After a bite of schnitzel sends her running to the toilet, Julie Hill dives into the murky world of Britain’s favourite meat substitute. It was late in the evening and my stomach was empty. I was on my way home after a slightly depressing trip to the hospital, hungry but too weary to cook from … Read more
New Zealanders are disproportionately affected by section 501 of Australia’s Migration Act, which allows foreigners to be deported if they’re deemed to pose a threat to the nation. Julie Hill spoke to three ‘501s’ about life in detention and after deportation. Anya Weta is Māori, but she knows little about New Zealand, having moved with … Read more
Please take a moment to pay tribute to the glories of New Zealand hair salon names. Julie Hill consults an expert. A decade ago, a linguistics lecturer named Martin Paviour-Smith published seminal work for Massey University’s Linguistics Department, on what was then known as a “blog”. The subject: linguistic strategies used in hair salon names … Read more
Julie Hill fondly recalls one of the Australian media’s great, accidentally truth-packed print cock-ups. Every now and then, an epic headline blunder (or spelling booboo or layout flub or grammar snafu), the work of some doomed subeditor, is so bad it becomes famous. “Girls’ Schools Still Offering Something Special – Head”, it will say, or … Read more
Stacey Kerapa has bitter first-hand experience of how brutal police are capable of being to Māori trans people, but the progress made over the years means that the decision to ban uniformed cops is a huge mistake, she says. Julie Hill reports. Last year, I interviewed a group of trans women who were sex workers … Read more
The prime minister’s whistlestop tour of Europe saw her meet the German chancellor in Berlin yesterday. And the local press were gushing, writes Julie Hill It’s been a bloody big month for our PM. First, she was basically mobbed at an arts festival in Wanaka. Then she flew to Paris to catch up with the other … Read more
You know him as a white supremacist and dangerous idiot. New Zealander Julie Hill knew Richard Spencer as a fellow language student – one who was loathed by classmates and teachers alike. This post originally published November 17, 2017. For one day last decade, I became BFFs with white supremacist, coiner of the term “alt-right”, … Read more
You know him as a white supremacist and dangerous idiot. New Zealander Julie Hill knew Richard Spencer as a fellow language student – one who was loathed by classmates and teachers alike. For one day last decade, I became BFFs with white supremacist, coiner of the term “alt-right”, and one of the world’s biggest fuckwits, … Read more
From the 70s through the 90s, Auckland’s inner-city streets hosted a population of trans sex workers who were not only outside the protection of the law, but often at the mercy of those who enforce it. Those who survived that era tell Julie Hill about the sexual acts demanded by police, and how they made … Read more