The Notesapp 

The air was stagnant, I could taste the presence of hundreds of pastors who had led services years before. The congregation rustled— shifting weight, creaking pews, the soft drag of dress shoes across the hardwood. Pastor Sheridan’s voice rolled from the pulpit, controlled but thunderous through my unsettled ears. As he lifted

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Unconventional ways to survive university with ADHD

Properly diagnosed or not, medicated or not, having ADHD while trying to get yourself an education is a little bit of a bitch to deal with. You’d think it wouldn’t be so hard; this is a degree I want to do, I chose to do, I like the subjects, but every reading and assignment and tutorial feels

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Waikato Spots

When you’ve been in Hamilton long enough you realise this place kinda sucks, we don’t have aesthetic historical buildings and multiple libraries like dunedin, we don’t have a supermodern student bar and restaurant like Christchurch, we don’t have a rooftop soccer pitch and multiple dinner spots on campus like auckland, I dont know what those country Bumpkins do at massey and lincoln but we’re

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The Notesapp

SUNDAY Scalding at the bottom of the kettle, a bloom   I decide it’s nothing but   like the sting and the red after this   weekend getaway of sexing, fucking   the beachside’s famous vanishing act   Piss it drunk down the motel sink   SATURDAY   On Saturday morning   they confirmed the worst news   I watched the caterpillars gather, beneath

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What’s the Buzz: Winnie the Pooh wants his honey

If you pay attention to what goes on in New Zealand politics at all, you’d know the Beehive contains more drama than a high school theatre kid friend group. The politicians that we trust with our country with are… volatile, to say the least.   What’s ever-so-slightly concerning is how high-school-style drama has recently encapsulated New

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Puppets; and their connection to media and the world of Punk 

Byrne Power says, quoting Tomáš Procházka; “It’s nice to say it. Because then we can say we do Punk. We do Punk Puppetry.”  With DIY elements and a fundamental concept of alienation to the standard creativity leech that is capitalist powers, the puppet is punk, in and of itself. Through parody and

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The ultimatum: Central government x local government (sfw)

In November of 2025, Minister for Resource Management Act Reform Chris Bishop and Minister for Local Government Simon Watts announced reforms to local government. On Tuesday the 5th of May, they gave councils three months to figure out how they would do it before the New Zealand Government steps in. According to

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The Scent of Black Gold 

If you are familiar with the world of perfume and fragrance, you have probably come across the word “oud” at some point. A staple on the shelves of fragrance bros around the world, oud is a scent that is widely known but scarcely understood. In fact, oud is the Arabic name for Agarwood, a

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What’s the Buzz: The search for a new Queen Bee

What year is it? Because I thought it was 2026, three years after New Zealand’s last election, making it an election year. The behaviour of our political leaders does not seem to line up with this.  There’s no denying that as idyllic as the world would be if we all made educated votes

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Revealing Reviews #2

This educational game is excellent for teaching children about the economic state of the world right now and the oppressive system of capitalism. It starts off with an excellent metaphor in which you arrive on an island, expecting to start a new life, but the island is deserted. This is a specific

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My Sister Brought Home a Scientologist 

My sister has brought home another date. This one seems fine, but after Evan the fascist—anyone would seem fine. I look him up and down, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Mum and Dad giving him the same scanning stare.   Daniel had arrived exactly on time. He wore

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Editorial – 11/3

I have a serious question for all of you. I was watching The Babysitter (2017) last night, and there was the question of who to put in a five-member inter-galactic dream team. I want to know who you guys would choose in a team to fight a star war (hehe),

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Editorial – 26/2

It doesn’t seem right to be claiming this space as my own. For the past two years, I have worked with Jak, and it feels weird to be succeeding him in the editor’s position. Well, I suppose all there is to do is say thank you. Thanks for being awesome,

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Random Audit: COMPX101 Introduction to Programming 

Whilst I was under the impression that afternoon lectures started at ten past the hour, when I walked into L.G.01 at eight minutes past twelve, the class was already a few slides deep into what looked like colourful alien language. Those guys just seem to be really keen on learning their programming,

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Burger Tacos

  This recipe is a personal favourite, it’s super easy if you’re lazy and doesn’t suck shit like most of the other despair meals that have been in this magazine. Ingredients are pretty simple, its cheap (kinda) and you can throw it into the mix every once in a while so the people around you don’t worry about the person you have become   

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Horoscopes – Issue 7 2026

Aries: Having a good day? Cool! Listen to Sun Bleached Flies by Ethel Cain to make it way better. I promise.  Taurus: That green Macbook neo is not calling your name. It’s actually really fucking ugly, not cute and nostalgic. You don’t need it.  Gemini: You were really inspired by the Artemis mission, and honestly go off. It was pretty awesome. Just don’t suddenly think you can be an astronaut.  Cancer: You’ve been

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Record Store Day 2026 

Let me paint you a picture: Once a year, a few hundred titles which have never before been released on vinyl get pressed and distributed globally. Each record gets pressed anywhere between 20,000 to a mere 750 times, globally. Said records are shipped to independent record stores without any knowledge of what they get.

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Recipe – Nachos

If you haven’t been taught how to make nachos by a school cooking class or your mum by now, I’m disappointed. So I’m going to teach you instead. You will need:  Method: 

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Random Audit – SOCIO101 

Not only do I have no business crashing a lecture for a class I’m not in, I have even less business in a sociology 101 tutorial where the tutor is completely unaware I’m not supposed to be there. But there I sat on a Tuesday afternoon in the first SOCIO101 tutorial of the semester, 2048 open on my

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Blind Date – Issue 6 2026

He is a 20-year-old third year that was looking for Miss Right that he could plan his environment around. She is a 19-year-old Nursing student looking for Mr Right now. Was it a love connection? We will let you judge. PSA: Women don’t owe men anything – but they do

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Horoscopes – Issue 6 2026

Aries – Stop procrastinating, embrace your 15 deadlines and get shit done.  Taurus – Happy Birthday, also calm down, invest in a journal.  Gemini – They’re not looking at you; they don’t want you; stop being a pick me.  Cancer – It’s time to become less insufferable. It’s time for you to shine, I feel big things and more friends coming your way.  Leo – Spice

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Random Audit – ENGLI200

Weekly topic: online literature.  THEY’RE STUDYING FANFICTION THIS WEEK. Granted it’s that shitty Harry Styles After one. I’d be interested in doing a census and see if people like this homework more or less than reading through a twenty page scholarly article. There are some people who have Wattpad open in this class but, unlike usual, they’re actually engaging with the lecture.  I really like the way

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Soundcheck – Issue 6 2026

Album review Bri Louise   Pōneke based, Bri Louise, brings a calm gentleness to this Album; you can hear the smile in her voice and the love she has for those she sings about. With smooth jazz and R ‘n’ B notes, the Album was recorded live, with a ~20-piece support band/choir, giving it

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Soundcheck – Issue 5 2026

The Beths – gig Review  We’re in an old church-turned-music-venue, you can feel the lingering evangelical spirit whipping up the crowd into a holy fervour, worshiping the divine power that is The Beths. It’s hot as hell, packed to bursting with students and mid-30s day-one fans alike.  My friends and I manage to push almost

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Recipe – Lazy Focaccia

Ingredients   1 cup lukewarm water   1 tablespoon of sugar   2 teaspoons active dry yeast   2 tablespoons olive oil (it wont explode if u use vegetable oil but it wont be as flavorful)   2 ½ – 3 cups standard four (for this recipe I eyeball it but its usually around 350gr)   1 teaspoon of salt   Fresh rosemary   Cherry tomatoes  

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Bisexual girls are allowed to have boyfriends- just accept it.

Since pride month has finally ended, it’s appropriate to talk about what’s happening to bisexual women in queer internet spaces at the moment. Since the 1980s, there has been an observable rift between bisexual women that date men and lesbians, which has been recently revived on social media. I sat down with Sonja Ellis, a professor

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The iPad Kids Aren’t Alright 

A New Plymouth primary school has phased out the use of iPads for students in years one to four.  Omata School was one of the first in the country to adopt the use of devices in the classroom, but Principal Karen Brisco is now not so convinced that they are

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Gymfluencers and the Ozempademic

Scroll through social media for five minutes and you’ll find a new body to aspire to. One creator swears by becoming a “muscle mommy,” another insists Pilates is the secret to a lean physique, while someone else claims marathon training transformed their body and life. Alongside these fitness trends come equally viral

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The Tavern – Grassroots NZ Film with Matt Hicks

Sup Matt! Tell us a bit about yourself and your time at Nexus?  I used to write a column called ‘Making living cheaper with Honest Matt’. It was dodgy (borderline criminal) financial advice for poor students. I won columnist of the year for 2012 and got really drunk at House.    Also, that

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Maiki Sherman’s resignation: more than just a controversy

Maiki Sherman has resigned from her role as political editor for 1News at TVNZ.   That’s the headline, but it’s not the full picture. The circumstances surrounding her resignation have been only one part of an ecosystem of muddied waters that now make up the relationship between Parliament, the media, and the New Zealand

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The Rise and Fall of Fees Free

The tumultuous history of deciding who pays for university  The University of Waikato opened in1964, and its students back then had a much different experience financing university than we do today. From 1962 until 1989, the government paid for tertiary tuition fees in full with the state bursary.   As the story often goes, all good things

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Red or Black? 

It’s not much of a secret that online gambling has seen a rise in popularity in the last few years, especially with the younger generation. The technology being offered today means you can gamble from anywhere you can find a connection, anytime you want, on whatever device you’re using. It’s convenient, accessible, and marketed as entertainment suited

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An Objectively Good Jawline – the Dehumanisation of Looksmaxxing

Content warning: mentions of sexual violence, drug use and suicide   The popularisation of looksmaxxing has opened a gaping glory hole in the manosphere – ironically by some of the most homophobic people on the internet.   Looksmaxxing, a portmanteau of ‘looks’ and ‘maximising’, is the idea and practice of improving one’s physical appearance through a variety of

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Metamodernism: The Feeling After Irony 

At some point in the early 21st century, it became clear that the cultural mood had shifted. The ironic detachment that defined late 20th-century art and thought – so central to postmodernism – no longer felt sufficient in a world shaped by climate anxiety, digital hyperconnectivity, and renewed political urgency. Yet a return to

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Amplifying Stripper Voices in Aotearoa: Pole, Politics and Power

Brittle Splits is a 30-something year old Waikato Arts alumni, who wears nipple pasties and fishnet tops onstage (in 9 inch boots) just for fun—and feminist expression, duh. Here, she outlines the mediascape of pole politics within Aotearoa. She recommends strippers to follow (Online only. Do. Not. Stalk.) for equal

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Signing of MOU Represents a New Commitment to Disabled Students

On 27 May 2026, a group of disabled student activists gathered in the SUB over pizza and sodas to celebrate the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Te Awa Kōtui  Waikato Students Union and the Waikato Disabled Students Association. This small but influential club is dedicated to supporting and advocating for all disabled

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Drill baby drill! 

Over the 18th and 19th of July, party leader Winston Peters stood up at the New Zealand First convention to announce the party’s proposal, if re-elected, is to invest one billion dollars into the exploration of offshore basins in order to extract oil and gas supplies. Peters claimed that this investment was

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Nexus Breaks the News – Issue 16 2026

Donald Trump unveils mathematical skills  Just over a month after bragging about his flawless cognitive examinations – Donald Trump has announced his intention on running for a Fourth Term in 2028: This is batshit in and of itself, but we’d especially like to highlight the fact that the guy is only sitting his second term right

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Use your own intelligence, Professor 

There is nothing that makes me lose faith in a lecturer than blatant and ignorant usage of AI. I write this after sitting through a lecture with so many AI generated images on the slides that it truly made me doubt whether the lecturer had even written the slides themself. I’m sorry professor, but

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MASTER DEBATERS

Te Piringa Student Events Association and Te Awa Kōtui Waikato Students’ Union are coming together to host an event very creatively named ‘The Debate’. On August 10th representatives from ACT, Labour, National, NZFirst, The Greens, TOP, & Te Pāti Māori will gather in the Pā, putting themselves under the scrutiny of tertiary-aged students the likes of which could be a serious deciding bloc in cities like Kirikiriroa if enough

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Roadworks? I sure hope it does!

Since the 20th of January the offramp delivering commuters from SH1’s pothole-laden post-work-and-school traffic towards the Cambridge Velodrome has been closed, not because of any particular work on the ramp itself but because the whole southbound part of the road has been cordoned off, drivers detoured with an excess of

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I’m fucking broke because of a dead tree

TELL ME WHY. Seriously, tell me why I walk into Campus Books needing three – may I stress, only three – texts for an English course I’m currently taking, and I walk out $134.25 poorer. For THREE fiction books. One of which was almost sixty dollars, which sure, it’s a fairly chunky book, but most of the paper isn’t used

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Hamilton’s 2026 Election Guide (So Far)

For many students, the 2026 general election will be the first time they have the opportunity to directly influence who represents their community in Parliament. While national debates often focus on party leaders, electorate MPs have an important role in advocating for local issues – including the challenges many students face

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Nexus Breaks the News – Issue 14 2026

ROADS OF MAYBE SORT OF POTENTIALLY NOT REALLY NATIONAL INTEREST    The Chris Bishop humiliation ritual will continue until house prices improve.   MONEYBALL(s)  Sunday Star sportswriter Tony Smith has had an opinion article published. In the article, Smith argues that we should put ‘smart corporate money’ on the All Whites just as much

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STRAIT… UP ‘N CLOSED (AGAIN) (YES LIKE FOR A SECOND TIME) (SORRY)

Long queues for slightly promising gas prices might be looming beyond the windscreen once again. After tense ceasefire negotiations with Iran on June 17th, the United States saw some gaudy jackboot phonk edits get thrown up by official White House accounts, there was a period of snails pace, closely monitored travel through the strait of Hormuz.   Before any of us regular folk

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MODI’S GREAT KIWI HOLIDAY

Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi arrived in Auckland on July 10th to a wave of fanfare from Kiwi-Indians and our bald Prime Minister for talks of bilateral partnership by way of a Free Trade Agreement. India’s understanding of the agreement, though, seems to be a little flopsided; With Modi thanking us for a ‘commitment’ to investing

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New Zealand’s Road Toll: A Systematic Failure. 

Sunday nights are usually the same in my household; something nice for dinner, chilling out with my flatmate, and the compulsory viewing of One News Live at 6. The news was the same as usual last Sunday, with some World Cup updates, something about the United States, and a report on

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Heartstopper Forever

Rating: -1/5 After a six volume graphic novel series, one novella, and three series of a Netflix show, Heartstopper came to a close with a feature length film Heartstopper Forever. These loved characters ended their highschool chapters, and it was clear the actors were dying to do so.  The actors have been linked to said teen drama

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If We Were Villains

Rating: -3/5 It never ceases to amaze me how this travesty of Donna Tart’s The Secret History ever managed to become so popular.  If We Were Villains tells the story of a group of Shakespearean drama students as they try to cover up the death of friend. However, the fact that the students study

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Gracie Abrams — Daughter From Hell

Rating: 3/5 My favourite nepo-baby is back with a new album, titled Daughter from Hell. This time, she and Aaron Dessner, Gracie’s longtime producer, are picking up the piano a lot more, rather than her trademark plucky fingerstyle acoustic, popular on her album The Secret of Us.   This album, though still filled lyrically with her personal

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Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga 

Rating: 3/5 This movie had never been anywhere close to being on my radar, but I’ve got some theatre-kid friends, so I ended up falling in love with a hundred and twenty minutes of Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams singing very badly. Well, Will sang badly. Rachel’s character was actually incredible, and he

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Toy Story 5 

Rating: 1/5 I went into this movie thinking they’d seriously fuck up the series, since let’s be real, how many movies can you make before it starts to go downhill? Apparently, five isn’t too many. I left the theatre with two of my best friends, all of us pretending like we hadn’t just bawled our eyes out at an

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Where are the Fish-Flakes?

Rating: 4/5 First day back in Semester B, and there’s something new in the library! It looks so cozy and inviting, and kind of reminds me of a fishbowl. Cute!   I forget everything every three seconds, and I’m insanely sensitive to changes in my environment, so I think I‘ll belong there. That’s right folks, I’m talking about the glass study boxes that

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Elle Fanning: She’s All Grown Up 

Rating: 5/5  Elle Fanning hit AppleTV+ with her boobs out shocking screens everywhere with her new TV series Margo’s Got Money Troubles and honestly, I’m impressed.  This show has the most stacked cast I’ve ever seen and for the first time in a long time, I have no notes. The title character, Margo (Elle Fanning) gets her

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Do That Again by Malcolm Todd 

Rating: -2/5  Released on June 5th, Malcolm Todd’s newest album Do That Again is good but not great. While his last album included a host of unique yet nostalgic, genre-blurring tracks, this one feels like the same mellow tune done 13 ways.   Featuring singles “Breathe” and “I Saw Your Face”, the release follows a pattern

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The Boys Season 5 

Rating: -3/5 With a cast that has been absolutely phenomenal performing their characters through all five seasons (Shoutout to Kiwi actors Antony Starr as Homelander and Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, two men I’d call daddy any day), The Boys began as a contender for being one of the greatest superhero TV

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Hooked 

Rating: 3/5 Hooked by Asako Yuzuki is a perfect example of how interesting it can be to read a work initially written in a different language, for a completely different audience.  The novel follows two women plagued by the ailment of loneliness. They become each other’s only female friends, but for

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The Neighbourhood World Tour 

Rating: 4/5 Bisexuals and depressed 20-something-year-olds all found themselves at Spark Arena to join The Neighbourhood on their first show in Aotearoa. And the American alt-rock band did not disappoint.   The biggest let down of the night was the crowd, they just did not catch the vibe. You always get the popular songs

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BLADEE’S SULFUR SURPHER  

Rating: -3 Anybody with a smidgen of foresight might have come to the conclusion ages ago that a group of teenage Swedes, hopped off on codeine and zombie-marching (complimentary) through the snow, almost single-handedly carving out a new direction for sound totally full of childish wonder were always going to lose

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Kōrero Mai – Issue 10 2026

I’ll just come right out and say it. If there were no extra financial support for education, I would not be attending university right now. Many tauira don’t have the luxury of a safety net or financial stability. Many come from homes that don’t have an extra $20 to spare.  Back in the dark ages, in

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Kōrero Mai – Issue 7 2026

Tauira Māori on campus   Māne (Monday)  Tūrei (Tuesday)  Wenerei (Wednesday)  Hoki atu ki tō kāinga – Just go home   Nā Elyse Rahiri   Only a quarter of the way through the year and already most of us are feeling a bit pau te hau. Getting back into the swing of study can be overwhelming and even worse if you have people pleasing tendencies, don’t say

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Kōrero Mai

Tauira Māori on campus   Tūrei (Tuesday)  Wenerei (Wednesday)  Taite (Thursday)  Te Waiora – Rā Hākinakina | Gate 2b – 4:30 pm  Reo Māori Phrases of the Week  Kia ora koutou! Here are some useful everyday Reo Māori phrases to help you talk about holidays, whānau, and what you’ve been up to.  COLUMN  I tōku whānau tokorua ōku kuia, noho tahi ai. Arā, ko tōku kuia a toto nei, me te kuia o tōku ngākau. Ko te rongo o te aroha, kāore i rerekē. He tirohanga Māori tēnei. Ahakoa te momo aroha,

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Kōrero Mai

By now you’ve probably heard we’ve got a new name. We’re still WSU, but now we also carry our ingoa Māori, Te Awa Kōtui.  This didn’t happen overnight. WSU has been working towards an ingoa Māori that truly reflects us and our tauira for a long time, across multiple boards. I also want to acknowledge the presidents, vice presidents, VP Māori, and life members who contributed

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He Kura Tūroa

Kia ora, my name is Anaia Rua, and I am from Ngāi Tūhoe & Ngāti Awa. In the following piece, I reflect on the profound connection shared between Aotearoa and our relatives from Hawai’i during the “He Kura Tūroa” wānanga.    He Kura Tūroa: Relatives Across the Pacific  He ahurea te taiao, he taiao te ahurea. The environment is the culture, the culture is the

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Tikanga: Does It Evolve in a Modern World? 

A question I heard recently has been sitting with me: can tikanga evolve in a modern world? It came up during a kōrero between a group of tauira, and it sparked a lot of reflection for me about what I’ve been taught and how I understand tikanga today. For many people, tikanga is

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Tauira Māori on campus

There’s a strong Māori presence on campus and plenty happening this week, from Cultural Hour to weekly wānanga and study spaces. If you want to meet other tauira, build your reo, or spend time in a Māori space between classes, there are kaupapa running across campus. Keep an eye on…  Te whakahiapo – Maori law students association – @te_whakahiapo 

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