Curator matauranga Māori at Te Papa, Matariki Williams, introduces the woman that watches over the Ngā Tai Whakarongorua exhibition at Te Papa, known only as Maori girl. Tēnei wahine. When I first met her, she stopped me in my tracks. I was back of house at Te Papa, in the art store room and my colleague, Rebecca … Read more
Whitebait season is here, and Forest and Bird is steaming mad about it. Why are we serving endangered fish in home kitchens and cafes alike? And where are the catch limits? What’s all this then? Set the nets and get out your gummies – it’s whitebait season, and nothing tastes better than an endangered fish. … Read more
In honour of Madonna’s 60th birthday on 17 August, 2018, Sam Brooks rounded up the 60 best Madonna songs to celebrate this with her. Madonna follows forty-nine people on Twitter. I’m one of them. This is not a brag, but a fact. I have no idea why she follows me. I think it might be … Read more
If you’re a fan of the Bulletin, help us bring our daily curated guide of the most important NZ news to a wider audience. And, we’ll give you some sweet prizes too. Since The Bulletin was launched around the start of the year, we’ve had thousands of people sign up. Hundreds of people have got … Read more
Since 2016, the Department of Conservation (DOC) has partnered with Kiwibank to develop the conservation dog programme and, by proxy, raise the profile of conservation as a whole. Don Rowe goes to visit these hard-working canines to find out what it takes to be a DOC dog. The egg of a common skink is about the … Read more
For many in the restaurant industry, Anthony Bourdain’s death hit close to home, so a group of hospo friends decided to build something positive out of the sadness. When Dariush Lolaiy got home after work at his Auckland restaurant Cazador late one night in June, he saw a text from his head chef Brendan Kyle … Read more
Angella Dravid headed to the Auckland rally for striking primary teachers to hand out some gold stars for excellence in sign design. Related Why are teachers striking? It’s about a lot more than money
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It involved vanilla sponge. Tara Ward power-ranks week six of The Block NZ. I mean, just look at the state of it. It was Week 6 of The Block NZ, where the pinnacle of renovation glory involved strapping two chunks of vanilla sponge together, … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: No resolution to teacher pay dispute despite strike, Fonterra gets a new boss for now, and some interesting bits from the NBR Rich List. Tens of thousands of teachers went on strike yesterday, and it doesn’t appear to be the end of the matter. Rallies were … Read more
Today, the National Business Review, New Zealand’s most prestigious and weirdly-run business publication, published its annual Rich List. If you’re interested but not interested enough to subscribe, here are our biggest takeaways. 1. Graham Hart is way richer than Peter Thiel Like, wayyyy richer. Two-and-a-half times richer. Putting aside how weird it feels to see … Read more
Our man in London, Neil Young, meets Kiwi expat author Kirsty Gunn for a drink and a chat about her acclaimed new novel – and then wanders off for more drinks with Max Porter. With notebook in hand, I meet Kirsty Gunn at The Burr on Russell Square, and we order G&Ts. Outside there’s a heatwave. … Read more
Celine Dion just finished her world tour with three concerts at Auckland’s Spark Arena. Huge fan Madeleine Chapman was there to experience the magic. In 2015, I flew to Las Vegas, the last place I’d choose to holiday, and spent a lot of money so that I could see Celine Dion’s show at Caesar’s Palace. … Read more
Reflecting on the highs and lows of multiple circumnavigations of a beery concrete concourse. At the weekend, The Spinoff’s most enthusiastic consumer of beer made a pilgrimage to our nation’s capital to attend Beervana. For the uninitiated, Beervana is a big craft beer festival held over two days every August in the cosy concrete concourse … Read more
Which carries more bacteria, your toilet seat or your desk? If you guessed the former, you’d be very wrong. Microbiologist Michael Loughlin explains why your workspace is a breeding ground for germs. If you work in an office, the chances are there are some colleagues you would rather sit next to than others. But we’re … Read more
Bevan Marten, the lawyer on a one-man crusade to ensure parents can name their children Justice, is still fighting. Back in January I wrote an article for this website arguing that people should be allowed to name a child “Justice”. It is a name that is often rejected by New Zealand’s Registrar of Births, Deaths and … Read more
Councillors and council officers are forever going to public meetings to receive bad advice from angry people who mostly don’t know what they’re talking about. Hayden Donnell asks why. In Takapuna last week, Mayor Phil Goff, councillors and council officers stood in front of a packed meeting and got yelled at. They’d committed the crime … Read more
The Māori electoral option results are in, but for now we have more questions than answers. The results from the latest Māori electoral option process tell us something about how Māoridom views the Māori seats. Unfortunately, they don’t tell us enough about what we really need to know. And given the ongoing political debate around the … Read more
Been living under a proverbial rock for the past ten years and have never heard of RuPaul’s Drag Race? Don’t worry, Sam Brooks has you covered. Okay, so first up: A lot of you will know what Drag Race is. You will be obsessed with it already. You have a top five favourite queen, you have an opinion … Read more
The Single Object is a series exploring our material culture, examining the meaning and influence of objects that surround us in everyday life. In the second piece in the series, Danyl Mclauchlan visits the Reserve Bank to inspect Bill Phillip’s MONIAC. It looks like an artifact from an alternate timeline. MONIAC is about two metres … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: The mystery around Simon Bridges’ travel expenses going public deepens, teachers go on strike, and Morgan letter rocks Kingitanga movement. The leak of National leader Simon Bridges’ travel expenses has turned into a massive Parliamentary story in its own right. Nobody seems all that concerned about the … Read more
Sarah Mitchell used to be a lawyer at a major New Zealand law firm – she lasted two years – and went on to study how practical psychology can help young lawyers adjust to legal life. Here she shares what she learned. In her independent review of Russell McVeagh, Dame Margaret Bazley noted that she … Read more
While a tiny group of Kiwis waits to find out how many millions they’re worth, a massive group waits to find out how much they’ll be underpaid, writes Sam Huggard, secretary of the Council of Trade Unions Today is the day the National Business Review’s Rich List is announced. By coincidence it’s also the day … Read more
Later this week, Mitski releases her fifth album, the excellent Be The Cowboy. Amanda Robinson talked to the singer-songwriter about anxiety, loneliness, secrets, cinema, and love. Mitski Miyawaki is set to release what she’s calling her saddest album yet, but Be The Cowboy is not the singer-songwriter’s first rodeo. After the steady, concentrated success of … Read more
Hollie McNish – author, poet, activist, mother, spoken word artist, winner of the Ted Hughes Award – is coming to New Zealand to speak at Word Christchurch. Author and Spinoff Parents contributor Holly Walker caught up with McNish to discuss motherhood and writing. When I read award-winning British poet Hollie McNish’s ‘poetic memoir’ about motherhood, … Read more
You’ve seen the terrible ads, now it’s time you see the terrible complaints. With crimes ranging from blasphemy and bad timelines to ‘the homosexual agenda’, we present a small selection of the most entertaining complaints that have been dismissed by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) so far this year. People love to complain, and sometimes … Read more
A cult leader arrested in Korea has been accused of forcing devotees into slave labour in Fiji. And the Fijian government is staying tight-lipped about their own links to the Grace Road Church. Jamie Tahana writes for RNZ Pacific. There’s an apocalypse coming and only one place will escape it: Fiji, the so-called “centre of … Read more
Welcome back to Waterdeep Mountain High, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast set in a below average school in the mystical land of Faerun. “Peng is always on her period.” Having won the hearts of everyone in the music department, our heroes uncover a vital clue to aid them in their quest, but tensions within the … Read more
In the latest episode of their Spinoff TV segment looking at stuff white people inexplicably like, comedy group Frickin Dangerous Bro – Jame Roque, Jamaine Ross and Pax Assadi – investigate white people’s love for the colonialist hexagonal fantasy board game. Previously: Frickin Dangerous Bro review Lululemon, kombucha and bath bombs Watch The Spinoff TV, … Read more
Writer and illustrator Toby Morris finally answers a question that’s been keeping him up at night. There are a lot of things wrong with this world, but if there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s false claims of glory. Like wearing fake war medals, it’s delusional and disgraceful. Case in point: There are several businesses … Read more