Issue 22 - She'll Be Right

Salient SHE'LL BE RIGHT

Vol. 83

Issue 22

28 September 2020 1

Contents EDITORIAL.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 03 NOTICES

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NEWS VUW Academics Stand With Māori Academics at University of Waikato.................................................................................

Where Do The Political Parties Stand on Mental Health?............................................................................................................

MMP and "More Māori in Parliament".............................................................................................................................................

Student Health Wait Times and Financial Support: Advocates Push for Welfare Changes..................................................

Opinion: Asylum Seekers Seek Equity............................................................................................................................................

Shit News.............................................................................................................................................................................................

06 07 08 09 10 11

FEATURES QISAS....................................................................................................................................................................................................

Who is Da Man?...................................................................................................................................................................................

The Munters and The Mum...............................................................................................................................................................

"Wear Whatever You Want, My Mokopuna"—My Tūpuna, Probably............................................................................................

12 16 18 22

CENTREFOLD

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COLUMNS UniQ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 27 VUWSA................................................................................................................................................................................................ 27 CULTURE Rugby, Racing and Beer...................................................... 30 Good As Gold?...................................................................... 31

Salient is funded by VUWSA, partly through the Student Services Levy. Salient is kinda, sorta editorially independent from VUWSA. It’s a long story.

Salient is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA). The perspectives and opinions in any issue of Salient do not necessarily reflect those of the Editors.

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POETRY ENTERTAINMENT Occupation Station Horoscopes

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Complaints regarding the material published in Salient should first be brought to the Editors. If displeased with the Editors’ response, the complaint should then be brought to the Media Council. Complaints should be directed to info@ mediacouncil.org.nz.

Editorial

Tēnā tātou katoa, and welcome to ‘She’ll be right’ is probably the most grating form of consolation, behind ‘I’m sorry you feel that way’. It’s shallow, it’s selfish, it’s shit. It’s often used to reassure people—men especially—that our issues aren’t worth worrying about. The result is that we feel obliged to keep our emotions under wraps, to kEeP cAlm aNd cArRy oN. Earlier this year, our editors (a.k.a queens) did some stats in the office. Roughly 15% of content inside Salient this year has been produced by male-identifying writers —some of whom under pseudonyms.

Now, looking at other student media outlets across New Zealand, this isn't that common. Even more so when we look at the wider media industry—yet another institution dominated by males.

The point is, while men generally have ample opportunity to express themselves, they aren’t doing it very often in Salient—and this makes us kinda sad (uwu). Not because we’re feigning male representation, but because the place of men and masculinity in culture is constantly being contested, and we want to contribute to this conversation.

A lot of content in this issue is about challenging concepts of masculinity. It’s a confronting thing to do, but definitely needs to be done. Each member of the editorial team has travelled a different path in life, and this has shown us that there’s no singular approach to understanding masculinity.

Many of our writers have been wrestling through this as well, each tackling it from their own, unique point-of-view.

This brings us to the cover, which we’re referring to as a vivid display of the reality of growing up around Lynx Africa.

Whether it’s a Christmas gift; Mum's passive aggressive

way of telling you to mask your puberty-induced BO; or your secret weapon for smelling skux at the social. We can all agree that it’s something that has been a pivotal fixture in a lot of our lives. Honestly, the lawlessness that ensues when those tainted aerosol cans are in the hands of reckless youth is unmatched. No one is safe. Flame throwers, frosties, and most notably, smelling reasonably whack are all par for the course when someone busts out that black, matte-finished, aluminium can.

We also want to talk pols for a hot minute. Did you know that campus voting is scheduled to happen in the Memorial Theatre Foyer? Did you also know that the elevator in the Student Union Building is frequently broken, meaning that there’s a chance only able-bodied people can get to this voting booth when voting opens? @VUW, this is severely not the tahi. You literally have a whole ass, accessible Hub. It's an election year, and the only thing that really matters is that you fucking vote. You can vote on the Cannabis Referendum, your local MP, the End of Life Choice Act, and whichever centrist you want leading the country. As we’ve seen on a global scale, it actually does matter who’s looking over you during these times. Please, make sure your voice is heard. If you’re feeling uninformed, check out policy.nz for easily digestible policy outlines.

Final reminder that Lynx Africa smells like shit, can leave your nipples smelling equally as shit, and that ‘she’ll be right’ is a terrible fuckin’ take.

Matthew Casey (he/him) Kane Bassett (Ngāti Apa, Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa (he/him) Finn Blackwell (he/him)

Brought to you by Peoples Coffee Newtown

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ADAM ART GALLERY TE PĀTAKA TOI YOUR GALLERY ON KELBURN CAMPUſ

ADAM ART GALLERY TE PĀTAKA TOI

Image: Frances Hodgkins, Red Jug, 1931, oil on canvas. Collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki (detail) 04

Notices UniQ AGM Want to be involved in advocating and

Did we do something right?

Something wrong? Enlighten us.

Best letter gets bean juice, thanks to our mates at Peoples Coffee Newtown

creating a community for LGBTQIA+ students on campus? UniQ Victoria will be hosting its AGM soon to cap off the year and elect a new Executive for 2021. All positions from President to General Executive are open so come along!

We'll be having our AGM in AM103 from 5:30pm–7pm on Wednesday 30 September. Check

Send your letters and notices to editor@salient.org.nz before 5pm Tuesday for the following week’s issue.

out our Facebook @UniQVUW or email us at uniqvictoria@gmail.com for more info!

Salient Editor 2021 The editorship is a full-time, paid position beginning in late January 2021 finishing in November 2021. Two people may apply together, as co-editors, and the job will become two part-time paid positions equivalent to the hours for full-time.

Applicants should have mainstream or student journalism experience, have excellent communication, leadership, budgeting, digital content, marketing and organisational skills, and some management experience.

Interest in student issues, as well as national affairs, is vital.

Applications should include a CV, portfolio of writing, and a cover letter outlining your vision for Salient and Student Media.

Applications should be received prior to 11th October at 4 pm. Applicants must apply via Seek. Inquiries to ceo@vuwsa. org.nz.

Participants Needed For a Reading Study If your native language is NOT English, you can take part in our reading study and receive a $30 supermarket voucher!

What’s involved? Two reading sessions about 1.5 hours each (no more than 7 days apart). You will read short texts and your eye movements will be recorded. The sessions are held in a lab on Kelburn Campus.

To participate, please contact: Ross van de Wetering ross.vandewetering@vuw.ac.nz

NGĀI TAUIRA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Kia ora koutou, nau mai haere mai ki te hui ā tau mō Ngāi Tauira.

Tirohia ki ngā pae pāpāho papori mo ngā whakaritenga me ngā panui katoa: Date: 14/10/2020 Location: Te Tumu Herenga Waka Time: 5pm FB: Ngāi Tauira Pānui IG: Ngāitauira.vuw

Notices

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News

MONDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER 2020

VUW Academics Stand with Maori

Academics at University of Waikato Rachel Trow | Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Tūwharetoa | She/Her

After incidents at Waikato and Otago Universities, an open letter to Education Minister Chris Hipkins has been undersigned by Māori academics across the country.

The open letter calls for a national enquiry into racism at New Zealand universities “for the purpose of committing to, and accelerating with urgency, a tertiary sector that honours te Tiriti o Waitangi.”

The letter comes after caps on Māori and Pacific entry to Otago Medical School and an independent enquiry into racism at the University of Waikato garnered national attention.

Leading academics Dr Linda Tuhiwai Smith (Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Porou) and Prof. Brendan Hokowhitu (Ngāti Pūkenga) have not had their contracts renewed at Waikato while the review takes place, according to RNZ reporting.

In a statement to Salient, Victoria University expressed support for the open letter sent to Minister Hipkins, adding that they “do not conduct specific cultures [sic] reviews as such” themselves.

The University listed their “commitment to decolonisation and indigenisation” as ranging from “symbolic changes” such as changing the University’s name to “active and visible commitments” such as including Māori leadership at all levels of University structure. VUW also recognised that “there is always more to do.”

Academics at VUW have come out in active support of Māori academics at the University of Waikato, participating in a solidarity event on Friday the 18th of September.

Staff were encouraged to wear purple and “incorporate Waikato Indigenous academics” into their teaching. Salient spoke to Dr Emalani Case (Kanaka Maoli) and Dr Vincent Olsen-Reeder (Ngā Pōtiki a Tamapahore), representatives of the solidarity event at VUW. Olsen-Reeder commented on the situation at Waikato, stating that “it’s really hard to see your colleagues, friends and whānau in distress. So many of us have been victims

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News: Issue 22

Image by: Stuff

of racism in some form, at some time, so we’ll always want to show solidarity in that way.”

Case and Olsen-Reeder were in agreement that VUW had “solid fundamentals in place” in regards to race at the University citing their Treaty Statute and Māori Outcomes Framework.

However, the pair echoed the University’s assertion that there is always more that can be done.

Dr Case offered that “one of the things I think all universities can do is hire more Māori and Pacific staff.”

Case highlighted the importance of hiring Indigenous staff in permanent positions.

When asked what they would like tertiary staff and students to consider moving forward, Olsen-Reeder told Salient, “I would love for us all to review what it means to be a great citizen of Aotearoa, regularly… Ask yourself how you can dismantle harm today, or open up space for someone, or challenge the stuff your parents taught you. Those are great things to do not just to combat racism, but to be anti-racist.”

Where Do The Political Parties Stand on Mental health?

Annabel McCarthy | Te Whakatōhea | She/Her

Around 1 in 5 New Zealanders will experience a mental health or addiction problem in any given year with up to 80% experiencing mental illness during their lifetime.

The $2 billion per year currently spent on mental health and addiction services through the Ministry of Health and district health boards will be redirected to the commission.

With this year’s election less than 3 weeks away, here’s a breakdown of how the political parties intend to tackle the issue with your vote this election:

Green Party: If elected into government, the Green Party will provide free counselling to everyone under the age of 25 and will work towards extending this to all adults.

Labour: Labour says more community-based mental health and addiction support workers are needed so those seeking help “have someone to turn to” and will therefore continue to train up to 12,000 community-based workers over the next three years.

The Party believes mental health is a community and country-wide responsibility and the burden of this should not be placed on individuals experiencing mental distress.

The Party says it has made “record investments” in mental health during its three-year term and will continue rolling out frontline services and re-establishing the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commissions if re-elected.

Labour will also continue to pilot the Mana Ake mental health support programme in primary and intermediate schools.

National: The National Party has committed to expanding partnerships between police and mental health workers to provide better support for people in distress and for frontline responders.

The Party also wants to require schools to teach mental health skills and expand trials of specialist support staff in secondary schools if elected into government.

National acknowledges that Māori have “higher demand” for mental health services and will introduce health targets to “drive improvements in Māori health.”

The National Party has also said it will “specifically address rural mental health issues”, saying it understands the unique health needs in rural environments.

ACT: The ACT Party wants to create a stand-alone mental health commission to commission mental health services through a single body.

ACT says the current mental health system is “messy and disorderly” and believes increasing spending on mental health and addiction is not enough to fix it.

The Party believes this policy will address a lack of choice in care and “empower patients to choose between a range of providers, rather than simply accept what their DHB offers”.

The Green Party also wants to fund inpatient and community mental health services “at all levels to ensure everyone in Aotearoa can access help if they need it.”

Māori Party: The Māori Party says it will establish a comprehensive Kaupapa Māori mental health service if elected into government.

The service will cover mental health, alcohol and addiction and will “focus on dropping one of the highest suicide rates amongst any people in the world.”

The Māori Party believes the health system fails Māori and is “a mirror image of the degrading way in which Māori are treated”.

New Zealand First: New Zealand First’s only mental health specific policy is a promise to fund the mental health programme ‘Gumboot Friday’ by $10 million spread over three years.

Gumboot Friday is an initiative set up by mental health advocate Mike King that provides free counselling and mental health support to young people.

New Zealand First says supporting the initiative will reduce pressure on publicly funded counselling services provided by the Ministry of Health and on overworked GPs. The Opportunities Party: TOP believes the best way to prevent poor mental health is to “ensure people have a strong identity and sense of belonging in communities” and will therefore increase funding to community groups.

The Party says it will fund this by increasing the excise tax on alcohol.

News: Issue 22

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MMP and “More Maori in Parliament” Te Aorewa Rolleston | Ngāi te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui | She/Her

On Friday the 18th September, Salient was joined in the office by Mona-Pauline Mangāhia, Safari Hynes, Dr Maria Bargh and Dr Carwyn Jones for the panel discussion, ‘Māori and political empowerment’.

In the 2017 election, all 7 of the Māori electorate seats were won by the Labour party which indicated that the system of MMP does not guarantee an independent Māori voice will be elected into parliament.

Civic Participation

Māori and voting

Dr Carwyn Jones, a senior lecturer at the faculty of law told Salient that “civic participation is very much about participation in public life.”

Māori voters are able to change their electorate vote every 5 years which means if they are currently signed up to one roll, they need to remain on that roll until the next Māori electoral option returns which may not coincide with the next election year.

“It is really important that we think about participation as not only happening by casting a vote but by ensuring that the representatives remain accountable and informed about what our issues and concerns are”.

For Māori, the major factor that influences civic and political participation, is the systems in place which have “dispossessed” Māori communities, said Safari Hynes, an executive representative of the Ngāi Tauira Māori students association.

Hynes said, “Civic participation in the sense of participation within the pākehā political system is incredibly important as a temporary measure, as a temporary necessity for us as a people to develop.”

Engagement & systematic oppression Mona-Pauline Mangakāhia, the Senior Project Manager for Community Engagement for the Electoral Commission said that there is a disparity in the age group of those participating.

“Effectively the older generation are making decisions or having their voices heard in relation to policies and legislation that are set that may not actually be around for their lifetime.”

As referred to by Dr Jones it is impactful to focus on where the issues exist within legislation currently being introduced that are going to affect Māori, such as the two referendum options in the 2020 elections.

MMP MMP is the system of voting currently used which was established in 1993 and in legislation stands for ‘mixedmember proportional’.

Māori are able to decide whether they would like to participate in the Māori or general electorate system.

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News: Issue 22

Being bound to one roll also means Māori voters are only able to vote for those members who stand within the electoral roll system the voter is signed up to.

“There’s a connection between the number of Māori on the Māori electoral roll and the number of Māori electorates and it’s a very political matter,” said Dr Maria Bargh, an associate Professor from Te Kawa a Maui at VUW. Student participation Dr Carwyn Jones reiterated to Salient that “one of the really nice things about working within a university environment is that there are always lots of interesting discussions and conversations and ways to participate in those, it’s really important for us to stay politically engaged and connected”.

Many issues such as The Māori language petition, the mental health movement and the climate strike movement have been sustained by students following on from the work of their pakeke and tupuna who initiated the momentum said Hynes.

Hynes said, “Rangatahi stand on the shoulders of giants and they will continue to do so” “Just being Māori and your pure existence means you’re political”.

Mangakāhia told Salient “the easiest way to register to enrol to vote is by heading to our website, vote.nz. You can enrol there and update your details but if you don’t have access to the internet or these things you can give us a call on 0800 36 76 56”.

Student Health Wait Times and Financial

Support: Advocates Push for Welfare Changes Keana Virmani | She/Her

Image by: VUWSA

The Ask Me Why I’m Angry: Welfare event was held last Wednesday, hosted by The Disabled Students Association and VUWSA. The panel discussion shed light on the current welfare system and its impacts on those experiencing disability, chronic illness, and mental health concerns.

The panellists included Jonathan Boston, Professor of Public Policy; community organiser Kate Aschoff; disability rights activist Erin Gough; and Tara Ó Súilleabháin, a VUW student and advocate for mental health awareness. Ó Súilleabháin addressed the issue of Student Health wait times which were typically around three weeks, and expressed that it is “really tricky to navigate health services in general in NZ […] they only know what they know, not about other services around them.”

For Aschoff, their experience with Student Health was “good but wasn’t the kind of support [they] needed.”

They acknowledged that tertiary health services have a focus on basic student needs such as the attainment of aegrotats but are not equipped for holistic, long-term support.

“A lot of it comes down to capacity and funding: what the university sees the purpose of student health as vs what it is being accessed as which is often crisis services […]

Students don’t often have anywhere else to go.”

Boston added that “there is an acute shortage of healthcare specialists and resources in a context where there has been an explosion of need and demand.” The effect of this pandemic on the University community is nothing like he’s ever seen before.

The panel was then prompted to speak of the way communities at the intersections between race, class and disability were impacted by the welfare system.

This oppression was acknowledged by Aschoff, and they also pushed for systemic change. “We need to change the way universities run as institutions and the culture within them.” Gough added, “even the diversity of academics who are hired and who gets to be hired are huge issues.”

Gough highlighted that not everyone had the privilege of advocating for themselves and enforced the need for support for the disabled community. “It’s not me or my body that’s the problem, it’s the barriers that society has presented that I constantly have to overcome that exacerbates all these issues.”

Panellists were asked what policies they’d like to see enacted post-election.

Jonathan Boston believes that the current financial support for students and those on welfare benefits is insufficient.

For the Professor, “reducing financial stress is one way of reducing mental health stress.”

Moving forward, the panel united in Gough’s belief that a “collective sense of rights and responsibilities” are vital. Ó Súilleabháin parted with some knowledgeable words to voters. “Think of the most vulnerable person you know and vote in their best interest [...] it’s easy to forget what’s outside your own bubble.”

News: Issue 22

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Opinion Asylum Seekers Seek Equity Phoebe Craig | She/Her

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is an aspirational document. It is a document that at its core says human beings have value, potential, and importance.

It aims to protect the many facets of human existence— one of those things being the right to seek asylum.

The right to seek asylum protects a number of other rights: the right to live free from persecution, the right to be free from cruel and inhumane treatment, freedom of movement, and freedom from discrimination. If you have the right to live free from persecution, there is a corresponding right to seek protection when you need it.

Essentially, the right to seek asylum in another country is a potential remedy for any breach of human rights.

New Zealand is a signatory to several international treaties, many of which have been ratified in domestic law.

As a result, New Zealand has a legal obligation to provide protection to people who arrive in Aotearoa seeking asylum. An ‘asylum claimant’ is a person who has lodged a claim for asylum and is awaiting the outcome of that application. In essence, they are asking for refugee status under one of the conventions that we have ratified.

Grounds for protection may include race, customary identity, nationality, religion, political orientation and more. Once accepted, an asylum claimant becomes a ‘convention refugee’, and legally has refugee status here in New Zealand.

A refugee in New Zealand is most commonly understood as a quota refugee. Quota refugees are the 1000 people accepted into New Zealand each year as part of our annual refugee quota. This scheme is in place to meet New Zealand’s commitments to the UN but remains separate from our obligations to accept asylum seekers.

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Injustice arises because of a distinction in policy between quota refugees, convention refugees, and people seeking asylum. The accessibility of services is different for all three, despite all often coming from the same or similar lived experiences. Many people, including policymakers and support personnel, don’t even understand that these distinctions exist. Or if they do, there is little awareness of the effect this can have.

Quota refugees get access to a number of support mechanisms and programs to assist resettlement, such as the refugee resettlement center in Mangere. For asylum claimants, however, there is often uncertainty as to what support they are entitled to. One of the key problems is a breakdown in communication at the pre-acceptance level: sometimes, frontline personnel don’t actually understand what asylum seekers are entitled to, such as the Emergency Benefit (this provides the same pay rate as the Job Seeker Support benefit).

"Injustice arises because of a distinction in policy between quota refugees" One claimant attempted to apply for the Emergency Benefit. They were declined because the official on the other end of the call simply did not know that asylum claimants were entitled to that payment. The miscommunication and lack of understanding carries on even once refugee status has been granted. Essentially, the government takes a hands-off approach, and it's left to unfunded NGOs to pick up the slack.

You will often hear officials in charge acknowledge that our system is not perfect, but, they’ll qualify, “we are not as bad as other places.” Since when did we measure our success by saying “It is not great but it is not as bad as over there?”

That is not success, that is denial. Asylum claimants are exercising their right to safety and the current system does very little to address needs.

Shit News IT’S THAT SPECIAL TIME AGAIN WHERE WE BREAK DOWN SOME NOTABLES FROM THE HEADLINES IN AN EASY ENOUGH WAY. OUR EDITORS ARE MĀORI, SO WE SAY HE WAKA EKE NOA.

MONDAY 21ST SEPTEMBER

NZ collectively paid TVNZ to make the two major parties seem like reasonably stink options.

Auckland is FUCKED! Every bloody JAFA on my Instagram has been posting stories all day. Turns out Optimus Prime slammed Megatron through the Harbour Bridge or some shit.

Looking forward to the multi-party debates on October 3rd (Three) and October 8th (TVNZ).

The Lakers beat the Nuggets in game 2. It looks as though they are trying to line up their 3rd comeback series.

A Salient staff member spent 30 minutes stressing out over getting a reply from a girl because he thought he sent a shit message.

We’re going into level one tonight!! Auckland is going to level 2 and still sucks.

She replied. It’s all sweet.

Paddy Gower: On Weed was a reasonably decent watch, we have leaked information that it was more enjoyable after a few cones.

TUESDAY 22ND SEPTEMBER Auckland is still fucked.

Taranaki have a huge parade for their fucking awesome win over those losers in the black and red (Canterbury Rugby), bringing the Ranfurly Shield back to the place that is “like no other”.

The TVNZ Colmar Brunton poll shows that if the election was tomorrow, Labour would form a government with themselves. No need for Greens or NZF. But that's a poll, they don’t really mean too much.

We spent the night watching the TVNZ leaders debate. It was more boring than waiting in the car after your sister's swimming lessons.

Halfway through the leader’s debate we turned the TV off and went down to JJ’s for a few jugs and ended up coming 26th out of 15 in the quiz night. Proud of our team.

After the quiz, we tried to watch the rest of the debate and we’ve developed a conspiracy that all the minor parties in

WEDNESDAY 23RD SEPTEMBER Auckland is still fucked.

And it seems to me you lived your life like a candle in the wind.

Had the worst sleep last night because it was too bloody windy! If I wanted to live inside a fan I would’ve been born a fly.

The Green Party have said that a wealth tax is the bottom line in a coalition agreement. A bit rich for a party that currently wouldn't actually be a part of a government.

It’s Auckland’s last day in level 2.5, we’ve heard reports that this means almost nothing. Woohoo, bring on level 2!!! IT’S LIT!!! The breathers are already starting pre’s for sitting down at the clubs tonight.

The Lakers lost to the Nuggets. From our limited knowledge of the NBA, we expect to be seeing that guy called James help the Lakers win the series!

THURSDAY 24TH SEPTEMBER Auckland is still fuckeding annoying Update on the text from earlier this week. They are still talking. All is going well.

Auckland is back in level 2 and it doesn’t really matter, the bridge is still cooked. Wishing good luck to le jâfas.

The Green Party have since worked out that they currently are not in the position to have a bottom line so they are now calling it a ‘priority’. Smart play because… yeah.

Next week we promise we’ll shut up about Auckland x

News: Issue 22

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QISAS Words by CKW | He/Him | North Lebanon

Content Warning: Christchurch Terror Attacks I caught a guy sneaking glances at my tattoo in the gym mirrors, where the base human instinct to be exposed, to be noticed, is indulged. He wanted to know what it said, and he told me about his linguistic studies.

I explained to him that it was the story of how my Mother’s family came to New Zealand. My “family tree” wraps over the top of my thigh, above my knee. Arranged in the shape of a cedar, the emblem of Lebanon, it is an Arabic calligram: Arabic calligraphy arranged into a specific shape.

It tells the story of how my great-grandfather came to New Zealand, a solo father with 4 daughters and one son, who would become my grandfather. I know him as Careem Koorey.

Traditionally, tattoos are frowned upon in Islam, considered Haram. Nevermind my family isn’t Muslim, and never was— but in the way of the uneducated Westerner, I conflated Islam with the Arabic language. I know I’m a part of something, I just don’t know what it is.

As it turns out, a conversation with my barber showed me the right path. A Syrian immigrant with tattoos down his arms, he helped me translate what I wanted it to say.

He also put me at ease—it is a tattoo after all, and if you second guess your decision you probably shouldn’t wear it.

He should know. His is the story so common to the Middle Eastern diaspora—fleeing a country torn apart by Civil War, corrupted by Western disruption and neglected for years.

He went to jail twice in Syria, the first time when he was 14, and told me how his strategy for survival was to beat up the biggest inmate as soon as he came in. He came to New Zealand in 2009, a prospect for a Wellington gang chapter and is receiving his colours at the end of the year. Out of the frying pan, into the fire. As an immigrant, he seems to need to reclaim his identity through hyper-masculinity.

I am not Muhammed. We come from vastly different backgrounds. But I saw something in his defiant, steadfast manner, how I imagine my great-grandfather would have had to carry himself: A hard man, from a hard country raising hard sons and daughters. Solo fathers were a rare sight in 1950s New Zealand, let alone Assyrian ones, so he must have stuck out like a sore thumb. He changed his names, “anglicised” them, to try and fit in. Karim to Kareem. Khouri to Koorey.

Tattooing my family tree was a way to pay homage to this man I barely know, and try to capture some of the defiant staunchness of the man: The solo provider, playing Dad and Mum. I want people to notice. I want them to look. I want them to feel intimidated.

So it was empowering to see the victim impact statement given by Ahad Nabi after the sentencing of the Christchurch Mosque shooter. The striking image of the muscular man wearing a Warriors jersey, with old English tattoos stamped on his forearms. A muharib with a qalb al’asad. A warrior with the heart of a lion.

"...how I imagine my great-grandfather would have had to carry himself: A hard man, from a hard country raising hard sons and daughters" Ahad Nabi’s expressions of anger and resolution to not forgive the Christchurch shooter come from a magnitude of grief I will never understand. His grief is his own to deal with, and he should be allowed to express it in the way that helps him to heal.

But how striking it was to hear a Middle Eastern voice that was not portrayed as a victim, a guest, let into the country by the good grace of the West. It appealed to my inner,

Feature: QISAS

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testosterone-fueled need for power, justice, my desire for retaliation. Something that has come to be seen as harmful, toxic masculinity.

But is it? Or is it just the expression of a base human desire for equality, the most bare mechanism of which is retribution—for which people will use extreme means?

Karl Marx asserted that in any epoch, the ideas of the ruling class become ruling ideas. It seems that young men have internally colluded with society’s objectification of themselves, resulting in a profound misrecognition of their own identity.

The way I felt, watching the video of the sentencing and feeling my need for justice satisfied is one I share with a multitude of others. Disaffected, alienated, young men have long been the recruits for religious and ideological extremism in the West, longing for a mechanism with which to reclaim their dignity as men. Considered violent, antisocial, brutish—they adopt stereotypes of themselves and, in the process, invert societal criticism and wear it as a badge of honour. Young men deal with the putdown, the insult, the hidden injury to mental health and self-esteem, by upending social values, and upholding the undesirable as desirable. Physical strength and violence are celebrated; vulnerability and compassion are denigrated.

Muhammed told me that in Islam, good deeds and bad deeds are piled high on a scale, with sin weighing twice the amount of a good deed. Dunya (the material world) is a test, and Muslims try to pass this test by taking responsibility for their actions, both good and bad.

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Words by CKW | He/Him | North Lebanon

Young men, creating their identities with aggressive, antisocial masculinity have found themselves unable to balance this scale, seeking to reclaim what they feel was taken from them through acts of hyper-masculinity and violence. Young men who no longer see themselves in the world around them seek to change this through the adoption of poisonous, extreme white-supremacist beliefs.

"how striking it was to hear a Middle Eastern voice that was not portrayed as a victim, a guest, let into the country by the good grace of the West."

In the wake of the terror attacks, Ahmed Kilani, a prison chaplain at Goulburn Supermax in New South Wales, seemed to predict the tragedy when he commented: “I always said a white supremacist guy will make our Muslim prisoners [convicted of terrorism] look like boy scouts.”

Both factions have stoked each other’s convictions, with miserable results. The imbalance has occurred. The scale was tipped on 15 March 2019 as the terrorist acted to right perceived insults, establish his warped perception of the world, and 51 Muslims said goodbye to their families, left the house, and never returned home.

It has been said that masculinity and ethnicity, “abrade, inflame, amplify, twist, negate, dampen and complicate each other.” When I consider Muhammed’s need to prove

himself through gang membership, or my attempt to reconnect with my heritage through a tattoo, or the tragic consequences of abhorrent actions, I see a response to an environment in which young men feel they have very limited power. I see alienation determined by class and ethnicity, enacted in masculine terms. I see an attempt to reclaim identity through the most evil act capable of a human being.

My cedar is always with me. I need only look down to see its length and breadth, it’s foundation, bare below my shorts, spread across the top of the nerve endings in my knee—the most painful part. I earnt the right to honour my family forever, with pride. I earnt the right to attract stares after years of insults about bombs and guns, statements from people I thought were my friends that I “wasn’t that Lebanese”, as if my identity was a social privilege to be given and taken away. My own inability to pronounce my names right, the worst shame of all.

"I see alienation determined by class and ethnicity, enacted in masculine terms."

After the Christchurch shooter was sentenced, the media called for a prisoner swap with Australia, to save the millions it will cost to keep him in prison for life without parole.

He is from New South Wales and would be housed in the Goulburn correctional centre, a super-maximum-security prison facility only for males. In Goulburn supermax, the majority of prisoners believe in Salafi-Jihadism, due to its cut and dried sense of right and wrong, and its fundamental, politicised version of Salafism. It calls for active expression of belief over personal observance of the teachings of Islam. It’s a coping mechanism, providing a structured routine for young men in an ultra-hostile environment where your survival is dictated by your ability to cope. After all, there’s not much to do in prison except wait, pray, and train. Train for the day your enemies are in front of you. Train for when you can take what is owed to you, even if that means tearing someone open from limb to limb.

They call Goulburn supermax, “Goulburn supermosque” because if you’re not Muslim in there: Good luck to you.

Justice will be enacted, in its most bare terms.

It can’t be taken from me now. I have made sure of that. So look at it. Admire it. Feel fear, repulsion, attraction in equal parts. I don’t care. It’s mine. I have staked my claim to my own identity.

Feature: QISAS

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Who is Da Man? Words by Lachlan Ewing | He/Him

Warning: Highly offensive to breathas Man. Many of us identify with this particular notion, for better or for worse. But throughout history, some great people have identified particularly strongly with “man”, it being part of their actual name. James Man (the Man in the Man-Booker prize); Barry Manilow; Katherine Mansfield; Spongebob Squarepants super villain Man Ray. But the most notorious Man of all? Da Man. One doesn’t have to travel far into the woke community or soul music to know that Da Man is keeping a lot of people down.

I thought it was about time someone confronted him man to Man. So one fine Tuesday in Pōneke, I embarked on an investigation to find out: Who is Da Man?

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First stop: Newly elected VUWSA President Michael Turnbull. President Turnbull has made a point of standing up to Da Man in his previous capacities as Wellbeing and Sustainability Officer, Welfare Vice President, School Strike for Climate agitator, and prominent kitchen anarchist in our flat. Surprisingly, he told me that Da Man wasn’t real.

Apparently, he was a personification of traditional authority structures. Calling these “Da Man” emphasised their patriarchal nature and helped focus the anger of groups who felt neglected by society. I wasn’t convinced by this high brow academic take. Had President Turnbull climbed too far up the greasy pole of student politics? Had he gotten too close to Da Man, and been muzzled? Probably not, the bro will make a great President. But deep down I

still felt that I could find Da Man somewhere out there.

Could it be Aloe Blacc? I remembered his 2013 single where he seemed to admit that he was “Da Man.” But a quick Google taught me that the song was in fact about “the man” and his real name was, in fact, Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III. That was a very brief line of inquiry.

I let the breeze carry me down Vivian Street, past the basketball courts well worn by the pounding of Air Jordan teens and their Air Jordan dreams. Out of the corner of my ear, I heard one such youth exclaim: “Lay up! Da Man!” I was intrigued, and asked who he was talking about.

“Well the bro Josh, he just did mad hops on the bro James over there.”

“So is Josh’s true identity Da Man?” “Nah bro, he was just like Da Man when he went to the board. We call all the bros Da Man when they produce a particularly impressive athletic feat. Because Da Man is someone who is strong, fast, and possesses all of those traits that would have been so important to males in the evolutionary rat-race.”

What a delightful, insightful hooper.

Although I had not found Da Man on that court, I now had a good description to work with. I was able to pull some strings and get in touch with Salient’s undercover Otago Correspondent, whose name has been omitted for safety reasons. Apparently, they knew Da Man I was looking for.

I was on the first flight to Dunners.

Mitch was a true blue southern man. He had been ever since he was spewed by the Auckland private school circuit onto Te Waipounamu two years ago. He landed only with a couple of brain cells, a handful of serotonin, and a steady supply of Daddy’s money. Word had been going round that he was in fact Da Man ever since he “played a mean set at The Castle.”

“Shoulda seen it man the beezies were all over him but all he wanted to do was punch darts, haha brleskssghooo” However, I knew this couldn’t be true as soon as I saw him emerge from a cloud of mango Haiz™. With a beer gut and feeble legs, he possessed none of the physical prowess described to me by the basketballers. He failed to hold down his coffin of Billy Mavs that night, and I realised this couldn’t be the man responsible for holding down so many oppressed minorities for centuries.

behind the ears, these lonely boys learnt their manhood in hallways of highschools named for anachronistic Saints, in double garages hazy with smoke, and in the backseats of Range Rovers.

Like the ghost of St Patrick’s days past, I roamed Castle Street. All the young dudes were throwing up their goons in the gutters, but Da Man was nowhere to be seen. I realised that if I couldn’t find him in this southern bastion of human excellence, I wouldn’t find him anywhere.

"He failed to hold down his coffin of Billy Mavs that night, and I realised this couldn’t be the man responsible for holding down so many oppressed minorities for centuries."

I thought back to what President Turnbull told me. Perhaps Da Man was a concept all along. But there was so much more to him than traditional authority and the patriarchy.

To be Da Man is to be powerful in any domain. Whether on the VUWSA exec, a basketball court, or the decks, anyone can become Da Man when they exert control or mastery.

Sure, this notion derives some pretty old fashioned thinking, whether it is seeing only men as powerful, or talking about all of humanity as man.

But truly anyone can become Da Man. In those situations where we find ourselves being looked up to as Da Man, what will we do with our fleeting authority/admiration?

As someone who has been Da Man on/off for nearly two decades, Kanye West, asks: You got the power to let power go?

We must also take responsibility for who we elevate to Da Man status. The next time you call someone Da Man, are they really tho? Remember the wise words of warrior poet Halsey: No, you're not half the man you think that you are And you can't fill the hole inside of you with money, drugs and cars I'm so glad I never ever had a baby with you

Mitch was not Da Man. Rather, he was the product of a cult of young men who had been given everything on a silver spoon. Everything, that is, except a meaningful connection with their fathers. Thrown together still wet

Feature: Who is Da Man?

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The Munters and The Mum Words by Johnny O’Hagan Brebner | He/Him

CW: Alcoholism, sexism By history’s standards, Jacindamania had no right to slap as hard as it did. The story of political success in New Zealand is the story of guys being dudes. Our country’s main barometer of a politician’s personal popularity is whether we’d have a beer with (in most cases) him. Until 2017, this remained unshakeable. To find out why, and how Ardern is a historic exception, you’re about to have a sneaky pulled on you—it’s a history lesson, loser.

Our expectations when it comes to our Prime Ministers are shaped by the historic dominance of men in the role, and the centrality of masculinity when we think of leadership. We expect assertiveness and aggression, a dominating presence, strong ambitions, and the strength to get underlings in behind.

Jock Phillips’ A Man’s Country? The Image of the Pakeha Male, A History tracks the roots of these qualities to the colonisation of Aotearoa—the rugged and rowdy frontiersman of the back blocks and gold fields was necessarily tough and was expected by his mates to drink his paycheque and shout his round. Regular movement encouraged yarns about exaggerated feats of strength, alcoholism, and sexual prowess, but allowed only the bond of the mate. ‘Womanly’ traits like emotions and connection beyond a root were a point of derision. Behold, the foetal bloke! Physically towering and emotionally stunted, this was the pioneer legend who became the most significant social standard for generations of Pākehā men. We love to see it.

But as the economic (see: landowner’s) needs of the colony changed in the 1800s, men were required to settle and be tamed by a woman’s influence. Bourgeoisie values had found their way in and with them the threat of masculine wilt. Fear not, however, rugby would quickly spring in to keep the pioneer virility alive. Men could not only beat each other up on the field, but get shitfaced before, during, and afterwards. While war occasionally replaced the game, riggers and rugger remained the essential expression of the pioneer ideal and so signifiers of Pākehā masculinity.

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Rugby and piss became titans of our history, and soon other giants would get in on the action.

Politicians seeking public support tied themselves closely to the national rugby team as soon as they could. Premier Richard Seddon was popular not only because he was seen as a mate of the everyday man. He telegraphed the results of the All Blacks’ formative 1905 tour of England to the Evening Post, to be regularly updated in the office windows. Seddon even got the government to foot the bill for an extended AB return trip via Canada and the US. Similarly racist and astoundingly autocratic, Prime Minister Robert Muldoon used his endless aggression to wield the full force of the New Zealand Police to crack open the heads of Springbok Tour protestors. His identity as a hard man was well protected. Muldoon was also an infamous drunk, pulling the biggest pisshead move in political history by calling the 1984 snap election (which he subsequently lost to Labour’s David Lange).

Politics remained under the influence until the 90s. Lange himself fell prey to alcoholism as his Cabinet split. Only Jenny Shipley was ready to call the end. Making a jab at her recently coup’d leader Jim Bolger and his Deputy Winston Peters, she declared that she would not be “running the country over a whiskey bottle.”

As the exercise of actual pioneer masculinity became less acceptable, the power of rugby and booze as symbols rocketed. Key relied on this heavily—a background as an investment banker doesn’t scream Southern Man. He made sure that there were regular images of him choking down swill despite his preference for wine. His obsessive and painfully awkward appearances with the All Blacks still haunts many today.

Even our women Prime Ministers fit the mould of masculine leadership. Both Shipley and Clark presented themselves as down to earth farm girls. Shipley donned her power suit and rolled her Prime Minister. Clark became known as

The Commander. Staunch and largely uncompromising she was subject to allegations of lesbianism. The fact that Ardern could have followed the same course is striking. Like her precursors, Ardern often discussed her upbringing in the provinces but mentions faded as her limelight brightened. That framing had worked before yet the opportunity was passed over for a different frontier entirely—the woman’s woman PM.

This is what cool people like me call History, nerds call it historiography. The way that we record, research, comment, and report on history is important in itself. What was and wasn’t included? How and why? Who recorded it and who was recorded? Is it enough that exclusions are simply acknowledged? We can’t delude ourselves by obscuring our history, or the way we understand and respond to history.

Ardern is an exception because she follows none of our expectations about leadership, especially as a woman.

She has no power suit or stubbies, is compassionate not combative, and is a literal mother figure. Few of these things are seen in our old PMs, none of them together, and none of them in a woman.

Ardern is rightly admired for her historically exceptional approach to leadership, but is also rightly criticised in more substantial areas. Like Key, we risk obscuring policy with personality. How does her campaign's compassion compare with her own history on climate change, the WEAG report, housing, and Ihumātao? How will history recall her?

So what? Gender is everywhere. Wabam. Except, we just learned that. The problem is that gender, and a lot of other ~ideologies~, have informed how our history is made.

A Man’s Country? was acclaimed at the time for its groundbreaking work, but it also received heavy criticism for lacking coverage of Māori, Pasifika, queer, and women’s history. The 9th Floor which informed a lot of this feature was primarily produced by two men, Tim Watkin and Guyon Espiner (Claire Eastham-Farrelly and Rebekah ParsonsKing were both editors). Many other sources used here and sources used by those sources were written or made by men. This feature, although written by a homo, was written by a man homo.

Phillida Bunkle is Jock Phillips’ ex-wife, although her credentials go well beyond that as co-founder of the VUW Women’s Studies department and co-author of the “Unfortunate Experiment”. She made the point in a way my irony-poisoned brain can’t. In her article “A Marriage and Self-Serving Boomer Men” she critiques her exhusband’s role in redefining our national identity—“But for women seeking a place in that new narrative, the moral of their books is this: keep your own documents, even the little cards that come with the flowers. For without even these small reminders you will be trapped in subjective, unbalanced, exaggerated accounts of your life.”

Feature: The Munters and The Mum

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“Wear Whatever You Words by Kane Bassett | Ngāti Apa, Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa | He/Him

This article greeted me in a daydream. I found myself wondering what my tūpuna would make of modern day gender expression, and what this might mean for the way we dress.

The conundrum of the Māori diaspora is that we often have few resources available to us when attempting to answer these questions. That said, there are tiny details trickled through the few historical accounts we do have.

These offer us hope, as well as glimpses back to a society where gender expression was rather dynamic and fluid.

“We scattered ourselves among the huts. Crawling through the low entrance of one, I seated myself cross-legged in the midst of the family circle, and became popular by the present of a little tobacco, a portion of which, mingled with many compliments I presented to what I imagined to be a young and lovely Māori belle, with a pair of huge and magnificent eyes, her graceful form being wrapped up in a blanket, when to my disgust after a short time I found I was flirting with a boy.”

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This is an account written amidst the booming Māori tourism industry at Whakarewarewa in Rotorua in the 1880s. To paraphrase the work of Kassie Hartendorp (Ngāti Raukawa) and Ngāhuia te Awekotuku (Te Arawa, Ngāi Tūhoe, Waikato), this letter tells us a lot about the fluid nature of gender expression in pre-colonial Māoridom.

To elaborate: we don’t know the name of the ‘Māori belle’, but we do know that they inhabited and expressed the femininity we typically associate with women. We know that doing so didn’t cause an uproar, at least on the part of their whanaunga. It is not possible to know why they chose to look this way, but it is possible to deduce that they were living comfortably in their expression.

Today, we haven’t lost hold of this fluidity. It’s just that it’s often glossed over by strictly regimented, essentialised ideas pertaining to gender. These ideas manifest in phrases à la “men should wear x”, “women should wear y”, and “god forbid they wear z.”

Want, My Mokopuna” —My Tupuna, Probably

I wanted to interrogate the way we draw essential links between gender and style, so I spoke to Frank Lewis.

Frank is a prominent Wellington designer, boasting a Bachelor of Design (Fashion) with First Class Honours.

His thesis focused on how costume and fashion can work to critique essential constructions of masculinity and femininity. I asked Frank what these constructions look like, specifically in relation to masculinity.

He tells me that New Zealand’s most ‘natural’ form of masculinity is grounded in the Western idea that men should prohibit showing their emotions. This trickles through into the way men are expected to dress: “there’s not the same kind of risk-taking, with colour and silhouette especially, as we see in cultures [of people] that are more emotive.”

The result is that men are expected to dress uniformly and plainly. We see this embodied in white collar professions, where suits blend men together, obstructing them from the ability to stand out in the office. We see it in rugby

players, who are homogenised by uniforms on the field, and streamlined by formal dress in the clubrooms. Indeed, our hegemonic depictions of masculinity are based on strength and not weakness—a construction that can, and does, bleed into our wardrobes.

Kate Hunter, a VUW History Professor with a longstanding interest in masculinity and dress, tells me that Wellington is rather unique. Citing the capital’s ‘hipster economy’ as grounds, she notes that in the last 10 years, there has been “an enormous tolerance for a wide range of expressions of masculinity”. Kate touches on a key point when it comes to understanding hegemonic constructions of masculinity— that, despite being powerful and overarching, they’re not always played out en mass in reality.

I 100% vibe with what Kate has to say. When I moved to Wellington, I noticed the immense amount of room there is to wrestle with normative expressions of gender, particularly through clothing. This is what got me daydreaming in the first place. But to impose this idea onto

Feature: Wear Whatever You Want, My Mokopuna—My Tūpuna, Probably

23

an entire community of people, without actually talking to them, was something I never did in good conscience. I needed to talk to them, to be sure that what I noticed was actually related to gender expression, or whether, to my welcoming surprise, it was because of something else.

And so that’s what I did—I spoke to people, each with a different lense to what their style means to them, and what it means for their gender identity. Without further adieu, allow me to introduce you to them.

Jayden Rudolph Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Raukawa He/Him Jay is takatāpui, an advocate for gender fluidity, and a standout Wellington fashionista. His place within Te Ao Māori is inextricably linked to how he expresses himself through style.

Takatāpui refers to all Indigenous people who identify with a diverse gender and/or sexuality. It ensures that tāngata whenua remain connected to Te Ao Māori in a way that doesn’t require them to shunt their queerness. This is to spite the heteronormative, cisnormative, colonial value systems responsible for naturalising the idea that there are essential qualities in men and women, or even the idea that there are only men and women.

Jay learnt of takatāpui about a year ago, adding that “what we understand to be representative of male and female is not a product of Te Ao Māori, but a result of colonisation”.

Key to takatāpui is the idea that one can express themselves however they see fit, especially through dress.

This is important for Jay, who views clothing as a conduit

through which he can bend the notion of gender binaries: “I dress how I feel on the inside, which is neither masculine or feminine”. Blurring these lines to the extent that they no longer constitute an intrinsic element of his clothing has been transformative for Jay, seriously enhancing the mana of his wairua.

In many ways, Jay uses clothing to embody the fluidity of gender expression that was welcomed in pre-colonial Māoridom. He shows us that fashion is, indeed, a meaningful way for tāngata whenua to reconnect with our traditional values and customs.

James Holt Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa, Whangaroa He/Him James is a queer civil servant who plays around with the connotations of masculinity and femininity in his style.

He thinks about what is generally considered masculine before buying clothes which “bust that the fuck down.”

James favours his fur and fringe garments above everything else in his wardrobe, although I’ll have it on record that this still didn’t stop him from prepping seventeen thousand outfits for our photoshoot. He notes that today, fur and fringe are symbols of the eccentric and the flamboyant, but points out that their connotations have changed over time.

Google corroborated what James had to say, informing me that from the 14th to the 17th century, England regulated fur apparel across the country. Expensive and ‘higher quality’ fur materials were reserved for the aristocratic elite, standing in as symbols of strength and power— characteristics we associate with hegemonic masculinity.

Similarly, fringe is historically linked to the buckskin, a jacket worn predominantly by frontiersmen and cowboys.

While clothing certainly carries gendered connotations, history tells us that these are in a constant state of flux.

Gender is in this same state of motion and change.

Anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss calls it a “floating signifier”—a concept that has no agreed upon meaning.

Not to suggest that gender is just a series of ideas, as doing so would severely underestimate the affective nature of gender expression as an embodied, lived experience. But to suggest that our collective battle over gender, what it should look like, and what it can mean, shows just how fluid it is.

James echoes this, saying that the fluid history of gender and dress highlights that “boys aren’t born masculine, and women aren’t born feminine. These are things we’re socialised into.”

Not only is James a treasure, but he’s the chaotic, smart cookie kind of treasure. He teaches us that clothing has a rich, gendered history, and that looking at this can teach us to be critical of how gender is understood and played out in our social environments.

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Words by Kane Bassett | Ngāti Apa, Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa | He/Him

Jazz Kane | Te Āti Awa | He/Him Jazz is a sucker for the small details in his silhouettes, fabrics, and accessories. Paying attention to detail is both an indicator of his taste and a way for him to socialise with others.

“It’s the people who notice the details that I’m most excited to start conversations with.”

Jazz speaks to the power clothing has to spur social interaction, an idea backed up by research. Malcom Barnard, author of Fashion as Communication, points out that clothing delineates groups of people, ensuring that identities lay separate from another. Nonetheless, the appreciation one might have for points of difference can function as a common ground between people.

Fashion can fence us off from our peers, enabling us to feel unique, but at the same time, it can be the means by which we’re able to jump those fences to build meaningful relationships with others.

Jazz continues, saying that his attention to detail is his attempt to “redefine what means to present as masculine.”

This is perhaps what Frank was referring to earlier with the notion of risk-taking, or of expressing emotion through dress. For surely, using details not only to enhance communication with others, but to redefine what it means to be masculine as well, is an inherently emotional process.

Jazz’s attire speaks volumes. Volumes in terms of how powerful style can be, and volumes in terms of how much it can mean to people. Tautoko.

Carolina Bun | She/Her Carolina is a transgender woman, emerging Wellington drag queen, and full-time icon to boot. She frequents the realm of drag to disrupt societal gender norms, and just as importantly, to present an honest version of herself to the world.

Drag, in its richest form, wrestles with hegemonic and ‘natural’ notions of gender expression. It normalises the abnormal, carving out space in our social arenas for subversive identities to exist freely, fiercely, and fabulously in their own little pockets of absurdity. It’s often viewed as an artform through which people create and embody a character distinct from who they are out of drag, although characterisation is not necessarily a prerequisite. “[Drag] can look like a character, but for me, it’s an expression of who I really am.”

Carolina’s drag is intimately tied to her identity as a trans woman. To some extent, it is the form she embodies to wrestle with a society unwelcoming of her gender nonconformity. But to a greater extent, it’s the truest expression of how Carolina sees herself.

The way Carolina expresses herself through costume and drag is what performance studies scholar Madison Moore calls ‘fabulousness’. Such a word is a way of embellishing the body to flip the bird at prevailing gender codes, and to introduce unique, often marginalised identities, into our surroundings.

I love this theory. Not only because its name alone is enough to warrant ‘Icon Legend Star’ status on its own, but because it accounts for a particularly special aspect of many queer lived experiences; the creative capacity queer people have to turn the pain and struggle associated with being marginalised into something joyous, beautiful, and worth celebrating.

Carolina goes the full mile when wrestling with gender expression through fashion, and we love to see it. She also serves as a crucial reminder that reshaping systems of masculinity and femininity is not an experience exclusive to cisgendered men. Queen. *** For some people, clothes are just clothes—nothing more.

But for so many others, they speak to who we are, and to a world we want to live in. A world where people can embrace the absurd, the abnormal, the seemingly grotesque, while remaining unscathed by consequence. It’s these people who teach us about the fluid nature of self-expression, and who remind us that the bare minimum going forward is always, and forever will be, with an open mind.

And so, I return to my daydream. I see my tūpuna laughing, cracking jokes at the premise of gender binaries in moments of classic Māori irony. I imagine them proud.

Proud of people like Jay, James, Jazz, and Carolina, for slowly inching us towards a culture of expression akin to theirs.

Feature: Wear Whatever You Want, My Mokopuna—My Tūpuna, Probably

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UniQ

VUWSA

Brock Stobbs | He/Him

Michael Turnbull, Ralph Zambrano, & Max Salmon | He/Him

EVERYBODY HAS THOSE DAYS BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN IT’S NOT A PROBLEM

AN ODE TO THE KINGS

You ever think maybe you have a serious problem with how you view your body by reading a Marie Claire interview with Miley Cyrus. No? Just me then? Yay.

We here at VUWSA like to uplift our kings, that’s why our column this week focuses on the beauty of the different breeds of men right here in Wellington.

Hannah Montana mentioned something previously unknown to me: “body dysmorphia.” So I did what anyone with a penchant for fixation would do—some voracious Googling. I did clue into its relevance to my own situation but denial is a bitch—“well that CAN’T be me.”

Breatha-boi Once a member of your Auckland private school’s 1st XV, you’ve swapped the cheers of your schoolmates for the pounding bass of DnB. Although the only ‘tour’ you know these days is by Macky G—we love you for your dedication to the sesh.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder, or BDD, is described by the Mental Health Foundation as being a type of anxiety disorder related to how we think about our bodies. It can be characterised by having a negative preoccupation with real or imagined flaws about one's body to the extent which it causes severe emotional distress and inhibits daily life.

Thinking back, I can identify so many times I found myself consumed by the anxiety that my body was just a fucking nightmare. At my worst, even the glimpse of my reflection had me rushing home and staying put for days on end.

Part of how I pushed aside concerns of body issues was that I didn’t ‘match’ the criteria. The depictions I had previously seen showed it as a woman’s thing, so of course it couldn’t be me.

However, research shows that the prevalence of BDD is quite similar amongst men and women. One study saw prevalence rates of 2.2% and 2.5% from men and women respectively, “approximately [equal].”

It always seems so obvious in retrospect, realising that maybe the way your brain works or what behaviours you exhibit are not typical. It wasn’t until I had really hit rock bottom mentally that I sought help.

It turns out, my initial instincts were actually quite spot on.

If I had listened sooner, maybe then I would have realised No Body’s Perfect. (get it?)

Political boi Rising from the huge responsibility of being a prefect, we can judge from your opinionated posts, and sponsored VUWSA campaign ads, you really do back yourself. We love you for your commitment to serve others, second only to yourself.

Softboi The dungarees have been retired for corduroy, but the Doc’s stayed and somewhere along the way you found a matching aesthetic smoking habit. Those piercing eyes stare through (prescription?) lenses, and those lips ready to play devil's advocate. But the people love it, and so do we x.

E-boy Adorned in multiple layers of black, accessorised with a matted vape, piercings, and a heavy chain, you’re the yin to our yang. We love you for your stylish emo yet anime look, the edgy TikToks that come up on the for you page and the mystery that surrounds you.

All the boys in between <3 Maybe you don’t fit into one of the categories above?

That’s okay. David Seymour never fit in either, and look at him now! We love you for your individuality‚—keep doing you king.

Whatever kind of boy you are, we at VUWSA want you to be the best boy you can be. Look after yourself, and keep your head up king, your crown is slipping x Columns

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Midnight Hypothesis

There arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enough minutes for The divinity of the feminine: The affectionate and the intimate, The independent prison sentence; For my mind is forever clocked Instead, I wish to think of simple shit: synonyms to synagogues, Another word for something holy, Catch a bullet: just another train of thought.

Have you ever caught one before?

Four scores and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re still ignoring her?

Or is it the other way around.

Yoon Hong

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Poetry

My Platinum Girl

Only fools rush in but I feel like this is right I can't stop thinking about you late at night We have known each other for a bit but the feelings are growing I don’t want to blush but my emotions are showing Your form, your figure, you are you Authentic self, far from blue Other people are skeptical and tell me what they have heard I only care for what we are and not ‘the streets’ word Oh darling, you are a thing of beauty The way you sparkle, you are a cutie You truly are, the one for me I love you, my Sugar-Free V

Eugene Pipefitter

Poetry

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Rugby, Racing and Beer Matthew Casey | He/Him

In 1965 Rod Derrett released a song which exemplifies the real deal *Kiwi Bloke*. It tells the tale of a dad passing on his wisdom to his child.

“Because of your great parentage You have a national heritage Of Rugby, Racing and Beer."

I was discussing this last line with the person doing my pedicure last week. As a man's man myself, I firmly believe that these pastimes are the three pillars of masculinity in New Zealand.

I mean, take me for example. I’m merely a simple man, with hair on my chest and calluses on my hands, which I earnt from labouring over summer. I like rugby, racing, and beer. In and amongst that, I have an interest in literature, the NZ rugby magazine, racing booklets, and the backs of beer bottles. Like learning to tie your laces for the 7th time, it's a bit bloody hard and time consuming.

Rugby “Should've passed it to the front of the line out” I exclaim, as my mate Trev talks about how our partners never give us enough attention, and the ever rising price of telegraph cucumbers at the local Super Value. This is who I become when I stand on the sideline of a rugby match. A grimey big city elitist, a whiney know-it-all. Like superior big city folk, frolicking into lobbies with their cute suitcases and ties at the ready.

A true man is one who doesn't mind parading their marvellous thighs in front of crowds of adoring spectators.

Short shorts with long socks scream to others “I am a bloke and I am proud.” Watching these fellas display their athletic prowess makes me feel like I’m at the first ever olympics, where men being men meant wrestling in the clothes that the gods gave them, tussling to see who could be the manliest man. There is nothing more blokey than the intimate wrestle over the oval shaped ball, and history backs this up. Rugby is lovely.

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Culture: Rugby, Racing and Beer

Racing The highlight of my year is watching the Melbourne Cup. I grew up engaging with the equine world: I watched My Little Pony religiously, Mark Todd was my biggest highlight of the Olympics, and even my Barbie had a horse. These are what have influenced my love of the trifecta bet at the local TAB. When I watch the Melbourne Cup, I’m always fascinated by the designs on the jockeys’ shirts. The diamonds, stripes, and bright colours give more fashion-flair than anything you can find on Walk in Wardrobe. In 2019, the winner had a cute orange number on which made him look like he was telling me to vote at the upcoming election.

And do NOT get me started on the fashion off the track!!!

Gorgeous dresses and fascinators, feels like you’re at a royal wedding. It's really flash.

Beer I don't mind a few bevvies on a Friday afternoon with the boys. We get pissed and have a good time. As Ghandi, Marx, or some other bloke said, “beer is the bond of man''.

It has long been a social lubricant since it was invented in 1925 by the Innes family, who called it Waikato Draught. All other ‘beer’ prior was simply beer in name.

As I’ve let it be known, I am a simple man. I like beer. I like my beer straightforward, with undertones of hops, preferably both exotic and local as I don't mind spicing it up. An aromatic blend that lets me know I am a man and that I am consuming beer. It would be silly to not talk about the citrus splash on the palate to add a cheeky little bit of fun in my beer. If I wanted to drink something flavourless, I’d drink water. *** After a day at Te Papa visiting Pharlap’s skeleton, and watching a game of footy with some beers, I go to bed in my Peter Alexander PJ’s, listening to Lorde's first album (sooo much better than her second). I peer out my window to the beautiful flora and fauna that Wellington has to offer.

I still cannot stop thinking about rugby, racing, and beer.

Good as Gold?

Jack Henry Blair | He/Him

Most of y’all say you survived high school, but did you come out unscathed? I want to know. I’m still in high school, and for the most part, it’s a pretty shit time.

Uniforms strip us of any individuality, we’re told who we are, who we need to be, and what we shouldn't talk about. With that comes the crumbling reality of the stereotypes that rule the school. If you don’t fit into the few boxes, like me, good luck to us, right?

Lots of these stereotypes let toxic masculinity, and other bad things, linger around like the smell of that vape juice you spilt on your mate's carpet. This idea of being ‘tough’ is drilled into us from primary school, and by the time we get to Year 13, we’re upholding it ourselves. Well, for the most part—I try my best to unlearn.

The stigma of men not talking about their mental health is one which has been adamant for years and sticks around like gum to a sidewalk. My friends and I don’t talk to each other enough, lots of us have these layers to try and ‘toughen’ ourselves. We don’t know what’s really going on underneath their $200 AfterPay’ed fit.

Never thought 2020 would give my mask metaphor new meaning like this, but try disassociate yourself for a minute here. I’m talking about the masks us lads put up over ourselves. Wearing a mask is like enduring a roller coaster that won’t stop, and after a while, you get sick of doing that corkscrew and you become drained of all emotion. The worst thing about this is that us guys are too scared to seek the help we need because of the stigma.

I’m getting a bit serious here lads (and girls, I'm not forgetting you)—depression it's a pretty real thing aye.

Personally, this year I developed it and it's not sunshine and rainbows, but more mood swings, black coffee, and the constant feeling of not being enough. Us men are good at hiding it and acting as if we're tough as nails, but we’re only human.

Keeping in contact with your mates is easier said than done, I sure as hell like to think I keep in contact but maybe once a day you’ll get a lousy snap or some mediocre TikTok which you’ve probably already seen. In the world right now there are 1000's of ways to contact people, feeling old?

Use the landline. Feeling classy? Send a dm or even frisky match with your mate on tinder. As a whole, we all need to make a bigger effort even if it's a five-minute conversation that could light up someone's day.

But we also have to check in with ourselves. Ask yourself right now how you are feeling… now ask yourself, honestly, how are you feeling?? Obviously I don’t know what you just said but I'm hoping it was positive. Self-care is manly—it’s the toughest thing we can do.

Now, I'm no influencer—I'm still a high school student, but I reckon conversations like these are helping. If you’ve got brothers, cousins, younger mates in high school—keep an eye on us. We’re having a bit of a shit time, and you could help us dismantle the shitty stereotypes we’re fighting.

Maybe now we can address the issue and finally make a positive change for masculinity’s sake.

Are we really “good as gold”? 1 in 6 male New Zealanders have been affected by a mental health-related issue once in their life. It's a hard pill to swallow, maybe harder when you’re in high school. Besides your teacher praying that you hand in that 5-month-old internal, we get through this hell hole with next to zero support. The piss-poor effort of counselling they set up is, for the most part, just so they can say they support our mental health.

Culture: Good as Gold?

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@cartoonants & @tim_houghton_ (2019) Ponsonby, Auckland

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@cartoonants & @tim_houghton_ (2018) Epsom, Auckland

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Crossword: Sponsored Post

EXTRA CLUES

• 2007 comedy film starring Jonah Hill and Michael Cera • Gives, as an exam • Bootful of shopping, and then maybe the back seat too • Brought into one's family • Greek forest deity • Rock subgenre including 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' and 'I Don't Want To Miss a Thing'

The starred clues are all being protected by a 16-Across. If you switch it off, each of these clues can be matched with one at the bottom of this page.

ACROSS

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• Looking up to

DOWN

Municipal; Honda model (5) Chance for additional Lotto wins (5,4) * European nation with the highest number of NBA players per capita (9) Monte ____ (5) * Bogging down in sludge (6) * Pink Floyd album with their best song ('Echoes') and their worst ('Seamus') - no hate mail, please (6) Out of the rain (3) * Browser extension protecting this puzzle (2,7) Appropriate (3) * Makes edits to (6) Brilliant (6) * Elected (to) (5) * Common ingredient on meat-lover's pizzas (9) Priests and the like (9) * Baby that can turn its head 360 degrees (5)

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• Make edits to

Occupation Station

Word that can follow 'advice' or 'spinal' (6) People who elect (hope you're all enrolled!) (6) Make butter, old-time-style (5) Yearn; evergreen tree (4) Zigzag through traffic (5) Competed in the Tour de France, say (5) Inflatable mattress (3,3) Like some cartoon Tunes (6) 'Gone with the Wind' actor Clark (5) Demands food, like my cat at 5 a.m. (5) Noblemen; fists, in slang (5) In flower (6) Scottish pattern (6) Bring to a simmer again (6) Certain woodwind musician in an orchestra (6) Oceanic movements (5) Currency unit of India or Hyrule (5) 'In ___' (Nirvana album) (5) Phone downloads (4)

Word of the Week:

Sudoku

‘election, vote’

Te Reo Māori

kōwhiringa, pōti NZSL

Nah, Yeah

Alient's Solution

Yeah, Nah

Crypto-List In a crypto-list, a list of ten connected entries are encoded using a simple substitution cipher.

Theme: Cities that are the largest in their country but not the capital

Use unusual letter patterns, such as the last item on this list, to figure out what letters represent what in the list.

Example: AUCKLAND

OMVFPOK

DJFKNJ

PLZOKKNDMTSR

IODOMWOKIO

HTSVIZ

XLSLKXL

YTYMOV

WORLD

VDXOKMTW

Occupation Station

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What

offers:

y c a c o Adv Services Have a problem?

Our advocacy service helps students deal with university related and personal problems.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re 100% independent from the university, which means the advice we provide will always be in your best interest.

To learn more about this service, and how we can help you, visit: vuwsa.org.nz/advocacy

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Horoscopes Maddi Rowe | She/Her Absolute fuckin’ chur to the guys at Salient for reminding me that men can be good. This week Matthew AKA Young Matt AKA The Son of a Dad and I, the Astrological Father, present: The Signs, but Dad.

ARIES Rugby Dad Just constantly has strep from all the screaming. Would actually kick a kid in the face if they were picked ahead of you. Seriously contemplates lacing the team’s orange slices with Adderall.

TAURUS Running Dad Wakes you up every Sunday morning when his running club comes back with coffees. Peak physique. Has clocked off countless marathons but can still dust off a box of Speights on the regular.

GEMINI Sugar Dad Has an unsettlingly young girlfriend who takes the same CRIM217 paper as you. Always keen to shout you drinks at the Bottle-O. You still don’t know what his job is.

VIRGO

CANCER

LEO

Stoner Dad Loves to watch Cheech and Chong on Father’s Day to remind him of his bygone era of youth.

Self-proclaimed pacifist. Has three bongs on the mantelpiece, next to the birthday cards.

Barbecue Dad Really intense about meat rubs.

Is in a Pitmaster’s Facebook group.

Has friends who talk about the different genera of peppercorns when you’re tryna play PlayStation.

Fangirl Dad Takes you to every new Marvel release since the early 2000’s Spider-Man. Is always wearing his Millennium Falcon shirt. If you so much as breathe near his Funko Pops, he sweats behind the knees.

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

Finance Dad Reasonably aloof. He shows up to Saturday sports when your mate’s hot mum is there. Doesn't yarn about much except for his belief that God isn’t real coz otherwise the DOW would settle.

Tramping Dad Wears his Kathmandu sleeveless vest as a ‘smart casual’ look.

Taught you how to cook with a portable gas stove. 2 degrees Celsius is ‘bloody scorching compared to back South’.

LIBRA

Car Dad Do Not Ask Him About Ford.

Convinces you to go to the speedway with incentives of chips and a hotdog. He won't let you bring any liquids into his 1956 Chevy Bel-Air.

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

Tradie Dad Always finding sawdust in his hair, if he has any. Has disassembled most of the house, to the point of it being a straight up dilapidated shack. He wears his steel-cap boots to weddings.

Skate Park Dad Can drop in with ease, unless his luscious hair gets in his eyes.

Proudest moment was when you pulled off an ollie back when you were 6. Has a corporate job but lowkey wishes he was Peter Pan.

Muso Dad Goes to gigs more frequently than you. Has met Jon Toogood, says he’s a top notch bloke. Sings AC/DC off-key and blames it on Bon Scott. Was definitely in a high school band which got him ‘mad chicks’.

Horoscopes

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Earn good money on a summerfruit orchard this summer.

work You could be outside picking delicious apricots, cherries, nectarines, peaches, or plums surrounded by stunning views of Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough or Central Otago. Or you could be inside sorting and packing fruit for sale.

play

stay

When you’re not working there’s lots of things to do whether you’re after adrenalin and adventure or want to explore local wineries, culture and sights.

Get your friends together and have fun earning good money and staying in on-orchard accommodation, hostels or campsites in one of New Zealand’s beautiful regions.

For more information check out the Work the Seasons website.

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www.worktheseasons.co.nz/horticulture

The Team EDITORS Kirsty Frame & Rachel Trow GUEST EDITORS Kane Bassett Matthew Casey Finn Blackwell DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION Rowena Chow SUB EDITOR Alfred Dennis NEWS EDITORS Te Aorewa Rolleston & Finn Blackwell

CHIEF REPORTER Annabel McCarthy

SOCIAL MEDIA & WEB MANAGER Kane Bassett PODCAST MANAGER Matthew Casey

PODCAST PRODUCER Francesca Georgia Pietkiewicz Nutsford

STAFF WRITERS Lofa Totua Sally Ward Shanti Mathias

CONTRIBUTORS Maddi Rowe Phoebe Craig Keana Virmani Brock Stobbs Michael Turnbull Ralph Zambrano Max Salmon Jack Henry Blair Taylah Shuker Puck Yoon Hong

FEATURE WRITERS CKW Lachlan Ewing Johnny O’Hagan Brebner Kane Bassett FEATURE EDITOR Shanti Mathias CENTREFOLD Tahu-Pōtiki Te Maro-Doran @temaro.toi POETRY EDITOR Janhavi Gosavi poetry@salient.org.nz

POETRY Yoon Hong Eugene Pipefitter

CONTACT US editor@salient.org.nz designer@salient.org.nz (centrefold artwork) news@salient.org.nz socialmedia@salient.org.nz

FIND US fb.com/salientmagazine instagram.com/salientgram twitter.com/salientmagazine salient.org.nz

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The Student Memoirs Write, sing, draw. Shoot, rant or rave.

Tell us about student life in 2020 and be in to win a year’s free power!

Student life has its ups and downs, trials and tribulations, its never-ending highs and lows.

And in the year 2020, things have been very strange. Hopefully once in a lifetime strange.

Because of that, we want to hear from you! We are looking for the best stories from the wild ride of student life in 2020. You can submit in any format you like - video, photography, drawings, a short story or a song. You can even send us an excel spreadsheet if you like.

Whatever works.

Head to the Electric Kiwi Facebook page and submit your entry by the 12th of October 2020.

There will be $500 credits for the top three submissions, and the grand prize winner will get a year’s free power! Winners will be picked by us, but we will take into consideration the support your entry gets online.

Visit for https://www.electrickiwi.co.nz/legal/social-promotion-terms/ for T&C’s. Year’s free power capped at $3000.

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