EDITORIAL
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LETTERS & NOTICES
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NEW ZEALAND SIGN LANGUAGE WEEK
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NEWS News Party Line Tweets Of The Week
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FEATURES Ideas Which Evolve The Ankle Bracelet Interview with Mermaidens
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CENTREFOLD
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COLUMNS Token Cripple Ngāi Tauira Ask Sissy VUWSA PSC: One Ocean SWAT The F Word
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POEM
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REVIEWS Art Gig Music Theatre Food
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ENTERTAINMENT Horoscopes Distractions
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HOW DO WE MAKE A DIFFERNCE AT UNI? I’m feeling a bit riled up about uni politics this week. A lot of times, in both society and its subgroups, we’re lost in our rights. We’re left to assume “this is just the way it is” because, well, that’s the only way we’ve known them. And since the people in charge aren’t, like, the most stoked to tell you your rights and how the system can be challenged, you have to go out of your way to do the research. It can feel especially daunting to learn and challenge your rights in the context of uni, a place where you’ll spend 3–6 or so years, before moving on. Besides. It’s not like you came to uni to fuck with its misogynistic hierarchy. Or to fight for student/faculty rights for substantial mental health services. You came to learn, to research, to write and create— these tasks should be the ones that consume your work hours. I’m having a hard time figuring out what we can do to make a difference in our short time here. I got to chat with both of the Lenihan-Ikin siblings this week, on two completely unrelated occasions. I sat in the Mount Street cemetery with Isabella, who currently sits on the University Council. She had some pretty progressive ideas at the start of her two-year term in 2018. In this idealistic world, students and Uni Council would engage in open and interesting debate. But she’s realised that in actuality, this isn’t always possible. Besides, these meetings are full of jargon. And you can only sit in on the first hour or so (why is this so?). Most of the members, though ranging in experience and talent, aren’t on the ground at uni. I wonder how they can really understand the university’s needs. We’re left to rely on our students reps.
reckons it’s more important for students to focus on finding their place in the uni. That’s a beast in itself, right? But I invite you to show up. To give these meetings a try. To look at other unis and challenge our way of doing things. To petition and protest, because that’s how we get heard. The proof? David Clark is walking on campus today to launch a pilot mental health programme. We have four more counsellors. That’s no small feat. If you’re feelin’ keen, here are some ways you might shake up the system in your time at Victoria: Vote. Vote in VUWSA and Uni Council elections. Vote in your club elections. You have the power to create better representation on campus. Attend Uni Council meetings. You can access the agenda to these meetings beforehand, and the minutes thereafter. There’s a meeting today (May 6) in the Alan MacDiarmid Building, Room AM101, Kelburn Campus. Go to consultation meetings. It sucks when the uni holds a consultation meeting and no one shows up. Then uni gets to say “Well no one showed up, so I guess they don’t really care.” Show up. Ask questions. Hold them accountable. Sit in on Exec meetings. Maybe this isn’t the most productive, but who knows, you may learn something. You may get the politician bug. You may make some friends along the way. Write for Salient. A shameless plug. Because we are the ears and voices of this student body, and we want to hold those deep-pockets at the top accountable for the decisions they’re making about and for the uni.
This morning before coming into the office, I had a quick chat with Isabella’s brother, Rory (2017 VUWSA President), at a farm in Newtown. Rather than getting stuck in the politics, he
Kii Small & Taylor Galmiche
FREE FOOD IN WELLINGTON You don’t need to be Roman Catholic, or even religious, to get a feed at the Compassion Soup Kitchen. From 7:45 a.m.–8:45 a.m. at 132 Tory Street, they give out free soup, toast or bread, and a cup of tea/ milo/coffee—normally Havana Supreme! Dinner is 4:45 p.m.–5:45 p.m. and the first meal is free. After that, it’s $2 a meal, or you can get seven meals for $10, or 14 for $20. Meals (main and sometimes a dessert) are offered Monday to Saturday, excluding Sundays and public holidays. Students are more than welcome; no-one will be asked why they’re there.
Send your notices to designer@salient.org.nz
NEW ZEALAND SIGN LANUAGE
At 19 Gordon Place in Newtown, Wellington City Mission/St Thomas’ Church also provides meals for free or very cheap. Soup is offered every day; then on Mondays and Thursdays, you can get a full meal (main and a dessert) for extremely cheap. The last time I ate there, the main was a dollar; the dessert was 50c, and it was 20c for coffee/tea/milo.
New Zealand Sign Language Week is this week (May 6–12). Get involved and be informed!
The Salvation Army's Hope Centre, on the corner of Normanby and Riddiford Streets, again in Newtown, has free bread (and lunch sometimes) from Monday–Friday, depending on what they've had donated from Kaibosh.
THE HUNTER LOUNGE If you sign your coffee order at the Hunter Lounge this week, you'll get a $1 discount!
The Newtown Community & Cultural Centre also does free soup and bread on a Friday, and in winter, Wesley Church (on 75 Taranaki Street) has soup on a Thursday, along with a free concert series. Don't forget, there's also the Free Store—situated right next to St Peter's on Willis. CHRIS RENWICK
FREE SCREENING OF ONE DAY AHEAD—THE MOVIE Come along to view this documentary featuring Victoria University of Wellington’s own Dr John Randal (Associate Dean at Victoria Business School), who, as part of a team riding the Tour de France route, raised funds for the Mental Health Foundation.
SWAT PRESENTS UNI MENTAL HEALTH DAY
After the movie, John will talk about the ride and provide his views on how we can improve student and staff mental health
Head along to the Hub where the Student Wellbeing Awareness Team (SWAT) want to talk to you about what you can do to use your voice to improve the wellbeing of you and your fellow students.
Tuesday, 7 May Noon–1 p.m. Memorial Theatre Foyer, Student Union Building
SWAT is also re-launching their ‘Minds Like Ours’ project with new stories to share on their Facebook page.
BENNY’S BARBERSHOP ON CAMPUS Christchurch's biggest and most unique barber Ben Scott, from Benny's Barber Shop, is making his way to the university for a day of haircuts, styling, and some great yarns.
FELIX THE SCHNOODLE PUPPY IS IN THE BUBBLE
With Professor Marc Wilson as MC, Benny will be at the McLaurin Foyer from 11 a.m.–4 p.m. on Thursday, 9 May, teaching you how to cut your mates’ hair.
Come and meet and play with Felix, the cutest puppy, in the Bubble. He will brighten your day and lift your mood! Tuesday, 7 May 11 a.m.–2 p.m. The Bubble, Level 2, Student Union Building
No need to book—just show up on the day. This event is open to staff and students, and proudly brought to you by Victoria University Staff Wellbeing Group.
sponsored by
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MISCONCEPTIONS: So there’s just one sign language right? Noooo! There are 142! Just like spoken languages, unique sign languages develop in a proximate group of people who communicate together. For example: Northern Ireland uses British Sign Language, while Ireland uses a different sign language that's closer to French Sign Language, which was introduced by Dominican Monks. But why isn’t there just one? Wouldn’t that be easier? Well, why isn’t there just one spoken language? Just like spoken or written languages, sign languages evolve. Even if we did begin with a universal sign language, it would shift over time as new words were needed in different places. These would then become multiple, different sign languages, specific to different groups or regions. But what about a Māori Sign Language? Sign languages are not based off spoken or written languages, so there is no separate Māori sign language. NZSL has its own vocabulary and unique grammar structure. Signs relate to concepts, so the sign for “house” and “whare” are the same. However, unique Māori concepts like “taonga” and “iwi” do have their own NZSL signs.
EVENTS: May 6 Two-hour deaf coffee in the Hunter Lounge—come hang out between 11 a.m.–1 p.m.! May 9 Bake sale in the Hub, 11 a.m.–1 p.m.— order in NZSL and get kai for free! May 6–10 $1 off coffees at the Hunter Lounge if ordered in NZSL (check out our Facebook page for the signs you’ll need to know). May 6–11 New sign posted every day on the VUW NZSL Club Facebook page.
How do you get emotion and tone when you’re just waving your hands around? Sign Language conveys tone and expression visually, rather than aurally (like spoken languages). Expression can be added using facial expression, mouth shape, over- or understated movement, and repetition. Sign languages can even be better at depicting some things than spoken languages are. Have you ever tried to describe a photo and found yourself using way too many words when it’s just a simple picture? With sign language you can literally “paint” the picture in the air as you place different aspects of the image in the space in front of you. But the signs are obviously gestures, it can’t be hard to figure them out! Signs can be iconic or arbitrary, so sometimes they look like what they mean and sometimes they appear to have no connection whatsoever. For example: The NZSL sign for “cat” corresponds to the whiskers on a cat—seems obvious, right? But then we look at the sign for something such as “teacher”, which is a seemingly arbitrary handshape and motion, with no correspondence to a visual representation of a teacher. Lots of love, VUW NZSL Club xx
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RESOURCES TO LEARN: You can take NZSL as a minor at Vic (we recommend x), do night classes in Wellington, or learn online for free at http://learnnzsl.nz! Also check out NZSL dictionary (http:// nzsl.nz), created by Victoria’s own Deaf Studies Research Unit, for illustrations and videos of all the signs you need to know.
ISSUE 8
SALIENT
News. Keen eye for news? send us any tips, leads, or gossip to news@salient.org.nz
CONCERNS AROUND SHORTENING OF EXAM AND MARKING PERIOD EMMA HOUPT A shortened examination period and grade submission deadline this trimester has members of the university community concerned that there will be a negative impact on students and academic staff members.
The deadline shortens the marking period, only giving staff members three working days to mark exams that fall at the end of the period. The last day of exams this trimester is June 29, and all grades must be submitted by July 3.
In 2016, the VUW Academic Board decided to shorten the Trimester 1 2019 examination period and grade entry deadline, in order to extend Trimester 3.
VUWSA is deeply concerned for the welfare of academic staff marking exams, and the impact on students who receive late grades.
VUW Provost Professor Wendy Larner told Salient the aim was to regularise year dates to make each trimester 12 weeks each.
VUWSA brought their concerns to the Faculty Academic Committee on March 26. Associate Deans similarly expressed their concern with their ability to meet grading deadlines.
Exam Period a Week Shorter than in 2018 VUWSA believes that the shortened examination period will put added pressure on students, as there will be less time than usual between exams. The exam period for Trimester 1 this year runs for around two weeks, from June 14 to June 29. Last year, the period was around three weeks, running from June 15 to July 4. VUWSA Student Representation Coordinator Joseph Habgood says the new exam timetable will reduce students’ downtime between exams, and also impact how they can unwind.
Larner said additional resourcing would be put in place if necessary to make sure grade deadlines are met.
“You finish your own exams, and then you have to mark like 60 exam scripts. I don’t know anyone personally who has that kind of stamina or attention span”.
Larner indicated that VUW has tried to ensure that students’ exams are spread out evenly within the timetable so they will not be disadvantaged.
said Larner.
She did not specify what the additional resourcing would include at the time. “Quite what the detail of what resourcing will look like will [vary] a little bit from course to course.” “They are the kind of decisions that Heads of School make. They are in the best place to think about what additional resources might be required to ensure those dates are met,”
Nicki Wilford, VUW Branch Organiser for the Tertiary Education Union, believes academic staff members may not be prepared for the spike in the marking workload.
She acknowledged that the period will require more forethought than there previously might have been among students. “It will require students to be thinking a little bit differently, so the idea that you can do your exam, and then study for the next one, [do another] exam then study for the next one.”
“The period of time between the end of exams and when grades have to be marked is very constrained.“ “It means they will have to be doing nothing but marking for several days to get it in on time," said Wilford.
“We still have the study week prior to the examination period, so rather than taking that as a break, take it as a study period,” said Larner.
VUW Tutor Henry* thinks the grading deadline will have a negative impact on the stress levels of staff who are required to mark, particularly those who are students themselves.
Concerns Three Days to Mark Not Enough Another major concern for VUWSA is the shortened grade entry deadline this trimester.
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“You finish your own exams, and then you have to mark like 60 exam scripts. I don’t know anyone personally who has that kind of stamina or attention span,” said Henry.
Markers In The Dark There have been further frustrations among academic staff members around the lack of communication about the shortened grade entry deadline.
Henry also raised the issue of the grading deadline impacting the quality of marking.
Multiple tutors confirmed with Salient that the university has not formally told them anything about the grade entry deadline change.
“It’s not something you can cram. You are not going to get accurate marks as a student for the work you put in, with this shortened marking period.”
Wilford highlighted the importance of academic institutions announcing changes when they occur.
VUWSA’s Recommendations A VUWSA Memorandum to the Academic Committee on March 21 stated that if “the Trimester 1 2019 grading deadline is not met, students studying in Trimester 2 will be severely adversely affected; most obviously, those enrolled in a paper requiring them to have passed a Trimester 1 paper as a prerequisite.”
“We would expect a general email to all academic staff who are marking, to make it very clear to them about the reduced grade deadline." Larner did not offer an explanation for academic staff members (such as tutors) not being aware of the new deadline. She said that all academic staff should be aware of the changes, since the academic year dates were approved in 2018.
Further, VUWSA was recommended that VUW extend the withdrawal date for papers in Trimester 2.
“That kind of information should cascade down through faculties and schools so that everybody does know.”
According to Habgood, this would ensure that students would not be affected financially if they needed to pull out of papers due to late grades.
VUWSA is expected to continue its work on the issue, hoping to “get messaging out” to students soon.
When asked by Salient about extending the paper withdrawal date, Larner said she did not see it as necessary at this stage.
*Name changed.
“I will be very surprised if we end up in that situation. If there were particular issues around a particular paper, we would be able to deal with those.”
SUPPORT FOR RETURN OF POSTGRAD ALLOWANCE SOPHIE SIMONS In 2013, the government ended postgraduate student allowances. There are now calls being made to reintroduce it.
Larner also commented that the university are “supportive of the students by endorsing our students’ efforts.” She mentioned it was also likely that the matter would be raised with senior government officials.
The cut is considered to have significantly impacted those who struggle to fund their further education.
VUWSA President Tamatha Paul reaffirmed its relationship with PGSA, and told Salient the association “will continue to support them however they believe necessary to achieve this goal.”
As an election campaign promise, Labour vowed to restore the allowance to postgraduate students. However, no progress on the reintroduction has been seen.
She added, “It’s pretty hard to understand why we’d stop supporting students financially because they choose to carry on.”
In response, the VUW Postgraduate Students’ Association (PGSA) organised a protest on the issue. On April 11, the association held a rally on the Parliament lawn to deliver their petition to MP Chlöe Swarbrick.
NZUSA National President James Ranstead reflected back on the efforts made by students: “With 5500 signatures, significant media attention, and a statement from Chlöe Swarbrick that she believes it can be restored this election term, we were incredibly proud of the effort as an organisation.”
To date, the online petition has over 5000 signatures. The university, VUWSA, PGSA, and the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA) have all expressed support for reintroducing the allowance.
Ranstead continued, “We are currently in the process of setting up a meeting with the Minister of Education, and organising a date to speak at a select committee. We are pushing for a commitment that the Minister will restore the Postgraduate Allowance within this current parliamentary term.”
VUW Provost Professor Wendy Larner argued that while this is a “national matter,” the university “supports the reintroduction of a postgraduate student allowance”.
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FAR RIGHT ACTIVITY AT UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND SALIENT STAFF
“I’ve had to face and confront that in my workspace. It’s made me feel very unsafe and uncomfortable, and has made me not want to come to campus ”
Reports have surfaced of increased presence of Far Right activists at the University of Auckland. These students seem to have stemmed from the European Students Association at the university, which has since disbanded amongst allegations of white supremacy.
Rebecca suggested that the university reassess their entire complaints process.
Auckland University PhD student Ti remarked to Salient, “There’s been a slow-building increase in white supremacist presence at the University of Auckland (UoA) for the past two or three years.”
“Other institutions, businesses, universities—as well as research—indicate that this is not how [the university] should handle it, as it only serves to re-victimise individuals,” she said. The university’s current policy on these Far Right beliefs are alleged to be merely a process of minimisation, rather than directly addressing them.
“One of the common experiences of being at UoA’s city campus is, you will see—fairly regularly—white supremacist posters, stickers, and chalk graffiti.” These targeted forms of propaganda often appeal directly to those with farright beliefs, using communication techniques specific to the Far Right. “A lot of the time it might be quite subtle, it might be in coded language, which will directly appeal to other white supremacists, or [in] coded language, directly attacking those most affected by it,” commented Ti.
“There is a real, palpable fear on campus... People don’t want to come to class, because they don’t want to sit in a class in which racist or white supremacist views are espoused, and nothing happens, and it’s just accepted.”
The Auckland University Students Association (AUSA) held a “Hui against Hate and Discrimination” on May 1 to address concerns. “The purpose of this Hui is to hear from any students and staff who wish to share their experiences of bullying, harassment and discrimination,” AUSA stated in a social media post last Wednesday.
“[It is] about hearing from students who have faced or witnessed any kind of prejudice. We all agree to be respectful to others in our contributions and when listening to those contributing.”
The University of Auckland denied the reports of Far Right activity, calling them “utter nonsense”, forcing some students to seek support elsewhere. “There is a real, palpable fear on campus. I know of students who are considering—or have, in fact, dropped out [of] their studies. People don’t want to come to class, because they don’t want to sit in a class in which racist or white supremacist views are espoused, and nothing happens, and it’s just accepted.”
VUWSA commented to Salient on the precautions in place at Victoria, stating, “there’s not a lot we can do at VUWSA except support our diverse community and stand up against racism and white supremacy.” “We encourage Victoria Clubs to implement a plan to deter fascists and other alt right groups from festering within the student community,” said President Tamatha Paul.
“This kind of political ideology is inherently violent,” noted postgraduate student Rebecca*. “In terms of behaviour, these students tend to be very intimidating, threatening, and particularly aggressive to women and minorities.”
One solution seems clear to Paul: “We need to be strong and proactive.” *Name changed.
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POST CABINET PRESS CONFERENCE: CENSUS PROBLEMS TO BE RESOLVED THOMAS CAMPBELL Jacinda Ardern has announced pre-budget funding to fix statistical holes in the Census data collated last year.
In the move, National had cut 5% of total operating costs to Stats NZ, a move that James Shaw said incited mistrust in the department from New Zealanders.
In her Post Cabinet Press Conference last Monday, Ardern acknowledged the need for government funding to be allocated to fixing these issues, so that there is no repeat in future censuses. “Picking up the pieces has come at a cost,” she said.
“New Zealanders need statistics that they can trust, and we know that New Zealanders do trust the professionalism and independence of Stats NZ. That trust and independence has been under unreasonable attack from the National Opposition.”
The government has pledged to grant $6 million to aid Statistics NZ to make up the shortfall, with Ardern confirming that a further $10 million will be given to help mitigate any problems that the department may face during the planning of the upcoming Census in 2023.
The same morning, Statistics NZ said that the department only has accurate data for 4.7 million people in New Zealand. As a result, they have had to collate data from other government departments to fill in the gaps.
Minister of Statistics James Shaw, along with Ardern, cited the previous National-led government’s decision to move to an online census as one of the contributing problems.
Chief Government Statistician Liz MacPherson also stated that the 2023 census cannot be conducted successfully if the government uses the same data-gathering processes as imposed by the previous government. Stats NZ is expected to release Census data in its entirety in mid-2020.
JUNIOR DOCTORS’ FOURTH AND LARGEST STRIKE THIS YEAR KAT BUISSINK The RDA views the proposal as a significant rollback of the rights of junior doctors.
Junior doctors have just finished a five-day strike which lasted from Monday, 29 April to Saturday, 4 May and took place across New Zealand, excluding Christchurch.
In an interview with RNZ, Dr James Anderson, an RDA executive member, said, “the DHBs are insisting on taking away protections in our contract and taking away our rights to come to agreement about how we work, where we work and when we work.”
This was the fourth and longest strike this year for the New Zealand Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA), which represents over 3000 junior and resident doctors.
Dr Peter Bramley, spokesperson for the DHBs, said he was disappointed that the strike went ahead, given that the DHBs had been supportive of union requests for arbitration.
To ensure that vital hospital services were not affected, junior doctors assigned to these departments did not participate in the strike. Neither did Christchurch doctors, as the hospital is still treating victims of the Al Noor and Linwood Mosque Shootings.
"We find it hard to understand why the strike is still going ahead when it's been given a route to settlement."
Mauri Ora and Te Taunaki services at VUW were not affected, as the staff are directly employed by the university, rather than a district health board (DHB).
The RDA have affirmed their stance that the strike was “necessary” to maintain pressure on the DHBs before arbitration negotiations started.
The wave of strikes stem from NZ’s twenty DHBs failing to come to an agreement with the RDA over contract changes.
David Munro, Senior Advocate for the RDA, told Salient that “the DHBs showed no willingness or enthusiasm” to sit down for talks, “and have used a variety of stalling tactics” in the negotiation process.
DHBs want to have full control over working arrangements for junior doctors in their regions: how many hours they work, what days they work, maximum consecutive working days, and the working conditions in hospitals. Currently, these are decided jointly by DHBs and the RDA.
The two parties are scheduled to begin these negotiations this week.
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HOW IT WORKS: LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN WELLINGTON TERI O’NEILL Local government controls a lot of massive stuff. A common misconception is that they only run the library and our rubbish collection, but there’s heaps more to it than that. Our council(s) have huge stakes in climate change, our mental health system, sexual health prevention services, managing homelessness, controlling how many goats you’re allowed to keep as pets, and what time the liquor stores can stay open until. Local government (a.k.a. local authorities) is a decentralised form of government that manages community-specific issues. Currently, however, there is a serious democratic deficit in the ways that local body politics typically engage and work within our communities.
Regional Councils (e.g. Greater Wellington Regional Council)
The main responsibility of a regional council is to manage environmental, resource, and transport planning issues for the whole region. (A region may include a number of territorial authorities.) For example: Transport, water supply, pollution control, land management, regional parks and forests, harbours, flood protection, environment, and biosecurity. District health boards (e.g. CCDHB) These boards are responsible for the oversight of health and disability services within their communities. They are responsible for issues like funding mental health systems, and local GPs’ community care.
There are three different types of local government elections to vote in on election day: the Wellington City Council, the Greater Wellington Regional Council, and the Capital and "WCC is made up of just over Coast District Health Board. Each 1300 employees, including 15 has different responsibilities and City Councillors, plus ya mayor cover different areas—though Justin Lester. The Councillors are don’t supersede each other.
your representatives across five
Local vs Central Government Local government is separate from central government (the Beehive). However, in some instances, specific statutes may establish responsibility or accountability relationships between local authorities and central government.
Territorial authorities wards in the city. In addition, (e.g. Wellington City Council) we’ve got two local boards: Tawa There are two types of territorial Community Board and Makara/ Why should we give a shit? authorities: City councils represent Ohariu Community Board." You pay rates (basically local taxes). a population of more than 50,000 Homeowners front the brunt of it, but people that are predominantly if you’re renting, some of what you pay the landlord will end urban-based. District councils have a smaller but more widely up going to the big yellow Wellington City Council building. dispersed population. User fees, service fees, and parking fees all also contribute to What they cover: Water supply, city safety, roading and public the city councils. transport, solid waste collection and disposal, the avoidance and mitigation of natural hazards, regulatory services, Unfortunately, only 44% of us (18- to 24-year-olds) voted in libraries, museums, reserves, recreational facilities, and other the 2016 local elections. And, honestly, our response is entirely rational within a system that does everything to resist local community infrastructure. democratic expressions. We do have some people working WCC is made up of just over 1300 employees, including 15 to change this stuff though—campaigns like ‘Save Fountown’, City Councillors, plus ya mayor Justin Lester. The Councillors #DontGuessTheYes and Fairer Fares have all worked to are your representatives across five wards in the city. In influence local government. addition, we’ve got two local boards: Tawa Community Board If you’re 18 years old by October 12, you can vote. At any age, and Makara/Ohariu Community Board. though, you can submit on councils’ plans, and attend or speak at meetings.
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Opinion. LEGALISING ABORTION IS STILL BEST OPTION, EVEN FOR PRO-LIFERS LILY MCELHONE I don’t know how to convince anyone to be okay with abortion. If someone fundamentally believes that a foetus is a valuable, valid human life, I don’t know if my feminist rhetoric will change their mind. For my feminism to be truly intersectional, I have to understand that many cultures and belief systems view foetuses as undeniably human. That being said, I don’t believe this to be a sufficient argument against access to abortion. If saving lives is truly the aim of pro-life activists, banning abortion shouldn’t be their modus operandi. This is largely because banning abortion doesn’t stop it from happening. It only makes it traumatic, unsafe, and expensive to access. A 2007 study conducted by the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organisation showed that restrictive abortion laws don’t correlate with a decrease in abortion rates. The researchers also noted that illegal abortions are considerably more likely to be unregulated and unsafe. Additionally, it’s interesting to point out that the study showed that the incidence of abortion decreased significantly in regions where contraceptives were readily available. The mortality rate from unsafe abortions globally sits at around 70,000 deaths per year, according to a study published in the British Medical Bulletin. The aforementioned Guttmacher Institute/WHO study demonstrated that up to seven million people survive unsafe abortions, but sustain long-term damage or disease as a result. An article published in the Journal of Injury and Violence Research discusses at length the link between unwanted pregnancy and suicide, and provides lack of access to abortion as a leading cause. Where abortion is illegal, not only do the numbers of abortions stay the same, but lives are put at great risk.
women in Senegal were convicted of infanticide. While this evidence is largely anecdotal, it reflects a strong global trend of people choosing to kill their newborns because they were unable to terminate their unwanted pregnancies. I’m not here to convince anyone to be comfortable with abortion. I don’t believe I, or any other pro-choice activist, is able to. What I do believe to be possible, however, is to convince people that safe, free, and legal access to abortion services is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, we marginalise people who are already in a difficult and often traumatic position, and put their safety at risk without even lowering the number of terminations performed. If you truly believe in a world without abortion, I’d encourage you to set up comprehensive and realistic (ie. not abstinence-focussed) sex education programmes in your community—teach people what contraceptive options are available to them and how they can be accessed. Or assist in the development of a side effect-free contraceptive. If the wellbeing of babies is so important to you, help with the effort to decrease Aotearoa’s high family violence rates, donate to initiatives that equip new parents with the knowledge and resources needed to keep their babies healthy, or adopt a child whose parents are unable to raise them. Sedgh, Gilda, et al. “Induced Abortion: Estimated Rates and Trends Worldwide” The Lancet, vol. 370, no. 9595, 2007, pp. 625-632. Grimes, David A. “Unsafe abortion: the Silent Scourge” British Medical Bulletin, vol. 67, no 1, 2003, pp. 99-113. Gentile, Salvatore. “Suicidal Mothers” Journal of Injury & Violence Research, vol. 3, no. 2, 2011, pp. 90-7.
Many nations have high rates of infanticide for the same reason as the deaths of pregnant people resulting from a lack of access to abortion services, many nations have high rates of infanticide for the same reason. In an article published last year in the The Lancet, stories are told of Senegalese women murdering their unwanted babies. 20% of all incarcerated
Lee, Amy. “Access to Family Planning in Senegal” The Lancet, vol. 391, no. 10124, 2018, pp. 923-924.
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PROBING THE PUNTERS GETTING TO KNOW THE STUDENT POPULATION
1
First thing that comes to mind when you hear Salient?
2
Who is David Clark?
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How do you reckon you’ll die?
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How would you want to die?
3
Best thing you got up to over the break?
ARTURO, 22, BMUS
BIGGIE, 3 MONTHS, IS A DOG
1. “Sasha.”
1. “Woof.”
2. I don't know.
2. Woof.
3. I don't remember the break.
3. Woof.
4. Euthenasia.
4. Woof.
5. Euthenasia.
5. Woof.
SAVANNAH, 20, BA
ETELINI, 19, BA
1. “University magazine.”
1. “Salient.”
2. Potentially like, oh fuck, like a politician?
2. No.
3. Caught the rat in my house.
3. Sleep.
4. Of something stupid.
4. In a car crash.
5. Of old age.
5. In my sleep, painless.
HAMISH (LEFT), 20, LLB/BSCI
LIAM (RIGHT), 20, BA
1. “Safe sex.” 2. Wasn’t he the PM?
1. “Magazine.”
3. Round 28 in Zombies.
3. Day out at Waiheke.
4. Car accident.
4. Old age. 5. An overdose of morphine might be good.
2. Something to do with Labour?
5. Random head explosion.
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THE PARTY LINE "It's very rare for every member of a political party to agree on every policy, all the time. What is a policy your party has, which your wing finds concerning? Should it be removed or altered?"
CORNER OF SHAME Greens@Vic
Act on Campus Wellington
The Budget Responsibility Rules is a fiscal policy the Green party committed to with Labour for the 2017 election, to maintain the level of government spending to a similar level as the previous National government. The result of these self-imposed fiscal handcuffs is a complete lack of spending on fixing child poverty, the housing crisis and climate change – the very things our party said the BRR would help fix. We urge the government to be the government of change like it promised and invest in its people and its future instead of maintaining the status quo.
We think ACT has been too slow in adopting real policy on the legislation of marijuana. Our party has always believed in the idea of personal responsibility, that one should be free to choose how to live their own life. So the fact we haven’t come out in full support for legislation is disappointing, especially as other parties are now controlling the conversation and taking it in the wrong direction. As a youth wing we have always supported the idea and we hope the rest of the party will catch up soon.
>:( VicNats
VicLabour [No Reply]
TOP on Campus
[No Reply]
Young New Zealand First
[No Reply]
[No Reply]
Q&A WITH WELLINGTON CITY COUNCIL BEN ESPINER On Tuesday, 30 April, Wellington City Council members held a live Q Councillor Nicola Young said “engagement isn’t working” and believes it and A ahead of the Annual Plan review. A number of important issues is better for the council to make decisions than “convince the public that arose. we’re doing the right thing.” Waste Management Calvert agreed, stating the council “runs the risk of consultation Storm water was revealed as a high priority, after one resident drew overload”, particularly concerning the Annual Plan, carbon emissions, attention to drains blocked with rubbish. and growth planning. Councillor Sarah Free said “We’ve just finished a $3.8 million upgrade Kilbirnie Liquor Ban to storm water pipes in Kilbirnie,” insisting that further investments are Some residents questioned the liquor ban in Kilbirnie, following on their way. complaints directed at the homeless. Councillor Diane Calvert suggested that, “while the council needs to Councillor Brian Dawson drew attention to a “proactive plan to ensure play their part, individual citizens have a personal responsibility in those on the streets in Kilbirnie have access to the services they need.” keeping our waterways clear.” Pannett shared resident concern, agreeing that the ban “only moves Funding problems around.” Funding and investment proved a popular topic. Councillor Iona Pannett believes “most of [the] budget should go to resilience” and Earthquake-Prone Buildings cited the proposed airport runway extension as a project that should be Buildings deemed unsafe following the Kaikōura earthquake in 2016 “shelved” to make way for other priorities. have remained a focus. Calvert suggested there are “never enough funds”, but believes the Pannett said there was a proposal for an injection of $500,000 to be council has “balanced a number of competing priorities.” given to owners of heritage buildings, as well as owners of non-heritage buildings weakened by the earthquake. Consultation One resident quizzed the council on their plan for consultation However, Councillor James Sullivan criticised the heritage laws: “We are processes. trying to protect so much that we lose the ability to regenerate areas.”
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ISSUE 8
SALIENT
Interview. MONDAY 6 MAY 2019
INTERVIEW WITH CHLÖE SWARBRICK REID WICKS
WHAT IS PIKI, IN YOUR WORDS?
WHAT DOES THE BIGGER PICTURE LOOK LIKE?
It is a pilot project for 18- to 25-year-olds in providing a range of different ways they can access mental health services. It ranges from peer support programs, through to an app, through to higher-level counselling. It's currently in Porirua, but it will be rolled out through the Greater Wellington region.
The bigger picture, as far as I'm concerned, is actually delivering free and timely mental health services for everybody in this country under the age of 25. This is an actionable deliverable. That’s the first step towards getting there.
WHAT'S YOUR PART IN IT?
YOU'VE GOT QUITE A FEW PORTFOLIOS. HOW DO THOSE INTERSECT WITH YOUR WORK IN MENTAL HEALTH?
I am the Greens mental health spokesperson. And, I guess by virtue of talking about my history of mental health, I’ve become quite a vocal advocate for these services. My role in the day-to-day delivery and the government side of things is working actively with the Government Minister for Health (who holds the portfolio for mental health), which is Dr David Clark, but also actively working with Associate Minister and Green MP Julie Anne Genter.
I've also got open and accessible governance, local government education, and drug law reform, alongside small business, and a few others. I spoke in my maiden speech about how I think the mental health crisis is the pointy end of decades of austerity. It's the pointy end of an economic system and a society that individualises and isolates and traumatises people.
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I think we're never actually going to solve that mental health crisis, unless we look into the systemic reasons as to why so many people are presenting with mental ill health. Mental health services are really critical for servicing people who are currently suffering with mental ill health. But I think we need to investigate why so many people are beginning to present with those issues. If you look at the overwhelming contemporary evidence and research that's coming out—even if you have an underlying biological susceptibility towards mental ill health or abuse or dependency—those kinds of underlying factors can be exacerbated or minimised by your environmental surroundings.
I think the only practical hurdle will be about the realities of looking at, for example, what we've seen with the gambling model with regard to lotteries. There is a perverse incentive where communities who are torn apart by issues as a result of gambling are the same communities that rely on funding for the arts and cultural programs. That is where I think there needs to be some real serious research and evidence undertaken.
IF THIS IS SOMETHING PEOPLE REALLY CARE ABOUT, WHAT CAN THEY DO PERSONALLY TO MAKE A CHANGE?
For me: human connection, community, and belonging are the When I say environment, it's not just greenery—it’s whether really critical things. I speak quite frequently about Zoe Palmer you are living in poverty, or in a state of hopelessness, whether (19) who's an incredible campaigner from Nelson. She was trying to save a mental health service you are living in connection with for children and adolescents at the other people, whether you are living in security or precariousness. Whether you "I THINK PEER SUPPORTERS ARE top of the South, and in doing so, was feel like you have a meaningful job and THE MENTAL HEALTH WORKERS speaking about her own experiences are contributing to the world, or just OF TOMORROW. THERE'S THAT with mental health issues. She was going paycheck to paycheck and trying SENSE OF EMPATHY THAT YOU told by the “officials” and the “adults” to figure it all out... Whether you have a DON'T NECESSARILY GET WHEN that she was prejudicing her future sense of identity and self-worth—all of YOU ARE TRYING TO ACCESS by speaking about her mental health those kinds of things. HELP FOR THE FIRST TIME, AND issues, and I think that perfectly YOU WALK INTO A WHITE ROOM characterises the issue we have right That's where I think it intersects with my AND ARE ASKED TO SIT IN A now: We're telling young people that they have to speak out when they feel other portfolios like education, and open LEATHER CHAIR. " like they're experiencing issues. But and accessible government. on the other hand, we’re telling them that they are going to be punished for doing so, by prejudicing YOU'RE ALSO THE DRUGS SPOKESPERSON. YOU'VE their future. So I think we have to really reconcile with that MENTIONED MENTAL HEALTH IN RELATION TO cognitive dissonance.
DRUGS IN TERMS OF LIKE WHERE TAX MONEY FROM LEGAL WEED MIGHT GO.
That's a very light discussion which is on the table. I do prefer to keep them separate because when you start talking about mental health outcomes and then you talk about—for example—the cannabis referendum, there is often an attempt to say that you can't hold both of those two things in tandem. But I do hold them in tandem, because at the end of the day, the people I know who have experienced adverse outcomes as a result of consuming cannabis have done so in an illicit market and they have done so because they haven't known the doses or what they're consuming. They haven't been able to access help for fear of being prosecuted. They haven't necessarily known what's happening with them, because they've been educated in that way. And a whole raft those mental health services haven't been there. When you talk about legalising, what I'm actually talking about is regulation and control—the exact opposite of liberalisation and access. When you talk about regulating and controlling, you then have a model that can tax that substance. When you are taxing something, you can ring fence a portion of that tax to provide for mental health services. I'm absolutely open to that discussion.
To me, it means active cultural change. If anybody is genuinely wanting to participate in change, it looks like reaching out to other people when they look like they aren’t having a good enough time—when you're asking people how they are, genuinely trying to spend those 30 seconds actually checking in. Because it allows you the opportunity to really reflect and to reach out if you need help, and to be there to support someone if they need it, too.
FURTHER COMMENTS: One thing I'm most excited about when it comes to the Piki model—and where I think it is quite different to other attempts at creating mental health services for young people—is the potential of the peer support program. I think peer supporters are the mental health workers of tomorrow. There's that sense of empathy that you don't necessarily get when you are trying to access help for the first time, and you walk into a white room and are asked to sit in a leather chair. Not only is that process super expensive and super inaccessible—it's just it's not going to work for everybody. Having the opportunity to talk to somebody who has grown up in largely the same context as you, I think there is a greater opportunity to engage and figure out where your head’s at.
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During the Parliament slushies outburst, Bridges directly targeted Labour MP Grant Robertson, wailing “GRANT ROBERTSON DRANK THEM ALL” across the floor. Robertson told Salient that the attack came as a result of him rejecting Bridges’ request via internal communications to call him his “little”.
*
It’s currently unclear how effective Bridges’ bid will be, but this no doubt explains the National Party’s recent party strategy. “There’s no bigger turn-on than shitting yourself in public,” Bridges told Salient.
I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST MEME (N OT) J OH N N Y O'H AGAN B R E B N E R
SIMON BRIDGES COMES OUT AS ADULT BABY
I could blame my law test for forgetting to assign writers for Shit News this week. I could even blame my medication, or general malaise.
M ADAM E M O IS T URE
Confirming the general public’s long-standing suspicions, National Party Leader Simon Bridges has opened up about his Adult Baby fetish.
Instead, I must be honest and admit I just plain forgot. As penance, I have made this meme. It’s not particularly good and I expect to get dragged for it. However, the shame from a bad meme is all that can absolve me of this failure.
Bridges said in a press conference yesterday that the Adult Baby Diaper Lover (ABDL) community is “largely underresearched and misunderstood” in New Zealand, and that his recent transparency on his own tendencies is a bid to destigmatise the lifestyle.
Behold my sin:
“Everyone wants to be taken care of. Adult Babies just feel a stronger desire for coddling than most people. Taking a huge shit and getting the Labour Party to clean it up, that’s the Kiwi way.” Some commentators have raised suspicions that the announcement is an attempt to appeal to new voters as the Leader drops in the polls and murmurs circle about a Judith Collins-lead coup. These predictions have failed have to become mainstream yet, as no one's really under the impression that Judith Collins wouldn’t absolutely annihilate a small child just for the fun of it, anyway. Bridges’ preference came to light last week, after he stood up in Parliament yelling “SLUSHIES” over and over again in the manner of a hungry toddler who’d just woken up from a nap. Inside sources confirm Bridges calmed down after Deputy Party Leader Paula Bennett fixed him a cup of warm milk and found him a train set to play with. Rumours of Bridges’ predilection started circulating last year, when government interns noticed that hundreds of dollars’ worth of baby paraphernalia never made it from his office to baby Neve.
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“i'm just.. tired of the same arguments against lgbt characters. when i'm in charge of the mcu EVERYONE will be gay. you can't stop me bitches.” - @canonavengers
“Doctor Strange said he looked at 14 million possible outcomes and they only win in ONE??? Like, okay, but there had to have been at least ONE OTHER POSSIBLE UNIVERSE where they win the exact same way but Hawkeye didn't get that weird haircut” - @DanaSchwartzzz
I S I T M E OR D I D I T J U ST GET HOT I N HE R E ? ; )
“tfw u r ugly and lacking motivation but still have to go into meetings like “WOMAN VERY CONFIDENT POWERFUL MONEY LADY YES ALWAYS EAT MEN FOR SNACK RAR” *beats chest like gorilla*” - @friesfanclub
COL L ATED BY EM M A M AGUIRE
@em_ma_maguire
“one exciting thing about working at a movie theatre is that I can tear up at the endgame credits at least four times a day like some kind of disgusting fan!” - @em_ma_maguire
“*I sidle up to u, and employ the 'world's sexiest accent* Awww hohoho chuuuuuuur, u look pretty skuxx cuz, upto???
“I don’t understand why everyone is so up in arms about Sonic’s extremely human teeth. This means we might get a scene where he brushes them. This is what we’ve been waiting for. Maybe a scene where Sonic goes to the dentist and the dentist says “Very healthy human teeth, Sonic!”” - @mynameisntdave
Wana root bro it'll be mint!!! *U die of sexiness overload* ~fin~” - @BannedBtchBants “Sure, you say the sexiest accent in the world is the New Zealand accent but the accent that really gets me hot is 'North Shore Afrikaaner who is angry because a fence is a bit on his property'” - @AceMcWicked
“I’ve never ever ever considered watching breakfast tv before, but John Campbell is my secret boyfriend.” - @DawgBelly
“I don’t know about you but I agree that NZ accents are the sexiest. Who doesn’t get wet af hearing Simon Bridges talk about wrapping lips around delicious slushies?” - @CentralCommiTi
“One of the fun parts about not watching Game Of Thrones but having a spouse who does is walking in the room during what seems like a pivotal moment and asking "Where is the dog leash?" They really don't like that!” - @MissLeslieG
“He's not hot he's just in the same room as you” - @johagenbrebner
“the only ‘game of thrones’ I’m playing is having to find the nearest ‘throne’. that’s right folks let’s have some IBS visibility” - @LucyXIV “you’re not a socialist unless you would fuck or at least do third base with a train” - @_jorts_
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Features
reveals about the world. This isn’t the case for everyone. I’ve learned a lot about logic, rationality, and faith in the last few weeks, and how it leads people to diverse conclusions.
“Sometimes I’d look at a monkey or something and be like ‘hey, they do kind of look like humans’” “Then I’d think… I’ve learned all these other things, which mean that for me, that can’t be true.”
This ranges from those who think that if God created the universe, God could have created evolution to fill it; those who believe that evolution happened, or could happen for micro-organisms or plants (but not animals and people); those who believe that evolution in general could have happened, but not in the case of humans (who were specially created by God); and those, like Alex, who straightout reject the notion of evolution.
Alex is a creationist. He believes in a young earth—that is, that the Bible encompasses all of time, which would mean that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. Alex studies software engineering, and is hesitant to speak openly about his beliefs. “It’s becoming less acceptable to even mention anything else apart from evolution.” If certain classmates knew what he really believed, he reckons he’d be “ridiculed.”
All of these views developed out of, and in reaction to, the teachings of both faith and science. In this way, evolution is an effective flashpoint for examining the broader implications of how faith and science interact.
So, did we come from monkeys? On the Origin of Species was published 160 years ago, and although Darwinian principles have been thoroughly accepted into the biological sciences, there’s a whole spectrum of responses among people of faith.
According to Say It, an online research panel run by a survey company, 45% of New Zealanders believe in evolution unreservedly, 23% believe in creationism, 26% believe in evolution guided by God, and 6% are unsure. Creationists—and believers in general—are closer than you might think.
Until the conversations leading up to this article, I had forgotten that not all of us take evolution for granted. Though I’m a Christian, I, like many creationists, love learning about science and the intricacies it
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Ideas Which Evolve Geoff Chambers, an Alumnus Scholar at Vic’s School of Biological Sciences, reminds me, repeatedly, that to be against evolution is “not really a very rational position”. He is fine with people having a faith and has taught many people of faith. But where they intersect, things get messy. “There is no dialogue between science and religion because science cannot deal with the ideas of religion; it can't comment on it.” Matthias Loong, a staff worker at Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship (TSCF), a nation-wide non-denominational association of Christian students, has degrees in both Physics and Theology. As we speak, he asks lots of rhetorical questions. It seems to be his way of understanding the world. “How can you use one system to disprove another?” he asks of the neo-athiests (like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins), who assiduously emphasise how science disproves God. But Loong isn’t out to get into ideological arguments; he’s happy to meet people where they’re at. “Am I happy for Young Earth Creationists to hold their position? Of course. Do I doubt that God could create everything as exactly outlined in Genesis 1 and 2? No, if he wanted to he could have.” However, he personally is “comfortable with God being intimately involved in that process [of evolution].” But there’s an important distinction: “Evolution is a scientific hypothesis. If you elevate it to worldview status, that is dangerous.”—a.k.a., evolution explains part of the world, but is not a replacement for wonder and respect in a Creator. For people of faith who accept evolution, or at least part of evolution, this is a crucial point. Mohammed Alshaboti, who is a computer networking postgrad from Yemen and a Muslim, tells me that, “If I believe that everything is random and [those who are] stronger should evolve and the other [people] should be neglected, it goes against […] human nature.” If evolution is the governing principle, with the ‘survival of the fittest’ becoming an ideology as well as a mechanism, why would anyone be kind or generous? This is a question larger than evolution. I don’t have answers for him—but it seems to me that it takes courage to be an atheist, too; to do good and seek wonder without a bigger framework of motivation and explanation. Most atheists aren’t killing the weak in society to make the human race stronger—those people are called eugenicists, and are largely condemned by the modern world. In conversations about evolution, the question of worldview often comes up. Alex shows me an illustration in a book he has called “The Ultimate Proof of Creation”, which claims to teach its readers how to defend creation from evolutionists. In the book, there’s an illustration of two people wearing glasses: one wears ‘evolution glasses’ and one wears ‘Bible glasses’. These glasses affect their ability to understand the world; everything is a little distorted. “[Evolutionists and Creationists] are looking at the same facts,” Alex tells me. “Some things are inherent, like the beauty of the night sky [and] with the specifics of how things happened, it still has to be
informed by those amazing wonderful facts.” He understands where evolutionists are coming from, even if they are spreading a “false doctrine” which attempts to remove God from the narrative. It’s easy to think of faith and science as opposites, but Loong says that that’s a trap. The enshrining of curiosity, exploration, and certainty in the Bible itself makes him “confident” that he can “hold both science and faith, hold hands with them.” Mohammed echoes this view. He feels that the Qu’ran calls him to learn more about the world, and that “it’s a sort of worshipping”. Eva Nisa, a Religious Studies lecturer who specialises in Islam, says that as Islam doesn’t have hierarchical systems in the same way as the Christian church, there is no definitive stance on evolution within Islam. Evolution took a long time to permeate the Islamic world; there wasn’t a full translation of On the Origin of Species into Arabic until 1964. There’s a rich Islamic tradition of scientific and mathematical research, including some thinkers who expressed ideas “which might be considered as parts of the pre-modern theory of evolution and were not seen as a threat to their religion.” However, for the most part, discussions about evolution in the Muslim world have been similar to Christians. Nisa says, “the discussion of evolution in the Muslim world has often been partnered with Darwinism or atheism and a purely materialistic approach, which has led many to issue the judgment that it is heresy, and hence, needs to be avoided or even denied.” But the discussion is, and always has been, diverse. She walks me through several Qu’ranic verses, like, “Who makes most excellent everything that He creates. Thus, He begins the creation of man out of clay” (Qu’ran 32:7), which has been understood literally by antievolutionists, and figuratively by other thinkers, who say that a “most excellent” creation can use the principles of the environment it has been placed in. Mohammed was very reluctant to learn about evolution, as he had a friend who started studying evolution and eventually stopped believing in God. However, after doing some of his own research, he has decided that he has no issue with evolution in general, but while he “can believe in evolution for other [species], … if it is explaining that human beings are evolved from something else, it contradicts something from the verse in the Qu’ran, goes against the fundamentals.” Education around evolution varies greatly. Alex only learned about the details of evolution in his early teens, as he was homeschooled. He watched documentaries about evolution on the Hope Channel (a Christian Freeview channel) and researched independently. “There are answers for my doubts,” he told me, and he continues to see evolution as false. Mohammed only started to learn about evolution after he left Yemen. Nisa said that evolution is open for discussion in Muslim countries
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Shanti Mathias
“except some countries at certain historical stages, such as Pakistan, in particular, during General Zia ul-Haq’s regime, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, Oman and Sudan.” Mohammed’s experience echoes this. Benjamin Klapaukh, a Jewish student at Vic, isn’t as concerned with the nitty-gritty of creation. He knows of no contradiction between his faith and the account of creation in Genesis. It’s important to remember, he says, that “the Old Testament is not a history book. The point of it is more to give direction and guidance and live an ethical life.” The ‘genre’ of holy books is a crucial detail in questions of evolution. How literally should religious texts be taken? Matthias Loong found these questions useful as he developed his response to Genesis. “Is it a science textbook? Is it a poem, is it a historical narrative? If you can answer that question you can move forward.” To Loong, the crucial detail in Genesis 1 and 2 is not how God created all the living creatures of the world, but that God chose to create those creatures. And that God considered them good. Mohammed says that “some people think that the Qu’ran is a scientific book. [But the] Qu’ran is mostly showing people how to increase their peace and lead a good life.” If details in the Qu’ran are confirmed by science, that’s wonderful, but science is not the essence of the Qu’ran. Ultimately, the question of evolution and science is a question of rationality. Perhaps these discussions are so fraught because it’s a 21
hard thing to have your way of thinking challenged. “People really value their rationality,” Chambers said. “If you want to get in a fight with someone, demonstrate they’re not rational.” He characterises this conflict as a difference between the constant evolution (pardon my pun) of scientific ideas as new research emerges, opposed to the fixedness of faith. All of the people of faith I talked to put it differently, telling me that their interest in science was informed by their faith, by an invitation to learn more about a world made by God. But science could not be everything. “Science is great when you put it in its place, but there’s more knowledge out there than science,” Loong told me. If the place for science, at least for the people I spoke to, is to remind them to keep asking questions about God’s involvement in this wild universe, then maybe those who privilege scientific views should remember to acknowledge the role of faith as well. What would it take for the conflict over evolution and creation to end? Alex has one answer: “People would have to start believing in God again,” instead of replacing faith with evolution and other scientific principles. Chambers suggests that people of faith who want to reconcile God and evolution have to “evolve their God” to recognise God as a human creation. Matthias, Benjamin, and others don’t see a conflict between evolution and their faith. Ideas evolve. Maybe people have as well. Whether it was through processes of God, evolution, or both, we are able to ask and answer questions as big as this.
CKW In 2016, the ankle bracelet had its day in the sun when the news outlet The Story NZ ran a feature on the supposedly “uncuttable” ankle bracelets developed by the Department of Corrections. Billy Weepu, cameraman and cousin of Wainuiomata powerhouse Piri Weepu, promptly sliced through a bracelet to the chagrin of Judith Collins. That was three years ago. Ankle bracelets have faded from public view, but remain conspicuous, despite the efforts of those who wear them. Under socks, pants; almost hidden, but never quite enough. Recently, three of my friends were placed on Electronic Monitoring on Bail (EM bail) for separate offences. One of them, J, spoke to me about it. This is an account of his experience. EM bail is a curfew system. Usually, the wearer can be away from a specified address between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. The basic rationale behind EM is to desist the offender from further offending while on bail, and to reduce the risk of not turning up to court—all well and good. But debating the dubious merits of deterrence as a rationale in crime and punishment is beyond the scope of this article. We’re shifting our focus instead to the life of the person wearing the bracelet. You see, EM bail is a bargain. The person concerned has high stakes but no chips. Probation gives the judge a report on the suitability of the proposed applicant, their address, and the occupants of the address. If granted, the “tracker” is placed on them, either in prison or in court. And then, for a seemingly arbitrary length of time deemed by the judge, the wearer is monitored. Constantly. The wearer cannot explain that personal, work, or family circumstances make a 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. curfew incredibly challenging and quite frankly unrealistic. They can’t tell a judge that they start work on site at 7:30 in Seatoun. A judge cannot listen to them explain that they live in Taita, and making it across the city in under half an hour is impossible. Nor that their son has rugby practice in Newtown that goes till 6:30, and getting him home across Wellington to Taita that quickly just isn’t an option. The bracelet is non-negotiable, keeping them to a pre-ordained schedule for however many months. As with all strict deterrent measures in New Zealand, it’s not just the offender who is punished, but their entire family, too. These monitors are bulky. Very bulky, hard to hide, protruding from socks and appearing momentarily above shoes as the wearer walks. They can be hard to get used to at first. Think about it: How often does one wear something around their ankles and feet, other than shoes and socks? They prevent the wearer from recreational activities, like swimming. They are uncomfortable against bare skin, rubbing and chafing, especially during exercise. They can be humiliating, forcing the wearer to broadcast their missteps and shame to the world. If you’ve ever looked down and seen an ankle bracelet, chances are, the wearer noticed and felt embarrassed at the unwanted attention. A large portion of New Zealand’s incarcerated population experiences issues with their mental health—and fleeting gazes directed at the wearer’s ankle does nothing for their peace of mind or self-esteem. Extra attention is highly unwelcome to the anxious. For the few with a solid support network behind them, ankle bracelets can be a way to refocus; an intermediary behind a seemingly meaningless diversion and a life-ending prison sentence. For J, 23
7 a.m. till 7 p.m. is an arbitrary routine, but a routine nonetheless. Idle hands are the devil’s plaything, and setting a time in which hands cannot be idle brought J back to a structured life. Remarkably, J was able to reflect constructively on his time under EM bail. He knew he’d done wrong. He saw EM as a way to fix his mistakes and return to normality. But J has a big support network; friends who will check in on him, joke around and say they’re going for a beer, knowing he can’t come. But they’re checking on him nonetheless, not rejecting him because of the marker on his ankle. But amongst his family, only his mum and dad know. J feels as if he is the only one in his family getting in trouble, and would be ashamed if his wider family knew. Sure, your aunties and uncles might not outwardly say they think less of you, but quick glances and disappointed looks send a message that is easily understood. He feels that it means he is not successful at life, feeding into his anxieties about letting people down, about not being enough. Things could be much worse, granted. But an ankle bracelet as your best case scenario seems like cold comfort. When someone is on remand, their lawyer will make an application for EM bail on their behalf. That goes down the District Court hallway to the probation department, who writes a report on the suitability of the proposed bail address and its occupants, which is given to the judge at a bail hearing. Applications often fail at this step, due to the location of the house, or the character of the occupants. Your home address might be the best place for you to go... but what if your street has a high percentage of drug offences and auto theft? What if your family is two generations deep in Black Power? It can seem like you can never go home again, though home may be the only place you can receive the compassion and support that you really need to turn your life around—rather than a punitive sentence intended to satisfy our society’s burning desire for vengeance. It can seem like it is all beyond the control of the offender. And that’s right—your autonomy is taken away, locked in a black box on your ankle for 18 months. J is one of the lucky ones. At the time of publication, he will have resumed his regular, unmonitored life. But he had a home to go to, and people in that home who loved him enough to stick with him. Going home for some is going from the frying pan into the fire, back into the environment that made scared children into scared adults. Others still, cannot go home, for home isn’t a place they feel safe, or simply doesn’t exist. A punished mistake long outlives the moment that decision was made. A criminal record and the stigma and stipulations surrounding it make it extremely difficult for the person to return to a normal life, or to find a job, or to reconcile with family and friends who feel hurt by a person's actions. Time can only tell how the boys will live beyond their time on EM bail. The Recidivism Index from the Department of Corrections Annual Report shows that 46.8 percent of ex-prisoners released from prison in 2016/17 were reconvicted of an offence that resulted in a sentence administered by Corrections within 12 months of leaving prison. As if we could take the promising future of a young man, and let one punished mistake rewrite what we want them to be and what they will become.
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Jacob Preston, CafĂŠ, Digital Illu
ustration, 297 x 420 mm, 2019
HUNTER BLAIR
Enigmatic, commanding, and present, Wellington three-piece Mermaidens are in their seventh year of leaving audiences lost for words and begging for more. The band consists of Abe Hollingsworth (Drums), Lily West (Bass/Vocals), and Gussie Larkin (Guitar/Vocals), who all met during high school. As a young Aucklander, my idea of a music scene was going to see a shitty band from Western Springs College who would inevitably break up, because someone ‘dogged the boys’. Wellington, however, had an unparalleled music micro-climate that bred talented musicians and captivating performers. Mermaidens are the manifestation of both of those factors; their music will spellbind the staunchest critic and command the stubborn observer. I had met Gussie a handful of times prior to this interview. We crossed paths at Radioactive a day prior to her European tour with her other band, Earth Tongue. Now back in Wellington, I was fortunate enough to sit down with her to discuss the band, the coming-of-age process they have undertaken, and the year ahead.
time in the studio so we could really hone in on guitar tones and drum sounds. We had like, 20 mics on the drums, and the amount of detail was crazy. Hunter: Was there a change in approach to making this new single of yours? Obviously one thing for a lot of bands is to record demos and create music within different flats, or friends’ houses, etc... Was there a slightly more defined studio-esque approach for this upcoming project? Gussie: Yeah, which was kinda due to budget. We were really lucky to get a NZ on Air grant for the whole project. So we kinda didn’t have to worry about spending another day or taking heaps of time. Hunter: Obviously being a three-piece is quite an intimate band environment where everyone has their role or piece to play. Do you find that playing with people you already know has helped the band take leaps forward?
Hunter: Hey Gussie, thanks so much for having a chat with me. So the band has had a long history in Wellington, when did Mermaidens first start rolling? Gussie: Ah, what’s the year? I think it’s…mmm.. I think it’s about the seventh year. Hunter: I see, obviously it’s inevitable that a band will change over the course of that time. Have you found that Mermaidens has developed their sound or taken a different direction? Gussie: I guess we’re becoming more confrontational, all of the music that we’re going to release this year is going to be very direct. It’s about being powerful, not aggressive but yeah, confronting. Hunter: In your latest single release “You Maintain The Stain”, there is a sense of hopelessness as the listener, almost as if the vocalist is really commanding and controlling the mind—I felt like whoever inspired these lyrics would definitely feel very small. Gussie: It’s actually Lily that sings this song, which often gets confused, but yeah she said a lot of our older songs had a lot of metaphors to do with nature and soft language. So there’s definitely a conscious shift to a different style. I think we’re just being braver with our lyrics and the production, as well. We’ve had so much more
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Gussie: I think that working with your friends is the best— and kinda the only way—that everybody can make cool shit. Which we still totally do—I’ve been making a video for Earth Tongue with just one other friend and completely no budget. But we both have ideas, and you just have to be invested in it, truly invested in it. I’m pretty lucky because I’m from Wellington so I have those connections; people who move here may not necessarily have the same contacts. Three-pieces are just the best. It’s a power trio anyway, just killing it. But two-pieces are great, too. Hunter: Definitely the best way! Thank you so much for having a chat with me, Gussie, and best of luck for Mermaidens’ continued domination this year. Just one rumour to clarify—I heard that the band actually met while swimming under the ocean with dolphins. Is that true, and is the high school story a cover-up? Gussie: Haha, yes. That’s completely true, and completely embarrassing. “You Maintain the Stain” was originally released as a 7” single for Record Store Day, however music and other goodies can be found on their Bandcamp. Keep an eye out across their various social media channels to keep up with their movements, including a 2019 European tour!
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS BROWN
CAITLIN HICKS
I haven’t seen Game of Thrones. It’s not because I’m a stubborn dick who is nOt LiKe OtHeR gIrLs, it’s because I have the most punishing attention span, and I’m a stubborn dick. A 60-minute (minimum!) episode of a TV show is far too much for me, so I stick to shows where I can fast forward through the ‘slow’ bits like the uncultured, garbage human I really am. Unfortunately, none of my friends want to talk about RuPaul’s Drag Race* and instead won’t shut up about dragons, crypts, and an enormous doorman. With the release of Season 8, GoT chat has monopolised my social circle and I’m utterly out of the loop. Endless GoT chat is about as much fun as watching the show’s graphic sex scenes with your parents and is literally unavoidable. So for your benefit as much as my own, I have endeavoured to produce a concise guide to GoT**. Go forth and surprise your mates with some pearls of Westerosi wisdom. 1. SEVEN SEASONS IN Almost everyone has died, and everyone is sleeping with each other (see #3). Everyone wants to rule the Seven Kingdoms and sit on the most uncomfortablelooking throne ever. There are also horrific, half-dead ice-people called the White Walkers who really want to get inside The Walls and raise the dead/hell amongst the mortals. They were led by the Night King, who was like an angrier, bluer version of the young hot Swedish guy from Mamma Mia 2. Apparently, the Night King is dead now? Told you things move fast in Westeros. The plot unfolds with such rapid unpredictability that it’s best to avoid making affirmative and specific statements. You will be unmasked as a fool unless you stick to interjecting very vague, ambiguous, singleword statements. Some buzzwords to throw into the mix: The Wall, crypts, the Iron Throne, dragons, incest. 2. WHO’S WHO AND WHAT ARE THEY DOING? The three main characters at this stage of the game are Jon Snow (the King of the North, knows nothing),
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Daenerys Targaryen (dragon lady, wannabe Queen), and Cersei Lannister (the Queen by virtue of everyone else being dead, total bitch). To garner respect when asked about your favourite character, say “Little Finger” or “Hodor”. These characters met their makers in previous seasons and you will seem a faithful student of the show. Arya Stark is moving up in the ranks as a fan favourite for—as far as I can establish—stabbing a man, alongside an outburst of “not today”. This is confusing, as, historically, I have been dissuaded from defending against unwanted advances in the same fashion. Jon and Daenerys have teamed up with all the remaining “goodies” to fight the White Walkers. Once they have defeated them, they must defeat Cersei and all the remaining “baddies”. 3. NSFW A central theme of the show, as above, is everyone getting it on with each other. Notable sexual encounters include Jon and his aunt Daenerys, and Cersei and her twin brother Jaime—who also had children together. This pithy guide will have to suffice for you unindoctrinated plebs unless you have two days, 15 hours and 30 minutes to catch up on the past seven seasons yourself. If it still doesn’t make sense: When you’re questioned about Game of Thrones by friends at the pub, simply respond “Hodor”, and they’ll buy you pints all night. Bonus content to bust out over beers: George R. R. Martin had enough imagination to construct a total of SEVEN fantastical kingdoms but named the main dragon… Drogon. The show’s budget is, understandably, consumed by CGI representation of Drogon and his dragon pals, so funds have been slashed for the lighting department—good luck if you have poor eyesight. I’m pretty sure Sansa Stark marries Joe Jonas at the end of Season 8 and it’ll probably be a Red Wedding-style massacre set to “Burning Up” by the Jonas Brothers. *Yes, I am seeking new friends. ** Thank you to my ghostwriter, Henry.
MELANY TONIN
I was in my late great-grandmother's room. I sat on her bed with a dark blue, 15 cm horse. The horse was locked in a translucent box; I let it out. Minutes later, the horse was nowhere to be found. Searching all around, I started to panic. I found the horse just outside of the room in the corridor. I put the horse back in my big mama's room, realising that if there was no barrier, I might lose it forever. Dear dreamer, Let’s start with the positives—luckily for you, the horse wasn’t white. Had it been, death would be cantering at your door. Instead, we have a boxed blue horse— visible and tantalising—which you release, lose, panic, then find again. A quaint version of Pandora’s box? Good lord. Horse symbolism usually ties in with freedom and power. Now note the setting—your great-grandmother’s room. It’s clear you’re afraid; afraid the power and freedom that swells from something inherent, passed down in your lineage, is going to fade away. But power is fleeting. Whoever you (or your family) were, or whatever they had, that time is nearly up. Your great-grandmother is from generations past. Generations! Surely you could just accept equality, and what it means in all its forms and doses, and allow the
former power—name, class, skin, or whatever—to slowly seep away into the sand (and yes, I know you’re sitting down at Oriental Bay as you read this crisp edition). You know, I actually believed all wasn’t lost until you headed out into the corridor. Success in dreams is a terrible sign. Life’s not black and white and dreams are meant to be odd! That you manage to safely secure the blue horse screams fucking cop-out and makes me think that if we met, I wouldn’t like you. Hell, I’d probably despise you. Your victory against the onslaught, your scrambling return up the ivory tower, repulses me. The fact you’re rewarded for going the extra mile when you should have left the horse in the box, then smashed it, is a sign of your rampant delusion. So the next time you close your delicate wee eyelids and enter the dreamscape—when you find yourself gripping tight to the box, I say let the horse go, pal; let it wander away. Cherish whatever you’re left with, even if it’s nothing more than some shit-filled fields that can now finally grow in peace. Isn’t that better than abusing power? Better than privileging your freedom over others?
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ALICE MANDER
A few weeks ago, I was forced to miss class, due to the inaccessibility of the law school. While this has happened to me before, this particular instance felt different. I remember calling my Mum in tears—not because I was upset, but because I was just so angry, so outraged, so shocked. Because this was just so unacceptable, right? So inherently wrong, so unfair. Why shouldn’t I have the same access to education as everyone else? You could explain my reaction another, much simpler way: middle class, well-educated, New Zealand-born, cisgendered white person faces a genuine barrier outside of her control for the first time in her life. Looking at it this way, I have suddenly switched from feeling the angriest I’ve ever felt, to the most naïve. This realisation doesn’t make my experience irrelevant. It has simply reminded me of something that we can all be guilty of forgetting: I am privileged. And, because I pride myself on writing a column which I like to think is honest and vulnerable, I also need to be frank with you about this part of myself. For the most part, I am a disabled person who can interact in an abled-bodied world because of privilege. I do well at university and can afford to attend, my energy levels allow me to keep up with my mates, I drink champagne while discussing classism, my disability won’t really impact on my career as a professional, I speak like everyone else, and I look like everyone else. In fact, I look so like everyone else that I’ve been left this lovely note on my car (word for word): “Don’t know how u got that disable sticker? There don’t seem to be bugger all wrong with you. What scam are you into?”
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The ability to “pass” is a privilege. For most of my life I have been able to fit in with the majority, reaping the social benefits which come with that. It also means I am able to hide behind my keyboard—write articles, advocate for my cause, wreak havoc—then go out into the world unnoticed, quiet and unassuming. Right now, I don’t look like the little wheelchair logo at the top of this column, but this isn’t going to be the case forever. And as that time draws nearer, I’ve often found myself stopping and asking whether it is fair that I lead a double life: educated, cisgendered, straight, and outwardly ‘able-bodied’ by day, and a voice for an often-unheard community by night. Even more, is it because I sit in this position of social privilege that anyone even listens? Honestly... It probably is. Reminding myself of that is important, because it ensures that I be careful not to perpetuate the trope of the “good” disabled person—high-achieving, advocate for disability, integrated. I’m not these things because of me. I’m these things because, in many ways, I’m more able-bodied than other disabled people. More, I’m these things because I’m privileged. ANYWAY, my ego has definitely grown due to positive feedback to this column, and so I felt this article was important just to bring myself down to earth a tiny bit, aye. On that note—I want to hear from you. If you feel like my writing hasn’t represented you, and you feel like it should have, please get in touch with me (I’m not hard to find on the world wide web). If this was too introspective—don’t worry, next time I’ll just bitch about Bryan Cranston or banning plastic straws or some shit.
TITIA Ō WAEWAE KI TE WHENUA
NĀ TAHU-POTIKI TE MARO-DORAN Wairuatanga—Spirituality, an often neglected part of health restoration. My spiritual journey started from day one. I whakapapa to Ariki, tohunga, and spiritual healers, so it came as no surprise to my whānau that my brother and I grew up surrounded by our tīpuna. As I grew older, the less I started to see them, the less in tune I became with my spirituality. I lost sense of who I was, and through that, became unhealthy! The spiritual side of my health was revamped when I went back to my first kura. This kura was manic about our health! This meant fitness two times a week, mau rākau on Friday mornings, training three times a week outside of school, plus the Friday night games! That was just the physical. Our minds were challenged constantly by doing what most schools wouldn’t—Kōwhaiwhai, carving, gardening, whakaari, kapa haka; you get the point. Kaupapa Māori in the true essence of the word. The big kick in the health for me at that kura was when we ran about a kilometre and a half to the beach in the rain in bare feet for mau rākau. Did I mention that this was in the winter? Although this was typical, this session was hell. Around the end of the session, our teacher made us dip our feet in the water. All of us were freezing. He walked in front of everyone and shimmied his feet deep within the sand and didn’t shiver once. He yelled out to all of us: “Titia ō waewae ki te whenua hei oranga mōu!”—Pierce the land with thou feet, to provide your life sustenance. We dug our feet deep into the sand while the waves came swooping past our legs. We all closed our eyes while he began a karakia. All of a sudden, my wairuatanga hit me like a gunshot to the third eye. Butterflies coursed through my stomach, my chest sunk deeper than my feet in the sand, and suddenly—I was warm.
I’m not telling my story to make you go to the beach on a cold, wet day to dig your feet in the sand to find enlightenment. I’m merely bringing up that fact that I had lost a gift of mine for so long, and it was only lost because I didn’t think about whether or not there was something to be lost or found in the first place! Some of us are lost and we don’t even know it. Some of us walk through the world blindfolded. So much so, that we don’t even know that our thoughts aren’t ours most of the time. How do we know? We constantly scroll through our Insta and look at others people’s wonderful lives and ask ourselves, “Why can’t my life be like that”. We walk through the streets and see advertisements telling you what you should look like and how to dress. We’re constantly soaking up external information. Never really do we think about what’s going on internally. We don’t know why we do what we do. Life hits you wave by wave over your freezing legs buried in the sand. Sometimes life will give you no choice but to think about who you really are, and what you are capable of, and was deep within you—your wairuatanga. Titia ō waewae ki te whenua, kia puāwai ai tō kākano hei hua mō te āo! Pierce the land with thou feet, to allow the seed within you to blossom as a fruit to provide sustenance to the world around you.
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A S K S I S SY
T WO GU YS O NE BET
ANONYMOUS
BRAD & JAMES
Last week saw a humdinger of an affair between two sleeping giants in English football—Leeds United and Aston Villa—taking the piss by relishing in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football.
Hi Sissy So I have recently had a small piece of drama in my life. One of my hard-to-read flatmates said that he had something to talk with me about, and told me that he had feelings for me.
The game is tied 0–0 when Aston Villa’s Jonathan Kodjia goes down injured after being fouled.
This totally blindsided me. I do not have any feelings for this flatmate and we've never spent one-on-one time together. I respect him a lot as a person and he's chill to live with. I don't want this to be a problem in our flat. How do I continue to treat him kindly without making it awkward for either of us?
There is an unspoken gentleman’s agreement for the ball to be put out of play, with possession been returned to the obliging team when play resumes. Leeds lived up to their reputation for being scumbags when Tyler Roberts passed up the chance to be a gentleman—instead slotting one past the Aston Villa keeper.
Not making things awkward is not your responsibility here! He declared feelings for you despite never spending any one-on-one time together. He didn’t seem to consider the likelihood that this could make the living situation difficult for you. You do not have to prioritise his feelings in this scenario. I hope you don’t feel like you should go out of your way to make him feel comfortable or to soothe any hurt feelings. You don’t!
Sparking what can only be described as handbags, players were grabbing each other—pushing, shoving each other to the ground via the throat—elbows were flying—scone recipes were being shared, to put it politely. Leeds had taken the lead 1–0 with 20 minutes to go; Villa had El Ghazi sent off for what can only be described as an attempt to audition for the UFC. Tempers were high, but the game took an even stranger turn when Marco Bielsa, the Leeds manager Marco Bielsa—an absolute madman in his own right—told his team to stand still and allow Aston Villa to score. Leeds’ centre defender, Jansson, still tried to tackle the Villa players despite being told to stand down by his manager, sparking even more exchanging of scone recipes. Rumour has it, lemonade scones are a favourite amongst the Villa team.
If you haven’t already, tell him you respect him as a person but you don’t have any interest in developing any kind of relationship beyond flatmate/friend. Then carry on; business as usual. Pretend it never happened. Everybody move forward. If things are kind of awkward for a bit, that’s OK, but it’s not your responsibility to fix it. Make sure to develop a life independent of the flat dynamic by seeking friendship opportunities that don’t necessarily involve your flatmates.
Both teams could be set to meet in the championship playoffs (a £170 million match) and tempers will be very high, but not as high as the stakes in what will be a very entertaining match. We encourage you to watch tempers flare, handbags, and some above-average footy on May 11, wherever you can stream it.
If he brings it up again or gives you any weird vibes, you should tell your other flatmate or a trusted friend. You’re entitled to feel safe and comfortable in your home.
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V UWSA
P SC:ONE O CEAN
RINALDO STRYDOM
PASIFIKA STUDENTS COUNCIL
HOME AND AWAY It was two hours before my flight and already I was an emotional wreck. My reality was that I was leaving home, leaving my family and friends and the life I had known for the past 17 years, to live and study in New Zealand. Eventually, it was time for me to say goodbye to my family. Reminiscing now, I wonder if they heard the panic in my voice. With my back turned to them, it took all I had not to burst into tears. Staring into the pitch black of the night sky, I had never felt more alone.
I am of African descent… More specifically, South African descent. I come from a bloodline of traditional farmers in the Transvaal. They lived off the food of the land and drew courage from their ancestors with the future generations in mind. My ancestors are the ‘Voortrekkers’ and I draw my courage from their journey. My family and I have moved to New Zealand because of the changing circumstances in the South African economy and the increased danger of living there. Now I am in a new country, with new cultures, and new sights to behold. I have embraced the New Zealand culture and continue to learn and educate myself every day. I hope that the combination of my South African roots and my new place in Aotearoa will guide me in serving the students of Victoria.
25 years ago, my mom lived the exact same experience: Like me, she flew away from our tiny island in Samoa. I imagine her staring out into the infinite blues of the ocean and sky in fear and excitement of the unknown. Unlike me, she was the first of her brothers and sisters to go to university. That meant that, with the hope and pride of her family placed on her shoulders, there was the weight of expectations and the pressure to succeed.
My name is Rinaldo Strydom, and I am a part of the 2019 VUWSA Executive as Education Officer. The first half of this year has been a major focus on securing lecture recordings for all students of Victoria University. The road towards this target is exciting and interesting as we progress towards a collective goal.
40 years ago, my grandmother traversed oceans from our corner of the world to study in London. In her field of study, she was in pursuit of the highest honour one could attain, becoming a Pasifika pioneer in the medical profession. She remembers this privilege as one of the hardest times of her life as a mother. I imagine her lying awake at night, thinking of my grandfather and her four children, thousands of miles away.
An important value that I have is to build strong relationships with people and the community. Relationships with academic rep groups within the university will be a big focus for myself for the rest of the year. These groups are critical for the student community and to ensure student voices are heard.
In the loneliness I faced leaving my home, I found an unexpected connection to the experiences and sacrifices of my mom and mama before me. I realise that we lived different versions of the same life, experiencing the same feelings and facing similar hardships. Now when I think about what I’m going through, I smile, because I know that I could never face it alone.
Together, the student community can achieve more.
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SWAT
T HE F WORD
ALEX WALKER
VIC UFO
Wellbeing has increasingly become a priority across Aotearoa, but this sense of importance has still not generated the results we so urgently need. A report in 2018 surveyed 2000 students and found that 56% of them had considering dropping out at some point in their degree. University is a melting pot of stresses so I don’t think anyone would be surprised to hear this!
When Michael Hill Jeweller rocked up with their latest Mothers Day ad, the feminist community breathed a collective sigh of frustration. There, emblazoned on the back of a consistently-late bus, was a beaming man with his arms around two women. He was anonymous, but his acquaintances’ titles were displayed big and bright: Mum, and ‘Work Mum.’
It’s within this context that a new Vic wellbeing survey called YOU is situated. YOU is the result of passionate work from leading academics, researchers, staff, and students. It’s a survey for first-year students which aims to investigate the wide-ranging factors that may affect a student’s wellbeing at university, in order to identify spaces where the university can improve or create new initiatives. This is crucial because it means the survey is designed to catalyse true change in the community.
The advertisement encourages us to “Celebrate All [Our] Mums,” but we’re still too busy trying to decipher what exactly a ‘work mum’ is—and more importantly, why the fuck she would want a shitty necklace from a company that thinks male colleagues applying maternal titles to her is in any way complimentary? The ad is almost hilarious with its odd brand of saccharine ignorance, but unfortunately, like many other bouts of ignorance, beneath its surface lurks a problematic notion that is far from a new concept.
I’ve consulted on this survey since December 2018 and have been continually impressed at the amount of care that has gone into it. I have been similarly impressed at the emphasis on student consultation and input; there has been no lofty ivory tower mindset, but rather, a spirit of co-operation in ensuring that the survey will have a positive effect on the student body. The survey team have had conversations with VUWSA, SWAT, V-ISA, and PSC, just to name a few!
In this case, it is the idea that women are mums. Even the ones that aren’t. Even the ones that don’t want to be. And even the ones that in no way have a maternal relationship to the guy they (apparently) are the (work) mum of. The concept hinges on the idea that women are inherent caregivers. That women are companions to men, even before they are individuals. It is also why women end up doing so many fucking chores for men (40% more, according to The Office for National Statistics), or why fathers get commended for “babysitting” their own damn kids, whereas mothers are constantly exposed to unfair critiques and ridiculously high expectations.
If you’re a first-year student, then please check your email inbox for the survey. We need as many people as possible to contribute to this valuable mahi in order to ensure that the results capture a representative proportion of the student body. Right now we’re at a pivotal moment in Aotearoa's mental health climate and YOU is part of an important and sustained attempt to start moving the conversation towards a positive future.
This stereotype not only reduces women to a single role, it also banishes men from that same identity, and ignores and/or rejects everyone else.
http://www.students.org.nz/mentalhealth
No one takes pride in being a ‘work mum’, Michael Hill. But more importantly, no one should take pride in having one.
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A Little Bit of Heaven and Hell Bring the flame, the torturous glow, I’ll supply the water dripping in holy wine. You know not of skeletal frames holding up fractured thrones, or of the way voices sing harmonious gospel moans. Maybe your place is softer than you think, while mine prays for the sin of a drink. And we’ll lie here together, fingers linked, vein to vein ignoring the truth to pleasure in pain. All in all we’ll try to quell the way I bring heaven and the way you bring hell. (We’re two people believing in the wrong things after all. Wouldn’t want to get caught in the sin of the fall.) - Nakisa Wilson
Send your limericks, elegies, and odes to poetry@salient.org.nz
REVIEW: MAYA NEUPANE
ART
Reviews
TAKEAWAY SYM B OLS
All over the areas we occupy at Vic Uni are pieces worthy to be admired. Yuk King Tan’s work Takeaway Symbols is one of them. Though Adam Art Gallery isn’t the only place on campus to find great art, it’s a great place to start.
objects together. The end product is a seemingly chaotic yet simultaneously cohesive collection of motifs familiar to both Pākehā and Chinese cultures—suffocated together in tightly wrapped tassel that clings to their every groove.
Tan’s work, titled Takeaway Symbols, immediately confronts you as you step out from the elevator on the International Languages floor. Stark, red-coated, inanimate objects hang along the wall. Separately, these objects would be small and unintimidating, but as a whole they dwarf you, making you feel vulnerable in their presence. They appear displaced against an otherwise empty white wall, but their uniform red wrappings also evoke a feeling of cohesion and community. Red doesn’t shy away. It’s loud and intentional and attention-grabbing, to any audience. In China, the colour red is a symbol of good luck, and has just as much importance in Māori culture, appearing commonly in art and objects of spiritual significance. The similarity across both cultures mean that Tan’s work represents neither one nor the other—the two cultures merge into one aesthetically pleasing hybrid.
Takeaway Symbols is one of those pieces that is experienced best when seen up close. From afar, it seems to be a random collection of red things hanging by red thread from hooks on a wall. On closer inspection, however, the tassel catches the light and you begin to notice the immensely personal process that the artist has applied to each object. Each object is something precious. Each object is art. The artist's use of long straight tassel makes these objects appear as if they are trapped—red prison bars restricting their escape.
I found this art piece to be a glorious celebration of the uncommon. It seems to say: Look at us, we are here on the wall, and we are art! It freezes an idea in time, dissects it, and hangs it upon the wall for our viewing. Tan has created something beautiful from objects commonly overlooked and used her cultural heritage to change them into something foreign and To me, her work feels like the physical embodiment of the new. strange, suspended place that people of Asian descent occupy in New Zealand culture. Tan takes familiar aspects of Chinese Looking at her art is like listening to an unfamiliar remix of a and Pākehā cultures, and takes away the parts that makes them popular song from your childhood, purveying mixed feelings different. She rewrites their identities by wrapping them in thin of nostalgia and surprise. Takeaway Symbols is comfort in red tassel—a material found in Chinese traditional dress, and confusion. celebrations, thus tying this seemingly random collection of 36
GIG PUSSY RIOT REVI E W: SU M M E R PR I TC H AR D
How I came to experience a Pussy Riot gig with my Dad.
Arriving bang on 8 o’clock, the Tuesday night queue into San Fran was surprisingly long. Behind me a guy was yelling “Puuuuuusssy Riottt!!!!” at the top of his lungs. Once inside, an organiser from Russia introduced the show, explaining who’s who in the band, telling us that Riot Days is not just music but a theatrical performance, based on a book written by Maria Alyokhina—one of the original members of Pussy Riot, who was imprisoned for two years after performing in the initial viral performance. It’s hard to put into words how the show really was. The crowd was a diverse mix of people; young and old, all eager to witness Pussy Riot. The music—harsh electronics with screeching sax and trumpet—perfectly complemented the running Russian words and theatrics of the band members. On either side of the stage, screens projected subtitles, along with imagery detailing the lead up to Pussy Riot’s first performance and its aftermath, giving insights into the political state within Russia. On stage, Pussy Riot were an absolute presence, making use of the whole stage— dancing wildly, climbing on top of tables, and even swinging from
As a member of the audience you could tell that these Pussy Riot members were really genuine and believing in the political messages they were sharing. I could feel and see on Alyokhina’s face the pain that she went through in prison. I was so emotionally overwhelmed that I felt on the verge of tears at points. To end it all off, in one of the last songs, Alyokhina turned her back to us and grabbed a water bottle. Her silhouette illuminated by the lights, she began pouring the water over herself. Other Pussy Riot members followed suit, unbottling water and splashing it over the crowd. Being right up the front, my forehead was at the perfect height for a drenching. I enjoyed every second of this impromptu shower. I was basking in the water, in the experience, the “fuck this” attitude. The show ended at a respectable 10.30 p.m., but it was the perfect length of time—any longer and it would have been too intense. I left Pussy Riot feeling uplifted and educated. I had battled through over an hour of being yelled at in Russian, but gained a greater understanding for Pussy Riot, the political climate in Russia, and the terrors of being a political prisoner there. Overall, Pussy Riot was a gig like nothing I’d experienced before. As cheesy as it sounds, it was truly unforgettable, and I’m so glad I got to experience it with my Dad, the person who introduced me to them in the first place.
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Reviews
2012. February 21. A viral video of a group of brightly dressed, balaclava-cladded Russian women playing protest punk in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour circles the internet. Being about 11 years old at the time, I was more concerned with playing Pocket Frogs than reading about politically active feminist Russian punk bands. But when my Dad showed me that viral Pussy Riot video, it stayed with me. It wasn’t until a few years ago that my interest in Pussy Riot rekindled while scrolling through YouTube, enchanted by their somewhat disturbing music videos. When my Dad and I found out Pussy Riot were coming to Wellington as a part of the Fringe Festival, our immediate reaction was of surprised excitement, “We need to go to this!!” What a hoot, we thought, to be able to say we’ve seen Pussy Riot.
the ceiling. During a slower part of the performance, Alyokhina lit up a ciggie and walked around the stage, microphone in hand, cigarette in the other. The smell of smoke mingling in the air further added to the gritty mood of the night. In some way, the smoking made the event feel less formal, less like we were an performers and their audience, and more like friends getting told an intense story.
R EVIEW: NIVA C HIT TO C K
M U SI C
Reviews
NZ M USI C M ONT H
Kia ora koutou, Merry Music Month to you! If you aren’t aware, May is Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa a.k.a. NZ Music Month, the time to celebrate awesome musical talent in Aotearoa. This can be from big commercial successes like Lorde to absolute classics like Dave Dobbyn, right to the newest artists like Dr.Reknaw. The focus isn’t solely on established musical artists either: there’s also the VNZMA Music Teacher of the Year award and plenty of good old chinwag about how our Kiwi groove is going, both at home and abroad.
A year later, “Just Press Play (ft. Fanfickk)” came along, announcing the close and ongoing collaboration between the two artists. As to be expected when combining sounds with another artist, “Just Press Play” had more distinguishable layers within the track. You can catch these guys together— and individually—at various gigs throughout Welly. Just check https://www.undertheradar.co.nz
Without any further ado, I introduce you to... Hybrid Rose.
It was last October’s powerful album Warhol, however, that tied the knot for me. The music was a more chilled-out wave of experimental electronic hues, but Muollo-Gray’s message behind the music was exactly the opposite. Speaking to Under The Radar, Muollo-Gray spoke of her love for Andy Warhol, her namesake for the album: “I was also very inspired by people who changed pop culture with art—Andy Warhol to be specific. [...] He's just so strange and experimental and I wanted to channel my inner Andy Warhol energy with this album, through experimenting with electro-pop music.”
Stefani Rose Muollo-Gray, better known by her alias Hybrid Rose has, in recent times, taken local and national charts by storm. Put into the box of alternative music, Muollo-Gray’s music is something else entirely. This fellow Wellingtonian pulls her music from every corner, piecing it together like a comforting patchwork quilt on a winter evening. There are elements of dream and synth-pop and almost techno-like beats within her work, each collection of tracks something fresh and unique.
She then went on to really delve into what the new sound was about: “I am offended that people are shifting pop music back to something that we’ve heard before without making waves. I want to do the opposite. I want to make music that shifts from what everyone else is listening to at the moment and make some new waves happen. If people have been able to shift the sound of popular music forward, why would we want to press rewind and play it safe? Fuck that!”
I first heard of Hybrid Rose in late 2017. Her sound was playful, and debut track “VIDEO GAMES” hits hard. A heavy feel of electronica at its core, Muollo-Gray’s music rides the various waves of pop and alternative cultures simultaneously, bringing a hazy in-between sound that your ears just can’t help but adore.
Strong music and a strong artist, what more could you want? Hybrid Rose’s latest track Solitude (ft. Fanfickk) is definitely one to watch. And if you haven’t already, be sure to get stuck into kick-ass Kiwi talent while it’s hot.
There was much debate in my busy little mind about which artist to review. Swimming to the front of the chaos was a recent poster from the Salient FM studio. It’s a photo of Grimes, a Canadian synth-pop artist, and a bubble saying, “there is no genre of music that is inherently shitty.” So apologies if this artist isn’t your cup of tea, but it was never going to please everyone.
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T HEATR E THE C H I L DR E N
Circa Theatre 30 Mar–27 April Tickets: Under 25: $25; Student: $42
REVI E W: K R I STI N C R OW E
The kids are not alright, and the parents can’t hide for much longer... The Children has opened to critical acclaim, earning a slew of accolades, including a Tony nom in the US for Best Play in 2018.
This inauspicious beginning sets us up for a show that plays on this sense of unease with the surface of things. Why has Rose come back to visit? Why is Hazel so restless? It turns out that Hazel and her husband Robin used to work at the nuclear power station nearby with Rose. Hazel, very early on, delivers a chilling monologue about how tired she is. She’s been picking up other people’s litter her whole life. Now she’s earned the right to not clean up. But Rose sees it differently. What Rose has come to propose will upturn the comfortable life they’ve been living. The one and three-quarter hours of The Children are spent in a kitchen, where the relationships—an old marriage, an old flame, and an old grudge—are stretched to their limits. Throughout, there is a mystery that pervades the audience like radiation. It creeps up on you, making you dread what’s coming, while logically you know you should have no reason to fear. Part of the reason this show succeeds is that all three actors shine. There is a spontaneity to the dialogue that lets the audience relax into the moment, the barrier between viewer and scene dissolving. This is the sort of trust that all performers aim for, and it is a joy to feel I am in safe hands. McGlone, in particular, does
Lucy Kirkwood, the playwright, drives us slowly up, up, and up towards the show’s frightful end. She obviously has intergenerational issues on the mind. The Children seems a strange title for most of the show, as there are no children in the cast. What, then, can she mean? The first appearance of children is a phone call; Hazel and Robin’s daughter wants to chat. What eventually becomes clear is that Rose wants to do something valiant for the children, and not only the one on the phone—the children of the baby boomers. She’s come back—not to steal Hazel’s man—but to ask the impossible. If they make this sacrifice, they will be giving up all they hold dear to clean up the mess they made, so we (the children) don’t have to. I would love to give The Children five burning balls of gas, I really would. I almost did. I was riveted. While it rumbles along, sustaining the tension with real finesse up until the final act, the end is less bang than fizzle. That is not the fault of the trio, who do the mostest, but is a symptom of writing that, for me, smelled great, looked great, and was served in a nice bowl... but when I put it in my mouth, was cold. It could have been perfect soup. That said, it is one hundy worth the ticket price. The set is fanTAStic, the dialogue is taut, and the questions it leaves us with are timely. Should our parents be doing more to save us from a future they messed up? What do we do about the climate crisis? What do the boomers owe to the children?
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Reviews
It starts with a nosebleed. Rose (Catherine Downes) staggers onstage with drips of red all over her white t-shirt. Hazel (Carmel McGlone) flaps about, trying to fix her. These women obviously know each other, but something lurks beneath the familiarity. They are too jovial, too quick to reassure each other.
well as the housewife with teeth, offering tea one minute and eviscerating her old friend the next. I recognised her repressed anger in the straightness of her back, how she stuffs the tea towel over the rail. The unpredictability of the show is heightened by her passive-aggressive slights against Rose, which seem to come out of nowhere, with the violence of nosebleeds…
FOOD
R EVIEW: S AL LY WA RD
Reviews
GO OD B OY SA M MI E S D O E S P I E S
It’s getting colder, I’ve rummaged in my drawers for my woollens, and my hankering for flaky pastry is growing by the day. Good Boy Sammies has answered our winter-warmer prayers.
for flavour. I would say the sauce could have handled a bit more ‘meat’ as it was slightly sloppy. I burnt my tongue in haste to taste. Pies straight out of the oven are hot?
By the time Ella and I got to Newtown, Good Boy was all out of pies. We’d made a pastry pilgrimage and there was not a puff to be seen. We were told we could wait 20 minutes or so for more, which we appreciated. Good Boy is a modest operation, a hole in the wall with a few chairs out the front. Peoples Coffee is just around the corner so we had a good excuse to sit on our asses and drink coffee.
The superstar aspect was the salt. The pillar of seasoning, as old as time. I’m talking generous amounts of rock salt baked into the top of perfectly browned pastry. The salt lands on your tongue crunchy and melts into little oceanic pools. The emotional weather I experienced while eating this was not unlike the feeling of sitting outside until your toes go blue and then hopping into the shower. Deprivation, then overwhelming reward. I didn’t know I needed it. This pie is the antidote for hangriness (and/or a hangover). It’s wholesome and a bit naughty and comforting. Salad and other related foods can take a hike on a Sunday.
I generally don’t swipe right to pies. This is not because pies are inherently a bad idea, it is because of past pie-related trauma. I went to a primary school with a canteen. By the time lunch rolled around, the pies had spent a long morning sitting in a wee warmer, slowly getting soggier and soggier until they tasted like eating cat food wrapped in placenta. Somewhere, Jamie Oliver was having a heart attack about the lack of a heart tick on school canteen food.
A note about the service: a bit prickly. We were ignored for a while before being acknowledged. Usually I would walk away. But, I made allowances purely because they are unapologetic about their service. See @goodboysammies for more.
Good Boy’s pie is simple done well; $6 is a reasonable price for a hand-crafted pastry pocket. It’s fancy but not pretentious. I turn my nose up at food that is trying hard to be something it’s not—deep fried “gourmet’ mac ‘n’ cheese served as an hors d’œuvre”? Shut up and be the cheesy comfort food that you are.
Good Boy is run by couple of characters who don’t give a fuck, and certaintly do not adhere to the ol’ “the customer is always right” bull. And yeah, customers are not always right but I would like to buy a pie, please say hello. Won’t stop me going back— steak and rosemary beckons.
The pie we got was vegan beef and tomato. There was just the right amount of spice and a tomato-y sauce packing a big fat F
Good Boy Sammies, 181 Riddiford Street, Newtown Pie flavour and availability usually updated on IG.
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H IG H LY ACCURATE READIN GS FRO M T HE S TARS ABO V E
ARIES
LIBRA
Hmmmmm, you know the creaking you hear at night? Yeah, definitely not just the wind. Might wanna get someone to check out what’s in your walls.
Fuck ~balance~, go all in (also go watch Kung Fury, you’ll need it very soon).
SCORPIO
TAURUS
You’ve been straying away from your true alignment as a Chaotic Neutral. Remember your roots.
One day or another, you’re going to have to face the fact that “Jolene”, “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, and “Wagon Wheel” walked so that “Old Town Road” could run.
SAGITTARIUS
GEMINI
Your friends appreciate and love you! Tell the goblin voice of insecurity in your brain to shut up. You’re gonna pass all your classes, your skin will clear up, you’ll be happy and fulfilled. Stop worrying!
Fortune is leaning in your favour. There isn’t gonna be a better week than this week to square up with the one kid from your tutorial who keeps borrowing a pen off you without giving it back. Defend your pens.
CANCER
CAPRICORN
Oh, sweet Cancer. There's like a 37% chance you’ll be poisoned this week. Avoid cake.
PLEASE stop making your Instagram stories so long, we’re BEGGING you.
AQUARIUS
LEO Skip class today, dude, you know you deserve it.
If you keep ignoring those Duolingo notifications the Duo owl will show up in your sleep paralysis.
PISCES
VIRGO
Let’s admit it: Your subtle attempts to let a certain someone know that they’ve been annoying you have not been working. Skip the passive in passive-aggressive this week and take direct action.
There’s a person who gets stupid everytime they look at you. Might be because they’re in love with you, might be because you’re so dumb they lose braincells just by being in your presence. Take your pick.
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L R E O F Z Y T R V N Y L L Y O F O T P S K R B K
L N L S G Q Z V G X T Q F B W H T C N U E E O E S
I S M R U T H E R F O R D H O U S E A U S Z S R Z
H A D X B V A D Q W A K X X W Q C G R B C L U L B
S R E X P R H K X T H L F P R F S E G K O E Q A E
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A T U A L L M O B V G I W O Y P U O D S E J A V A
G A T P T X A A R O W W W C F W Y E D N H Q W N U
I U C F O S U E P R E P L Z S W A Z A H N P B U S
B T E Y M O T C S X R J Y A R X H O D N D R J C E
P L L P L B O N F T Q G H A M O L H L P K D Y T B
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CROSSWORD PUZZLES FRO M PUC K
CROSSWORD: NEW TRICKS
GOOD NEWS QUIZ
1. A New Plymouth couple finally found what in a lake after losing it for over a year? 2. What kind of café opened recently in Japan? 3. How much air can new “BioSolar Leaf” technology cleanse? 4. When a deaf man adopted a dog that was also deaf, what did he teach his dog to do? 5. A UK police officer was caught doing what during a drug raid? RIP DAD BOD (YOU'VE BEEN OUSTED) LAST WEEK’S BOD: SIMON COWELL
THE GREY SQUARES REVEAL AN UNUSUAL PROPERTY THESE ENTRIES SHARE.
Their wedding rings, A piglet cafe (!!), 100 times the amount of a single tree, Understand sign language, Doing flips on a trampoline
ACROSS
DOWN
1. Crams full to bursting (10) 7. Carpeting for a hallway or a bald spot (3) 9. Type of clef whose lines represent EGBDF (6) 10. Lack of iron in one's blood (7) 11. Latin American country whose capital is San José (5,4) 14. With 18-Across, dark and gritty crime genre of the 1940s (4,4) 16. Lawyer provided by the courts as part of the Miranda rights (6,8) 18. See 14-Across 19. Rum-based fruit cocktails named after a Cuban beach (9) 24. Like al fresco dining (7) 25. Bible book from which the phrases 'rise and shine' and 'voice in the wilderness' are derived (6) 26. Tally up (3) 27. '______ No.1' (Satie piano composition which appears in 'The Royal Tenenbaums') (10)
2. Star sign between the only two that begin with L (5) 3. Artificial being subject to Isaac Asimov's Three Rules (5) 4. Belonging to a group, but one that doesn't include me (5) 5. One set to be married (7) 6. Totally shut off; marine mammal (4) 7. Leftovers (9) 8. Word that can precede school or Nazi (7) 12. Handed in, like an assignment (9) 13. It covers about 30% of all the land on Earth (4) 15. Item in a restaurant or a toolbar (4) 16. Mythological figure who found hope at the bottom of a box (7) 17. Visual aid that might be a Venn (7) 20. The closest capital city to the Equator (5) 21. Picture (5) 22. Basra citizen (5) 23. Influential video game whose winner was the first to reach eleven points (4)
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LAST WEEK'S SOLUTION
PICK YOUR POISON, SUDOKU LOVERS
F*CK YA LIFE UP
EASY PEASY
Puzzle 1 (Very hard, difficulty rating 0.79)
Puzzle 1 (Easy, difficulty rating 0.35)
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Generated by http://www.opensky.ca/sudoku on Tue Apr 30 02:01:43 2019 GMT. Enjoy!
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Generated by http://www.opensky.ca/sudoku on Tue Apr 30 02:01:59 2019 GMT. Enjoy!
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Editors Kii Small & Taylor Galmiche Design & Illustration Rachel Salazar News Editor Johnny O’Hagan Brebner Sub Editor Janne Song Distributor Danica Soich Chief News Reporter Emma Houpt Feature Writers Shanti Mathias CKW Hunter Blair Comic Jack Mcgee Centrefold Jacob Preston @jacobprestondesigns Sponsored by
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About Us Salient is published by—but remains editorially independant from—Victoria Univeristy of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA). Salient is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA) and the New Zealand Press Council. Salient is funded in part by Victoria University of Wellington students through the Student Services Levy. The views expressed in Salient do not neceassarily reflect those of the Editor, VUWSA, or the University. Complaints People with complaints against the magazine should first complain in writing to the Editor and then, if not satisfied with the response, complain to the press Council. See presscouncil.org.nz/complain.php for more information.