Columns

Commodifying Pop Culture (In The Form of Tattoo)

There’s something to be said about loving an idea so much that you feel the need to condemn it to permanence. We live in an age that sometimes confuses consumerism with love which means that we need to digest or embody something for our claim over it to feel valid.  

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Columns

The Reality for Reality TV: Ink Master *GONG WRONG* (Not Clickbait)

The Season 15 finale of Ink Master became a trigger-point for conversations about art, bias, and representation in traditionally masculine spaces. At its centre was Freddie, a queer finalist on the show, whose interpretation of the challenge theme “female” subverted the expected feminine form into something that sparked debate at

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Features

Finance Bro Advice for Rangatahi

By Maraea Gowens Real talk: talking about money can be awkward as. For many of us, it is easier to talk about who is hot or not at Te Matatini than to talk about investing, savings and all the financial jargon… But here is the secret: our tīpuna were investors

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Columns

The Price of “Free” Kai

Written by Tawera Marsh When we gather as whānau, as hapū, as iwi, there is always kai. It flows like aroha, endless plates being filled, cups being topped up, hands busy in the kitchen, voices laughing and calling out instructions. To feed people is to manaaki them. To provide kai

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Columns

Rongoa For Uni Survival

By Temepara Smith He taonga tuku iho nā ngā tīpuna In traditional times, Māori had many different types of Rongoa for different matenga. Our rongoa practices were birthed from our environment and cultural beliefs. Today, we live in a different environment with its own challenges. Stress, burnout, and anxiety are

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Columns

Find Mana in the Small Things

Anita Taiapa Brown “Ahakoa he iti, he pounamu,” Cheesy, but a classic whakatauki that I think embodies the āhua of this article. Mana is in the small things, regardless of how cringe that might seem to you. Being Māori, being Indigenous, being a minority- your existence is a political statement,

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Columns

Shades of Whakapapa

Written by Kata Roberts According to my AncestryDNA results, I’m made up of 63% European and 37% Māori heritage, which basically means I’m a walking Treaty negotiation. I’m proud of both sides, but it’s the Māori side I’ve always felt more connected to. That’s why it stings when I don’t

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Features

Head? Is it tapu?

Part 1: Ripeka Paapu The notion that receiving or giving oral sex while wearing moko kanohi is tapu reflects a modern discomfort, not the lived realities of our tipuna. To understand moko is to understand that it has always been part of the totality of our humanity, not a restriction

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Columns

And That’s On Period.

By Nova Te Hapua Mauri ora e hoa mā! My names Nova, I’m a Kaupapa Māori researcher in all things īkura,menstruation. Okay, before you freak out and turn the page thinking I’m one of those witchy woo woo paint with your period blood girls, which kei a koe if that’s

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Columns

What They Don’t Tell You About Reo Revitalisation

By Emere Paku It is no secret that the mamae of losing our reo and culture at the hands of colonisation is an intergenerational heavy load of baggage to carry, and no matter how much we do to try and unload its contents, it weighs just as heavy as before.

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