The new and spectacular atlas We Are Here is page after page of haunting, hella beautiful visual data, each chapter introduced with an essay. This one, Lost in the Forest, opens the section on people. At some point in the 1990s, one of the creators of this book tried to impress me by talking about … Read more
In literature, disability is everywhere. But more than a century after Dickens gave us Tiny Tim, writers often fail to make disability anything other than a narrative crutch. Robyn Hunt, writer, disability consultant and co-founder of the Crip the Lit project, explains. The use of disability as metaphor and plot device has been described as … Read more
Māori culture shouldn’t be something that’s half-heartedly appropriated for some cool video game visuals. So why do developers keep doing it? This year’s Xbox E3 Briefing kicked off with a new game reveal, Bleeding Edge – a multiplayer action game in which players fight in 4v4 battles – and some exciting news for New Zealand players: … Read more
Last week, Auckland Theatre Company announced their 2018/19 programme – one with a glaring lack of representation for women and new New Zealand work. James Wenley takes the company to task. Auckland Theatre Company’s response can be found at the bottom of this piece. During the uproar over the Pop-up Globe’s decision to use an all-male cast … Read more
A glaring lack of representation in Hollywood means Crazy Rich Asians still feels quietly revolutionary in a #woke 2018, writes Keren Sim. The year was 2000 and the movie was Charlie’s Angels. Watching Lucy Liu kicking ass alongside Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore, I sat up a little straighter, feeling a jolt of recognition that … Read more
How do you write about an experience that’s not your own – and do it without offending anybody? Sam Brooks, author of the play Burn Her on now in Auckland, offers a solution. A month or so ago, I saw playwright Victor Rodger give a talk about cultural appropriation. Drawing on Lionel Shriver’s controversial (and … Read more
Fairy tales are a staple of most children’s reading experience – but should they be? Children’s storyteller Baz Macdonald wonders whether it’s time that we retired fairy tales for good. It would be difficult to find anyone in New Zealand who doesn’t know the stories of Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood. We were all … Read more
Co-author of the children’s book Promised Land, Chaz Harris is ‘resisting with love’ by creating fairytales for all children. He shares a personal essay about why he writes the world he wishes we lived in. If you’re anything like me, the past year or so has felt like living in a terrible alternate timeline. It … Read more
Chris McDowall explains the origins of this epic graph view into our political history. For months I’ve followed news about New Zealand’s upcoming general election. Revelations! Resignations! Leadership changes! Bold policy promises! Shock poll results! In this heightened political moment, I found myself wondering about the past. How does this election fit into New Zealand’s … Read more
Author Chaz Harris on growing up without positive gay role models in a homophobic world – and how he’s created Promised Land, a fairytale so that our children don’t go through the same. I was at the last Out in the Park with my golden tutu-d and pink gumbooted little boy. We had marched in the parade as … Read more
Is the mainstream video game industry kidding itself and, by extension, us? Eugenia Woo unpacks the excuses often presented as reasons to avoid diversity. This essay was originally posted online on August 25, 2016. The issue of diversity in video games is polarising. BioWare’s Manveer Heir said it best – “there is a vocal crowd in … Read more