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It’s the last one. In the words of Georgia Gifford, singing to Kane’s broken vape, “whakaaria maaaaai”. If you catch us crying over the magazine stands on Monday no you didn’t.
Mō tātou, ā, mō kā uri ā muri ake nei. For us and our children after us. That’s the Kāi Tahu whakataukī. It’s been up on our wall all year, next to Brad Pitt’s garlic naan from 2010 and the “get your as off the mf table” sign.
At all times, we are both ancestors and descendants. That’s why we try to make decisions that our tūpuna will be proud of and that our mokopuna will thank us for. This year, we’ve tried to make decisions that don’t just benefit ourselves, but that future Salients and future students will benefit from.
That’s why this issue isn’t about looking back on a year of Salient’s past. This issue is about the future because we want you all to keep focusing on that. We keep moving forward, onward, upward.
We’ve pushed for new writers to challenge their writing skills by jumping into bigger features. We’ve got first-time, first year writers on board. We’ve even got a couple of highschoolers. High school. Remember her?
This semester, we’ve been working with Hutt Valley High students, Maisy and Jack, through the gateway programme. If you went to a stuck up school and don’t know what gateway is, the main gist is getting high school students some work experience outside of the usual retail and hospo.
So, Jack and Maisy, what does your ideal future look like?
Maisy: My ideal future would look like me lying on a beach, martini in hand, all worries gone. I don’t have to stress over things like climate change, global pandemics or my rights
as a woman being taken away from me. I know that this year has been particularly hard on everyone. Some things I’ve learned along the way are: you have to push through the hard times, hand sanitizer is a must, and some people are very stupid when it comes to making decisions involving their own and others’ health (a certain orange man).
Jack: My ideal future would probably be, well… I have no fucking clue. Maybe sitting out back with a beer in my hand. Whatever 2021 brings to the table, I guess I'll just go with it. There's no real plan besides just going with it. I mean, I wanna follow after Judith and be able to say “I drive a BMW '' but that's about it. Oh and cut off those toxic people (cough Jarod cough). There’s no need to reflect on anything but look forward to what’s to come. But, I think 2021 will be one of the best years of our lives. Let's bring it on aye.
There you have it, the future has spoken.
We hope that Salient has given you little slices of good in what’s been (and continues to be) a challenging year. We’ve wanted you to think openly, think differently, and have a soapbox to stand on. No matter what Salient 2021 brings, this won’t change.
Thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts, for the support you have given Salient this year. For contributing even when the mag was online only. For engaging with us on socials and picking up the physical mag—even if it was just for the centrefold and horoscopes. It has not gone unnoticed.
“The Mad, The Bad, The Sad” published in Salient Volume 83 Issue 19, on September 7th 2020
I have requested a redaction of this article because changes were made to the piece before publishing that I was unaware of. Words were added that weren’t mine and the article was restructured in a way that no longer felt true to my own voice. I have accepted an apology from Kirsty and Rachel and trust that there was no malintent on Salient’s part. Salient have offered to work with me on a revised version that will available on line at the end of this year.
Thursdays in Black VUW AGM
CW: SEXUAL HARM
Keen on working within the sexual harm prevention kaupapa on campus? Join TIBVUW at our AGM on the 14th of October, 5:30pm at the Hunter Lounge. All positions are up for grabs, including President, Secretary, Treasurer and Communications Officer, as well as General Exec.
“VUWSA’s constitution does not have anything about annual reappointment of the arbitrator, but VUWSA chooses to name our independent arbitrator at our meetings even when it is not constitutionally required. When the independent arbitrator has not changed annually, VUWSA still chooses to go through the process, the ^Salient statement suggesting we might not have had one appointed between IGM and the AGM is therefore incorrect and misleading. Fleur was appointed as VUWSA independent arbitrator in the 2017 IGM and replaced David Neild.”
“Advance Voting Opens at Kelburn Campus”
The article implied “that voting is not available opposite Pipitea Campus in the Asteron Centre like it was in 2017. There is definitely voting in this same location this year. While there is technically only one location on campus to choose from, this is the same as 2017 and therefore the comparison is misleading. VUWSA also does not set up polling booths, we help facilitate the best we can however, the bookings are between the University and the Electoral Commission- like in 2017.”
The Young Candidates Vying For Your Vote
Azaria Howell | She/Her
This election, there are more young people vying for your vote than ever before. No matter where you’re registered, there’s probably a person under 30 you can vote for. But don’t quote me on that. Here are a few:
Independent candidate Jesse Richardson is a newcomer to politics, based in Wellington Central. Only 18 years old. His campaign is centred around solutions for the climate crisis and rising house prices in the Wellington region.
Richardson also studies at Victoria University, alongside New Conservative candidate Liam Richfield.
Liam Richfield supports the values of the New Conservatives, including reducing taxes and opposing abortion, to name a few.
Promising a plethora of policies, young candidates went head to head in the TVNZ young voters’ debate last week. This debate focused on the topics which youth voters care about, such as education, climate change, and the cost of living.
Green Party MP Chlöe Swarbrick was a notable presence in the young voters’ debate, being the youngest MP in Parliament, aged just 26.
Running to be the MP for Auckland Central, Swarbrick stands for climate justice and recognition of Te Tiriti O Waitangi. She is also a part-time student at Victoria University, studying towards a Masters degree.
The Greens are running many young candidates across the nation, and have also committed to lowering the voting age to 16, as well as giving tertiary students transport discounts and promising a guaranteed minimum income of $325 per week for all.
Rising in current polls, ACT Party deputy Brooke van Velden, 27, contributed to the debate with witty comebacks to government policies.
The Wellington Central candidate pointed out the Labour Party’s shortcomings including the Kiwibuild housing programme and the fees-free tertiary scheme.
Van Velden also proposed free-market values to young voters and promised lower taxes and a strong economic recovery plan.
Simeon Brown was National’s representative at the young voters’ debate; he showcased New Zealand’s need for economic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which thousands of kiwis lost their jobs.
Brown stated that despite election promises, house prices and the use of coal had increased under the Labour government, which he deemed unacceptable.
Simeon Brown, 29, is the current MP for Pakuranga and is campaigning for National. Other young National candidates include 18-year-old Palmerston North candidate William Wood.
New Zealand First was also present at the young voters’ debate, with Dunedin candidate Robert Griffith representing the party.
Griffith was passionate about mental health issues and promised to write off student loans if the student works in New Zealand upon finishing their degree.
Te Tai Tonga, the Māori electorate which Wellington is in, is also hosting an exciting election—with incumbent Rino Tiritakene facing off against five candidates, including the Māori Party's Tākuta Ferris. Ferris is an advocate for Māori voices in Parliament, and has accused the Labour Māori caucus of being ‘invisible.’
The Māori Party’s Rawiri Waititi, 39, is challenging Tamati Coffey’s seat in the Waiariki electorate. Coffey, 40, has been the MP since 2017.
Last election, only 69% of eligible voters aged 18-24 actually cast a ballot, compared to 88% of voters aged over 65.
This year’s election is even more crucial as voters have a choice whether or not to support the Cannabis Legalisation and Control referendum as well as the End of Life Choice referendum. You get a free pen, and you get to exercise your democratic right to vote.
It’s been unprecedented. It’s been filled with controversy. It’s financially fucked. It’s VUW, and here’s a recap of all the lowlights they served (and keep serving) students in 2020.
Summer rebranding sneaky
After spending literally millions of dollars on the failed attempt to rename VUW, the University underwent cheeky rebranding over the summer. In what’s been dubbed as a “rebrand by stealth”, the University has rebranded within the limitations of the failed attempt. New signage, designs, website domains, even the wifi name were implemented over Trimester 3.
Pastoral care?
Earlier in the year, a resident at Te Puni Village was unable to reach any night staff before being hospitalised for severe influenza. It was later confirmed that on their “quietest night[s]”, night attendance staff are not present, leaving responsibility to RA’s via a duty phone.
COVID communication is key
In the lead up to the country’s lockdown, many students were out of the loop at VUW. Some courses had blanket extensions, some didn’t, and students were unsure if they’d need to vacate Wellington or not.
Before any news of the teaching break and online learning for current students, VUW thought ahead to new enrollments—offering free study to new students affected by COVID-19 for Trimester 2.
VUWSA swiftly came with a fiery statement, outlining their disappointment with the University’s response to COVID-19. Grant Guilford told Salient a week later he was “proud” of the University’s response.
In Salient’s March interview, Grant Guilford explained there had been years of crisis management planning at VUW, particularly due to our seismic risk.
When asked how effective their communication to students during this time period was, the University reiterated the unprecedented nature of this year, adding “at some points, it took time to gather this information, but staff worked long hours and as quickly as possible to provide it.”
Acknowledging they received some feedback of dissatisfaction from students, the University “took this feedback on board and are committed to a process of continuous improvement in this area”.
International students
To add to an already distressing situation, many international students felt the support they received from VUW during this time was lacking.
Students felt they should be refunded the financial difference between international fees and domestic fees, given that classes were moved online and the “thriving capital city campuses” they were paying to study at were no longer accessible.
Grant
in an interview with Salient at the start of lockdown.
Course fees for international students are roughly four times that of domestic students. Part of paying increased fees is access to education students may not otherwise have in their home country and the opportunity to engage in New Zealand culture.
Despite VUW acknowledging international students “are not able to have the on-campus experience they anticipated” and conceding it was “not the situation they signed up for”, requests for an equitable fees reduction went unanswered.
This left many international students feeling forgotten about and as though the University lacked empathy towards them. As one international student told Salient, “[VUW] are our guardians, they should help us”.
After being told their halls would remain open, the University gave residents less than 48 hours notice of their halls closing for lockdown. The choice was simple: to vacate or be relocated to a few halls that would remain open.
During lockdown, a number of students were assured by Student and Campus Living staff that they wouldn’t be charged for any time they weren’t in their halls.
Come April 24th, the University doubled down and announced to residents (and RA’s) that they’d be charged a “discounted” fee of $150/week, despite the country still under Alert Level 3. Thus, those who vacated were going to be paying for empty rooms.
The cherry on top is the timing: The Uni graciously gave students five days notice from when they’d be invoiced. Emails were sent on Friday evening, ahead of a three-day weekend.
What ensued after was a rent-strike movement, led by a number of VUW students, supported by many public figures. Come May 1st, the University backed down, announcing they’d delay hall fees until May 11 (when the country went down to Level 2).
We asked the University, with particular focus on the rentstrike, if they acknowledge that charging students for rooms they could not relocate back to was not in the best interest of students. The University reiterated that they did not charge students for these rooms, and highlighted the costs to the University these discounts incurred. They did not acknowledge student interests further.
No grade bump
When Otago and Auckland Universities made the decision to scale up student’s Trimester 1 grades in recognition of the stresses caused by COVID-19, VUW tried to match this by adding statements to student’s academic transcripts.
VUWSA launched a petition in protest calling on the University to listen to and act upon the concerns of its student body. Despite gaining over 7000 signatures, the petition ultimately fell on deaf ears when the Senior Leadership Team confirmed no grade bump would be given.
The University reiterated their decision, noting their approach to assess scaling grades against previous cohorts of students taking the same course. They note that this may lead to some courses being scaled up more than 5 points.
All academic transcripts now include the line “students studying in 2020 were impacted, in a variety of ways, by the COVID-19 pandemic”, which undoubtedly makes up for the GPA disparity between VUW students and students from Universities who scaled up grades.
When they blew $30k
In an attempt to welcome students back for Trimester 2, the University organised a Drum & Bass gig. There was little to no promotion on the University’s behalf, and a multitude of internal miscommunication. This led to 6% of tickets being sold, and the event being cancelled just 24 hours before.
Students foot the bill for this one, with the University having to cough up $30k.
The chaos that is Whiria
The recent major restructure was hit with exceptional push-back from staff, key student groups, and the wider public. The 30-page document was by no means digestible for students and there were no student-focused consultations. VUWSA spoke out of their disappointment that students were not involved or engaged with.
While the Whiria project did not officially progress further, many restructural plans are continuing with similar essence as VUW prepares for significant financial losses.
The restructure threatens significant changes to the current structures, which will have direct impacts on students and their courses as they know it.
Tensions have clearly been building between senior leadership and wider university staff amid these threats to faculty structures and job security.
With serious job losses threatened, staff have now come forward saying they’ve gone from working in a “low-trust environment” to “an active distrust environment.
A recent survey by the Tertiary Education Union found 88% of staff did not trust the senior leadership team to lead a restructure, and more than half of our VUW staff were suffering from fatigue and anxiety.
So there we have it, who knows what they’ll try to sweep under the rug over the summer.
The halls fiasco
Probing the Punters
1. Have you voted yet?
2. Scale of 1-10, rate how the uni has treated students this year
3. Making out in the Mt Street Cemetery yes/no?
4. Hope for 2021?
1. No, International student
9 3. No 4. Go for more trips
SHE/HER 1. No, International student
SHE/HER
SHE/HER
7
No
Restrictions to lift so I can go home
3 3. No 4. Finish my degree MATTY, HE/HIM 1. No 2. 6 3. No 4. For COVID to go away KATY, SHE/HER 1. No 2. 5 3. Yes
4. Have an album dropped about me
1. On my way there
FRANKIE,
IMIEY,
JASINI,
1. What do you want to see MORE of from VUW next year?
Actually listening to students
Less funding of VUWSA from my student levy please!
More employees at student health and counselling so we can actually get appointments
Emails that actually have information in them!
Funding for diverse humanities papers / PAY YOUR STAFF WELL!!
Actual support for current students as opposed to lip service and get rid of your fucking racistttt lecturers
2. What do you want to see LESS of from VUW next year?
Grant Guilford
Fees
Old white men making decision for students they know nothing about
Less emails with 800+ words that are devoid of any info!
VUWSA Elections
Racism
3. What do you want to see MORE of from Salient next year?
More diverse writers
Finn Blackwell
A range of political opinions that aren’t just super left wing, BUT are also not offensive
More lighthearted fun stories
Art!!!
Opportunities for new writers to be included as well as veteran ones
I like the stories. I would love to see more indigenous and Pasifika led issues.
4. What do you want to see LESS of from Salient next year?
“Conservative”/alternative viewpoints (i.e. debate rather than consistent woke think)
Food reviews unless they’re by Sally Ward
Finn Blackwell
Naked people
A.
Opinion
I’m Going To Have My Voice Heard This Election—But I’m Not Sure Who’ll Listen.
Gina Dao-McLay | She/Her
Having turned 18 between the initial election date and October 17th, I, all of a sudden, have a couple of important decisions to make. Being able to vote means taking part in national politics, which feels really overwhelming.
As a young person, being immersed in social media means we have access to more information than ever before. This gives us a huge awareness of what is going on around the world. We see how politicians’ decisions overseas make a massive difference in people’s everyday lives and change the future we’ll inherit forever. We know how what we do (or don’t do) now can change the course of history.
In New Zealand, 18-24-year-olds make up the secondlargest eligible voting block. More than ever, our futures and our children's futures will be tied to the decisions of politicians today. With all this voting power, and our lives on the line, you’d think political parties would be knocking down doors to appeal to young voters.
But unfortunately, that is not the case.
I was at a Local Body Election event last year and an older man stood up to tell then Wellington City Council candidate Tamatha Paul that, “if young people finally got organised you could have a serious impact on the results of elections.” He wasn’t wrong, but as was rightly pointed out to him, there are many reasons young people don’t go to the polls.
Young people will show up for politics when politicians start showing up for them. I know I’m going to have my voice heard this election, but I’m not sure who’ll listen. Our current political parties have a history of promising to make things better for our generation and then doing the exact opposite. If they think they can opt-out of improving our lives and securing our futures—then, of course, young voters opt-out on election day.
Throughout Aotearoa, youth continue to make clear what we want to see from our Government. The New Zealand Union of Students' Associations want universal student allowances. Te Ara Whatu and School Strike for Climate want a commitment to climate action. The whānau at Ihumātao want their whenua protected and free of housing development. Make it 16 want to lower the voting age.
It’s beyond clear that many young people know what they want their futures to look like. We know what we want to see in our communities. Yet, because of lack of Government action and civics education in schools, young people and other marginalised communities often opt out of voting. Without the belief things will actually change or knowledge of political systems, our confidence in our own political engagement crumbles—automatically cutting us from the conversations we've intentionally been kept out of. They don’t have to serve us if we’re not at the table.
I believe we have the power to break this cycle.
We may not own houses, or very much at all, but we do own our vote. We are able to say no to the status quo and to those who push us and our lives out of politics—we literally have the power to change the country, it’s there for the taking.
"We may not own houses, or very much at all, but we do own our vote."
This year has proved that anything is possible. Only we can show our next Government what real change looks like.
Young people know what we want now, and for our future. We will be voting this election, for whoever can answer our calls.
Shit News
WE FUCKING DID IT!!! SHIT NEWS GOT LAST WEEK'S NBA PREDICTION CORRECT! SHIT NEWS WILL NOW NOT MAKE ANY MORE PREDICTIONS TO MAINTAIN 100% SUCCESS RATE.
MONDAY 5TH OCTOBER
How fucking good has Wellington’s weather been recently??
Our Green Party *Chlöe Swarbrick chic* sweater arrived over the weekend. Just in time for us to vote. Really excited to vote tbh, go vote hehe x
Still really confused with what Donald Trump is upto with COVID-19 but like not, but like he fully has it????
Either way no need to be “afraid” Trump says, because if he can get through, surely anyone can.
Jacinda Ardern has announced that the Labour Party are committing to banning conversion therapy!!!!! Bloody great news. Huge shout out to everyone who’s campaigned for this throughout the years.
Jacinda Ardern has announced Auckland is going to level 1. Cool, what can you do at level 1 again? Clubs are open aye.
TUESDAY 6TH OCTOBER
Well the weather changed... was far too cocky.
Checked the NFL results and the Patriots lost to Kansas City 26-10. It is in fact the time, if you haven't already, to burn your Tom Brady jersey.
Turns out Judith Collins is bullying her MPs. As your partner says when you’ve had too many cones before dinner with their parents… “I’m not surprised, it's just shit that you do these things”.
Collins and Ardern had a debate in Christchurch. Had $10 on Collins because of recent form. This was a poorly placed bet. It was a fucking rowdy debate though. 10/10 would rewatch.
WEDNESDAY 7TH OCTOBER
We’ve decided that any commentary on the weather is now redundant. You don't need reminding, you literally lived through it.
The Lakers beat the Heat. The Lakers are leading the NBA finals series 3-1 and looking very comfortable to win the NBA.
Judith Collins literally did some rent a crowd bullshit and had supporters set up on Ponsonby Road to make it look like she was ‘walking into supporters’.
One of our uncles was in town, so we went out to get a curry and a few beers with him. When the mild butter chicken was ordered, Absolutely, Positively ripped into it.
After dinner we watched the Weed debate on channel three. We’ve already decided that we are voting ‘Yes’ so it was useless viewing. As political nerds we should've spent our time tweeting why we believe that a vote for the Green Party is a push towards a more environmentally focused Labour Government.
THURSDAY 8TH OCTOBER
Watching The AM Show this morning, there were two 18-year old blokes who were standing for parliament. Can't really remember what was happening back when we were 18, probably trying to sneak a second Scrumpy into the halls. Good on them and all the other youthful candidates for doing stuff more meaningful than trying to hide their alcohol from RA’s.
Six60 have announced their summer tour dates and the Welly show has JessB, Dave Dobbyn, and AACACIA on the line up. It’s on the 13th of February at Westpac, I mean, Caketin, I mean, Sky Stadium. FUCK YEAH NZ MUSIC!!
To add, when the Lakers win the NBA and someone else wins the Ranfurly shield, remember that Shit News has been the ultimate source for sports knowledge in Salient for 2020. Collectively less than 10 sentences were written about sports but fuck it, we’ll give ourselves the pat on the back.
2021 Visions
Words by Lachlan Ewing | He/Him
Cast your mind back to October 2019. The All Blacks had opened their Rugby World Cup defence in impervious form, and a three-peat looked imminent. Simon Bridges was the leader of the National Party. Breakout star Lizzo had just reached number 1 on the charts for the first time with “Truth Hurts”.
Times were simpler. If someone predicted that in the next twelve months Whakaari would erupt, fires in Australia would turn our skies yellow, an unheard of pandemic would bring the world to its knees, VUW would finally implement universal lecture recording, and the Chinese Communist Party would achieve world domination by way of an app for bite size dance videos, they would have been laughed out of the pub.
But alas, here we are. 2020 has been a rollercoaster that no-one could have predicted. This time around, however, I’ve enlisted the help of a senior economist and a respected warlock, and think I have a bloody good shot at giving you guys a preview of what 2021 holds for VUW students.
Brad Olsen is a senior economist at Infometrics. You may recognise his name, as he is often featured as an economic commentator on television and radio, especially TV1’s Breakfast show. Or, you may have known him before he hit the big time, as he only graduated our very own Te Herenga Waka last year, with a BA/Bcom. The BA must have rounded his character well, as he showed generosity uncharacteristic of a commerce student when offering a free preview on how economic forces will affect our lives next year.
Mykael Turnibulldust is a well respected warlock, by himself at least. You may recognise his name, as it is very similar to VUWSA President-elect Michael Turnbull, who has also featured on TV1 news shows. He lacks Brad’s formal qualifications, but with half of a law degree and four years experience reading tarot cards, I thought he could compliment any economic outlook well with his own arcane visions.
Brad simply emailed me his preview. Mykael, however, needed to channel forces that weren’t compatible with Gmail’s latest updates. He sat me down at a table sticky with residue he insisted was purely spiritual. The YouTube video “Breezy gypsie/ lofi hip hop/chill music/indian classical/lofi mix/indian lofi” played from a phone sat in an empty jug for amplification. He rolled a dart spliced with dried Italian herbs and sriracha, inhaled greedily, coughed a little, then blew a potent puff in my face. When my eyes cleared, Twelve tarot cards were laid on the table, one for each month of the year.
Firstly, what can we expect this summer? Well, according to Brad, “New Zealand’s borders will still be closed in 2021, as COVID-19 ravages the world and the threat of travel spreading the virus keeps flying off the table. Students considering a trip away across the world after a year
cooped up in New Zealand might be best to push their planning out further, or pull together some mates for a New Zealand roadie.” For his reading of January, Mykael drew The Chariot card, which symbolises strong will and triumph. Rather than an NZ roadie, trimester three could be bountiful to students who knuckle down with those extra papers over summer.
"Brad simply emailed me his preview. Mykael, however, needed to channel forces that weren’t compatible with Gmail’s latest updates."
For February, Mykael pulled the Seven of Pentacles. The Pentacles suit represents material things rather than the spiritual. As the seven symbolises a period of contemplation, our warlock envisioned that many students would be contemplating how much money they could get from StudyLink. Well, they will have to hope that it is enough, as Brad believes there will be not as much opportunity for working in retail and hospitality, which are key opportunities for students looking to help pay the bills. Perhaps a party vote Green is required to guarantee $325 a week of free money?
Interestingly, both our economist and warlock envisioned a large crop of freshers hitching their waka here when uni kicks off in March next year. Brad’s reasoning was that, “rising unemployment generally means more people looking to upskill or retrain.” Mykael got to the same conclusion by drawing the Ten of Pentacles, which signifies abundance.
Words by Lachlan Ewing
For April, Mykael drew the Son of Pentacles, and I was starting to question how well he shuffled the cards. Apparently, April will be a time to really knuckle down into those first big assignments with loyal and quiet dedication. If, at this point, you are a graduate still looking for a job, you won’t be alone. Brad predicts the job market will be tough, and persistence is key. With the Son of Pentacles, this persistence may be rewarded. However, Mykael warned against stubbornness in this time, which aligns well with Brad’s advice to take all the advice and support you can get.
We had another pentacle for May, the Five, and I was getting skeptical. Had I offered this man my first-born child in exchange for a phony tarot reading? The card symbolises sadness, worry, and anxiety, which Mykael had foreseen surprisingly little of so far. I guess here we can expect the Uni’s financial loss from a lack of international students that Brad has predicted to really bite. Mykael expects anxiety in this time to be counterproductive. Will the uni, anxious to maintain Grant Guilford’s $580k salary, swing the axe on your favourite art history lecturer? Quite possibly. Will this backfire? Absolutely.
Finally, we drew something other than a pentacle in June. The Four of Swords. Swords represent the mind, and the four connotes stillness and power. This bodes very well for trimester one exams.
Brad expects the economy to remain in a rut for a while, but to “pick up as we think about, and implement, new ways to work.” Like any good professional advice, this is vague, which keeps the advisor unaccountable. Mykael is the opposite of professional, and is prepared to stake his name on the Three of Wands—his “personal favourite”. The card told him that July will see collaboration towards a future that is infinite and ours. Things look like they might finally turn a corner in the second half of the year, so get excited. Expect a COVID-19 vaccine.
For many students, August will be defined by the Father of Cups, the card of a charismatic and dignified, yet emotionally unstable man who represents his community. Is this our VUWSA President, Michael Turnbull? Mykael seemed to think so, but don’t underestimate the chances of a Winston Peters power grab. Brad didn’t have anything to say directly about political instability, but with “uncertainty and tough economic conditions set to persist,” I could read between the lines.
If you like alliteration, get excited for the September Seven of Swords, symbolising secrecy and self interest. The coming of Spring heralds the reemergence of flatmates from their bedrooms and the possibility of flat dynamics going to shit. Whispers of forming breakaway groups abound. Who’s in and who's out? However, you should take time to consider whether the grass is always greener on the other side. Unfortunately, according to Brad, “One area that is unlikely to change in Wellington is how hard it is to find a flat, and how much it’ll cost you. House prices continue to rocket ahead, and although the growth in
rents has slowed, it’s still going up.” Maybe sticking it out with your current flatties could be worthwhile.
Brad predicts Wellington’s economy to be more resilient than elsewhere in New Zealand. This could be very relevant to Mykael’s boldest prediction, that VUW will buy Otago University in October. The Ace of Wands that brought about this intuition also suggests October will be a very fertile time, with pregnancy likely. Study hard for the end of year exams and avoid unprotected sex.
Expect the end of the university year to be a prosperous beginning, with the Ace of Pentacles governing November. Getting a great summer job? Collecting a refund for your Northern Bass ticket after the festival is cancelled due to the seventh wave of covid? Enjoying Studylink’s living costs for a few weeks after you finish your exams and are already at home? Who knows.
"October will be a very fertile time, with pregnancy likely. Study hard for the end of year exams and avoid unprotected sex."
Mykael foresees the year ending on a bad note. A Four of Cups for December signifies greed and discontent, so we all will probably drink a bit too much in the silly season, and be unhappy when exam marks come out. Don’t let this affect your Christmas dinner chat, and be sure to think carefully before you have a row with Uncle Nigel. Find some common ground.
Both our economist and warlock agree that next year will be a rollercoaster ride for students. Brad thinks “it's undeniable that 2021 will present more of the same as in 2020, even when people want to see the pandemic turn a corner so we can get back on track. Realistically, it’ll take longer to turn this ship around, and so New Zealand may well remain a lifeboat from COVID-19 at the bottom of the South Pacific.” Mykael’s general theme was defined by the Ten of Cups, which radiates energy. Apparently, there will be a lot going on next year. Duh.
Looking into the future has always been a challenging exercise, due to obvious logistical difficulties with the direction of time’s flow. Plenty of seers have embarrassed themselves when their arcane visions never come to pass. Economists pride themselves on having a little extra analytical rigour, but it's worth remembering very few foresaw the 2008 Global Financial crisis coming. If Brad missed this, I could probably forgive him, as he was twelve at the time.
Regardless, by bringing together these two perspectives from different worlds, I hope I have given you a wellrounded preview to base your plans for 2021 off. So long as we are realistic about our job prospects, work hard, and practice safe sex (especially in October), we can get through 2021. Kia kaha Vic students.
New
Recipients
Subject
Words by Lofa Totua | She/Her
Draft RE: (2021, send
1. You are an old cunt.
2. Fuck a corporate with no purpose purpose is nothing without people the same goes for Brown Boy Geniuses yup it’s the: closing the door quietly so no one can hear and throwing away the key for me you ever been cockblocked silenced palagi eyed I’m wearing the suit of authority by your own before? Respect all *white* women internalised hate so deep you’re fucked what’s left of your knowledge is liquified for your own interests self-Investment for life mindset guaranteed low return for your soul. No one wins until we all do right?
4. At 10pm we commence our exclusive $8 Merlot —Brown Brother’s and Soju are also acceptable— kafao club. We been on hiatus, but did you hear? Only 3 periods left until the end of year or whatever. Only 3 weeks of that 1 week before the devil enters the womb, where we live in excessive craving and nah I’m not really depressed I was just menstruating lmaooo. Pre COVID we attended home grown gigs from local acts at least twice a month—but not those alty elitist flex dabbling in bisexuality I only wear Zambesi and I cut my hair professionally to look like a home job ones ugh.
We enjoy utilising public transport daily for a better planet but also because we can’t drive. We practice higher consciousness by twerking, shopping at opshops, local markets, learning about the reclamation of land back and listening to hypersexual lyrics demonstrating agency from women. Today we are working on developing an Aukilani group. However the following requirements go against the cultural fabric of the JAFA community: wear whatever the fuck you want, do not care about what people think of you and greet people with a smile—mornings included. If you are interested in joining please know that we don’t fuck with people who look down on what a person does to get. Dat. bread. Sex workers and dealers are welcome to celebrate life with us.
5. In first year I was crying to Diggy Dupe’s K.O.T.I.C and the closest thing to comfort food we could get was chips and dip from the dairy that closed at 9pm. My obsession with Brando’s ‘A man who never spends time with his family, can never be a real man’ excused all faults and crimes if family was the reason. (Also, why do my favourite movies gotta be so sexist and violent?) Family over everything is unhealthy, only God can satisfy all your needs. I think.
6. Finding comfort in art galleries. (‘Still bipolar with the bank card, $9 in the bank, fuck’. Eno x Dirty) Structure on paper. Anger, confusion and dismissal in black spidery lines. Purity and bloodlines. Cultural crisis and maxing out on all addictions before 21: a rite of passage.
3. Honour Te Tiriti but also reject all formalities by nature of email, meeting, zoom meeting, and evil deadlines.
7. (edit—this loosely translated to present day colloquialism is: fuck you, you lyin’ ass, schemin’ hoe, you ain’t got shit on me.)
Hear from me, not about me. Are u so quick to think the worst? I give you permission. I will farewell the time you wasted painting me evil. Your words and my shame will fall from my conscience and dive from the cliffs of my mind. Deep, deeper still into the ocean of my memory, lost. With all the worst words I’ve heard, thoughts I’ve had and pain I’ve seen. In time forgotten and replaced with renewable aching and the rangeeeeee darling! Aue! You have released from me everything that I was not: teine lelei.
8. Darling Taualofa. From Head Girl Student Body to *temporary this will pass* University drop out (sorry not sorry, you’ll see what I mean) you are gold. Samoa is fun and you can speak pretty well for a 5 year old, but you won’t be living there for long. You’ll return to Aotearoa to a beautiful childhood but you give up speaking the language. Don’t. From Year 7, you meet Shit and she fights you like Adesanya —who you also get to meet, but I’ll cap the surprises for now. Your greatest superpower is your warmth, stay soft. You piss me the fuck off to this day but I wouldn’t want to call any one else’s mind home. The monobrow disappears.
9. Find grace in rising above and wisdom in education outside the classroom—from mentors, from the dirt, from Indigeneity. Take a break from the grueling mind wars, aren't you tired yet? Remain constantly challenged by duality and realise your contribution will evolve and that’s okay. Do something every day, no matter how unglamourous, that moves you towards tomorrow, towards beautiful things you are worthy of receiving. Keep warm while the cloak of whiteness, shame, and self loathing burns. The light will catch on your jewels and siva across your brown skin.
10. my shroud is renewed every season. some nights the thick ink drowns on its own, and the kill is self-serving. on others, blood illuminates and all is lucid there will be death in discernment the bank of courage bankrupt peace, strained empty is mine honor passion is fatigued love depleted, the city: closed. once the vessel is heavy with dirt. tenderness is evenly paced until the end of time with each tug and pull of cloth arrives immortality soon, all forms of erudition fade except muscle memory.
before: the sun seeps hot the rain breathes with vigor our grass fields are endless for when He comes to hew long aching hours of gratuitous cruelty uninterrupted force, more vehement on each blow. what is immeasurable? our demise is sweet and daily. it has only ever truly finished once.
11. ‘Lofs wants to write for you’ excerpt:
There is always room for improvement. A few things I’ve noticed:
There have been few Pasifika voices in the Salient. This may be (letssss be honest is MOST LIKELY) due to the lack of willingness and/or engagement from my fellow Pasifika brothers and sisters. I know that an entirely Pasifika focused issue is within sight for later this year—but it would be mean - and in some ways necessary—to have a regular voice in the Salient. For those like myself who grow when reading shit written by someone like me. Young. Brown. Female. An opportunity to explore the interdisciplinary nature of a Pacific person and Pacific people, as well as our valid opinions.
There have been few pieces in regards to the high stakes and expectations placed on a student... if they fail to do well at UNI. No I’m not talking the pressure of choosing a random course to make up for points. Amongst other things. I’m talking about high stakes—involving serious risks if there is no success. What about the kids who don’t have safety nets to fall back on? The ones who have people to support? Whose weight of transgenerational trauma is just nek level? Lol. You know what I mean.
So yeah. I want to contribute so that I can speak with those in our Vic family who can’t—without speaking FOR them or OVER them of course. I don’t want to be limited to an area like “opinion” or something. Instead I would like to write from my own experiences, through interviewing others, with humour and with humility. I’m here for the FUBU—For Us By Us—position.
I have limited proof that I am a good writer. So I understand If you think I should just piss off and write a blog or something with all these demands as topics. FEEL FREE to tell me laters if you think I should lol. Please let me know if you can fit me in somehow tho, I’m unsure how it all works.
I write better than I talk irl. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Lofa living good living great chehoooo
Thank you to Kii and Janne for believing in me and Rachel and Kirsty for keeping me around. Reaching out to Salient is the best thing I ever did. Forever grateful <3
Liquid Knowledge
Last weekend I was in Lulus and they turned the lights on. The last thing I remember was deleting tequila shots paid for with my credit card (it do be for emergencies doe) and throwing it down on the dancefloor to the dulcet tones of Andy Gartrell’s best Ed Sheeran impersonation. Next minute, I’m being forced to evaluate my existence under cruelly-bright neon lights, thrust out onto Courtenay Place $80 poorer with a mouth full of ash and a tweaked hamstring. Writing this column feels a bit like that.
I’ve spent the last six years at this fine educational establishment, drinking cheap wine, shirking adulthood and getting down and dirty on a school night. The last two, I’ve had the immense pleasure of producing weekly-ish columns for Salient, or what my friends, affectionately, call the “Communist Manifesto”. I’m not even sure if anyone reads my yarns. Except for my grandparents, of course. Which is particularly awkward when the adjacent column is about pegging. Hi Janet and Leslie!
What I’m trying to say is that after six years of professional Dicking Around it’s Last Call for student life, and Liquid Knowledge. I’m about to become a fully-fledged contentsinsurance-owning, teeth-flossing, shirt-ironing, boringas-hell adult. The thought makes me sick to my stomach and I put this column off so much that I’m writing it at 2am approximately nine days after it was actually due.
Liquid Knowledge was born from the joy of Pub Chat. Something I described in my first ever column as a most “special dialect”, built on a foundation of “piss, passion, hyperbole, and anecdotal evidence”. Pub Chat is about talking shit and sounding smart. It’s bullshitting your way to the front of the line, saying “next round’s on me” with your chest when the odds of that occurring are precisely zero. It’s getting on the pints, yapping about cryptocurrency, and psychoanalysing the latest leaders debate even though you’re not entirely sure who the current National Party leader is.
Last Call
In fact, Pub Chat transcends the bounds of your favourite watering hole. It’s completing a 3000-word essay in one night, passing off Wikipedia’s references as your own and boldly citing journal articles that you haven’t so much as opened but whose abstract sounds similar enough. It’s blagging your way through your participationmarked tutorials when you haven’t done the readings. It’s convincing the KKLT102 cutie that you can help them pass QUAN102 when you literally failed the probability tree test. It’s confidently completing your fourth lap of Von Zedlitz because where the actual frick is room 108?!
It took me six-ish years, [redacted] mental breakdowns, 400-ish bottles of Fat Bird chard, $60,000 of debt for future Caitlin to deal with, 2000 Vic Book coffees, and 45 all-nighters to realise that everyone. is. faking. it.
Insta-Influencers are hiring out studios set up like private jets for fake Instagram pictures. Jacinda Ardern just spent three years pretending she was gonna tax the rich. Donald Trump faked his way into becoming the Leader of the Free World. Marcus Haney snuck into 50 music festivals and then made a documentary about it. In episode 50 of Arrested Development titled “Fakin’ It”, Buster pretends he’s in a coma to avoid testifying against George Sr. You get the point. Pub Chat abounds.
I didn’t know how to start this column, and I don’t know how to end it. I guess all I can say is: go forth, Pub Chat your way through life. Who knows where you’ll end up? Thanks to Salient for letting me do it here for the past few years. I’m off to chat shit on the taxpayer dime. Catch the new and improved adult me at Lulu’s this weekend—I’ll be chatting house prices over a glass of port.
Caitlin Hicks | Ngāti Ranginui | She/Her
To Be Frank
Frankie Dale | She/Her
HEARTBREAK HOTEL
The night I was dumped most recently, I was at a high school reunion. I was basically begging my ex-ex boyfriend to hook up with me whilst I had vomit dried onto my chin (I'm genuinely so sorry). I fell down some stairs, threw up in a bathtub and sent lengthy messages to my mans saying that I'd do anything for him to take me back. Turns out he was already seeing someone else, but who was I to know.
We all know the saying ‘love hurts’, but I can’t help feeling like this is completely romanticised. We think that the days following the heartbreak will be the worst and that we will heal with time. But, as I'm sure you know just as well as I do— there are good days and bad days. In hindsight I was heartbroken by a skin-head-esque wannabe eminem with a third eye tattooed in the middle of his chest.
If you’re feeling a little heartbroken right now, please take solace in my usual cringe. I went to his flat dressed like a french prostitute on a Sunday morning to retrieve a sock I had planted behind his bed in hopes he’d want me back.
Heartbreak can cause our little egos to go on a hiatus —possibly leaving us in a state of complete shamelessness and desperation. It’s gross to think back and realise that only recently was I seeking validation from anyone who would give it. Like, give it up Frankie your hot doctor at student health isn’t into you. He’s genuinely terrified of you. I know it’s hard, but don’t send that text. In order to heal, we don’t always need to go through the ‘slut’ phase. I attempted it and unfortunately, had a mental breakdown. (In saying that, go right ahead if it feels good!!!)
After a romantic breakup, everyone is so understanding of the fact that I’m going to check out for a few months and apply for an Aegrotat for all my psych exams. Yet, when a friendship ends, they expect you to pop an ibuprofen and get on with things?
Friendship heartbreak is also a thing I think we need to start normalizing as equally as traumatic. Recently one of my best friends started secretly dating my ex. I think people forget that friendship break-ups can be even harder than romantic break-ups. Like, we’re talking about the bitch I’ve known since I was 12, not some DC skater boy who cooks lean in his mum’s kitchen. A girl I’ve spent thousands of hours roaming the streets of San Andreas with on GTA. A girl who never judged me for my preference of Maggi noodles. I let this girl borrow my most iconic ‘fuck me’ boots for New Years.
And the toughest thing of all, is that I still feel for her and the heartbreak she will feel. The love you have for a friend is different. Mine was unconditional for her, unlike the musician I knew was going to undoubtedly fuck me over. I have to keep reminding myself that she chose this outcome. She chose his experience over mine.
Goodbyes are gross and hard. Sometimes they are permanent, sometimes they are merely temporary. Sometimes it’s an easy decision, and other times deciding whether to say goodbye can make us question everything. Saying goodbye to this column certainly falls into the latter category of tough goodbyes. Thank you all for being my therapists and confidants. Like I said many columns ago, Wellington is toxic and fuck, it still is. But, I hope I offered some light into your little hearts. Although I doubt this about myself every single day—we are all THAT bitch.
| She/Her
September 2020 saw the dissolution of beloved Facebook group Smokey Bandit thrift—may she forever rest in peace. For the femme among us, Smokey Bandit thrift was a Facebook group where New Zealanders sold their old clothes cheap. However, as Nelly Furtado once told us: All Good Things (Come to an End). Now, Smokey Bandit is (in their own words) “an invite-only online marketplace dedicated to vintage and creativity.” ... hmmm.
This commercialisation and subsequent exclusivity of a previously free and accessible platform for selling old clothes is not unusual. Unfortunately, it’s a microcosm of a much larger problem. As op-shopping and thrifting have become more popular, we have seen many people creating a business around buying and reselling op-shop clothing for higher prices than what they were bought for. This is done mostly through the social media platforms of Depop and Instagram (though the latter tends to feature more people genuinely just selling their old clothes). More often than not, the people selling these clothes are privileged people who don’t need that extra money and are in a position to not have to flip prices.
Another thread that feeds into this is whether such practices, arguably unethical as they are, also defeat the environmental purpose of op-shopping. Op-shopping is often touted as an environmentally friendly alternative to shopping at fast-fashion institutions. However, this idea is predicated on the basic idea that people will donate clothes that then go to a second home. Re-selling opshopped clothes adds another link into the chain of that clothing item’s life, one that likely involves further shipping costs and exchanging of money.
An argument in response to this line of thought has been made that op-shops have plenty of stock, and what these resellers do barely skims the top of that stock. To an extent, this is true: op-shops receive heaps of clothing, but not all of it is of good, resellable quality—the kind that people want. This kind of behaviour locks in quality clothing into the higher registers of the socio-economic ladder. In a
sense, it promotes the idea that lower-income people don’t deserve better quality clothing or should be locked out of accessing it.
It’s a complex issue, and there are balanced arguments on either side. To clarify: I’m not objecting to this business model in principle. Buying low and selling high is business 101 and pretty much the foundation of our society. While doing some reading on this topic, I read a very long Twitter thread arguing for and against the idea of Depop op-shop resellers. I really did understand what everyone was saying,
“They really try to justify buying “y2k” & “90s” styled pieces because they are ‘overlooked by regular thrift store consumers’”
“That’s not to say that there aren’t people from very lowincome households reselling thrift clothes because they need the money”
“Capitalism baby stop complaining and get ya paper”—ain’t that the truth tho :(.
To go back to the rise and fall of Smokey Bandit, I guess that it all comes back to people who don’t need this income—people who are in the middle/upper echelons of our communities. People who have the ability to use their privilege to subvert entrenched behavioural norms in society, but choose to instead follow a capitalistic model predicated upon profit.
Not to be that girl, but this type of behaviour in and of itself is a symptom of our consumeristic, capitalist society which places value on money and success. It seems like every meaningful discussion I have these days comes back to these ideas, but it’s the unfortunate reality of the world we live in.
So, making money isn’t everything, and while it’s easy to flip prices and feel business-savvy, know that it’s really not.
(OP)SHOP TIL YOU DROP
Off Record
Hannah Powell | She/Her
Dear friend, dear artist, dear New Zealand music,
IT AIN’T OVER YET
It’s been a tough year. But amidst a time of uncertainty, anguish, and an excuse for an album, New Zealand music, you’ve truly pulled through.
Dearest reader, let me tell you of the future. Enough of this COVID bullshit—this is what you’ve got coming. A summer for local music and bangin’ headliners, level one’s let the cat out of the bag. And fuck me, she’s gonna be one rabid, wild beast.
SUMMER FESTIVALS (that haven’t sold out) :
Being the new kid on the block, this bad boy boasts a line up of local indie tunes. Headlining indie favourites The Beths, Mako Road, Marlins Dreaming, and many more, join them at the water’s edge for a boogie at the lake. Held at Riverside Park, Lake Taupō, Le Currents is the perfect stop off to your New Year events. She ain’t sold out yet, but she will be soon. Grab your tickets now.
For you filthy drum and bass fans, R&A has got the goods. Boasting kiwi favourites Benee, Fairbrother, Wax Mustang, and Fat Freddy’s Drop, there’s something for the whole crew. Being their 10 year anniversary, it’ll be spectacular. Only 3-night passes and 30th Dec GA remain.
You know the drill. R&V is back to get your New Year looking right. Although a headline much like R&A, Daffodils, Balu Brigada, JessB and Church & AP are set to play. Hosting all you’d ever want and need, only day passes remain. Get in quick.
Held in Havelock North, Hawkes Bay, the self-described ‘most iconic’ indie festival has returned for Jan 9, 2021. Think sun (burn), vineyards, and an aesthetically pleasing
film roll. Line up is yet to be released, but we know it’s a goodie.
Back for 2021, Welcome to Nowhere is here to fulfil your local-scene needs. Held somewhere near Whanganui between 6-7 Feb, the festival boasts music, poetry, and art. With a huge Welly-local line-up, favourites include Arjuna Oakes, Macho Macho, SOG, Mermaidens, and more. Think a year's worth of Eyegum Wednesdays jam-packed into two days. It’s going to be one hell of a good time.
For those in Christchurch over summer, get a ticket to sweetheart Nostalgia. Held at the Ferrymead Heritage Park on 15 February 2021, it’s wholesome enough to take your mum too. Line up is yet to be released, but it’s always a good vibe. 2020 highlights included Ladyhawke, Lord Echo, Marlin’s Dreaming, and Mousey. Your film camera is a must, as is a ton of cash for some vintage finds.
Christchurch, I am shocked. After a soggy E Ave earlier this year, I admit I myself did not expect to return. Their recent line-up for the 27 Feb, however, has got me turned. Headlining Benee and Fat Freddy’s Drop for half the price, if you missed out on New Years this’ll have you set. With Ocean Alley and Tash Sultana, there’s been a bit of scepticism about their assurance of attendance. However, Electric Ave has promised a second show if the borders remain shut—a win-win from every angle. A nice mix of both local female and male artists in NZ pop, indie, hip-hop, and dnb, Electric Ave 2021 is looking pretty tight.
We’re all in the fishbowl, so let’s just embrace it. Get your tickets, grab your mates, and let’s manifest some fucking good vibes. Summer’s coming. Get amongst it.
Le Currents
Rhythm and Alps
Rhythm and Vines
Nest Fest
Welcome to Nowhere
Nostalgia Festival
Electric Avenue
Politically Minded
Niva Chittock | She/Her
WHAT’S NEXT?
Looking ahead is nearly impossible to do in politics. You end up with tiring media speculation, rogue polls or straight up predictability. So let’s focus on the future of Kiwi politics as a whole—you could do with a break from election coverage.
Big issues right now are what shape where we head in the future. This includes things like COVID, climate change, mental health, and the housing market. Our government can and will change, with each one tackling these issues a little differently. New parties will be created by anyone under the sun (we are a democracy after all). Existing ones will reinvent themselves, with a few probably fizzling out along the way.
Wellington Central candidate and ACT Deputy Leader Brooke Van Velden shed some light on the perks of being in a smaller party. “We’re not afraid to challenge [the status quo] with new and fresh ideas.” She described how the best policies come from smaller parties where people aren’t bound as tightly to party lines. In saying that, big parties do tend to get more coverage and tend to be a little more stable. But it’s really up to you. What’s your most important issue? Which parties share the same view? Unsure? Here are some helpful sites:
On The Fence: Kiwi site which helps young people decide who they could vote for. Created by professors at Massey University, the Electoral Commission, political parties and students, it’s super accurate. There’s a cannabis convo platform too, looking at the cannabis referendum from a range of different perspectives.
VoteCompass: similar to On The Fence, but done by an international company.
Policy NZ: shows all party policies, your electorate candidates, and discusses our referendums too.
If you want to change something, karawhiua (go for it)! Speak up, take action and get your politics on. Why wouldn’t you?!
Miia van Beusekom | She/Her
ALEXA PLAY "THNKS FR TH MMRS"
Another year is coming to a close, and as my final year with UniQ draws to an end, I can't help but think: time to write some sentimental bullshit.
This has been my fourth year of involvement with UniQ, beginning in my third year as a shy, relatively freshly out, young trans lesbian with approximately 2 friends. Twenty year old me couldn't have foreseen the opportunities UniQ has presented to her, from friendships to skills and experiences—even a horrifically failed relationship.
I'm incredibly proud of some of the things UniQ has achieved during my time on the exec. I'm particularly proud of the effort that has gone into rebuilding the vibrant spaces I experienced during my first year with UniQ, and the online community we have built since the beginning of lockdown this year. We are different things to different people, but I have always felt that one of our most important functions is to help facilitate the building of community.
I am also proud of the work we have done to ensure the voices of queer students have been heard both within the university and out in the wider community. A personal highlight was drawing together queer student organisations from across Aotearoa to make our voices heard in the submissions for the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill.
UniQ has given me a lot over the last four years. I have met a lot of fantastic people, worked on some amazing projects, and built confidence in myself and my identity. I'm incredibly grateful for the fantastic people I've worked with the last three years, and the ones who came before whose work gave us the foundations to build upon.
After three years on the exec it's definitely time for a break though. Our new executive is an exciting one, with a wide range of identities and experiences. The future looks bright and I'm excited to see what it brings for UniQ. This time it'll be from a safe distance.
Ngai Tauira
PRIORTIES
This year, I am a fourth-year student at VUW with one more year of study to go to complete my undergraduate degree. To be honest, I’m a little embarrassed about the length of time I’ve spent here because of the weird stigma around finishing your degree in 3 years. I know I shouldn’t feel that way, but it’s hard not to when you start seeing your teina from high school around the place LOL.
Studies have taken me a while for a number of reasons. I definitely had the full first year experience for the fun and messy time that it is. I then changed degrees in my second-year and carried on having a little too much fun that year too. And then last year, I just went through a really shit time and struggled a lot with my mental and physical well-being. There’s been a bunch of different barriers for me on my tertiary journey, but I really do think the biggest one was my lack of effort to prioritise my studies.
As I said, last year I went through a shit time at uni and so I dropped out of my papers just before the end of tri 2 and got a summer job. I was so ready to dive into that and have a break from study. I worked really hard during this internship in the hope of being able to extend my contract because I didn’t want to be at uni anymore. I was ready to drop-out, and I did exactly that. My contract was extended for another 6 months and so I didn’t come back to uni in Tri 1.
It was during this time that the COVID-19 pandemic had its big hit on NZ and we were put into lockdown. During this time, so many people lost their jobs. My boss did everything they could to keep me on during lockdown but it didn’t change the fact that I was only doing entrylevel work and as an employee, I wasn’t a priority. I wasn’t fired but without a degree, I wasn’t able to be selected as an employee to go back to work because I just wasn’t as valuable as my other team mates in terms of qualifications.
This experience really woke me up, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. NZ is starting to see the economic consequences of COVID-19 and how Māori evidently suffer disproportionately and for a longer period of time during economic crises. Māori suffer from higher unemployment rates and we display strong representation in low-skilled, low-paid occupations. Education and training are vital to changing these circumstances for our people, education and training is key to the development of Te Iwi Māori.
This experience made me realise just how important it is for me to complete my undergrad and get my degree. So I enrolled for Tri 2 and I came back to Uni with a complete shift in mentality towards my studies. I dedicated more time to study, my grades are the best they’ve ever been, I genuinely enjoy the learning and now, I'm only 7 papers away from the finish line.
I wanted to share this experience because I know I can’t be the only one who’s nearly thrown in the towel. Keep at it, e hoa mā, and take as much time as you need to get through the journey. And on that last note, I want to take the time to congratulate the tauira that have finished this journey and those that will be graduating this year. Ko koutou kei runga.
I wish those words billowed out of my mouth and elegantly arranged themselves on the pavement
Instead, my clenched jaw was forced open and they leaked out of the gaps in my teeth staining my best blouse
I wanted to take you on a date to my happy place
I wanted to snag the window seat so we could sink into the pleather And watch the humans of Wellington pass us by
But you thought the art on the walls was tacky
And didn’t appreciate what good value for money the iced chocolates were
So I shook my head at the waiter and etched another tally on the underside of the table
Because Enigma is not my happy place
It is a place of resilience
Of picking yourself up and dusting yourself off It is a tear in the time-space continuum
Begin Again by Taylor Swift plays on repeat It is a well loved and worn out cassette player
Forever taping new memories over old ones
Janhavi Gosavi
ALTERBONE BITCH
on the drive home, i think of the farm in mot & the dried Blood of the Beast, offered psalms-up yearly to my white-meat family. in august two thousand mum hits a cat, stumbles into labour out of shock. stained glass & organs! holy road!! a small beast limps into a bush & i come screaming out of one. that is the whole story! so yeah, I left the mess if that’s what you mean; alterbone bitch. i can tell you my sexual history in the time it takes them to unscrew the hinges. to lift my hair so it doesn’t drag in anything. o, the time it takes to decapitalise a poem; to walk bus stop to home, lights burning, cat coiled on my sleeping mother’s belly. i found sleep with sweet breath on my neck. there is a mole behind his ear. when i come, & i do come, i am stained glass and organs. HOLY - !! we drove home. the cat is compost & i was then as i am now: red, wet, a chorus of newbirth shriek. psalms flat against sky. fingers & mouths, hot skin. the mole behind his ear. THAT is the whole story!!
Cerys Fletcher
Books to Make You Feel
I live in pieces. I find myself trying to parse the situations of my life into memes, trying to label things so they can fit on increasingly complicated pictorial structures. I read things on Twitter and I’m pretty sure that they’re funny, but I can’t explain why. My brain seems to work in fragments.
And then I read a book that makes all of these fragments into sense. Jia Tolentino’s essay collection Trick Mirror is drenched in internet culture. A particularly poignant essay is about the nuances of reporting and truth telling which encompass a university sexual harm scandal. When do the details matter, and when does the bigger picture of a story make it true even if details are false? These are questions that live with me as I try to report and represent things honestly.
When I write, I also represent myself. I would like to believe that there is something more complex about me than can be presented in memes and the truly inane thoughts I am capable of generating on Twitter. But these platforms still mean something to me (follow me @VirtuallyShanti). Tolentino’s insight into how life online functions is presaged on this concept of the fragmentation of representation. At one point, she starred in a minor reality TV show, and writes of how she “craved rapt attention”, and how she fears the way she lets her selfhood become a story.
What experiences do you have to elide to be the kind of person you think you are? Lots in this collection— especially analysis of the ideals of women, weddings, and the normalization of grifting culture—might feel familiar if you tend to read Guardian longreads with colourful thumbnails, but Tolentino remains remarkable for the way she can put these processes together.
One of Tolentino’s essays is focused on the ongoing reshaping of the world by the 2008 financial crash, especially the differences between the generation of people who got jobs before it and the generation who got jobs after. She says that the global financial crisis “was an extended, flamboyant demonstration of the fact that one of the best bids a person can make for financial safety in America is to get really good at exploiting other people.”
This is abundantly demonstrated in the novel The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, which is about someone who adopts citizenship in the “country of money”, then is expelled from it.
The Glass Hotel is an elegant novel, slowly circling the story it is trying to tell by way of narratives about characters’ brothers, characters from Mandel’s other novels, fragments of stories about how money changes a person. Money is a citizenship that sometimes has an expiry date. Slowly, the Ponzi scheme to which everyone’s wealth is attached collapses. This is a novel for those who want to eat the rich, but it also speaks to the compulsion of wealth—the way it eats itself.
Money, I have concluded, is essentially fake; the government can make up numbers and the reserve bank can change interest rates, and I don’t know how those big numbers become my real life. But for the characters in the story, the money they trust disappears, and they have to find new meaning.
It’s easy for me to read and become cynical, because there is so much that is truly, truly unfair. Books anchor me against this fragmentation. The first book I read this year was another essay collection, Rebecca Solnit’s Hope in the Dark. This is a book that makes me feel less young, because it records so much of what the world used to be, the many victories that activists have made that got us here. “I want to illuminate a past,” Solnit writes, “in which the power of individuals and unarmed people is colossal, in which the scale of change in the world and the collective imagination is staggering, in which the astonishing things that have taken place can brace us for entering that dark future with boldness.”
She wrote that in 2004, the world now has never seemed more dark. But her book is well named, and I hold on to it; there is so much left to fight for. I don’t know much about anti-nuclear movements, organic farming, disability rights, and the centuries of Indigenous activism that happened before I was born.
Whole
Shanti Mathias | She/Her
In the wake of a skilled writer, I can see more of the people who made this world I’m lucky to live in. In Solnit’s cleareyed critique of the capitalist structures which preoccupy Tolentino and St John Mandel, I realise that I can be articulate and specific in response to despair; that, above all, I must remain hopeful.
Sometimes, though, I want to forget the big ideas. Elif Batuman’s The Idiot is a book that immerses you, makes you think like the character for the year you spend trapped in her life. Selin, her main character, is as naïve and detached as Vincent, the main character of The Glass Hotel. Unlike Vincent, who hopes to be savvy, Selin makes a series of increasingly stupid decisions and is not at all worried about money. She just wants to overthink everything! It is terribly relatable, and I decide not to tap ‘delete tweet’ and to live with myself instead. If you want to get pretentious in art galleries, start long correspondences with unsuitable Hungarians, and ponder the limits of language—in other words, to be delighted and insufferable all summer—The Idiot will help.
And I’m still fragmented. I can read and read, but just as there is more to me than my tweets would suggest, there is more to me than the books that sing to me. So I find poems that let me loiter in the ineffable. Amy Leigh Wicks writes poems that are profoundly present, anchoring me in the here and now when I am absented by representing myself and thinking about fake money and financial systems and inequality. Her collection The Dangerous Country of Love and Marriage is one of the reasons I maintained resilience through lockdown.
This is her poem “Literature” from that collection, and it reminds me of the joy and fear of waiting possibilities.
to sit at the table with grown-ups who have died knowing all there is to know and wake in the middle of the night afraid.
Get More Women on The Race Track
The Race Track The Race Track The Race Track
Maisy Alison | She/Her
At 13, I found my love for anything on four wheels that could break the speed limit. I’d grown up watching hours of Top Gear and my clothes were constantly stained with grease after helping my mates work on their cars.
I’ve learnt my fair share about cars and with that get my fair share of sexist comments. It started at the ‘boys’ drag nights. Comments like “go back to the kitchen” and “you don't belong here” were thrown at me by the same small minded boys who replaced what they were missing in their pants with loud exhaust pipes.
This should have steered me away, but it did the opposite. Over the years, I’ve gotten good at blocking them out, like I blocked the smell of fuel that constantly lingered around the garage. I was motivated in throwing myself into this testosterone filled environment that did not want me nor welcome me easily.
Beyond the drag nights came Formula 1. After days of watching races on the TV, I dreamt of steering a million dollar car, speeding around the track pushing 300kms an hour. The thrill of the dangerous sport being something that appealed to me even further.
However, my hopes of being behind the wheel quickly got checked the more I learnt how hard it will be for me to get into this industry. What I didn’t see on the Formula 1 tracks, much like those drag nights, was people that looked like me. Motor sports have particularly alarming diversity statistics, which honestly, I wish was surprising. Though Formula 1 is a unisex sport, the gender issues have not become balanced. Since it was founded in 1950, there have only been 5 female drivers drive in Formula 1, compared to the 735 men.
There’s barriers from the bottom up. Formula 2 and Formula 3 racing still have similar statistics, which further challenges female drivers from rising the ranks. Women drivers not being able to break through the invisible barrier that separates Formula 1 from Formula 2 & 3 isn’t talked about enough.
But the issues of the elite Formula 1 don’t stop at gender. Besides being an incredibly expensive sport to break into, there’s embedded barriers for people of colour too. Growing up watching Lewis Hamilton win over the years has shown me that even if a world doesn't want you there, you still make your place and stick there till they accept you. He is a huge inspiration for me, but I still wish I had someone like me to look to.
It doesn’t stop at racing either. Males dominate the sporting industry and with that male journalists dominate the sports journalism industry. It’s hard to tell what comes first, or what effects what, but the fact of the matter is: it’s not working.
If there’s few women watching, fewer women racing, and too few women reporting Formula 1, what else are we to conclude than that it is a man's sport?
Coming from a middle class, hard-working family, I became obsessed with the idea of breaking the gender and class stereotypes that surrounded the motorsport world. When I decided I wanted a career in sports journalism, I had doubts about how I would be seen in a male dominated career, and if I would be respected the same as my male counterparts. Who knows what the environment will be like when I actually start my career. But for now, getting to see some female representation on the channels I watch, like Rachel Nichols (NBA) and Erin Andrews (NFL) has helped me break through the barrier in my mind that has plagued me since I was a child.
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Starter size, at Starbucks (4)
'Criminal' singer-songwriter with the 2020 album 'Fetch the Bolt Cutters' (5,5) *
Cheese whose name means 'recooked' (7)
Count Orlok or Esme Cullen, for example (7)
TV chef and OSS agent who wrote 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' (5,5) *
Horned mammal that gives its name to a horned beetle (4)
Oscar winner for 'The Silence of the Lambs' (5,6) *
Naming word (4)
Presidential daughter born on Independence Day, 1998 (5,5) *
Rattle; knock one's courage (7)
Mark caused by gathered melanin (3,4)
Creator and star of the webseries 'The Guild' (7,3) *
Attention, or a word that can follow the surnames of the women in this puzzle (4)
Henson of 'Empire' and 'Hidden Figures' (6)
Word that can precede 'area' or 'anaesthetic' (5)
Walter Scott epic romance published in 1819 (7)
New; longish book (5)
Cartoon company that produces Earthquake Pills and Iron Birdseed (4)
Peripheral that always seems to be jammed when I need it (7)
What Monster and Rockstar drinks provide (6)
Maroons; threads (7)
Caresses; brushmarks (7)
Diary (7)
Japanese prefecture where karate originated (7)
Inundate; swamp (6)
Building that keeps a keep in it (6)
Site for gladiators (5)
First of twenty-four letters (5)
Clapton in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times (4)
Crossword: Start to Finish
"I'm 007" (4,5,4) *
It's called tuna in te Reo (3)
Area of philosophy exploring the soundness of arguments (5)
'The kingdom of heaven is like yeast', and other phrases (7)
Balto or Pluto, for example (3)
"That's a direct quote" (4,3,4) *
"Whatever feels best!" (3,2,3) *
Donny who was runner-up on the first season of 'The Masked Singer' (6)
Prosperity (6)
"Considering everything" (3,2,3) *
"That's a fuckin' new one!" (4,3,4) *
Cartoon spy Possible (3)
Shape chosen for stop signs so they're recognisable from the other side (7)
Skirt; evade (5)
'The Simpsons' character no longer voiced by Hank Azaria (3)
"That sounds like a 'you' problem" (5,3,5) *
Term for a ring road commonly used to refer to Washington D.C. politics (7)
African country with the capital Niamey (5)
'Rise of the Guardians' protagonist (4,5)
Kingdom ruled by Princess Peach, in the Mario universe (8)
Evoke, like an otherworldly entity (6)
Greased up (5)
Othello's ill-fated wife (9)
Grew tired; put banners on (7)
Without dissenting votes (9)
Timid; invertebrate (9)
Fit with a long, narrow hole, when building Ikea furniture, say (4,4)
Box in the very middle of a calendar row, probably (7)
Chance to win big (or probably lose the price of a ticket) (7)
Billie Eilish hit of 2019 (3,3)
There's plenty of it in the sea (5)
Rutger who wrote most of his famous 'Blade Runner' monologue (5)
Te Reo Māori
hei konei rā, noho iho rā
(goodbye to those staying)
haere rā
(goodbye to those leaving)
NZSL
Horoscopes
Maddi Rowe | She/Her
Ok so I thought last week’s horoscopes were the last last horoscopes. So I’ve already said my goodbyes. Here’s to compartmentalising this garbage year one more time with my garbage predictions for your future. *crystal ball emoji*
ARIES
Want some fuck? Tell them how you feel through elaborate breakdance.
TAURUS
That reggie you smoked last week is exactly why you don’t deserve nice things in 2021.
CANCER
For the last time, no one wants to watch a rom-com. Expand your film taste over the new year, and no Nicholas Sparks film adaptations this time.
LIBRA
Buy yourself a genuine pearl necklace to then throw into the filthy harbour as an act of self-love.
CAPRICORN
Keep makin beats on Logic Pro X if you don’t want pussy any time soon.
LEO
What you need is not a politics major to rail under the Pixies poster above your bed, but a conk to the head.
GEMINI
In your future I see: an iPod nano with exclusively 2013 music. You’re avoiding calls from your estranged family. Bliss.
VIRGO
Don’t ask why, but in the near future, I see you being carried off by a pterodactyl. Literally or figuratively. I guess we’ll find out.
SCORPIO
Start wearing harnesses more frequently in public.
SAGITTARIUS
Confront bisexual rockstars in cobblestone bogs. (For real, that bulge was my sexual awakening).
AQUARIUS
Give ‘em the ol’ razzle dazzle.
PISCES
Emit a high-frequency sonic boom akin to a bat to alert others that you are ready to move on from your high school sweetheart.
The Team
EDITORS
Kirsty Frame & Rachel Trow
DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION
Rowena Chow
SUB EDITOR
Alfred Dennis
NEWS EDITORS
Te Aorewa Rolleston & Finn Blackwell
SOCIAL MEDIA & WEB MANAGER
Kane Bassett
PODCAST MANAGER
Matthew Casey
STAFF WRITERS
Lofa Totua
Sally Ward
Shanti Mathias
FEATURE WRITERS
Lachlan Ewing
Lofa Totua
FEATURE EDITOR
Shanti Mathias
CENTREFOLD
Daniel Vernon @yeehawtheboys
POETRY EDITOR
Janhavi Gosavi poetry@salient.org.nz
CONTACT US editor@salient.org.nz designer@salient.org.nz (centrefold artwork) news@salient.org.nz socialmedia@salient.org.nz
CHIEF REPORTER
Annabel McCarthy
PODCAST PRODUCER
Francesca Georgia Pietkiewicz Nutsford
CONTRIBUTORS
Maddi Rowe
Janhavi Gosavi Puck
Taylah Shuker
Frankie Dale
Niva Chittock
Hannah Powell
Caitlin Hicks
Te Aomania Te Koha
Miia van Beusekom
Shanti Mathias
Gina Dao-McLay
Maisy Alison
Jack Henry Blair
Azaria Howell
POETRY
Janhavi Gosavi
Cerys Fletcher
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