‘Over the last six months I’ve realised there are always more tears.’ In August, Emily Writes wrote about the tough months following her son’s hospitalisation and diagnosis. This is what’s happened since. Part 1: Ward One: Emily Writes on love and fear and hope at her son’s hospital bed Six months ago I was holding … Read more
Back to university today? Beware the flashy voluntourism brochures promising a chance to save the world, writes AUT lecturer Daniel Crouch. It was my first day as a lecturer, February 2018, and I was feeling pretty nervous as students filed in. Just before the nine o’clock start, a young woman approached me at the front … Read more
ALRANZ president Terry Bellamak and HELP Chief Executive Conor Twyford respond to the news that medical practitioners may keep the right to refuse to provide contraception to sexual assault survivors. Approximately 1 in 4 New Zealand women experience a serious sexual assault. That’s a lot of suffering. How do we care for people who have … Read more
As a rising Hindu nationalism exerts itself in India, online Indian communities in New Zealand are also seeing a growth in Islamophobic sentiment. It was the scariest night of his life. Mohammad still remembers hiding in a shallow ditch with his family. He remembers covering his one-year-old brother’s mouth each time the toddler cried out … Read more
Jai Breitnauer on what happens when male role models start disappearing from a child’s life. Recently, we saw a ghost from the past. Once a regular visitor to our home, there just after the birth of our first child and a constant presence for more than a decade, this individual disappeared from our lives a … Read more
The Ministry of Education is proposing a number of changes to NCEA Level One, including the merging of several subjects to be phased in over the next five years. Felix Walton looks into how, and why, these changes are happening. Why are they changing things now? They aren’t changing things now, per se, these changes … Read more
We need to challenge those who minimise the actions of rapists based on the gender or ages of their victims, argues Emily Writes. Content warning: this article contains descriptions of sexual assault. News out of Australia of another college supporting a sexual predator is as unsurprising as it is horrific. Victims of sexual assault, regardless … Read more
SkyCity yesterday pulled the plug on hosting philosopher and academic Peter Singer’s event after disability rights advocates expressed strong objections to his views. They’re right to be angry with him, but he nevertheless deserves to be heard, argues Danyl Mclauchlan. A thoughtful piece on The Spinoff yesterday explored the disabled community’s reaction to moral philosopher … Read more
Controversial Australian philosopher Peter Singer is coming to New Zealand in June. While he believes in reducing suffering for all humans and animals, his views on disability have sparked widespread alarm and condemnation. Update: ThinkInc, promoters of the live event ‘An Evening with Peter Singer’, have announced that Auckland venue Skycity has cancelled their contract, … Read more
A Southland school has been criticised for requiring girls to see a counsellor before opting to wear shorts as their uniform. It’s merely a symptom of a bigger problem, Madeleine Chapman writes. On Sunday, Stuff reported that James Hargest College in Southland would soon allow girls to wear shorts or pants as part of their … Read more
Ex-tropical cyclone Uesi is due to reach the west of the South Island this afternoon, bringing further pain to flood-hit Southland. Here’s what you need to know. Ex-tropical, you say. What on earth does that mean? A tropical cyclone, which is a low-pressure system that forms over warm waters in the tropics, bringing gale force … Read more
Beige and on-trend? Not for this poet. Paula Harris gives some real-life, applicable decor advice. Last night I was procrastinating and avoiding working on some poem revisions, because being a poet means that when you have other things to do, you write a poem, and when you have a poem to work on, you do … Read more
On Tuesday, people from all across New Zealand will gather to demand the Abortion Legislation Bill be passed and that abortion be removed from the Crimes Act. Jessie Anne Dennis from Fem Force – Feminist Action Aotearoa explains why you should get involved. At the end of this week, the Abortion Legislation Bill will exit … Read more
Let’s disentangle the prized day of casual clothing from its colonial connotations, writes historian Katie Pickles. As another school year starts up around the country, getting into uniforms is compulsory for most pupils. It’s only the occasional mufti day that brings the chance to ditch the conformity. But little do most mufti day organisers and … Read more
For three nights, four guides and 41 trampers were stuck on the Milford Track as more than a metre of rain fell in 48 hours. Guide Oliver Missen was witness to the downpour. The trip started as usual. We met in Queenstown, looked through the weather update, then quickly repacked to make sure my rain … Read more
The film adaptation of the hit stage musical Cats has been described as a true work of depravity. But could it become an ironic cult favourite? José Barbosa investigates a screening in his ‘hood. When I first saw Cats I was, like a fair chunk of the audience, lured to the movie theatre with the promise … Read more
Sometimes death comes for the old, and sometimes for the young. And sadly, like life, it rarely makes much sense when it does come. It was 8.45 am and my phone was vibrating. Ella’s name flashed on the screen. The call was probably a mistake, an accidental pocket-dial, I thought. We usually text each other … Read more
Our health system is broken. It has betrayed its community rather than served it. And the solution lies with the voices of patients, writes Glenn Colquhoun, a New Zealand poet and doctor based on the Kāpiti coast. When Māui first hauled up the North Island of New Zealand it was smooth. His brothers sat beside … Read more
Yes, the capital’s having a shithouse summer, but there are plenty of reasons to look on the bright side, says Emily Writes. The world-famous Routeburn Track will be closed for the “foreseeable future” and Milford Track is staying shut for at least a few more weeks after terrible storms hit the south. Mataura, Gore, Wyndham … Read more
It’s Aquarius season, which means it’s time to unpack why exactly young people are so into astrology all of a sudden. Alice Webb-Liddall asks two social media astrologers, one astrology enthusiast, and a counselling astrologer what the stars are saying. So it’s mercury retrograde that made you put an x on the end of an … Read more
A plane-load of evacuees have arrived on an Air New Zealand flight from Wuhan. They’ll go into quarantine. But what does ‘quarantine’ mean, in practice, and what are the other realities for public health workers on the frontline? Richard Simpson, formerly of Auckland Regional Public Health Service, lays it out. Standing in front of the … Read more
Histories of colonisation ought to be remembered, including the horrors and atrocities, but also the endurance and empowerment found in trenchant resistance and the fight for sovereignty, writes Radhika Reddy. India and Aotearoa are both grappling with decolonisation. In this ongoing struggle to wrest free from the legacies of colonialism, each society can learn from … Read more
As the mother of an immunocompromised child, Kiki Van Newton has more excuse than most to worry about the coronavirus outbreak. But racist reactions – and panicked border closures – aren’t the answer, she writes. When my baby was eight weeks old she was in hospital. Each day a physiotherapist would put on a mask … Read more
With school swimming pools continuing to close across the country, it’s never been more difficult for a New Zealand child to learn to swim. Today many families will stand at the school gates and send their little ones off to school, some for the first time. That mixture of fear, pride, and excitement mixed with … Read more
The controversial mission, ‘Birds of a Feather’, is the first launch for a US spy agency from NZ. Ollie Neas explains what we know – and even more importantly, what we don’t. Last May, The Spinoff reported that New Zealand Space Agency staff had met with officials from a major US intelligence agency, the National … Read more
The On the Rag team assemble to dissect what feels like the longest month in human history. We’re back for another year to yarn about all things to do with women in the news and media, along with some other things that have nothing to do with anything. The first month of 2020 has come … Read more
Independent experts will soon arrive in New Zealand to assess our human rights record. We should embrace these visits as a chance to do better, writes chief human rights commissioner Paul Hunt. A strong democracy, at ease with itself, welcomes constructive scrutiny. That’s why as a country we should be able to welcome the arrival of … Read more
As both negotiate the complexities of being part memorial, part protest and part celebration, an empathetic allegiance between Waitangi Day and the Auckland Pride Festival has the potential of collective empowerment, writes Richard Orjis. Waitangi Day falls in the middle of this year’s Auckland Pride Festival. Rather than being strange bedfellows in the summer cultural … Read more
This content was created in paid partnership with the Child Poverty Action Group. Learn more about our partnerships here.