Profiled: Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic, Jennifer Milam

Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic, Jennifer Milam, sits down with Nexus to explain her horrifically long job title, and now we think she’s too funny and cool to work for the uni.  1. What do you do at the University? As Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic, I am responsible for all aspects of the student experience and

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Left vs Right: Should Hamilton Revert to Kirikiriroa

Left:  When we are asking ourselves if the name Hamilton should be reverted to its Māori name Kirikiriroa, we need to think about what it represents and who is affected by it most. Yes, the city under the name of Hamilton has a lot of history, and the name has become ingrained in

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Not Just a Pretty Scar 

I received the text that toppled my world in the early hours of August 28th, 2025. Wrapped in a blanket and clutching the bear he’d bought me, I read the unwelcome words over and over again.   My Love: I don’t think this is going to work.  In shock, still a little drunk from the party

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Munich Security Conference

Two weeks ago, World Leaders gathered to state their goals and directions in this turbulent time in political history.   These ranged from speeches about ‘values’ and ‘facing reality’ from Germany to the nonsensical dogma of the current American administration.   The most curious thing to me as a political science student is listening

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Laneslay: A Review of the Worlds Gayest Festival

The popular four-stage touring festival Laneway came to Auckland once again on February 5th. If you’re WLW, this year’s festival probably felt like Coachella’s cooler, gayer cousin: Chappell Roan, Wet Leg, Lucy Dacus, and Wolf Alice all gracing Western Springs for what turned out to be a long, glitter-dusted day of music, sunscreen, and

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10 WORST ATHLETES/TEAMS OF 2025

10. THE WARRIORS Don’t listen to anyone who said this year was our year. Next year is definitely our year. 9. HARRISON BUTKER Last year, the Kansas place kicker spewed awful right-wing role of the woman shit, at a graduation speech. But if anything, he keeps doubling down on it.

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10 BEST ATHLETES/TEAMS OF 2025

10. STEVEN ADAMS The grizzled veteran is now reaching an age where people not only appreciate the fact he is still doing it but are realising the greatness he always had. 9. DAME NOELINE TAURUA We stand with her. Success has a standard. 8. MARCO ROJAS The Kiwi Messi retired

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10 WORST ALBUMS OF 2025

10. ALTER EGO (LISA) It’s hard to break out solo from such a big band, and Lisa certainly has the vocals for it. This album just isn’t the one. Rockstar is a banger, Elastigirl got it on this list. 9. AMERICAN HEART(BENSON BONE) This man really needs to just stop.

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10 BEST ALBUMS OF 2025

10. BEAUTIFUL CHAOS (KATSEYE) A catchy and energetic first album for a female girl group with endless talent. 9. RUBY(JENNIE) Jennie’s Ruby is more than a debut. Free from YG’s bubble, she has proven her creativity (like Jennie). Vocals? Flawless. Looks? Iconic. ‘It girl’ energy? Claimed and sealed. All wrapped

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Culture Vs Costume

By Aya Birt “Goth” is the term for a political and music-based subculture, born out of the existentialism of the 1970s. Much like many of the other emerging genres at the time it concerned itself with personal anguish, autonomy and often very dark themes that commented on the human experience.

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Aesthetic Of The Macabre

Written by Aya Dead bodies are a favourite topic of conversation across the humanities. It seems that there’s just something fascinating about the dark, decaying and macabre. Every culture has practices and beliefs that it lends to death; their own funeral rites they grant to those who pass. One of

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Graveyard Etiquette

Ah, Tik Tok, the place where all micro trends go to live and die. Home of dancing, viral song, and as it appears, gravestone cleaning. While this may seem like a thoughtful gesture for the deceased, which it can be, if done respectfully such as what @manicpixiemom does, a lot

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Editorial – 2/09

We’re back! Happy September everyone- I hope you’re ready to get on with the rest of the semester and kick ass with the rest of your uni work. I want to use this space for two things, and I’ll start with a little how-to guide on staying on your game

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Editorial – 5/8

Last week was magnificent. It was epic. It was an absolute dream. It was a legendary tale I’ll tell my kids one day. It was *insert every other good adjective*. Why, you ask? Not because of the Olympics, no. But because of you. Shoutout to the readers who manifested for

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Editorial – 22/7

A lot has happened in the time between the release of our previous issue and this one. Football didn’t “come home”, Trump is talking about unity, and Daemon Targaryen had an explicit dream about his mum (?). Somehow, only one of these things surprises me (and it isn’t the last

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Editorial – 8/07

As I was writing this, the waves of Kamala beach were crashing in front of me, and I was torn between abandoning Nexus, and keeping my job (just kidding… kind of!). The water was so clear, and the weather was finally nice and sunny. I could have been swimming that

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Editorial – 20/5

The people spoke and asked for option one, which unfortunately means that everyone who didn’t pick that has to read my rambles about power-scaling… or do you? I would love to talk to you about how there is no way Gojo could beat Hashirama (bffr), however I have decided that

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Editorial – 6/5

I have been sitting at my computer for two days with absolutely no progress. I have written so many first sentences and paragraphs, but I can’t seem to finish them! So, I decided to add all of my starters here for two reasons: one, you can decide which piece you

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Editorial – 8/4

Can we all collectively agree that the red sports house in school was the fucking best? I recently saw a TikTok talking about school sports, and so many people were gassing up the red house. Why? Because we were fucking on something.  When I was in primary school in Australia,

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Editorial – 25/3

This week has simultaneously been the BEST week for Nexus ‘24 and the WORST week for me, and here’s why: The Nexus writing crew is here and ready to go! I was already lucky enough to be working with the most legendary design team, but now we have four absolutely

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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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Horoscopes – 9/3/26

Aries: You will receive a complex and cryptic email from studylink this week. Begin gathering a group to decipher it.  Taurus: Do not give in to the temptation of watching Heated Rivalry. If you’ve already seen it, don’t watch it again.  Gemini: You will spend all of your McDonald’s points while hungover or drunk from O week. Prepare mentally

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Recipe – Chicken Patties

Alright gang, this is a snack that I grew up eating, and it is the best and easiest comfort food to make at home with minimal ingredients.  Ingredients:  Cooking Time:  2 hours  Steps:  Making the filling for the patties  Your patties are now ready to enjoy!!

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Entertainment – 2/09

Crush of the Week Jensen Ackles There’s a 99% chance this beautiful man showed up in one of our 2022 issues… but it’s 2024 now so we don’t care! You are barking mad if you don’t think that this man is the ultimate DILF. And guess what? He has always

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Entertainment – 5/8

Crush of the Week Laios Touden  Back at it again with another golden retriever himbo – Laios Touden from Dungeon Meshi aka Delicious in Dungeon.   Despite his bluntness, Laios is fully aware and respectful of other people’s opinions and boundaries… until food is in the discussion. His enthusiasm for

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Entertainment – 22/7

Crush of the Week The lil lizards in the carpark 🙂  Imagine you’re walking from the main carpark at uni towards the cafes and shops and stuff. Obviously, you’re going to be in a less-than-optimal mood because you arrived later than 9am so you had to park in Timbuktu and

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Entertainment – 8/07

Crush of the Week Heartthrob of the week: Andrew Scott  You may know him as the priest from fleabag or the best dressed at every award show! This man is potentially my favourite Irish actor too, which IFYKYK, is a big call considering just how many beautiful male actors seem

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Entertainment – 20/5

Crush of the Week Ncuti Gatwa Ncuti Gatwa, born on October 16, 1992, is a Scottish-Rwandan actor known for his breakout role as Eric Effiong in the Netflix series “Sex Education”. Raised in Edinburgh, Gatwa discovered his passion for acting early on and honed his skills at the Royal Conservatoire

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Entertainment – 6/5

Crush of the week  Kit Connor  British actor with a big heart and a big uhh… just playing! Kit Connor has charmed the audience playing Nick Nelson in Heartstopper, a coming-of-age rom-com series. Unfortunately, my man recently fell for the buzzcut crush, decreasing his charm by 1% (I’m heartbroken). Check

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Entertainment – 8/4

Crush of the Week Sabrina Carpenter You may know her as Barry Keoghan’s girlfriend (AKA the luckiest woman in the world) or the opener for Taylor Swift, but Miss Carpenter has more than earned her rights to the throne with her SKIMS campaign that dropped this week. It’s giving coquette

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Entertainment – 25/3

Crush Of The Week Brakence This man is a Bi-Icon and Hyper-Pop Emo-Rap legend. Go check him out on Spotify. (I would gatekeep him, but he’s just SO GOOD!!) I highly recommend rosier/punk2 (if you want to hear a man genuinely apologise in the most heart-wrenching love ballad ever written),

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Entertainment – 11/3

Crush of the Week Megan Thee Stallion Megan always eats when she cosplays, but when she posted herself as our blue-eyed glorious king Satoru Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen, I knew she had to be this issue’s crush. Also, if you ever happen to stumble on her TikTok, she’s actually pretty

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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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MISSED OPPORTUNITY 

FORGED IN FAILURE AFTER FAILURE  Founded in 2016 by eccentric millionaire and Wellington Phoenix Co-Owner Gareth Morgan, The Opportunities Party was at best quixotic and at worst your most stoned friends half-baked take on civics lessons they hadn’t really paid attention to. Morgan was already somewhat of a meme-worthy celebrity, and the founding of what was, for all intents and purposes, a vanity party was

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Doomsday Mentality

I try to avoid watching the news these days.   Whenever I do it just seems like a sickening tableau of ruin. A macabre parade before the end of the world with grand marshals who sit in ivory towers and feed off the flesh of the masses beneath them. More and more I think that I

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I think the Old White Bearded Guy Was Right.

Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie are having sex again, but now it’s happening in a scene written by a chatbot that has never wanted anything in its life. It looks like a story: there’s rhythm, description, a beginning and an end. But nothing is at stake. No one is there behind it. Hollywood is doing a slower

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Do young people really care about religion?

Growing up in a very Catholic school system all the way from year one to year thirteen, learning about religion was more of an obligation than a choice, though I will admit, it wasn’t all that bad. I was surrounded by classmates who had very differing opinions on the topic: some hated

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Budget 2026: Show Me the Money.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered Budget 2026without any election-year giveaways. The Government has spent months preparing New Zealanders for what is one of the tightest budgets in years. Rather than major new spending programmes, the focus was on controlling government debt, returning the books to surplus, and funding a small number of priority areas. For students, that may

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Nexus Breaks the News – Issue 12 2026

Max Verstappen takes a podium in Montreal:  No one understands how much this means to me. The battle between him and Hamilton was class, and we got a podium out of it too. The Red Bull comeback might be coming sooner than we thought.  Crusaders horse spooks at home game:  Look,

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POLITICAL VIRGINS – Housing and Rentals

Four people who’ve never voted or voted but didn’t care sit in a room and learn about politics, so you don’t have to. This week: Housing and Rentals. Labour ACT National Greens NZ First Te Pāti Māori Opportunity Party Responses: Lauren:   Filly: Due to my current situation, what Labour is proposing sounds really good to me, one of my end goals has always been buying a house for my fam, so any support to help me

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Nexus Breaks The News – Issue 11 2026

Thousands of public servants to lose their jobs, saving the government billions.  Good to see that the government’s solution to being in crippling debt is to fire the people that literally operate the country. Another great example of why they are a one term government.  Couple Devastated after uninsured pirate ship catches on fire and sinks 

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CHAOS BY DESIGN: Restructures, tears and panic at the Design School  

By Nexus Magazine – additional reporting done by Nexus Interns Tomas Richly and Hailey Reece   Mid-Trimester restructures at the Waikato School of Design have led to tears, panic and at least ten students scrambling to find 100-hour internships in the last three weeks of the Trimester.    According to a University spokesperson the

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Nexus Breaks the News – Issue 10 2026

Missing Hotel Guest found inside huge crocodile airlifted from river  Oh so this is a real thing that happens? You can actually get swallowed whole by a creature? Thank god we don’t have crocodiles here, because if we did I’d never touch a body of water again in my life.  Pierre Gasly dramatically flips after a crash with Liam Lawson  I’m not religious, but thank

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GENERATION Zzzz… ‘Cuz they’re sleeping on us. 

There was a twinkle of optimism drifting through the air just a week ago, it seems. Greens MP Francisco Hernandez put forward a Private Members’ bill that would see students receiving support during winter under the pretense that, like our country’s old, students are particularly at risk during the colder months of the year.   But Fees Free is getting canned, continuing

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Cost of Learning Crisis: Quiet Questions with Quigley

Fees Free is gone! Winston Peters let it slip on the eighth that one of the outcomes of the upcoming budget would be the end of Fees Free, and Finance Minister Nicola Willis confirmed it. The policy has had a short and, to put it bluntly, awkward life.   Introduced by Labour in 2018, the policy made

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Political Virgins – Issue 10 2026

Four people who’ve never voted, 25 weeks and 4 days until the election, and a whole lot of issues on everyone’s mind. It’s a simple set-up, and this week’s been made a lot simpler with the buh-byeing of Fees Free.   LABOUR  ACT  NATIONAL  GREENS  NZFirst  Te Pāti Māori  Opportunity Party   Response:  Lauren: Green party is definitely the one I agree with the most at the

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You Are Sightseeing

Ah, travelling. Something so many of us want to do but can’t afford to. But regardless of whether you have booked your flights to your dream destination or are currently fantasising through your TikTok feed, buckle up. Because today I want to rant about the difference between travelling and sightseeing. By the end of this piece, you will hopefully be

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Hockey, Sex, and a Lot More Love. 

Rating: 3/5  The Long Game by Rachel Reid is a deeply emotional and satisfying sequel that proves you too, can make it out of situationship territory. Reid takes the chemistry, humour, and devotion that made Heated Rivalry beloved and pushes the relationship into more complex territory, exploring the toll of secrecy, mental health struggles, and the

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Off Campus, more like Off Script  

Rating: 2/5  Based on a series of books by Elle Kennedy, Off Campus is Prime’s newest sultry, hockey romance show that is guaranteed to fill the Heated Rivalry-shaped-hole in your heart. The show follows the unexpected romance between music major Hannah Wells and hockey captain Garrett Graham, weaving an entertaining web of friendship,

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Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream  

Rating: 5/5 I initially considered and was asked whether I wanted to review this game as part of my Revealing Reviews column. Truth be told, there is nothing more satirical I can write than the actual game itself. A sequel to the original Tomodachi Life game released by Nintendo in 2013, is

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A Cure For Wellness

Rating: 1/5 Directed by Gore Verbinski, the 2016 movie A Cure For Wellness is arguably one of the more fucked up things I’ve ever seen, and that’s coming from a horror/thriller fanatic.   The story follows Lockhart, a young businessman, who is sent to retrieve a CEO from a wellness retreat set inside a castle in the Swiss Alps. Lockhart’s task proves

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Hairy macalery 

Rating: -1/5 Brace yourselfs, spell check is OFF, Dignity is GONE and im Disylesic AF (hopefully someone makes it readable). so i picked up this book called Hairy Maclary from Donaldsons Dairy and straight away I knew I was in for something off  We start with this scruffy little lad, Hairy Maclary (already sounds like a bloke

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Practice superhuman abilities

Rating: 4/5 Did anyone else do this constantly as a kid? And when is everyone going to admit that we – yes we, I know I’m not alone in this – still do so?? There are only two types of people in this world: people who pretend they’re manipulating the elements (or actually do… I believe you),

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Have an interview with yourself in the mirror

Rating: 3/5 Highly recommend. I find myself doing this all the time, and I have done so since I was a kid. Not only is it an imagination exercise, but it can be grounding and help you get to know yourself just a bit better! And let’s be real, who doesn’t like pretending to be

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Hamilton Gardens

Rating: 5/5 Hamilton gardens are free! Wes free, and while you kinda need a car to get there, it is a pretty good spot to wander around pretending your degree still has a ROI. When people ask “what’s there to do in Hamilton” I often say the gardens are nice, having only been there twice

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Auckland Tattoo Studio

Rating: 2/5 As a girly with, now, thirteen tattoos, I have been in tattoo studios of all sorts. I have had tattoos done by apprentices, senior artists, drunk artists looking for a bit of fun, pop up market artists, and – as of recently – a very posh, incredibly professional, and extra expensive studio in Auckland

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GENER8TION & YUNG LEAN – STORM

Rating: -3/5 Yung Lean’s new song is trite shit. Fantano was right. I knew this for sure when, lashed by the sun and staving off offerings of gear, I watched him & Bladee project themselves in AI Generated Dragonball Z style form at Laneway.   Now, I can’t blame Lean for trying to divorce himself from shit he was making when

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The Anarchy by William Dalrymple

Rating: 5/5 William Dalrymple’s The Anarchy is a cautionary tale about what happens when a corporation is left dangerously unregulated. Set in the distant east, the book navigates the story of the British East India Company, a trading corporation accountable to only its shareholders, as it rises to overthrow one of the

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Pretty… Lame

Rating: 3/5 Pretty Lethal, the action thriller starring Uma Therman and Maddie Ziegler is pretty damn lethal to the eyes. The plot has great potential – five ballerinas travel to Istanbul but TRAGICALLY ARE TRAPPED IN A SCARY HOTEL. I’m sure you can see where this is going: 1. Someone important dies 2. The ballerinas freak out 3. All five

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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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