — and we go to back to co-production I guess — in resolving that.

And you go as far as you need to go. [...] If there’s a problem there, it’s not as if the students (plural) or the class rep needs to provide the solution. I think alerting the teacher or the course coordinator to the fact that there’s a problem is an appropriate thing to do. [...] For me, as teacher, the feedback that I needed to hear was, “You’re talking too fast — can you slow down”. [...] I needed to have that feedback, and I needed to tell myself, make the change.

This isn’t major stuff, but it is for the students in the class.

What is your favourite colour?

My favourite colour is blue.

— Brigid Quirke

OPINION

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RETIREMENT AGE INCREASE HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANCE OF INTERGENERATIONAL FAIRNESS Prime Minister Bill English announced changes to New Zealand’s retirement rules on March 6. The changes include raising the retirement age to 67, and requiring that migrants must have lived in New Zealand for 20 years to receive a pension from the government.

The new retirement age, which affects people born after June 1972 — bypassing the “Baby Boomer” generation — has been described by several commentators as an unfair burden on younger generations of New Zealanders. The New Zealand Herald’s deputy political editor Claire Trevett wrote that the new rules will affect students who will still be paying off their student loans while “the baby boomers above them got off scot-free.” “It’s pure intergenerational warfare,” according to the blog No Right Turn, mirroring ACT Party leader David Seymour’s comments that the changes amount to “intergenerational theft.”

Politicians are divided over the retirement age issue. While the Labour Party supported raising the pension age to 67 in 2011, its current leader Andrew Little is opposed to the government’s plan. Former Prime Minister John Key often said that he would prefer to resign than raise the retirement age.

David Seymour opined that New Zealand First “would rather serve yum cha at their party conference than debate the issue.”

Announcing changes to the retirement age that will predominantly affect younger people was a risky option during an election year, and while only 62% of people aged 18-24 who were eligible to vote casted their ballot in the 2014 election, the 2005 election showed the power of the youth vote when students voted for the Labour Party en masse after the party offered to take interest repayments off student loans.

By announcing an increase to the retirement age, the government has highlighted the issue of intergenerational equity. While many commentators have noted that increasing the retirement age

unfairly targets younger generations of Kiwis, supporters of the increase argue that it is in the best interests of young people to have the retirement age increase, for not doing so would make New Zealand’s retirement funds unsustainable. New Zealand’s public spending has become so unsustainable that by 2060 the country’s public debt will exceed 206 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product, meaning that the government will have to spend more cash paying off its debts, reducing the amount of money it can spend on essential services like retirement payments.

New Zealand is not the only country with a debt problem. Greece and Ireland have begged European leaders for bailouts, and the United States’ private and government debt has grown to over 250 per cent of its GDP. New Zealand’s debt problem fortunately has not reached the stage where the government considers bankruptcy or rising inflation as viable solutions. New Zealand’s options, according to David Seymour, include raising taxes, growing productivity, and changing retirement rules. The current National-led government favours the latter: by increasing the retirement age, the government believes it will save around $4 billion per year to help “balance the books.”

Simply raising the retirement age is not the only solution to New Zealand’s financial difficulties, of course, and even Bill English said that “you can afford anything if you’re willing to make the trade-offs, and it’s always a matter of what’s fair.”

But by announcing that the retirement age will increase, affecting a significant portion of the New Zealand population — and in an election year, no less — the government has signalled that the country cannot maintain the intergenerational unfairness of huge public debt which high public spending causes, and that changes must be made to allow younger New Zealanders to enjoy similar entitlements as their predecessors did.

— Aidan Kelly

FLAT OUT OF OPTIONS — WHAT ’S GOING ON WITH WELLINGTON ’S RENTAL MADNESS?

OPINION OPINION

So where do we go from here?

The only short term solution on the cards is introducing the long overdue student public transport fares which would enable people to live further out of the city. Longer term, we need the City Council and the university to get in the room and have a good ol’ chat about building some more decent, affordable accommodation, because without places to live Wellington can’t take any more students!

— Rory Lenihan-Ikin

OPINION

But surely as cost goes up, so will our support?

I can’t help but feel that this year’s rental crisis is exposing the gross lack of student support from our government. There are so many questions to be asked here.

For starters — what’s up with the bogus “living costs” scheme when the maximum amount able to be borrowed is $176.86 per week, despite the huge variation in cost of living around the country?

Why should someone studying in Wellington who is paying $215 per week in rent receive exactly the same amount as someone paying $150 in Dunedin? A regional approach needs to be taken, or we will end up with a student elite being able to choose what and where they want to study, while the rest have the decision made for them.

Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe doing some part time work while studying is beneficial, but research shows that the average student who works more than 15–20 hours per week will have lower academic performance because of it.

OPINION

And as we pay more our flats ain't getting warmer.

Last year the Government changed tenancy laws with the intent to improve the quality of rentals. We said these changes didn’t go far enough, as they did not attempt to solve the mould problem or require any heating provisions in flats.

One change required landlords to disclose what level of insulation they have in order to

put market pressure on landlords to install it. However lack of supply and over demand means this is not happening. No one is going to turn their nose up at a lack of insulation if the choice is house or no house, right?

OPINION

The words ‘renting crisis’ have been thrown about a fair bit over the last few weeks.

But do commentators and politicians get what this actually means for students and other renters struggling to find a place to live?

I suspect not.

From the outset it’s important to acknowledge that the crisis is affecting more than just students: high costs and short supply impacts renters throughout our community — professionals, families, and beneficiaries.

However the experience for students is all too often the feeling you are right at the bottom of the ladder. Like you will be the very last person among the 60 others at a flat viewing to talk to the landlord or property agent — let alone secure the flat.

Wellington’s rental problems are the result of a few factors. The earthquake meant the city is down hundreds of beds, and the housing crisis is causing people to stay in the rental market longer because they cannot afford to buy.

Meanwhile, the number of students living in Wellington has increased to levels higher than we have ever seen before. So there are more people competing for less rooms.

Our friends the rental agencies are, of course, doing nothing to help. Their business model relies on high-turnover tenancies allowing them to clip the ticket more often, and squeeze money out of tenants to satisfy the landlords who employ them, while putting the admin cost onto you in the form of a letting fee.

OPINION

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Columns COLUMNS

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS You will have heard it a few times from the lecturer in your first couple of weeks of class… “now who wants to be the Class Rep?” Hopefully this was preceded by a case for the critical importance that Class Reps play in determining the quality of your education and experience, but if not here’s an attempt to explain it.

There are well over 1000 classes, and in nearly every one there is a student that represents the rest and provides a link between the class and the lecturer.

As you know it’s often the small things that can be the most disruptive in classes. Like the potentially excellent lecturer who is speaking too fast so you can’t keep up with the content, or the broken links on Blackboard.

This is where the Class Rep comes in. You can flick them a message and they’ll be able to pass on what you tell them when they meet regularly with the lecturer. Chances are you’ll be solving a problem for everyone else in the class too.

If there are more substantial concerns you have about something going on, your Class Rep can be a conduit to our people up the chain, such as the Academic Vice-President or Student Advocate, who can make sure the issues get addressed.

Being a Class Rep also gives you the first taste of a representative role within VUWSA. It’s a great first step to becoming a Faculty Delegate, Club President, or Executive member.

So I hope you're convinced! It might seem like a small role within the university, but it’s a really valuable one. If you’ve just become one, congrats! Over the next couple of weeks the VUWSA Education Team are running Class Rep training, so make sure you pop into one of those so you know what it’s all about.

— Rory Lenihan-Ikin

VUWSA Massive shout out to the wāhine toa from Wellington Girls’ College who single-handedly mobilised hundreds of Wellingtonians to protest at the steps of Parliament on Monday afternoon.

The protest was aimed at bringing attention to pervasive rape culture within New Zealand high schools and how this affects how (mainly) young men interact with other people.

It’s pretty ridiculous that, even after the 2013 Roast Busters bullshit, there is no quality, consistent, and compulsory sexuality education that encompasses a holistic view of what “safe sex” is — hint: it’s not just about using contraception. Sexuality education in schools must absolutely include consent. It must also discuss healthy relationships and education about minority genders and sexualities. Students in New Zealand deserve great sexuality education that will prepare them for life, especially given that 18–24 year olds are one of the most at-risk groups to experience sexual violence.

The complete lack of quality sex education is not an isolated issue that only exists within high schools. The absence of this can be observed within student life — e.g. lad culture, *vom*.

We’re creating this environment where people are able to retain multiple different theories for multiple different papers, memorise thousands of dates and write 2000 word essays — and yet, can’t afford basic respect to all of their peers.

It is up to the government to produce rules around sexuality education in schools, not just unenforceable guidelines. Closer to home, while institutions like Victoria have started to be responsive to the needs of survivors of sexual violence, more needs to be done to ensure our university is a safe place for all students.

— Tamatha Paul (Equity Officer)

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NGA¯ I TAUIRA As Māori at university, it is often the case that we are motivated to succeed by the mahi that we know needs to be done — to help our whānau, to help our home towns, to help our iwi, and, more widely, to help te iwi Māori in general. However, this journey we strive for is not getting easier. The Tertiary Education Union recently published a report stating that “the tertiary education sector is failing to meet the needs of Māori staff and students.” They cited many different reasons for this, including a lack of support services, and a failure to provide effective learning environments.

As a people, I believe we are flourishing, but certainly there are several things that we as tauira feel could change for the better. Many students that I spoke to felt that Māori could be better utilised in all classes. No matter what you are studying, ideas from Te Ao Māori can apply in some way. Incorporating things such as whanaungatanga, manaakitanga, mōhiotanga, as well as tikanga, into the daily lives of students will benefit all, not just Māori.

The report also raised the issue of “whitestreaming,” where Māori academic support personnel, those amazing kaimahi who support us through the university journey, are being swapped out in favour of more general support services for all students. The result is that there are many people left in the gap. These support services are not just staff, but also students as well. Groups on campus such as Ngā Rangahautira and Ngā Taura Umanga struggle to get funding, as students, for the work they do. University is an experience that should be possible for all. Māori at university are on the rise, but I think making space to discuss how we can do better is always important.

— Nā Kahu Kutia

ONE OCEAN THIRD WORLD You said I was “third world” When I couldn’t spell right And you shipped me your left-over mutton flaps To say “congrats on your plight!”

You said I was different And then asked me what the difference was You proceeded to pity me when I shrugged, “just because…”

You said I was “third world” Because I hardly contributed to discussions You disapproved of my quiet manner And warned me of its repercussions In case you pity me For having nothing to say The truth is I’m preoccupied being grateful for my country’s free parking And this little thing we have called “equal pay” You said I was “third world” When you stamped my passport Just before you asked, “What ’s your favourite sport?”

You keep tabs on me because I’m not a citizen Forget all that, let ’s criticize Trump World’s racing down a freeway and he’s a speed bump You got so loud last November And amidst your debating, failed to remember How you shut-down our ’80s Lesā noise of “more brown New Zealanders coming soon” Thanks for the student visa Robert Muldoon.

— Jasmine Koria

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ESCAPING THE CRUSHING WEIGHT OF REALITY

BY IMAGINING POLITICAL DEATH MATCHES, AND OTHER SHIT CHAT

“Enough, with the femmo propaganda bullshit Sash.”

Ye okay; I intended to give y’all just the tip last week but I really did go balls deep into that one, sorry team. What can I say? I’m an avid SJW and I take pride in my work. Lighter topics!

Politics! Have you ever extensively hypothesised over who would win in a fight to the death between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Rodham Clinton?

Don’t come at me with “but what’s the context, why are they fighting, what do they win” noise because there is no context okay, don’t be a killjoy, and just imagine with me for two damn minutes a world where Hilz and Bernie — for whatever reason — are trying desperately to kill each other with their bare hands.

The people I’ve run this by have pretty much exclusively backed Hilz.

Cause my girl is fire. Look, realistically, she’s younger and fitter. I know you saw that picture of her walking in the woods instead of sinking into a Netflix-numbed depression after the election. Home girl is fighting fit; she’s in peak physical condition (for a 69 year old). In this theoretical alternate universe, just say Bernie could match her stamina. That’s cool, she’s patient as shit. You know she got into politics before Bill, and had to bust way more balls than Bill ever did to reach the same heights. She had to fight a Sisyphean battle for her voice to be heard while Bill — by virtue alone of being in the Boys’ Club — found his path unabridged by such a boulder. Nevertheless, she persisted. If you want to talk technique — did you not get the part where Hilz is married to Bill Fucking Clinton?

Remember that time he was (is) a total skeez? Mom is no stranger to shutting a man down: she’ll Moonsault onto a bitch, stand up, and shimmy it off.* Most of all, you know she wants it. You know she wants it with every fibre of her being: Nothing Made Her Prouder Than To Be Our Champion, man, come on. She’s a finely-tuned, goal-orientated machine.

She’s a good bet.

But here’s the thing.

You see Bernie crying at the DNC? Did you see him crying? I realise this might not seem like one to put in the strengths pile considering we’re talking about brutal hand-to-hand combat here but the man would be, I think, the poster boy for Mind Over Matter. (Incidentally, I also think that Bernie took mental notes when Trump got Stone Cold Stunned on WWE in 2007 and could unleash hell if someone in the crowd yelled “what about her emails, tho” at an opportune moment). I know you saw that photo of him being arrested at a Civil Rights protest way back when photos were automatically taken in Instagram’s Moon filter — Grandaddy Berns is a fighter. He’s Rocky Balboa; he’s John McClane. He’s every

Columns

white male protagonist that you know is going to win because he’s the fucking white male protagonist. Bernie is Mel Gibson’s William Wallace — F R E E D O M — and honestly it kills me to say this (sorry Hilz baby, ily) but my money’s on Bernie. This guy is gonna get taken down for sure, but the ace up his sleeve is that he just won’t stop getting back up. I’m trying to find a better/nicer analogy but I just can’t and I’m so sorry — Bernie is King of the Cockroaches, leader of those who Refuse To Fucking Die. Bernie all the way baby.

If you can change my mind about this I’d love to hear it ’cause right now I feel like I’m cheating on a lover.

Love u, xoxo — Sasha Beattie

*I’m not gonna pretend I know the names of wrestling moves okay, my flatmate knows the things, I just watch for the aggressively portrayed toxic masculinity.

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FROM WITHIN

Once truth becomes obsolete, the comparisons to *1984* will stop and we will be truly living the life of Winston Smith. However, the failures of the liberal project up until this point should give us the impetus and urgency to move beyond them, and not to accept an Orwellian fate. In the current scenario, the introvert cannot simply let walled borders, immigration, and terrorism take away from supporting those displaced by war, or meeting climate change targets.

While attending the London Women's March against Trump, the comment of many there was that it was very white, and very middle class. Some of our group seemed dejected by this. Like they wanted to protest with the traditionally politically disenfranchised, the traditionally angry, the traditionally shot-at-by-cops-on-the-news. What was missed in these comments is positive: we now realise the state of political disenfranchisement we have been in, and oblivious to, for so long. It is not wrong if a white mum in a Patagonia jacket is protesting an uncertain future. It is a good thing this class is out on the streets, many for the first time. At least they are not sitting in front of the telly, thinking "good for them" as a black man gets arrested.

For me, making these sorts of grand statements is odd. Not least because five months ago we lived in a very different world (a veiled world, perhaps?).

Am I validating hot-headed politicking, should I just ignore it all? Keep peddling the middle liberal line — it will eventually fall back into place.

Are we truly in more troubled times than the other two decades of my life?

THE FALLOUT ZONE

Popular political discourse has recently become a language for extroverts.

Created by extroverts, it is best consumed and regurgitated by them too.

Shouted from on-high, the difference between *the* Truth and a half-truth is blurred. With this blurring, the importance of truth in political discourse is displaced. Suddenly we find ourselves in a world where a postmodern definition of truth — a concept meant for theorising and philosophising — is applied in all the wrong places. Places where it should be steadfast: the press, international diplomacy, and human rights.

This scenario is generated by new political unknowns. Much of the world is in uncharted territory, where Brexit, the Trump administration, and the rise of European populism have led to politicians seeking quick fixes to complex legal and governmental problems. As a result of Brexit, Britain is likely to cut and paste governing laws straight from Europe’s law books. Nobody really knows how it will work. As a result of the Trump administration, Twitter is a new tool of diplomacy — nobody really knows how that will work either. These are rudimentary examples. The point is, new political unknowns have created a vacuum in which the loudest, most extroverted, and often most divisive voices win out. This, after middleliberals assumed both the Remain vote, and another Clinton presidency, were in by a nose… ___________

It's hard to gain a perspective from Wellington and, as your resident expat, it is just as hard from the middle of London.

The point, I suppose, is that New Zealand’s political engagement can be limp due to its isolation and its John Key proliferate smile and wave politics, the kind that gets walked over by the extroverted populist rhetoric. I hope New Zealand society can stay attuned in seeking out the division between half truths and *reality* among these new political unknowns.

I want the worst case scenario to be me leaving London, back to Kiwi paradise, the day before the bomb goes off.

— Joe Morris

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Columns

THE QUEER AGENDA To kick off our monthly movie nights, UniQ screened the 2014 film Pride. We have done so the past two years. At UniQ, we’re big fans of the film’s core message: solidarity.

Pride takes place at the dawn of neoliberalism, when Margaret “Fucking” Thatcher ruled the UK with an iron fist and waged a renewed war on the working class. The film gives a particular to the Welsh mining village of Onllwyn, which was driven to the economic brink by Thatcher’s policies.

On the other side of the narrative coin is a group of gay and lesbian activists in London, who have their work cut out for them, convincing a group of urban queers to support a rural demographic with a track record of homophobia (which some of them escaped). And most importantly — they do it.

They form Lesbians & Gays Support the Miners (LGSM — check out their Twitter account). They raise money for Onllwyn, they fight alongside the villagers against Thatcher’s government, and they build the oh-so-sweet bonds of solidarity in the process.

At a time when both communities were already in a state of crisis (yes, there is a delicately-handled HIV subplot), this would have been an enormous undertaking. Thankfully, we can learn Pride’s lessons in full because the people portrayed are not only real, and are not only (mostly) still alive (R.I.P. Mark Ashton), but were key contributors to the film’s creation.

At UniQ we intend to honour that legacy by setting its precedent at the start of every year: that we’re all in the struggle against neoliberalism, against capitalism, together. That these systems thrive when we remain divided by identity and pitted against each other. Pride shows us that opening our doors to each other instead is absolutely essential if we are ever to truly fight back.

ACCESS DENIED DISABILITY AT VIC: A BRIEF HISTORY Can Do at Vic, the representative group for students with disabilities, has been active since 1994. It’s amazing how different the university would have been 23 years ago, and how many extra challenges disabled students would have faced. Those in the “glory days” of our parents’ generation would have benefited hugely from having no student loans, but the barriers for any disabled person wishing to study were immense considering Disability Services didn’t exist back then.

Thus Can Do was formed: a political group made up of disabled advocates who fought to ensure the needs of disabled students were met.

Their actions directly affected the formation of Disability Services, and many of their members are now prominent in disability activism.

Disability Services engages with around 1,500 students a year. They bridge the path between students and lecturers, technology, and access.

They also help students get the accommodations they need to reach their study goals.

There was less urgency to advocate for these services, and Can Do went through a period of inactivity, and was then reformed with different goals.We still promote the voices of disabled students on campus, and fight to create an inclusive university free from stigma. But our greater focus now is to encourage and nourish connection within the vibrant and evolving disabled community.Diversity is our greatest strength, and our events are open to anyone with an interest in inclusion and accessibility.

Look out for us on campus, like our page on Facebook, send us an email at can.do.at.vic@ gmail.com, or check the latest Disability Services newsletter for our upcoming events. We love to hear from different people, so we can tailor our events for both our active members and those who may want to peek in occasionally.

With love.

— Your disabled and badass Can Do executive.

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SWAT Growing up, most of us were told to go outside and be active, as the physical effects of exercise were extremely advantageous. However, more often than not, people failed to mention the positive effects exercise has on our mental health.

All of us have been at a point where we have felt weak; where the stress has become too much and we feel anxious, upset, and overwhelmed.

When these emotions present themselves, exercise seems like the furthest thing from our minds. It seems simpler to just curl up in a ball and relax in the comfort of our own home.

However, the link between exercise and its immense positive effects on the brain is huge.

Not only is working out a great distraction from life’s many stresses but it also releases positive chemicals in the brain which aid our mood and overall happiness. In addition, working out regularly has also been shown to increase memory, boost concentration, and improve sleep — all of which are vital to university students, especially those battling mental health issues.

Victoria Recreation is running a campaign called 4 Peaks in 4 Weeks, which takes place from March 6–April 2. All you need to do is get out and run/walk up four of Wellington's highest peaks — Mount Victoria, Mount Kaukau, Brooklyn Wind Turbine, and Tinakori Hill. Not only is this a great way to keep fit, but it is an awesome way to see new parts of Wellington and improve your mental health! Victoria Recreation is also giving away awesome prizes to anyone who posts photos on one of the peaks with the hashtags #4Peaks4Weeks and #VicUniWgtn.

However, if climbing Wellington’s highest peaks isn’t really your thing, Victoria Recreation also hosts a huge amount of social sports, gym classes, and places to work out!

— Courtney Varney

POSTGRAD INFORMER One of my favourite lines of literature is the final line of Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights: “So Lyra and her dæmon turned away from the world they were born in, and looked towards the sun, and walked into the sky.” As a naïve and poeticallyminded tween, I just liked it because I thought it sounded nice. Now entering postgraduate study, it has taken on new meaning for me.

Becoming a postgraduate is a process in turning away from what is safe. The structure and rigidity of undergraduate courses are noticeably absent. No longer are there whole rafts of deadlines for lots of small assignments that you are reminded about three times a week in lectures. Contact hours are way down — you may only have one lecture all week, and go days without talking to your supervisor.

Expectations are higher, in both work quality and independence. It really is like turning away from the world that you know.

But we don’t do this because we are lost.

We do this because we have seen the brightness of the sun. Whenever I am feeling swamped or disheartened, I only need to walk into the sky with Lyra and remind myself of what I am doing here. At postgraduate level, we are no longer in search of a fancy bit of paper (well, mostly). We do it because we want to make the world better, and we can see a path through which we can do that. This quote reminds me that if you look towards the future, there is nowhere you can’t go and there is nothing you can’t achieve. There’s nothing wrong with aiming for the moon — even if you miss, you’ll end up among the stars.

So go on. Indulge yourself. And remember, if you ever need help with anything at all, the PGSA is here to assist. Good luck for 2017 everyone!

— Josh Brian

THE

FAFSWAG is a Pacific Art Collective based in South Auckland. Their sub-group Witch Bitch, comprising of Sione, Manu, and Pati, brought their exhibition Statuesque Anarchy with curator Tanu to Enjoy Gallery, Wellington.

Salote and Laura sat with them on the floor of

the gallery to chat about their intersectional experiences of being young, Pacific, artists, LGBTQI+, and living in the diaspora. There were no fixed questions, and lots of laughter that made transcribing hella difficult but heaps fun. You can read Salote’s review of their exhibition in the Visual Arts section.

Features

WRITTEN BY SALOTE CAMA AND LAURA TOAILOA

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RE OF SHAME: TALANOAGA MA WITCH BITCH,

The Culture of Shame: Talanoaga ma Witch Bitch, FAFSWAG

My name is Sione Monu and I’m of Tongan descent. I was born in Auckland and grew up in Australia. I recently moved back to Auckland to be a full-time artist. I work in multidisciplinary art. I majored in painting but I mostly do drawings and illustrations. My first time doing activation or performance art was when I met these two [Manu and Pati].

TANU:

My name is Tanu Gago and I’m a visual artist, but I work in the interdisciplinary realm. Lately I haven’t been making a lot of art. I’ve just been producing and supporting the artists from

the FAFSWAG collective to make the most of their creative opportunities, and to secure creative opportunities that would benefit their practices.

I formally trained as a filmmaker and hated it and I was like — I never wanna make a film again! My friend suggested I try visual art. I didn’t know what that meant but, in 2009, I started just messing around and working in video installation and I really enjoyed it. I took up photography and for the last few years I’ve been learning how to trick people into thinking that I’m a photographer.

PATI:

My name is Manu Vaea. I’m Tongan too. I do mostly illustration work and poetry.

I want to call myself a visual artist but I haven’t done it in a while; it’s mostly performance work and it’s mostly angsty performances. We’ve been doing things since the beginning of 2016 and that’s been really fun. This is my first time being a part of an actual exhibition. I’m in my first year of Visual Arts at AUT.

MANU:

FAFSWAG FAFSWAG

SIONE:

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I’m Pati Solomona Tyrell and I’m an interdisciplinary artist, mostly working in lensbased mediums and performance. I’m originally from Waikato but am now based in T¯amaki Makaurau. I’m the Samoan in Witch Bitch and also the co-founder of FAFSWAG [alongside Tanu]. Witch Bitch came about at a drink up. ** Sione: In Australia I would have thoughts about decolonisation and be thinking about pre-colonial practices, but I never actually said it out loud until I met these two [gestures to Pati and Manu].

It felt really magical.

Tanu: I can tell, sometimes,

when I walk into the room and people are like oh god, the decoloniser. They don’t wanna drink with me ’cause it just gets too real for them. Or they’re just like — “I’m sorry okay! I’m sorry for my ancestors.” Yeah, not sorry enough. If you were really sorry you’d buy me a drink.

Manu: We were all just really drunk and I was looking at exploring mindsets of young queer Pacific men.

Tanu: If we look to the literature to define our place as the third gender or occupying the liminal space between men and women, there’s nothing there. It’s all being demonised and removed from literary texts.

Manu: Terms like “fakaleiti” or “fa’afafine” did not exist in Polynesian vocabulary or vernacular and they’re all colonial terms that were handed down to us as a way to suppress and to shame. Fakaleiti and fa’afafine weren’t their own individual thing: these words mean “in the manner of a woman”, as opposed to being our own separate entity and having our own autonomy and our own definition. We still continue to used “fa’afafine” and “fakaleiti” because it’s all we have now.

Pati: That’s the sad part of the research. We’re removed from the literature.

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Tanu: We take what we do have in terms of our knowledge to reinsert ourselves into the narrative.

Manu: I’m trying to touch upon that knowledge that we feel inside of us; taking it out, and fleshing it out.

For those of us who’ve lost a huge chunk of our history, this is the opportunity for us to write that, and to recreate and to affirm our culture and our place within the va. In one of our activations at Studio One - Toi Tu¯, a German anthropologist critiqued one of our activations as being overt and talking about things that have already been said, we’re singing a broken record, and we just need to cut it out. And like, who the fuck are you?

Manu: It does get really frustrating. I was talking to another islander who was studying anthropology and criminology, and those other ologies, and we came across the subject

Pati: As if cannibals were bad…

Manu: Cannibalism was a warring practice and it wasn’t practiced among the public. It was used as a way to achieve the greatest insult that you could put on another person, which was to shit them out.

Tanu: The problem is that Western cosmology and epistemology dominated critical thought.

It devalues any kind of indigenous critical thought processes, because those epistemologies and cosmologies aren’t acknowledged.

THE

OF

ISATION COLON

Tanu: You wouldn’t know because you’re not living in the context, so how can you comment based on what you’ve read from your peers who, like you, are cisgendered, European, privileged. These people who are so removed from our cultural experiences get to frame our lives. That is not right. We’re the people living these realities.

of religion and our beliefs.

They referred to their ancestors as pagans — [the deepest inhale from Salote] — as savages, as cannibals—

ARROGANCE

We don’t even exist.

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COMES

THROUGH LIKE A FUCKING COLD WINTER’S BREEZE, SAYING NO YOU’RE WRONG, THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT — GO PUT SOME CLOTHES ON, REMOVE ANY KIND OF PHYSICAL DESIGN FROM YOUR BODY, AND

The Culture of Shame: Talanoaga ma Witch Bitch, FAFSWAG

COME AND PRAY WITH ME. Manu: Across our research we found that in Samoan and Tongan culture we had these rituals called po¯ me’e and po¯ ‘ula. They were meeting festivities where men and women would gather and dance promiscuously in hopes of attracting another person.

I think the whole idea of being comfortable in our own bodies is one that a lot of islanders have lost; that comfort around being sexual beings and viewing it as natural is gone.

Tanu: Shame has been internalised. Shame and fear have been internalised by our people in the most destructive ways. Especially with queer brown bodies.

They’re always sitting on the surface and so we have no choice but to address them immediately. We talk about them in a way that gives us authority, and not shame, over our body.

Manu: In our art, we want to deconstruct and chuck that shame out the window. I did a conference talk earlier this year on youth suicide in Pacific communities. Right after the conference finished, a member of the public, an

old Samoan man, one of the matua, stood up and told all of us off. He told us that the reason that Pacific kids are killing themselves isn’t because of the culture of silence and the culture of shame that exists within PI communities. It’s because we don’t listen to our parents, we don’t go to church, we don’t place our lives in God’s hands, and the consequence of that is our kids are killing themselves. We sat there, and were baffled, and THIS is the culture that we have to deconstruct and we have to work towards breaking down. It’s fucked.

Tanu: The literal cost of not doing this work is human life. Unless we’re prepared to chuck it all in and talk about these things, there are gonna be young people who won’t see themselves in a way that’s positive, and like that they shouldn’t exist, or they shouldn’t be here. The conversations these artists are having might be the starting point, but everyone has to come to the table.

We spend so much time reminding people, if your son’s a fafa and he likes wearing high heels and a dress, just love him [laughs]. That’s it. You don’t gotta do anything else, or complicate it. You don’t have to sit him down with a therapist or anything.

But some of us have understanding families that

will support and sit with us.

People can’t believe that we’re together [gestures to Pati] and that our families support us.

TALKING ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE, SAY, FREE WEST PAPUA, AND THE SYSTEMATIC KILLING OF TRANS PEOPLE, THEY HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO GO ABOUT IT. SO WE GOTTA START OUR PEOPLE YOUNG — TALK ABOUT REAL SHIT NOW.

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Manu: Half of the time, religion’s not even a factor as to why parents are bothered about their kids.

It’s like face, like saving face, and it goes back to that culture of shame.

Sione: When my family members would talk about this stuff, and were against it, none of the verses of the Bible came up. They just felt it was bad, and shameful.

Manu: It’s dealing with crusty islanders who want to know everything about what your family’s doing so they can talk shit at their bingo nights. It’s damaging for everyone. I’ve known so many woman who can’t even go and get cervical checks because their mothers say no, because “if they break your hymen, how are we gonna go explain that to your husband.”

Tanu: Taboo and shame are killing our people. And I don’t wanna die. There’s this expectation to deliver family-friendly shows for us.

But family-friendly doesn’t serve anyone, except those people who are happy to have their bite-sized meals and not talk about anything real. And the consequences of not talking about the real issues, the political stuff, is that when it comes to >>>>

Yvette Velvin y.velvin@gmail.com

Features

CAPITAL

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CAPITAL

CAPITAL

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CAPITAL Written by Shariff Burke

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Capital C

Tucked off busy Willis Street exists Wellington’s most ambitious food concept — Capital Market, the city’s current answer to the long-time global phenomenon that is the food court and home to the widest array of affordable food fare.

With tall canopies, kaleidoscopic backdrops, and ill-fated pigeons on the prowl, the market announces its presence, and Wellington, having been starved of a proper food court for at least a decade, has found its answer here.

Within the complex, stalls like Where’s Charlie set the benchmark for food ingenuity and finesse, with beautifully crafted and delicious offerings.

The recent addition of fusion food is a testament to crosscultural pollination, or the side effects of globalisation, and give this food market an edge, embodied in shops like Quiquiriqui and Oriental Blues.

The market is bustling during lunch hours with office workers and students enjoying different cuisines under a single roof.

The jaunty epicurean adventure offers a brief respite from tight cubicles and computer screens.

It’s no surprise then that the bad boy purveyors of sexual fantasy, John and Michael Chow, are behind this attempt at creating a

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home for heady food fantasies.

Opening in 2014, the market is owned by the brothers’ property management company CGML. You may or may not have heard of the brothers, and if you haven’t then you should. As brothel owners and “property magnates,” they intend on managing a $1 billion property portfolio by 2020. They are also proud members of the NBR rich list — a list that only millennials with parents already on it may dream of entering.

Chow reflects that “I don’t feel our Asian heritage was a negative, though it certainly presented unique challenges for us to overcome.” However, the brothers overcame these challenges and havecemented their position as businessmen — and it is perhaps their position as such that reflects our system’s ultimate inequity.

Having control of 70% of the sex industry in Wellington through brothels and strip clubs, most notably The Mermaid, the **-----------------------------** Chow brothers have gained Emigrating from Hong Kong relative notoriety.1 Newshub has to Wellington at the ages of reported that women who have 13 and 8, respectively, John worked for the brothers in their and Michael Chow spent their clubs have felt “intimidated” childhood working in their by them.2 And a Stuff article, parents’ takeaway shop on reporting on a case brought Courtenay Place. Their rise is a before the Alcohol Regulatory classic rags to riches story, and and Licensing Authority in could be used as an exemplar of 2014, stated that former staff the “model minorities” narrative of the brothers’ “detailed by “bootstraps” and free market claims of sexual assaults going advocate-types who admire unpunished.”3 Their position success ostensibly achieved within the New Zealand Chinese through sheer hard work alone, community has also been tense, with no excuses or blaming of and at the 2014 Going Bananas a deck stacked against them.

Conference RNZ reported that members boycotted the The unlikely but sterling success event due to qualms about sex of the Chow brothers as Asian profiteering and business ethics.4 immigrants, who have surpassed In an RNZ interview, Michael structural and social constraints, Chow said he believes that reflects the equality of our this “negative publicity” is good liberal democratic system. It for them, citing a larger “hit wasn’t without difficulty; Michael rate” on their Facebook page

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with each bad story that comes about.5 It is with the same fortified attitude that John Chow emphasises “..not everyone loves us but this is who we are and we do it successfully.” For all the allegations, murmurs, misgivings, and in the current 1 Manning, Brendan. “Turf global climate of widespread war between inequality and discontent, sex industry the brothers have met the bosses.” world on its own terms, and NZ Herald, February 1, have taken their place at the 2014. top of the food chain with no apologies.

2 “Girls 'intimidated' by Chow brothers.”

NewsHub, January 31, 2014.

Paddling in deep pools of wealth, they have now become symbolic of the excesses of our culture — 3 Steward, the uncaring commercial Ian. “Chows’ elite. Now owning expanding, strip club self-perpetuating businesses, tactics laid bare.” Stuff, the brothers are major players February 1, in the property industry, 2014. running both residential 4 “Chow and commercial portfolios.

Brothers — The sea of the property Divide and market that the brothers Rule?” RNZ, cruise and cream off is April 27, 2015. somehow also the exact same 5 Ibid. housing market that others have deemed a “catastrophe.”

Our economic and political system has placed no constraints on them to worry otherwise, polarising us all as either fetishised winners or sooky losers. $8

The logic of the market allows the winners to be comfortably

Capital C

removed from the daily concerns of the homeless, of first-time buyers, or university students who can’t rent dry, affordable flats, and yet again, somehow, inextricably invested in this same system with us all. As one confronts the contradictions of a free world where the globalised flow of capital dictates our choices and limits our influence over the general orientation of society, increasingly there exists this class of elites enjoying modernity’s choice fruits. The modern world more and more so resembling a mermaid, seemingly beautiful, but with no legs to stand on. **-----------------------------** Jean-Jacques Rousseau, abstracting from the values that formed the Enlightenment, noted in eighteenth century France that if we all subscribed to the project of modern liberation, the more important question then is, to gain such liberation to do what exactly?

Rousseau trenchantly despised the callousness of elites, using the term “ressentiment” to describe his and society’s contempt for them. Ressentiment, more than just the French word for resentment, means to suffer from a toxic mix of envy, powerlessness, and humiliation.

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Friedrich Nietzsche described marked the moment of ascension it as “a whole tremulous realm for the market, allowing it to of subterranean revenge, “fill a gap in the Wellington inexhaustible and insatiable quick service dining culture to in outbursts.” Rousseau, who ensure our tenants had the foot foresaw the embarkation of the fall they needed for success.” project of individualism from Embracing a singular identity the eighteenth century onwards, allowed Capital Market to one premised on commercial offer a wider variety of food competition, believed that it choices and created a large airy would only work to denude space reminiscent of the classic and wilt the modern individual food hall, thus legitimising its from the inside. (It is probably proclamation of being an worth mentioning then that “international food court.”

Rousseau lived outside the circles of the intellectual and economic The brothers, as landlords, have elite, bore children with sex referred to the majority of workers, and had casually stallholders in the market as remarked on, in his pioneering “hardworking immigrants” autobiography Confessions, who are now successful and the fulfilment that came with able to support their families.6 masturbating in dark alleyways.) Perhaps reminiscent of their own journey, this venture could It is within the modern world, be seen as the Chow brothers far along the path which using their commercial heft Rousseau foresaw, that the to provide opportunities to Capital Market exists. It started other immigrants like them in off as a food and retail venture the food industry, and they have and stuttered, never quite taking plainly stated this: in a 2015 off. Michael Chow suggests: interview with the Dominion “We initially had a goal to create Post, in reference to their tenants, an undercover inner city arts, they said “these are opportunities crafts, and clothing market. It they would not otherwise have didn’t work. Vendors simply had.”7 However, their statement couldn’t afford the space rental came in response to allegations even at super low amounts by some tenants of exploitation, and we are talking about $100 related to sudden hikes in rental a week back then.” Eventually costs among a slew of other the designated retail spaces more minor issues including were converted into places “loud construction throughout the for additional food stalls. This lunch-break.” The story made

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Shariff Burke

the front page of the Dominion Post, marking another moment of controversy. One stallholder referred to the brothers as “money-hungry.”8 In response, the brothers said that the operating costs are “fair and reasonable.” A social 6 Edwards, enterprise it never Jessy. “Chow brothers hit was — it’s nothing back at claims personal, of unhappy it’s business. tenants at Capital Market.”

Stuff, August 20, 2015.

There might be some fancy pants Wellingtonians who 7 Ibid. scoff at the market 8 Ibid. for not quite living up to its initial billing, and claim that the market is somehow lowbrow. Those criticisms are mere echoes of elitism and neoliberal snootiness; the same approach Voltaire took in his criticisms of Rousseau, his adversary. Regrettably, those same neoliberal impulses mean that tenants pay relatively high rents and have to make up for it through food prices. The market is not as affordable as it should be, which is its biggest letdown and conceptual non-sequitur.

Sure there are other disharmonies within this market, not least last year’s report on rodent infestation, but fret not: orthodox theory tells me that the invisible hand of the market will fix it eventually.

Alexander Herzen said that “modern Western civilisation

Capital C

is a civilisation of a privileged minority,” a “feast of life” where the masses are “uninvited guests” who have to be excluded or suppressed. Perhaps in our globalised world of free flowing capital markets, this is our literal hand-me-down version of a “feast of life” and it would be unwise not to bite the feeding hand.

1.

2.

Where’s Charlie

To put it simply, these guys set the standards for everyone else to follow.

Where’s Charlie have proven there is no limit to interpreting Vietnamese cuisine creatively and with finesse, while also understanding the needs of their patrons. It doesn’t just end with beautiful

Oriental Blues

Meaning cock-a-doodle-doo in Spanish — don’t let the confusing name throw you off. Go through the menu, but wait is this Mexican or Korean? It is actually K-Mex, the successor of Tex-Mex and the newest interpretation of our Mexican favourites. K-Mex can be found in the brightest global cities, which offers proof

Noodle man Producing quality bowls of noodles is no easy task. Countless television shows have romanticised the relationship and reward of noodle making. But beyond the complexity of the noodle making process are the under-prioritised harmonies of the broth and ingredients that go with it. Noodle Man craft their Sichuan noodle bowls, intense in broth and deep in filling, to nourish on a wind-swept grey Wellington day. Starting from a food cart at both the Friday and Saturday night markets, the owners decided to do

4.

Quiquiriqui

The most recent addition to Capital Market, Oriental Blues opened in mid-January and is an exciting addition to the market’s ecosystem. The owners describe their menu as “East-Asian-Fusion” and it’s a categorisation that sticks. The initially confusing, but actually very simple, menu allows for a choice of meats including karaage fried

3.

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For owners Tina and her husband, starting Where’s Charlie was the beginning of a life’s dream. A dream which can only get better as they have just begun operating their second outlet on Lambton Quay, across from the Supreme Court. This new café is an expansion of their current offerings and I am certainly very excited about it.

Consider trying their seasonal specials which are creative explorations of the boundaries of Vietnamese cuisine without haughty tags self proclaiming ‘artisanal’ status. With a menu which clearly marks vegan and gluten free dishes, Where’s Charlie is not about to leave anyone behind — the operational word being ‘inclusive’. Masters of their craft, a must try.

rare beef ph . Lush and substantial salad plates, enough to feed a hungry man I’m told, are filled with pickled carrots and a sprinkling of fried shallots, and did I mention that it comes with grilled lemongrass chicken if you so choose?

The harmony of Vietnamese flavours is truly one of life’s greatest gifts, consider later the satisfaction of the cuisines fresh crunch and bite. Where’s Charlie understands this very well and they have designed a menu that meets the needs of a fortifying clean lunch, yet tastes better than your sinful dinner.

chicken, spicy pork belly, and spiced tofu. These ‘proteins’, as they are referred to, can be placed in any of their main dishes. The highlight of which is the kimchi fried rice; its pale red hue and pointed hum sets the standard for every fried rice dish you’ll try after this. The nori-taco is a seaweed shell taco, with bright freshness and crunch, which when served with your chosen protein, is something worth savouring.

The genial South Korean owners, who have spent time dabbling in Japanese and Western cuisine before this, approach their food with invention. They mix and match flavour profiles like a ‘greatest hit’ album, producing a final product which is so clever, you can’t help but be grateful for their efforts. The fried chicken box and the tempura broccoli with ‘hot glaze’ are perfect snacks to pop, and would be my hot tip. I also want to commend the stylish recyclable packaging which they use for many of their items. that good flavours that match, stick no matter how unlikely.

Quiquiriqui, the quirkiest of names, do fat juicy burritos while straddling delicate flavours. A layer of sweet caramelised kimchi is found bundled up with a choice of meats which include Bulgogi beef and BBQ pork belly, foundational Korean flavours. For those not keen on fat wraps but curious with the flavours, the ‘naked burrito, a burrito without the wrap, is a reliable bet. Perhaps the most popular item here is not a main, but a side. The ‘Jalepeno Poppers’ — crumbed jalapenos stuffed with three types of cheese and then deep fried is rewarding, however when compared to a very similar entree at the Wellington institution Viva México on Left Bank, Quiquiriqui’s rendition falls short, even though they have taken the crumbing to another level. Given that Mexican is a popular cuisine it’s a shame that the veggie options, while available, are limited here.

Reviews

On the list of things to try is the squid noodle-soup bowl; the grilled squid is decidedly perfection in your mouth. All the noodle dishes come with an option of egg noodles or rice noodles, which is ideal for those attempting a gluten-less lifestyle. Beyond that, there exists a selection of glass noodle dishes.

Glass noodles are a recent discovery to me; they taste clean and have a firm texture. As a throwback to their roots, street food classics like ‘Dragon man’ pork dumplings and warm beef Bao buns are excellent snacks. While there exists two vegetarian dishes on their ever expanding menu, I feel like more could be added. Their following can often be spotted sitting close by the shop, slurping down broths, with post-coitus-like satisfaction.

something permanent after gaining many positive reviews and a loyal following. Sichuan is a region in Southwest China that is well known for its cuisine that features a liberal use of garlic, dried Sichuan chilli peppers, and bone broths.

41 Shariff Burke Capital C

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Features

LAMENT UNDER THE LONG WHITE CLOUD Written by Cavaan Kareem Wild TW: This article contains discussion of suicide and drug use.

After eight years I still have questions.

Twelve and thirteen-year olds aren’t equipped to deal with suicide, and I remember sitting in the chapel feeling helpless; dumbly wondering at the magnitude of it all as your mother, father, and brother gave testament to your humanity at the tabernacle. I was grieving, sure, but I had no idea the fuck how to. Surrounded by schoolmates, we all sat trying to process what had happened.

But we didn’t say anything about it.

See I come from a culture where showing any sign of compassion is a weakness, and a town where the trope of certainthings-are-better-left-unsaid gets taken to its self-destructive end-point. I went to an all-boys school. I’m from New Plymouth, Taranaki, specifically. Not that it matters. The tragedy I’m going to recount could be played out in any small provincial town, in any corner of New Zealand, that you wouldn’t know existed unless you’d been there yourself — and even then you can’t figure out why it exists. I’m not going to give any names, primarily out of respect for the families but also because the people I’ll describe could be from anywhere, in any province. Just think for a moment and you’ll find someone.

Following his death, a few students received counselling.

I was not one of them. Not that it mattered; the school’s extension of pastoral care was little more than a lecture and admonishment about the dangers of drugs. “What they were putting in their bodies” were the words used by the deputy principal. Not that I blame him — any hint of kindness would make him appear lesser to his peers. Soft. Not a man. Not worthy to represent the school, the town.

But what were we representing? What do we continue to represent? Regions that, long since cash-strapped by years of heady neoliberal politics drawing all industry to the main centres, are left scrabbling for tourist income or temperamental industry like dairy farming or oil drilling. Sheep, beef, logging — goods taken from our

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Cavaan Kareem Wild

Lament under the long white cloud

land — get sent to large centres with none of the income returning here.

As a young person without any qualifications, a position many of us find ourselves in, making ends meet is nearly impossible. A friend of mine was fortunate enough to secure a 24-hours a week contract, stevedoring at the port. Within a month, he had only worked three days.

Another friend of mine struggled to get a job due to previous convictions and drug abuse. Whilst out with his friends one unemployed afternoon, he shot at a respected member of the community with a paintball gun.

It might have made sense at the time. I don’t know. But as a result, he couldn’t work some days because he had to attend court-ordered rehabilitation. Because of that he was struggling to pay the rent.

We are left desperately singing the praises of depressed towns to the discord of an out of tune piano. Don’t complain or you’ll make a scene. Heaven forbid we draw attention to how much trouble we’re in.

We may not have much, but we have our stoicism. Our “she’ll be right” attitude.

She won’t be right. She hung herself in a garage.

My friend, who died aged 14, was Māori. The Māori youth suicide rate is 2.8 times that of non-Māori youth. Linda Tuhiwai Smith said: “Imperialism frames the indigenous experience. It is part of our story, our version of modernity.” It is not latent, lying beneath the contemporary experience; instead, “imperialism still hurts, still destroys, and is reforming itself constantly.”

In Taranaki, there are plaques to the “brave men who fought against the savages in the Māori trouble” of the 1860s. There are red coat uniforms adorned around the walls of a local church. For Māori, the struggle for recognition as tangata whenua that began in 1860 has never ended.

Following the Land Wars of 1860, vast tracts of land were confiscated from Te Atiawa in an area that became known as the Waitara Block. In 2014, the land was offered back to Te Atiawa at a price of $23 million from their $70 million Treaty settlement. A recent select committee hearing on the 2014 Waitara Lands Bill revealed the layers of institutional exploitation in the Council’s behavior and in the bill itself.

Under the portrait of Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitāke, representatives of Te Atiawa gave testament to how the proposed bill would not work for many leaseholders of the land, would not fulfil the desire of the rightful hapu, Otaraua and Manukorihi, for justice, and that the real winner is the Taranaki Regional Council, who can profit from the freeholding of property that needn’t be reinvested into Waitara. The Council has been collecting millions on leases on the 770 properties in Waitara for 157 years, and now suggests that the iwi can buy back stolen land for a fifth of the original settlement.

Taranaki has a regional and city council that has repeatedly made dubious decisions concerning Māori affairs and has not adequately communicated with hapu, iwi, and the wider community. However in

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September 2014 the Council voted to establish a Māori ward seat, an initiative of the then Mayor, Andrew Judd, to give Māori a representative outside of the pre-existing district allocation. But a subsequent citizens’ initiated referendum voted by 83% to remove the proposal. Judd declined to run for reelection in 2016 following the rejection of the Māori ward seat and a string of Council decisions which cemented the effectiveness of institutional racism. Mr Judd was spat at in a supermarket in front of his children and abused via social media.

Our castigation of our Mayor made the news. Our history of alienation of local Māori did not. One can only hint at barefaced racism in couched tones for so long before the great white elephant in the room has to be addressed. When Andrew Judd attempted to do this, he was effectively shunned from New Plymouth society.

Without discussing it a whole lot, we are doing our best to make Māori feel unwelcome. The natural thing to do when things aren’t going so well seems to be to turn to your neighbour, use them as a yardstick, and reassure yourself that you are more than them. “Sure, we can’t get jobs. But neither can the Māoris.” Things haven’t been going well in the provinces for a long time. Post-colonisation, they’ve been a struggle for Māori.

Fast forward to 2017. Within the last three years I’ve been to the funerals of six of my peers. Drugs and alcohol stood out as a prevalent theme. My friend who died aged 14 was always the one wrecked at parties. The acute ability of alcohol to ruin the lives of the young was always down-played in my youth. Sure you can take a couple beers to a party, just don’t get too messy. But of course it was never just a couple, for any of us. My tolerance for alcohol was higher at 16 than it is now.

I was a latecomer though, teased because I never brought a full box to a party while my mates brought 12, 18, 24-boxes, and attempted to drink it all.

In an attempt to outdo each other, to prove we are the hardest out of everyone, we all started very young. We got off the couch way, way, too early. Before his death, one young man had told his mates that he’d been seeing monsters. I believe him. The combination of unsteady employment, mental health issues, alcohol, and methamphetamine will do that to you. But what else were they supposed to do? Can’t show any weakness.

Weed isn’t that much of a step from alcohol. Anyone who scoffs at the concept of gateway drugs is lying to themselves. In most pills in New Zealand there’s bound to be amphetamines of some sort — you’re kidding yourself if you believe otherwise. Then what’s to stop you cooking? Sure, sounds a bit scary with the “meth” added to the front, but when you’re at a party and a guy runs straight through the gib-stop after smoking out of a lightbulb, it does the same thing.

We aren’t chasing a high to celebrate, let me make that clear.

Rather, it is an ill-fated attempt at self-medication, to escape the dizzying

Features

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Cavaan Kareem Wild

Lament under the long white cloud

lows. You had two days of work this week? Your friends are self-harming and you know it's bad but you daren’t tell anyone ’cause secretly you’re feeling that way yourself ? You had to move back home ’cause you can’t pay the rent? You listened to an MP tell your hapu “the law is an ass,” as if some attempt to commiserate and condescendingly explain why stolen land cannot be returned could assuage years of grief ?

It is as if the weight of over a century’s worth of oppression and exclusion is finally collapsing the collective shoulders of so many of our young people, Māori and Pākehā alike. To them, the only rational solution is to take their own lives. A part of me doesn’t blame them. Why ask for help if you already know the answer? Why bother someone, why cause a fuss, when you can just say, “she’ll be right” and ignore such obvious cries for help instead?

2017 opened with another suicide — a boy who had advocated for opportunities for youth within his town. A friend called it selfish and, while that’s harsh, it’s his opinion. He was once close to the boy — he’s been affected by the death, by each death. The effects of suicide are never isolated, especially amongst large hapu.

As for me, I will never understand why you did it, because I have no understanding of your circumstances — they were your own, and were kept close to your heart. It’s because of this that I have to respect the decision — you judged it was the right thing to do, in the circumstances.

We live in small towns that hardly anyone knows exist and still less people can explain their existence. We drive pedal to the metal, living out our uncertain lives ’til the car breaks down, or we run out of gas, or we lose control of our minds and take our own lives, whichever comes first. We concentrate power in the hands of an unrepresentative few, knowing we may never see the day that what was stolen would be returned. We bury our mokopuna and wake knowing they aren’t coming back. We hold our tongues, fearing no one will listen to us and if they did, chastise us as being weak. We live and die in cacophonic silence in, small, obscure corners of Aotearoa. ***

If you’ve been experiencing depressive thoughts on a regular basis, or are finding yourself experiencing suicidal thoughts or feelings, or just want to talk to someone about your own mental health, then please reach out and get in touch with a professional.

If it’s an emergency please call 111.

Mauri Ora: Kelburn 04 463 5308, Pipitea 04 463 7474, or email student-health@ vuw.ac.nz.

Youthline: 0800 376 633, free text 234, or email talk@ youthline.co.nz Capital & Coast DHB Te Haika / Mental Health Crisis Team: 04 494 9169 or 0800 745 477 (24 hours).

Suicide Crisis Helpline (for those in distress, or know someone who is): 0508 828 865 Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 / www.depression.org.nz

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ARTS

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Poem

RIVER/DUSK the sun’s glitter reflects off the water which pools and whirls into pale pink with purple hues light catches around all the edges of your body i lay back and watch the steam rise from the water the way the smoke ends from a chimney before it drifts into the small century of the sky i keep telling everyone i love someone and it ’s you but i hadn’t thought to tell you this? the earth splits open like rocks the still water turns to a massive waterfall between the shifting of the lithospheric plates and then gone so calmly, you say “look, the earth could swallow us whole” — Jessica Lim

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STATUESQUE ANARCHY The exhibition Statuesque Anarchy opened at Enjoy Gallery on Cuba Street on March 9, marking the first time the prolific FAFSWAG, an LGBTQI+ Pacific arts collective from South Auckland, had a showing in our neck of the woods.

Witch Bitch is a sub-group of FAFSWAG made up of artists Sione Monu, Pati Solomona Tyrell, and Manu Vea. Together with curator Tanu Gago, they performed Statuesque Anarchy as part of Tū whakahīhī e Te Whanganui-ā-Tara 2017.

Statuesque Anarchy is an activation: involving a live performance and a video installation. On Thursday’s opening night, the Witch Bitch trio watched from the staircase above us, with foreboding eyes, as we entered the gallery. Tyrell held a salu, Monu a ili, and Vea a sapelu — all much bigger, more majestic, than their life-size versions. This was their space now.

The artists became aitu. Or was it the other way around? The beauty of this show was that each prop, each chant, each monologue, each costume, straddled the line of humanity and divinity. It was jarring, and rightfully so.

Fa'avae i le Atua Sāmoa. Sāmoa was founded on God. Pre-colonial spirituality in the Pacific was (and still is) often framed as “savagery” while post-colonial/post-conversion spirituality is “enlightenment”. The gender spectrum and fluid sexual orientation have been put firmly in the savage category. Witch Bitch seeks an understanding of the destructive legacy of this framing and, more importantly, move toward decolonisation.

Any real understanding of ourselves and our existing cultures calls for an attempt to understand colonialism and what it did and is still doing to us.

— Albert Wendt, 1978 (Towards A New Oceania).

Saturday night saw a showcase of the wider FAFSWAG collective, featuring work from Monu, Tyrell, Vea, and Gago, as well as the multitalented visual media artist Mahia Jermaine Dean, and the fucking gorgeous Moe Laga, fresh off her TEDx Manukau debut, and other members of the collective.

The showcase started with Tyrell reprising the role of aitu and this time there was a musical accompaniment. Tyrell’s siva was graceful and expressive, with the eyes following the hands as all good siva dancers have been taught to do, and was an early highlight of the showcase.

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Visual Art

The next part of the show was comprised of vignettes from the collective.

Monu’s vignette on the underwhelming adventures on Grindr was juxtaposed by the all-powerful aitu Monu and the intuitive stardust that is Sione. Vea’s poetry was inspired by his grandmother, the great teacher of pettiness, and the formidable Divas of De La Salle. Vea’s charm lay as much in his unassuming candor with the audience as it did with the words of the poems. Dean’s enthralling Takeover of the CBD and Laga’s hilarious and insightful monologues were also highlights of the showcase, as well as Laga’s foray with URBAN THREADS, the coolest coven in the fight against fast fashion and body-policing, giving us the greatest IG bio line in history: “why would I want to be classy when we’re not even in the same class?”

The literal cost of not doing this work is human life.

—Tanu Gago, 2017.

One of the last vignettes shown was a piece by collective member Jaycee. The piece highlighted the systemic discrimination and pervasive violence that trans women of colour face. In Pacific spaces the “performance of femininity” is still widely considered comedic — take the ever-present Aunty Tala character. There is a targeted violence against trans women under the guise of religious or moral concerns, an issue with devastating consequences. FAFSWAG’s work in promoting Pacific LGBTQI+ experiences is important and revolutionary.

For all our sakes, we need to do better. We must do better. Say her name in your thoughts. #MyNameIsJeanine #BeautifulJeanine — Samoa Fa’afafine Association to Samoa Observer, 2016 (“We need to do better, we must do better”).

Statuesque Anarchy was a night of constant highlights and a masterclass in interdisciplinary artistic expression. The vignettes were wonderfully created, the activation gave me goosebumps down my back, the spoken words were enchanting, the voguing was fabulous, and the Aitu Ball sneak peak finale was fire. My heart is full and thankful.

— Salote Cama

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The Sellout — Paul Beatty

I finished the 2016 Man Booker Prize winner The Sellout, by Paul Beatty, for my birthday.

It was both unfamiliar and tasty. Easy to fit on the fork and easy to snack on in one sitting.

The main character and narrator, known only as the “sellout,” is funny and down to earth as he tells his tale of race relations in modern America. The jokes and pop culture references makes him both likeable and enduringly memorable. He is that one friend you’ve known for years.

Beatty uses him to soften the blows of his narrative curve-balls. Many times I raised my eyebrows and announced to my empty bedroom, “what am I reading?” Through short stories and anecdotes, the story becomes clear — the sellout wants to bring segregation back to America.

The floodgates are opened and everyone on the political spectrum receives scathing commentary. Those who ignore racism are dealt with harshly, as well as the left’s tendency to pander to victims of racism for the sake of virtue-signalling.

What fascinated me most was the quote from the Guardian on the front cover: “The most lacerating American satire in years.” Yet Beatty refuses to allow it to be labelled a satire. Sure, it’s comical in parts, but it’s a more thoughtful commentary in a similar vein to C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters. It’s so much easier to take out a message you already know and are comfortable with than to be challenged while reading.

I think the book strives for unity and togetherness between different cultures. Beatty understands that we need a common cause to unite those who have grown up with different backgrounds and values. If you’re a silent class member, exhausted from political conversations, this is still a fun and enjoyable romp with engaging characters and a what’s going to happen next? storyline. Powerful, humbling, and definitely digestible.

— Benjamin Clow

Books

God Help the Child — Toni Morrison

A blue-black baby is born to a mother who’s so scared of her she almost wants to smother her then and there. But she doesn’t, instead she raises her, alone, and makes sure that she’s disciplined, that she’s well-behaved, and knows the way the world works. To ensure, the mother thinks, that she’ll be as safe as she can keep her.

The baby, she’s called Lula Ann but renames herself Bride, grows up and makes a success of her life. She’s got a high-paying job, she’s turned out smoking hot, and she’s got a boyfriend who she doesn’t know anything about, but their sex is insane.

The boyfriend breaks up with her. Then she decides to pay a visit to a woman she knew a long time ago. A woman she helped put in jail as a child. At this point, everything begins to morph and twist and crumble through her blue-black hands. And alongside it, a kind of body horror reversion — why is she suddenly hairless like a small girl again? Why do the earring holes in her pierced ears heal up all of a sudden? What the hell is going on?

Morrison, an African-American novelist with both a Nobel Prize in Literature and Pulitzer Prize to her name, is extraordinary.

She takes these thousand strands of life and weaves them together into something that’s not quite reality, not quite resolved, but very true.

Life is presented as intricately together with pain. But equally, ultimately, together with hope. God Help the Child will lead you to stare at your own skin — whichever colour.

But, of course, it matters what colour in different ways, as what are the burdens we carry with us? From so long ago, from when we were children.

— Kimberley McIvor

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Food

What to do with the tiny amount of leftovers sitting in the fridge?

We’ve all had that problem, right? Sitting in the fridge is a small plate of roast vegetables, takeaway curry, or pasta. But what should you do about it? It’s not big enough for a meal and not even really big enough for a snack, or it’s too big for a snack.

Well, there are heaps of things you can do!

Browsing the shelves of bookshops, libraries, and my own cookbook collection, there are heaps of ways to transform leftovers. But I thought I’d give a few of my own solutions to the problem that I’ve learnt over time.

One I just experimented with recently was couscous, but this was for an entirely different reason — I hadn’t made enough food! I’d roasted up some vegetables — potatoes, kumara, pumpkin, capsicum — but it just didn’t look like enough. Panic sets in: what to do? My first thought was pasta! Let’s have a pasta salad. But then we had pasta last night and the night before that. Our stores are running dangerously low.

And with that, pasta was out. I had a rummage in our pantry, to the containers that we used less often. And aha! Couscous!

Now, couscous gets a bad rap — lots of people think it’s just gross and doesn’t taste nice, but here’s how you can transform it! Generally you cook it in either water or stock. Now, stock can be expensive and if you’re vegetarian or catering for one, you can be limited. That’s when you can use packet soups! Not those cup o’ soups, but the proper ones that make about a litre. My friend’s mother introduced me to this and I’ve never looked back.

Basically you pretend you’re making couscous as normal: boiling water then adding your couscous, but when you’re boiling the water you add the soup mix. Obviously, if you’re making less that a litre and the soup makes a litre, don’t add all of it. Instead save the rest for another soup or future couscous-making endeavour. Then add your couscous and cook as normal (I tend to also add different spices — such as paprika, chili, or different herbs such as rosemary, oregano, etc.). When the couscous is

finished add your vegetables, your cooked meat, and serve hot or cold. Voila!

Another trick I use is pastry. Now, most of us don’t have time to make pastry, but you can always keep frozen sheets in the freezer.

It’s fantastic as they’re flat and thin so don’t take up much space at all. Simply take it out of the freezer, defrost a sheet or two, and then make mini-pastries (empanadas, Cornish pastries), pies, or tarts.

You can make mini-pies/open tarts in a greased muffin tin, large ones in a cake tin (make sure it’s a springform or loose-bottomed tin, so you can get the tart out), or just make a free-form tart on a tray. Just place your fillings in, brush exposed pastry with egg or milk, and bake! An easy way to transform anything — and if you make mini ones you can have them as snacks for lunch/brunch and freeze them. You can do this with pasta or rice dishes too — sounds weird but it tastes good.

These ideas should give you a really good idea of what you can do with unwanted leftovers, so get going and happy cooking!

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MUSIC

Sun Kil Moon — Common as Light and Love are Red Valleys of Blood A staple feature of Kozelek as a man, not just a musician, is that he is unapologetically frank about his thoughts and feelings — regardless of how they can be taken. Over the last three years of mainstream popularity he’s offended more than his fair share of people in the industry, including feminist reviewers, by calling a music journalist a “bitch” who wants to have his babies, and fans of The War On Drugs for telling them to “suck my cock” and then writing a song about it. Some editors have even taken to boycotting his music.

Kozelek’s creative breakthrough Benji, released in 2014, focused entirely on mortality, the fragility of human life, and loss — whether that was friends, distant relatives he never knew, or those he’s never met, such as victims of the mass shootings in Sandy Hook. On first listening to the album, it frequently brought me to tears due to its extreme lyrical honesty. This new spoken word style of songwriting Mark was honing was completely devoid of metaphor and meant to be taken at face value; a far cry from the poetic stylings used previously in Among the Leaves (2012) and Admiral Fell Promises (2010).

Ignoring last year’s releases, the epic 130-minute double album Common as Light and Love feels like the most natural progression of Benji. Kozelek speaks mostly about personal experiences, and songs are filled with digressions about David Bowie, politics, and meeting Owen Wilson at a friend’s place over lunch. If you’re not used to it, Mark’s spoken word storytelling comes across as rambly and without direction, but they are all featured with purpose. In listening closer there are a lot of interconnected themes and stories, which move in and out of his songs like a shifting tide.

For example “Early June Blues” starts about the love for his partner, before moving into how affected he was after the death of Muhammed Ali. The next song “Bergen to Trondheim” is about gun violence in America and stirs up the Ali topic again, turning his two-word poem “Me, We” into the main hook

of the song and an anthem for policy change.

Kozelek does this multiple times over the album and some themes even carried through from Benji, particularly his love of true crime and thoughts on “why is the world simultaneously so beautiful and a pile of shit?”

The musical arrangements on this album are a definite shift from Kozelek’s folk range that long-standing fans will have become so accustomed to, but still within the realms of the experimentation we’ve come to expect. Instead of fingerstyle guitar, music on this album is heavily driven by droning basslines on tracks like “Sarah Lawrence College Song”, or carried by repetitive synth loops and drums like on “Chili Lemon Peanuts”.

Some timing and mid-song style changes take you completely off guard, like the bass and drum beat on “Highway Song” where Kozelek sings about driving to Sacramento, mentioning his love of “old west stuff ” before breaking into quiet fingerpicking guitar and telling an 1851 true crime story.

This album as a whole is an engrossing and challenging amalgamation of varying musical styles and detailed stories. Even at 130 minutes, I felt it only dragged at a couple points — a huge feat by any standards. If you’re unfamiliar with Mark Kozelek, he is undoubtedly one of the greatest living songwriters and most prolific indie/folk guitarists; this album helps to prove it.

— Mathew Watkins

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MUSIC

Pixies: TSB Bank Arena — Friday, March 10

The Pixies, possessors of the finest loud/quiet dynamic in guitar music, purveyors of Dali-esque surrealism and tales of sexual depravity, landed in Wellington on Friday night to seduce the crowd with their dark magic dust.

The band launched into the double whammy of “Gouge Away” and “Wave of Mutilation” with the fury of a band whose power remains undiminished since their formation in Boston 30-odd years ago.

Mass sing-alongs of the calmer and poppier “Here Comes Your Man” and “Where is My Mind?” ensued, demonstrating fans’ affection for their pop hooks. Viewing the whole, mostly middle-aged, mosh pit raging like drunken sailors in a bar fight to more frantic oddities such as “Crackity Jones” and “Vamos” further encapsulated their fans’ joy.

Material from recent release Head Carrier had the quietest crowd engagement throughout, although songs such as “Classic Masher” proved a welcome respite from the intensity of their heavier material (this was, after all, a tour in support of the new album).

The mammoth 30-song set ended with the encore climax of “Into the White”, an especially unsettling number, sung by new bass player Paz Lenchantin, that the band performed invisibly — completely engulfed in a cloud of white smoke illuminated by flashing lights.

This was tantamount to where the charms of the show often lay: the Pixies perform with risk to fully embrace the danger in their music, the operative devil in the details. The Pixies remain a vital force to be reckoned with.

— Louis Reeve

Music & Podcast

PODCAST

Say Why To Drugs

From the medicinal marijuana debate to the increased use of methamphetamine, recreational drugs are at the forefront of New Zealand media. Often these stories are presented to us in a sensationalist manner, with complex issues of addiction reduced to purely law and order. The discussion about drugs from people around us can also be extreme: Your dad: “If you smell marijuana, you’ll end up addicted and in prison and what will I tell your mother then???”

Gross guy at a house party: “Actually, LSD unlocked a new part of my mind. A lot of people don’t know that. I do my best drawings on acid…”

There are so many myths wrapped around drugs that it’s often difficult to find out the facts.

“Say Why To Drugs” is an informative podcast hosted by psychologist Dr Suzi Gage and rapper Scroobius Pip. It takes a neutral stance on recreational drugs, attempting to seek out facts alone. Each episode is around half an hour long and covers a different drug, outlining its origins as well as the harms and benefits of use. The show examines the accuracy of myths surrounding drugs. Gage and Pip are English, and discuss drugs that are especially prolific in the UK. However this show easily translates to a New Zealand audience as domestic issues of law enforcement and legality are not debated.

The presenters have a great dynamic and make the information accessible. Gage discusses the effect of recreational drugs on the human body and summarises the most recent research in a way that is simple and easy to understand.

Pip is her enthusiastic pupil, asking questions and speaking honestly about his past experiences taking recreational drugs.

The scariest theme that persists throughout the podcast is how little is known about many recreational drugs due to difficulties in researching them. In order to discuss any social issue effectively, we need to be adequately informed. Start by informing yourself, and give “Say Why To Drugs” a listen.

Episode to start with: MDMA — Annelise Bos

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Games

EIGHT THINGS I HATE ABOUT CALL OF DUTY I fucking despise the Call of Duty (CoD) series.

Or, rather, I despise what it has become: a symbol of everything wrong with the triple-A gaming industry. For your consideration, I offer a clickbait-style list of why this mind-bogglingly popular series needs to jump off a cliff, or at least take a break for a few years: 1. The core shooting gameplay is, for the most part, unrewarding and does not require as much skill or strategy compared to most other shooters. You just “run and gun” until you reach the end of the level, or when the match ends in multiplayer. Compare that to a round of Counter-Strike, or even Overwatch, and the difference is night and day.

2. All the single-player campaigns from Modern Warfare onwards are “corridor shooters,” offering almost no choice on how you can get from point to point. I like to explore a little when trying out a campaign, and CoD simply won’t let you do that. Single-player campaigns should be more than a series of set pieces linked by a generic action movie story.

3. The series is the definitive “annual franchise” — every November, without fail, there’s a new CoD game. Most of the time they won’t even bother with any sort of innovation, and each game feels far too like its predecessor.

The one time the series was truly innovative was with CoD 4: Modern Warfare, which pretty much defined the seventh generation of console gaming.

4. When they tried again with Advanced Warfare in 2013, they just took the wall-running and jump-pack mechanics from Titanfall — a much superior game which deserves more love. Modern Warfare’s innovations and success led to a massive wave of clones, none of which are interesting in any way. The sole exception is Spec Ops: The Line, a vicious satire of these “modern military shooters” that calls them and the player out for participating in the glorification of war.

5. Despite the series starting out as a PC exclusive, it is clear that the series only has console players in mind. The most recent games use a hybrid system, where if the servers have too much traffic it reverts to peer-to-peer connectivity, making lag more likely. Even with servers there isn’t a server browser; you’ll just be connected to the nearest one. PC gamers don’t like it when concessions like this are made, and I don’t blame them.

6. Whenever I hear the term “CoD fan” a specific image pops in my head: an obnoxious, meat-headed dudebro who is obsessed with the gym, disrespects women, and only plays CoD because he just doesn’t know any better.

Maybe I’m wrong, but this image only serves to make other gamers look bad.

7. Because the series is Activision’s cash cow, they will try and squeeze every drop out of their fanbase. Multiplayer DLC mappacks have been part of CoD for years, even though they typically split the community into haves and have-nots. Every new game has pre-order bonuses and special editions up the wazoo, meaning you need a spreadsheet to figure out which version you want. Recent games have even introduced microtransactions, a very scummy practice considering they are full-priced games.

8. And finally, there’s the bullshit with Modern Warfare Remastered. Not only did Activision hold this game for ransom, only being available to those who purchase a special edition of Infinite Warfare, they are selling the same map-packs as the original version for a higher price and have included microtransactions. This is for a remaster of a nearly ten-year old game! Does Activision hate its customers?

— Cameron Gray

57

Theatre

ON THE DRAMATIC ARTS Free theatre? In Wellington? Tell me more, in around 500 words, for publishing reasons.

Seems a bit specific, but sure: I’m Sean Harbottle, an insufferably British theatre editor for Salient. I’ve reviewed both amateur and professional theatre for student media in Vancouver and in the UK for about a year and a half now.

Theatre editor? So wait, what do you actually do?

Through an arrangement that I don’t fully understand, Salient gets free tickets to theatre in Wellington, for critics (me) to attend and write about. More importantly, if others are interested, they can attend and write it up instead.

But is reviewing really relevant anymore?

And why should people listen to an amateur reviewer, anyway?

When tickets can cost upwards of $25 for cheap seats, you’re making a bet that’s generally quite expensive for students. As in, “I bet that this piece is worth my time and money that could be spent eating $7 lamb roti canai and drinking $8 chardonnay.” Wouldn’t you feel a lot easier about making your bet if there was a student like you, who had already seen it and said “yeah, I’ve seen a few of these shows, and you NEED to see this one” or “nah, give it a miss”?

That sounds cool! One problem though: I can’t write theatre reviews.

Did you see Moonlight?

Of course. I thought it was a brilliant character study with some stirring dialogue. Its depiction of an LGBT+ narrative in Black American suburbia

is even more important considering the rampant whitewashing in Hollywood and the current political shitshow. I liked it!

Did you know it was originally based upon characters, dialogue, and situations from In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, an unpublished play by main writer Tarell Alvin McCraney?

All of what you just said would be great as a theatre review, if Moonlight was staged as a play.

So the same criteria can apply to theatre? I just have to say whether I liked it or not and why?

That’s generally the idea. Obviously it’s a bit more complicated, because there are amazing things about theatre that films/music/ your mate’s amateur art exhibition (where they broke an iPhone and called it anti-social networks) can’t replicate. It’s dangerous: nowhere else are you so close to absolute carnage, whether planned or unplanned. I’ve had Kevin Spacey’s spit on my face from when he was performing as Richard III in London, seen full-frontal male nudity in a dance piece on election night instead of watching Donald Trump gesticulate, and been seduced by Lucy the Slut at Avenue Q. You don’t get that at the Paramount. But you do get to write about it, and get so much better and more confident each time you do.

Okay, I think I’m ready to begin my career as an earnest theatre writer. Where do I start?

My email is harbottlesean@gmail.com. Or, even better, come see me or one of the Salient editors at our office in the Student Union Building. The password is “Death of A Salesman is underrated.”

— Sean Harbottle

58

2017 Alliance Française | French Film Festival Things To Come (L'avenir) (2016)

Director — Mia Hansen-Løve

There is something incredible about European cinema in that, for some reason (I'm not an anthropologist, I don't know what that reason is), it is more than willing to delve into the sadness and stress that occurs in everyday life.

In American cinema, conflict often arises from your usual Oscar-bait story tropes — drug addiction, death in the family, struggling to realise your dreams, etc. But many films coming from Europe (saying Europe sounds strange; mainly France and Germany) seem more willing to admit that to be emotional, and for conflict to arise both before and after that emotion, is simply what it means to be human. Because of this, stories of minimal magnitude can be made riveting by filmmakers and creators who take the basic struggles of life and make them cinematic.

There's no sugar coating, but god the films are sweet anyway. Things To Come contains the basic theme of coming to terms with your own life, and moving forward with it. Isabelle Huppert, fresh off her much celebrated role of Elle (in the film Elle), plays Nathalie, whose life is not so much falling apart as merely changing for the worse. Jaded with the politics of her country and agitated by her eccentric and depressive mother she soldiers on, teaching philosophy at high school.

Her’s is truly a case of a role being as well written as it is performed. While in Hollywood every second scene would have had her bursting into tears and bemoaning the woes of life, Nathalie puts her head down and quietly deals with each scenario as it unfolds. That said, her moments of extraordinary charisma are absolute scene-stealers, and there's a small dash of humour to take the edge off — mostly in the form of an obese cat.

It was a pleasure to watch this film unfold, particularly the contrast of the emotive youth in comparison to the intellectual adults. Elements of film rise and fall with subtlety, something which is echoed in the restrained, thoughtful, and beautiful directing and production.

— Finn Holland

59

Film

Planetarium (2016) Director — Rebecca Zlotowski This one I enjoyed… less so. In a very stylised portrait of Parisian high society in the ‘30s, sisters Laura and Kate Barlow entertain crowds by contacting the spirit realm, and attract the attention of a very wealthy man who wants their gifts to come to life on celluloid.

This is a film about film, but also about a lot of other things. It's about the relationship between the sisters, it's about luxury, it's about the past, and it's a period piece. Sadly none of these elements are underpinned with an engaging story or interesting characters.

When it comes to the central roles (Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Depp being the sisters and Emmanuel Salinger being the man with the movie camera) it's not a question of sympathy; it's merely the fact that you never have any reason to invest in or be entertained by any of the characters’ motives. Salinger comes across well with a hesitant fervour in his search for the supernatural, but neither Portman nor Depp bring much of interest to the table, and the later verges on non-acting in some scenes.

The cinematography is undulating — sometimes beautiful but often over-lit and overly radiant; and the camera work is often close up and handheld in a way that feels constantly out of place. Before I could even think about the characters, I could barely process the choppy footage of simple social exchanges. To its credit, it is a film that tries to do its own thing, and the effort is very clear, but unfortunately it didn't succeed. Potentially moving the focus away from the subject matter to its characters would have been to its benefit.

If there's anything to be learnt from festival films it is that scenario and subject matter are of little importance relative to characters and the narrative, and Planetarium may have gotten a little too carried away with its own subject.

— Finn Holland

Fin.

60

Music

(Frankie Cosmos)

>>Interview with Greta Kline

Frankie Cosmos’ Next Thing (2016) is another testament to Greta Kline’s striking ability to pull from the past, and produce a fun yet emotional series of poetic pop songs. Kline grants her listeners more than a glimpse into some of her most quintessentially “teenage” moments in Next Thing, with retrospective whispers of young love and hurt underpinned by universally endearing melodies. Prior to Frankie Cosmos’ show at Moon last Friday, Salient talked to Greta about the new album, among other things.

>>Some of your songs sound like poems, especially the end of “Young” from Fit Me In. Do you start out with little poems, then go from there?

Yeah often it starts as a poem. The ending of “Young” — I actually remember writing it as a poem first. I think it was part of another poem.

I remember where I was when I was writing it. Then, later, I was like “I’m gonna use these as a weird tail-ending for a song.” But overall, it depends. I think usually when I’m writing a poem, it’s like “this is a poem,” then when I’m writing lyrics, it’s like “these are going to be lyrics.” Sometimes I end up mixing them. >>Next Thing seems an ode to teenhood.

Do you feel nostalgic for your teen years?

I definitely feel I’m still in my teen years, even though I know that I’m not. But I’m definitely, constantly, brought back to those feelings, and feeling very new in the world. I feel I’m still going through a lot of firsts. But I sometimes get nostalgic for the purity, and the openness that I had as a teenager, that I don’t really have now. Sometimes I feel myself getting more closed off, and I try and hold on to the part of me that wants to express every feeling, and the part of me that wants to give love really fully, and not really worry about repercussions. >>Your song “I’m 20” — I listened to it over and over on my birthday.

Oh really? Haha! Cool! >>It felt pretty relevant with the lyrics “I’m 20, washed up already.” Kind of felt like those words were cementing the end of your teenhood, and I really got that feeling too.

Yeah! It’s definitely about a fear y’know — you don’t wanna get old, you don’t wanna get jaded. Getting old is fine as long as you’re getting wiser or something. But I got a little bit scared about watching this band unravel into a business. It’s about worrying your motives about things change, and wanting to hold onto your real motives behind everything. >>So you grew up in New York. Did you find it gave you more opportunities breaking into the scenes or did you find it just as hard making a name for yourself since there’s so many hopefuls?

61

Music

Yeeeah, I don’t know! I mean, just from the perspective of a really young person who’s interested in music, I think being in New York was amazing because there are so many all ages venues, or there were when I was growing up. It was just a really good place to have access to culture as a young person and learn about that. I was involved in the music scene from a young age and so in that way it was a huge benefit to me.

But in terms of making a name for myself?

I wasn’t really ever trying to so I never got disappointed or jaded. Some bands start off and they’re like, “we really wanna be successful!” and so if they play ten shows to zero people they get really bummed out.

For me just playing a show was so exciting that it never really got to the point where I was disillusioned or bummed out, or didn’t wanna keep trying because I wasn’t trying to do anything… I just wanted to keep playing. I basically asked everyone I knew all the time, “Can I play? Can I open every show?” and it just worked somehow… >>Speaking of New York, do you have a favourite spot that you go to and feel inspired, or just a favourite spot in general?

Yeah totally! It’s definitely the Natural History museum. Secretly it’s “pay what you wish” which is basically free, so you can go there every day. I really like the murals of the animals, or the dioramas of the animals. I really like dioramas. >>I really love the song “Young”.The line at the end particularly — “I just wanna be alive that’s it.” What does that mean to you?

I guess it’s just, for me, I can’t even think about making plans for the future or anything because all I’m thinking about is just figuring out how to be a person, everyday, just literally getting out of bed and eating three meals, y’ know. Just taking care of myself a little bit and being a good person, maybe? It’s hard enough to do the simple things, but I think for me that’s what that line is about right now — just trying to get through, just being alive, and then focus on the plan for our band, or any other bigger things to think about. >>Something more light — what was your teen anthem?

I’m gonna say it was probably… like, oh man.

I really liked local bands.

I was listening to No One and Somebodies, and Fiasco, and Old Table, which were these three New York bands. If I’m being honest, the song that has the most listens on my iTunes from that age range was probably “It’s Alright”

by Old Table. Really good song. >>After you go to Japan what are you doing?

We’re going home for a month, and we’re going to try finish our record. Then we’re gonna go on another then tour, American another European tour, then another two American tours, all before the end of this year. Got my year cut out for me… >>That’s intense… you do have your year planned.

It’s crazy to be able to see that far ahead. It’s weird. >>Just please don’t overokay, yourself work because we want you back here…

Haha I’ll try. We got some time off, we’ll be home a little bit.

— Shan non Harri son A full trans cript of this inter view is avail able onlin e — salie nt.or g.nz

62

Puzzles

CROSSWORD: ‘COVER-UPS'

ACROSS

1. Key in the top left, for short (3) 3. Athlete who might use the 'double arm' style to get more distance (4,6) * 8. Holiday where you might wear a sheet with eyeholes (9) 9. Weapon wielded by a stereotypical caveman (4) 10. Arrest, slangily (3) 11. State whose ice hockey team is called the Devils (3,6) * 14. Concludes (4) 15. Odd Future rapper who released the 2015 album "I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside" (4,10) * 22. Dr. Frankenstein's assistant (4) 23. Make more palatable, as a bad idea (5,4) * 26. Director Richie (3) 27. Model-making requirement (4) 28. Look at again (9) 29. It might have a blurb on it (4,6) * 30. It might be kicked or kissed (3)

SUDOKU

Sudoku difficulty: Medium

DOWN

TARGET Make as many words of three letters or more as you can. Each word must contain the letter in the central square.

LAST WEEK'S SOLUTION

Target goals: Good: 7 words Great: 10 words Impressive: 13 words

1. Improve (7) 2. Conflict between the Eastern and Western Blocs (4,3) 3. Unattached (5) 4. Maslow's hierarchy of ____ (psychology theory) (5) 5. She "was a friend of mine", according to a Killers song (5) 6. It's often called 'The Scottish Play' (7) 7. Country named after a geographical line (7) 12. How some vegetables are served (3) 13. H-shaped letter (3) 16. American poet Maya (7) 17. Of the greatest magnitude (7) 18. Aussie bird (3) 19. Lapsang souchong, perhaps (3) 20. Pacific island captured in the 1945 battle 'Operation Detachment' (3,4) 21. Leashes (7) 23. It's where Aleppo is (5) 24. Like 13-Down (5) 25. Prepare some vegetables, perhaps (5)

63

HOROSCOPE ~*~ ~*~

So in spite of all your making out in clubs, and sultry eyes across a tutorial room, you end up home alone wondering why you are/aren’t falling in love. Well don’t worry, it’s not your fault — Venus is in retrograde. This means we reassess old things (i.e. fuck our exes) and shouldn’t start anything new. So embrace your Venus ~*~ The

signs’ lovemaking tunez~*~

Fire: Mario’s “Let me Love You” Earth: Mariah Carey’s “#Beautiful”

Air: Blink 182’s “I Miss You” Water: Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler”

~*~ MEET YOUR HOROSCOPE! ~*~ Aries: March 21–April 19 Venus is retrograding in your sign, so she is really going to be getting to you. Specifically, you can expect new love, but it’s probably not going to be that great or long-lasting. We are sorry.

Libra: Sep 23-Oct 22 Your extra energy this month means you are likely to find love in a sporty kinda place, Libra! So #throwback to the skills you learnt at high school and score a goal (of love).

Taurus: April 20–May 20 You are fertile af, so pop on down to student health (or the bar at Ivy) and get yourself some protection!

Expect to find love in spiritual places, so god bless you all.

Scorpio: Oct 23-Nov 21 It’s your time to shine this week! You’ve got until the 21st to have as much light-hearted (read: kinky) fun as possible, because it gets a bit boring after that.

Gemini: May 21–June 20 Oh god no, if any star sign is going to sleep with an ex it is you guys anyway. Venus retrograde + your open nature = nostalgia for past loves.

Cancer: June 21–July 22 Oh Cancer. This is going to be a month of volatile love for you; we are talking average at best. Since you are so alone, use this time to date yourself. In a cool fun way, not a sad way...

Leo: July 23–August 22 It’s a month of new relationships for you, with either another person or your values. So just ignore that bit at the start where we said you shouldn’t do that, I’m sure yours will work out just fine...

Virgo: Aug 23-Sep 22 Virgo? More like Vir-GO get ‘em tiger. It’s not a time for relationships or love, but it doesn’t matter because you will be too busy getting it on to notice.

Sagittarius: Nov 22-Dec 21 You won’t be making any romantic alliances in the near future so you might as well embrace Venus’ influence and call up some old “friends” for quick booty, because we all know you are too busy for anything else right now/ever.

Capricorn: Dec 22-Jan 21 This month you are more likely to cheat, whether that be on a partner or your values. So avoid ex-lovers, new lovers, Young Nats… we all know you are better than that.

Aquarius: Jan 22- Feb 19 Aquarius, it is time for you to fuck shit up. Venus says it’s time to experiment, whether that be with the same person, or a different one, or no person. Kia kaha.

Pisces: Feb 19-Mar 20 Pisces, now is the time to get with your friend. If you have no friends, then the stars also recommend that you indulge in “sensual healing,” so you go do your sensual thing.

— Aubergine amd Celeste

ROBERT HATTAWAY & SAMUEL FORBES

OUT FREE ENTRY

Adam Art Gallery Victoria University of Wellington, Gate 3 Kelburn Parade Entry beside the Student Union Building adamartgallery.org.nz

BAR

DJs

Friday 24 March, 5.30pm

S ET IT CASH

With

SET IT OUT

ADAM ART GALLERY ° LATE NIGHT