A Pūhoi pub is refusing to remove a piece of memorabilia bearing the n-word from its walls. Dr Lachy Paterson looks at the history of the word here, and New Zealand’s complicity in Britain’s shameful slave trading past. Content warning: This article contains racist language and images. On a pub wall in Pūhoi, covered in … Read more
Summer reissue: In April, a six-month armed police trial ended that sparked a small but insistent public outcry. Later, as the Blacks Lives Matter resistance took hold, it became an urgent part of the movement in New Zealand to challenge the systemic racism and individual prejudices within NZ Police that could lead to disproportionate numbers … Read more
The Spinoff Members enjoy many benefits, including a special treat in their inbox every Thursday – the Bulletin World Weekly, an international news round-up focusing on the best journalism from around the globe. As a festive bonus, we’re sharing the final one of the year with all our readers. In the last Bulletin World Weekly … Read more
Joe Biden’s victory presents an opportunity to reset the White House agenda and put it on a different course. Three scholars discuss what a Biden presidency may have in store in three key areas: race, the Supreme Court and foreign policy. Racism, policing and Black Lives Matter protests Brian Purnell, Bowdoin College The next four … Read more
Ensemble’s Lofa Totua explores the evolving nature of her understanding of activism, and asks those fighting against injustice about what being an ‘activist’ means to them. The other week I released a fear. The angsty knots of worry and imposter syndrome, untied, finally allowing me to breathe. “Sometimes, activism is as simple as breathing Lofa. … Read more
Israel Adesanya has fought his way to the top of his sport, and into the hearts and minds of New Zealanders – whether they want him there or not. What’s at stake when he fights this weekend in Abu Dhabi? Just two years into his UFC career, mixed martial artist Israel Adesanya is a bonafide … Read more
The topic of racism has been at the forefront of conversations both in New Zealand and overseas since the Treaty Partnership episode of Bad News was made. Co-hosts Alice Snedden and Kura Forrester sat down to talk about it. Watch Alice Snedden’s Bad News – Treaty Partnership and other episodes in the series here. Kura: … Read more
More than a year after justice minister Andrew Little described New Zealand’s hate speech laws as ‘woefully inadequate’, nothing has come of the legislative reform that was promised. Warning: contains descriptions of racism, racist violence and racist images. Yesterday, the white supremacist terrorist who carried out the Christchurch mosque attacks was sentenced to life imprisonment … Read more
How can we help people realise they’ve made a mistake without falling into the ‘callout culture’ trap? This post was originally published in Emily’s newsletter: Emily Writes Weekly. Subscribe here. As soon as I saw the black squares on Instagram for Black Out Tuesday, I thought a feed covered in black squares would be helpful. … Read more
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man by Mary L. Trump (Simon & Schuster, … Read more
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 How Do We Know We’re Doing it Right? Essays on Modern Life by Pandora Sykes (Penguin Random House, $40) I’m … Read more
Mainstream news has a history of not always being the safest or most representative space for Black and indigenous people and other people of colour (BIPOC). Many have created their own spaces to address the imbalance, but some Māori media professionals say it’s time for everyone to get on the bi-cultural waka. Among the things … Read more
As the settler government did in the late 1800s, it’s high time we erected a bunch of new monuments to the great people of this country (and maybe take some of the stink ones down). Ātea editor Leonie Hayden has some suggestions. Hundreds of heroic and revered ancestors proudly adorn walls, lintels, waharoa and pou … Read more
Keagan Carr Fransch reviews I May Destroy You, the acclaimed new show from British writer-director-actress Michaela Coel. The following includes discussion of rape, sexual assault, sexual violence, drug-facilitated sexual assault, and PTSD. Since the release of her comedy Chewing Gum in 2015, Michaela Coel has been a recurrent name on the list of writers to … Read more
The world-famous best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman (Bloomsbury, $34) This is the one that kicks off with the essay about the Tongan boys, which … Read more
A video of the arrest of a Māori man has gone viral, as police violence goes under the microscope globally. The police say the man violently resisted and their behaviour was appropriate. But the video reveals a familiar cycle, argues Emilie Rākete. A week ago, police commissioner Andrew Coster stood in St Peters Church in … Read more
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Know Your Place by Golriz Ghahraman (HarperCollins, $40) A memoir. Ghahraman wrote an essay for us when it released last week … Read more
A new survey by Stickybeak for The Spinoff shows more than one in four would like to see Hamilton’s name revert to Kirikiriroa. But a Waikato kaumatua says he’ll continue to push for change. As statues come down around the world and long-venerated slave traders and colonialists have their actions put under the microscope for … Read more
This is not the time to ask for ‘a conversation’ about colonial statues, writes historian Giacomo Lichtner, but a rare opportunity for action. In 1944, when American troops liberated Rome and made their new headquarters in Mussolini’s flagship sports complex – the Foro Italico – they found a vast and hideous mural entitled ‘The Apotheosis … Read more
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (Penguin Classics, $24) Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize. This week it became the … Read more
Leonie Hayden talks to three young leaders of New Zealand’s Black Lives Matter movement about colonialism and justice – and why anti-Black racism isn’t just ‘an American problem’. I start all interviews by asking “Nō hea koe, where are you from?” In a Māori context it’s a whakapapa question that places people on a familial … Read more
The force that underpins the oppression of African Americans is the same force that underpins the oppression of Māori and Pasifika, writes Laura O’Connell Rapira. In honour of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and every other Black and brown life that has been taken from us by racism and racist institutions, hundreds of thousands of people … Read more
Last night the new police commissioner, Andrew Coster, spoke at a vigil for George Floyd held at St Peter’s Church in Wellington. The events of the past few weeks have given us all opportunity to reflect on our own community, on our own lives. As a father, as a police officer, I find the events … Read more
While we stand in solidarity with Black and indigenous communities experiencing ongoing violence overseas, we have plenty of work to do here in Aotearoa too. These 10 seminal anti-racism texts by Māori authors are a great place to start. George Floyd’s death as the result of police violence has sparked protests around the world, including … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Todd Muller makes pitch for the middle, further BLM protests take place, and two pieces to illustrate the importance of science in public life. The opposition leader gets precious few chances to try and define themselves in the public eye, and Todd Muller has had … Read more
As some sense of normality returns to the streets of the US capital, the focus has shifted to political action – but this protest movement is not over, writes Abbas Nazari. When 17-year-old Darnella Frazier began filming the arrest and subsequent death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, she could not … Read more
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Auē by Becky Manawatu (Mākaro Press, $35) Winner of the 2020 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction. You can watch … Read more
After 31 years on air, the American police television show Cops was finally cancelled on Wednesday. Is it time for New Zealand to do the same to Police Ten 7? After 32 seasons, Cops is over. And good riddance. It has been a long time since the controversial US show was on New Zealand television … Read more
Around the world, statues, monuments and place names forged in colonialism and racism are coming under scrutiny. The police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a wave of protests around the world, and in turn a targeting of colonial and racist statues, such as the tribute to 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston, which was … Read more