Catherine Chidgey’s new novel functions, disturbingly, as a mirror, writes Elizabeth Heritage. Every time I read a pukapuka set in Nazi times I become obsessed with the question: what would I have done if I had been there? I remember studying Nazi Germany in high school and perseverating on the idea that the ordinary … Read more
The current conversation should prompt all universities to closely examine both how and what they teach, writes Massey University provost Giselle Byrnes. Much has been said lately about structural racism in the New Zealand university system. While these allegations have been specifically raised at the University of Waikato, all eight of the country’s universities have … Read more
Deep in the wops, three children are caught in a pastoral New Zealand nightmare. The Tally Stick begins like a waking dream, a horrifying free fall where time stretches out before snapping sickeningly back into place. The car containing the four sleeping children left the earth … It’s April 1978. It’s dark, and the weather … 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
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
With more than 151,000 members, Wellington’s Vic Deals is one of the largest community Facebook groups in New Zealand. But in the last few days, the group’s team of administrators have landed itself in hot water after being accused of censoring content related to racism, colonisation, and Black Lives Matter. How did this all start? … Read more
Take a vicarious roadie via Attraction, the novel by Ruby Porter that was longlisted for the country’s biggest fiction prize. Released last year, it’s now a slightly eerie snapshot of Aotearoa as we were. Attraction is a New Zealand road trip novel with a heavy dose of postcolonial guilt. Whitewashing, cultural amnesia, reckoning with intergenerational … Read more
It’s called ‘CANZUK’, and it’s a bad idea. New Zealand should not be suckered in by dreams of Empire 2.0, writes Lewis Holden. The clock struck 11 on January 31, 2020 and it was all over. Britain was out of the European Union after 47 years. Under the much-maligned Brexit deal there’s still another 11 … Read more
Crime week: Chris Cessford welcomes a sumptuous crime story starring a ‘rule-breaking badass in a sari’. Sujata Massey kicks off the decade with the first book in a fresh new crime series – the historical, award-winning whodunnit A Murder at Malabar Hill. She introduces Perveen Mistry, in 1921 Bombay’s only woman lawyer and an amateur … Read more
Catherine Bishop is embarking on the mother of all author tours for her significant new book, Women Mean Business. It’s a colourful history of women in business in 19th century New Zealand and it is busting with yarns and subtle zingers, beautiful old photos and a thoroughly-painted, confronting social context. Bishop writes about dozens of … Read more
A petition to include ‘Aotearoa’ in New Zealand’s name attracted more than 6,000 signatures and has now been presented to parliament. Lewis Holden from Change the NZ Flag explains why he’s backing the idea. Before I go any further, yes it’s me, the change the flag and change the head of state guy, at it … Read more
Activist group SOUL Solidarity Pōneke will march through Wellington to parliament tomorrow to protest development at Ihumātao in Auckland. Catherine Delahunty takes a stroll on the whenua to remind us why Ihumātao’s supporters can’t give up yet. On a quiet Tuesday morning, I went out to Ihumātao and went for a short walk with Pania … Read more
The recent killing of an American by a North Sentinel tribe has put the isolated island on the map. But there are three myths about the North Sentinelese that have been regurgitated in media. Scott Hamilton sheds some light. It was a story from another century. A young man landed on a small island, with a … Read more
The University of Waikato’s dean of Māori and Indigenous Studies takes a moment to tautoko his colleague Professor Pou Temara in the wake of a petition to strip Sir Bob Jones of his knighthood. Last week a colleague, University of Waikato’s Professor of Tikanga and Reo, Pou Temara, hand delivered a 68,000 strong petition to parliament demanding … Read more
Historians and language experts agree that the original meaning of the word Pākehā is most likely to be ‘pale, imaginary beings resembling men’, referring to a sea-dwelling, godlike people in Māori mythology. It has been used to describe Europeans, and then New Zealanders of European descent since before 1815. So why do some people object … Read more
Keagan Carr Fransch is a New Zealand-Zimbabwean actress studying in London. She writes about the breathtaking moments representation on screen can create for African diaspora. *Contains spoilers for the film Black Panther. Since whisperings began of Black Panther joining the Marvel cinematic universe in late 2015, the African diaspora was abuzz with excitement. As promo … Read more
Brannavan Gnanalingam writes about the overwhelming whiteness of English literature as taught in New Zealand – and throws down a challenge to the gatekeepers, including the Spinoff. UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph caused a stir in October with a front page story about a black Cambridge student who had “force[d] Cambridge to drop white authors”. The Telegraph‘s … Read more
Last Monday we ran a piece by Joan Druett on her new biography of 19th century sea captain William ‘Bully’ Hayes, who roamed the Pacific and New Zealand. Michael Field was among those who were concerned that it failed to properly address Hayes’s involvement in ‘blackbirding’; we asked him to write an essay in response … Read more