Summer reissue: History warns that we should be wary of the misuse of power in the name of public health, writes Scott Hamilton. First published on April 2, 2020. Content warning: This feature contains distressing descriptions of racism against Māori. In the winter of 1913 a group of Māori appeared in the office of Arthur … Read more
The contents list is nearing completion, and the location options are coming together nicely. Last week we announced our plan to literally encapsulate the year 2020, and literally to bury it: a time capsule. A bit futuristic, a bit nostalgic, and a convenient alternative to reviewing the year by staring helplessly into the endless void. … Read more
They’re under parliament buildings, in opera houses, even floating through space. And now The Spinoff is about to bury one for 2020. While stashing stuff for future humans to unearth has been a tradition for thousands of years, when did ‘time capsules’ become a thing? At the beginning of high school, it is these days … Read more
This has been a year of amazement and endurance. Let’s bury it together. How do you tell a story like 2020? The lockdown year. The bubble year. The suppurating mouth ulcer year. As with just about every media operation around this infectious planet, we’ve been wondering how to sum up such a terrible and cacophonous … Read more
‘On one scale the coronavirus that plagues us is microscopic. On another we ourselves are made small.’ An essay by Alex Kazemi. Make a Moebius strip. Take a long rectangular piece of paper, loop it, then join the two ends after putting one end through a half twist. The resultant shape is three dimensional but … 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
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Media reels after horror week, Wellington Council facing massive budget crunch, and highest single day of new Covid-19 cases. It had always been clear that this was going to be a difficult time for the media, with the Covid-19 downturn hitting already battered budgets. But could … Read more
History warns that we should be wary of the misuse of power in the name of public health, writes Scott Hamilton. Content warning: This feature contains distressing descriptions of racism against Māori. In the winter of 1913 a group of Māori appeared in the office of Arthur Manning, the mayor of Hamilton. The visitors had … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: We’re going to level four by Wednesday night, Robertson massively expands economic package, and political parties put country above politics. As you might be able to imagine, there’s a bit of news to get through this morning. The effective shutdown of the country (which for clarity, … Read more
Last week the discovery of Nazi symbols sprayed outside a Wellington synagogue brought shock and condemnation. But New Zealand is no stranger to antisemitism. In light of increasing ignorance about the Holocaust, we need to revisit and acknowledge our history, writes Scott Hamilton. Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Around the world, candles will be lit … Read more
I want to reflect the complexities of disabled people’s lived experiences and identities – and on our own terms, writes Michelle Walmsley. Featured in a 1972 film called To Help a Crippled Child are images of disabled children playing and interacting with their families. They are also depicted in educational environments and towards the end … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Grappling with the aftermath of the Grace Millane murder trial, prisoner voting restoration proves controversial, and red meat prices way up. News broke on Friday afternoon that the man charged with murdering Grace Millane had been found guilty. He is now awaiting sentencing, and continues to … Read more
Are there really not enough women in New Zealand’s commercial history worth recognising? Business editor Maria Slade discovers it all depends on where you look. There are 171 people in the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame. Just 15 of them are women. It’s an eyebrow-raising statistic, given educational non-profit Young Enterprise established the Hall … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: NZDF under inquiry scrutiny, competing statements on Labour investigation released through lawyers, and a thorough look at Air NZ’s carbon offsets. Ever since the book Hit and Run was published, the Defence Force have been under various degrees of pressure over whether Afghan civilians were killed … Read more
Compulsory New Zealand history in schools is an exciting opportunity but it’s crucial we’re critical of the stories we tell ourselves, writes historian Aroha Harris, co-author of Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History. History is not simply an assemblage of facts and evidence. History is also the interrogation of those things. This may be unsettling news … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Examples of why teaching history matters immediately emerge, accused Labour staffer resigns, and giant of Tongan democracy dies. In the space of a day, there were two examples that clearly showed why New Zealand’s history needs to be taught in schools. In case you missed it, … Read more
Finally, New Zealand history will become a compulsory school subject. So what’s so good about that? New Zealand history will be a compulsory primary and secondary school subject within the next three years, Jacinda Ardern announced today. The decision has proved popular to campaigners and academics like Vincent O’Malley who have battled for years to … Read more
Gabrielle Jackson is a Sydney-based Guardian journalist who has written a book about her pain, and the pain of women, and the ways in which the medical system is making it worse. The book is called Pain and Prejudice: a call to arms for women and their bodies. It focuses on ‘women’s troubles’ – a … Read more
Eighty years ago, New Zealand declared war on Germany. We seem to take it for granted, most of us, that we needed to join the horrific struggle of the second world war. But the the reasoning may not have stacked up, writes historian Stevan Eldred-Grigg. On 1 September 1939, Hitler ordered his tanks, warplanes and … Read more
The current standoff at Ihumātao has deep roots in the legacy of colonialism and land confiscation. Historian Vincent O’Malley writes about how it was taken by the Crown, and why that matters today. The New Zealand Wars may have ended nearly 150 years ago. But their consequences continue to be felt today. Nowhere is that … Read more
On the publication of a new memoir, former prime minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer pays tribute to historian Jock Phillips. Branded a dangerous, trendy lefty by Muldoon, Phillips has for many decades kept his intellectual navigation shining brightly. Making History – A New Zealand Story is a book that contains significant insights into New Zealand’s intellectual … Read more
The privilege many 21st-century parents think they have – to choose what illness will befall their children and how they will recover from it – is a relatively new phenomenon, writes historian Ayelet Zoran-Rosen Vaccines save lives. They have saved millions of lives in the last century, and the best proof of their success is the … Read more
True crime aficionado Jean Sergent reviews The Five by Hallie Rubenhold. In the annals of Ripperology, there are classics and there are clangers. The latest slew of “Jack the Ripper finally uncovered!” headlines recycle the same faulty DNA studies, but there has never been a definitive answer to the mystery of identity of the Whitechapel … Read more
The killer was an Australian. But New Zealand has a long history of white supremacist ideology, writes Scott Hamilton. Content warning: this article contains descriptions of racist behaviour and quotes racist language. The young man wandered the world. By the time he arrived in New Zealand he was obsessed. He tried to warn his fellow … Read more
The Olympic women’s marathon was first held in 1984, largely thanks to one woman and her historic run 16 years earlier. On February 7 1984, two men walked untethered in space for the first time. Six months later on Earth, women were allowed to run the marathon at the Olympic Games for the first time. … Read more
Last week Wikipedia hit the headlines after it was reported that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Donna Strickland didn’t have her own page until after her win. Authors and organisers Anna and Kelly Pendergrast delve into Wikipedia’s gender troubles, and tell us what we can do about it. Wikipedia is one of those websites that has woven … Read more
John Rykenberg ran a studio of Auckland photographers from the late ’50s through until the late 1970s. Last year, 900 boxes from his studio were donated to Auckland Libraries. One of the researchers investigating this massive collection of images was Gareth Shute, who shares some of his favourites. My interest in the Rykenberg collection came … Read more
Today it’s babies and playgrounds, but parliament’s early days were more like a drunken party. This story was originally published on RNZ On the night of 14 June 1984, a drunken Prime Minister Robert Muldoon staggered down a Beehive corridor and announced a snap election to a moustachioed, beige-suit-wearing press pack. “It doesn’t give you … Read more
When the n-word slipped out of former National MP Tau Henare’s mouth on national television last Sunday, Ātea editor Leonie Hayden realised she’d been harbouring a guilty secret. I saw a video on Twitter a couple of weeks ago where Kendrick Lamar, who is playing here this week, stopped a white fan from rapping along … Read more