Issue 10 - Justice

CONTENTS 05—11

12—15

16—19

News

A Grape-Flavoured Façade (Feature)

Washing Their Hands of Student Survivors (Feature)

20—21

22—25

26

Centrefold

Hugging the Curve (Feature)

Poem

25—27

28—35

36—38

Thursdays In Black

Culture & Columns

Entertainment

About Us Salient is published by, but remains editorially independent from, the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA).

Salient is funded in part by VUWSA through the Student Services Levy. Salient is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA).

The views expressed in Salient do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor, VUWSA, or the University.

Complaints Complaints regarding the material published in Salient should first be brought to the Editor in writing (editor@salient.org.nz). If not satisfied with the response, complaints should be directed to the Media Council (info@mediacouncil.org.nz).

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Find Us Twitter @salientmagazine Facebook fb.com/salientmagazine Instagram @salientgram www.salient.org.nz

Everyone Deserves to Feel Safe at Work EDITORIAL Content warning: discussions of sexual harrassment and assault I started at Salient in 2019, a first-year student with stars in her eyes and a hunger for storytelling. I came to university to be someone, and I was excited to explore writing as a potential career path.

Salient was both fascinating and intimidating. The office was full of older students who were far more talented and accomplished than me, who spoke ideas into existence and created a weekly print publication with minimal resources. Ambitious, political, artistic, fearless. They were everything I aspired to be, and I wanted them to notice me—a first-year ‘writer’ who had never actually written anything.

I assumed I needed a leg up, someone on the inside who would vouch for me. And I found one.

Several years older than me and established in the Salient community at the time, they promised me they could help. This person was a gatekeeper to an opportunity I wanted access to, so when the alarm bells started going off inside my head, I silenced them. I truly believed they cared about me and had my best interests at heart.

When you’re 18 years old, no one teaches you that a coerced ‘yes’ is still a no.

While their actions outside the office impacted me the most, their behaviour in our shared working environment is what made me unsure of my future at Salient. The lingering touches, the sustained eye contact, mouthing words across an office full of people when they thought no one else was looking.

I only felt compelled to make a disclosure after seeing them behave the same way around other young women, understanding that I wasn’t the first and may not be the last. When we seek justice, it is often not just for ourselves, but for those around us.

Steps were taken to ensure that, after 2019, I never found myself in the same room as them. I wasn’t asked to regurgitate my story to several people; the first person I told believed me, and it was taken care of. I can’t put into words how much that helped me heal, knowing that the people I worked for prioritised my wellbeing over someone else’s reputation.

I’ve spent three years wondering if I needed to tell this story, if there was anything to be gained from sharing it. I think my semi-profound message for you is this: Everyone deserves to feel safe at work.

With that being said, seeking justice is an exhausting process and it’s important to let survivors decide what the best course of action is.

In January this year, a former partner of Russell McVeagh was suspended from practicing law for two years due to his sexual harrassment of summer clerks. The incidents occured in 2015 and the news broke out in 2018. It was only in 2022 that the perpetrator faced any consequences. Justice takes time and energy. If you’re in the same boat, and making a disclosure is not an option, I hope you find support in whatever form works for you.

Take care of yourself this week.

Ngā manaakitanga,

JANHAVI GOSAVI (SHE/HER)

I made my disclosure at the end of the year and they were never welcomed back at Salient. www.salient.org.nz

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Let ters & Notices Do you have a PSA that needs to be heard?

Send your letters and notices to editor@salient.org.nz if you’d like them published on this page

Kia ora!

I’d like to say how great the photography in the Immigrant Issue was.

All the models were incredibly stylish in their own unique traditional clothing. I particularly loved the bathroom scene, and I wish it was more common and accepted to see such amazing clothing in everyday life.

Cheers, Daniel

PHOTO

LAW STUDENTS! GET INVOLVED IN THE COMMUNITY WITH THE WRS! Wellington’s Workers’ Rights Advocacy Service (WRS) is looking for student volunteers keen to give back to the local community while growing their knowledge and skills around employment law.

WRS supports low-income workers with initial free legal advice, research, and, where necessary, legal representation. If you would like to put your knowledge of employment law to work, and learn more while doing it, we would love to hear from you.

If you’re interested in joining us as a volunteer, please email wrs@ jk.org.nz with the subject line “EOI as a WRS volunteer”.

If you’re a student in need of legal support, or know someone who does, you’re also welcome to contact us at wrs@jk.org.nz.

Accessibility Corrections in Salient We’ve been asked to fix the accessibility and readability of Salient, particularly regarding contrast and bold & gray body copy. We have corrected the readability errors.

If anyone has more readability concerns, please email designer@ salient.org.nz.

Thanks!

Salient Designer

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85 Ghuznee St, Te Aro, Wellington www.splendid.nz @splendid.nz

Graduation Fiasco Leaves Students “Super Disappointed” Words by Azaria Howell (she/her)

A May graduation ceremony will not be held in person due to Covid-19 concerns, despite students being told in March that “the ceremonies will proceed only if large-scale events are permitted at that time.” Instead, a ‘celebration event’ will be taking place in Civic Square, with a street parade across the city, despite Aotearoa now being in Orange with no gathering limits.

Many graduates wanted the University to change their decision with the traffic light change. Students expressed frustration on Facebook’s VUW Meaningful Confessions page, with one anonymous graduate saying, “This alternative graduation is for schmucks […] Sort it out vic ffs, waste of my time, so when will my actual grad gear walk across the stage graduation be?”

As the traffic light hit Orange, soon-to-be graduate Emily felt hopeful that she would receive her degree while adorned with a cap and gown, crossing the stage for a pivotal moment in her life.

Another anonymous student shared a similar view, saying, “Shout out to my fellow May grads who will mark the completion of their studies by standing around in Civic Square doing nothing in particular, because VUW leadership is so resistant to putting in any effort to improve their student’s experiences that they would rather throw an end of year 8 pizza party than reach out to the government for a special exemption to host an actual graduation.”

Emily was distraught. In an interview, she said, “All of the buzz is gone […] I felt like graduation was going to be the big pay-off and I’m just super disappointed it’s not happening. I’m also the first person on either side of my family to graduate, so it sucks for everyone else as well.”

Graduates were informed of the change in an email, which cited “uncertainty surrounding when New Zealand will move to the Orange setting” as the reason for the alternative graduation plans. This email was sent five days before Aotearoa moved to Orange.

The student added, “If I could go back and give my year 13 self any advice at all, it would be to give my money to another university.”

www.salient.org.nz

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Pissed-up Pupils Posting Priceless Piss Promotions Words by Ethan Manera (he/him)

After making headlines earlier this year for illegally supplying free alcohol to student flats in exchange for social media promotion, Aotearoa-based RTD manufacturers are still pursuing these dubious transactions.

Reports in February found numerous alcohol companies were seriously breaching the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act by hooking up party-going students with copious amounts of free piss. Warnings were given to offending businesses, saying the trade promoted “irresponsible consumption of alcohol” and “advertise[d] alcohol in a manner aimed at minors”.

Yet, companies are continuing to “sponsor” flat parties in order to receive cheap and unregulated advertising on platforms such as Instagram.

One student who received free alcohol from an Aotearoa manufacturer told Salient, “It was easy as fuck, we just reached out and they hooked us up with like 500 drinks for the flat party [...] it was fully free, all we had to do was some posts on our Instagram stories” Another student from the Victoria University of Wellington said, “We legit just messaged them and asked if they would be keen to sponsor us by sending us any drinks [...] they just sent them to us”.

The Advertising Standards Authority has reportedly received six formal complaints regarding alcohol advertising through influencer posts over the past year.

Salient went undercover to investigate the sly supply of drinks. Under the guise of an unassuming flatter hosting a “big joint birthday bash,” we messaged five Instagram accounts of prominent Aotearoa alcohol manufacturers inquiring how to “get in on” free drink sponsorship.

Three companies replied saying they would “love to send some product”, another offered discounts on drinks as well as “banners / merch”. Only one company asked for proof of age, requesting a photo of our ID. The two others didn’t mention any need for formal identification. The drinks are currently en route to a confidential address.

To test their restrictions on minors, we also messaged brands through the Instagram account of a 17-yearold highschooler. One brand responded by offering to generate a discount code which, when used on their website, required no proof of ID other than a pop-up asking the customer to confirm they are over 18.

Dr. Nicki Jackson, the Executive Director of Alcohol Healthwatch told Salient, “We believe it is unlawful and unsafe [...] They are clearly showing that profit is more important than the wellbeing of young people.”

Dr. Jackson believes alcohol companies use influencer marketing to avoid advertising regulation, saying, “This allows alcohol producers to circumvent the weak (and voluntary) rules we have for alcohol advertising.

It means that they can use young people to promote their product to underage audiences, as students are unlikely to have age-gated social media accounts.”

NZ SeaRise Data Indicates Sense of Urgency, Adaptation Plan Doesn’t

Words by Beth Mountford (she/her)

A new online tool, called NZ SeaRise, shows locationspecific sea level rise in combination with land subsidence (i.e. the sea is rising, the land is sinking).

This means that sea level rise is happening twice as fast as previous data has shown in some areas of Wellington.

The project, led by Professor Tim Naish and Associate

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Professor Richard Levy of the Victoria University of Wellington, was developed, in part, to give councils across the country the information they need to begin future planning.

“At the moment, [the] global sea level is rising because of climate change at around 3 ½ mm per year. If you live on a part of the coast that’s sinking at the same

rate then you’re going to get double the sea level rise,” said Naish.

This means that by 2050, Petone will have 60cm of sea level rise. Professor Naish says that the actual amount of sea level rise is not too concerning, it’s the added frequency of storms which will show the “really big damaging effects of climate change.”

“What the data is saying is you have 20 years before the big 100 year coastal storm event becomes a yearly event. So you have to start now in figuring out what you’re going to do to help protect those communities and that infrastructure.”

He says, while we don’t have as much time as we thought, there is still time to adapt: “[The councils have] just got to start now.”

Meanwhile, the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan, which was released for consultation late last month, is lacking “a sense of urgency,” says New Zealand Climate Change Commissioner Dr. Judy Lawrence.

She says the NZ SeaRise information has given “a bit of a wake up call” to local and national level politicians, but that “information itself is not enough”.

The draft adaptation plan includes three main focus areas: “reform institutions to be fit for a changing climate, provide data, information, tools and guidance to allow everyone to assess and reduce their own climate risks, and embed climate resilience across government strategies and policies.”

Dr. Lawrence says that the document mutes the role of local government and puts funding into managed retreat rather than preventative measures.

“There seems to be a bit of ambivalence that if you do adaptation you’re going to stop reducing CO2 emissions and of course that’s nonsense because we have to do both,” she said, adding that it isn’t a case of one “or” the other, “it’s an and, and fast.”

She says many elements of the adaptation plan were recommended to the Government in 2017 and 2018.

“That’s four or five years ago and now they’re suggesting they be done in another four, five, or ten years […] the whole thing just looks like a slow track and I think what this sea level rise data is showing is that we need to be on the fast track, but we need to do it properly,” she said.

Dr. Lawrence said the biggest stumbling blocks to enacting these changes quickly are the funding of adaptation and the legal provisions around land ownership in areas that are going to be inundated.

“There’s a big exercise at the moment to try and improve the Resource Management Act so that climate change adaptation is much more front of mind and there’s a better mandate in the law,” she said.

Consultation on the adaptation plan is open until 4 June.

Source: National Climate Change Adaptation Plan www.salient.org.nz

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Wellington Anti-Sexual Violence Protest Leads to Improvements in Our City Words by Janhavi Gosavi (she/her) and Azaria Howell (she/her) Last year, over 500 people took to the streets of Wellington to protest sexual violence amidst Wellington’s unsafe nightlife scene. Now, actions are being taken to address safety concerns throughout the city.

The rally was held in March 2021 and was hosted by the Wellington Alliance Against Sexual Violence (WAASV), calling on the Government, Wellington City Council, and Hospitality NZ to implement a strategy to prevent violence in the city.

Now, fourteen months after the rally, political action is being taken, says Wellington City Councillor Tamatha Paul. She spoke at the rally, supporting calls from the Wellington Alliance Against Sexual Violence to make the city safer. Paul brought the demands from the WAASV to the political table.

In an interview with Salient, Paul outlined her commitment to the cause, saying, “I brought my knowledge about what council levers were available to pull. I think that made a really big difference; we were putting it into achievable chunks for the City Council to commit to.”

Paul added that the rally demonstrated “how prevalent this issue is and just how many people feel unsafe in Wellington City.”

Jahla Tran-Lawrence, the lead coordinator of WAASV, said, “We’ve put in a lot of work since the rally to ensure that this momentum has turned into action.”

Tran-Lawrence said the rally called attention to the issue, saying, “we were responding to this huge amount of energy and emotion that was happening in the community at that time. We wanted to do a rally [...] to give people an outlet, a very loud, tangible visual outlet to express their emotions.”

The protest has led to increased support in Wellington, with government funding towards mitigating issues of family and sexual violence also increasing.

Both Tran-Lawrence and Councillor Paul agreed that a well-organised event is key to achieving justice. Tran-Lawrence said, “the key part is to do it as a community [...] to harness the knowledge and experience of the people around you [...] to build on what’s already being done.” Paul’s advice to future community organisers was to “figure out what justice looks like to you”, whether that took the form of systemic change or social media awareness.

As a result of the rally, the City Council partnered with the police, government organisations and community outreach programmes in a project working towards making the city safer. The project, called the Pōneke Promise, has four main aims: improving public spaces, increasing community spaces, reducing harm and violence, and increasing business confidence. In a statement, the City Council said, “Our central city should be safe, dynamic and inviting. Unfortunately, we have recently seen a number of incidents that have created a sense and experience that our city isn’t safe for us to enjoy a night out or walking around our innercity neighbourhood.”

The Pōneke Promise has received widespread support from students; in VUWSA’s 2022 Referendum, a majority of 87.93% of respondents said they supported the project.

In addition to supporting the implementation of the Pōneke Promise, the rally called on the government to increase support and funding towards sexual violence services. The 2022 Government Budget aims to deliver $114.5 million over four years “to prevent and respond to family violence and sexual violence across Aotearoa.”

In a statement, Marama Davidson, Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence and Sexual Violence said, “This investment of $114.5 million is a major milestone for the implementation of Te Aorerekura, New Zealand’s first ever strategy to end family violence and sexual violence.”

Wellington’s Eating Disorder Service “Reaching Crisis Point” Words by Azaria Howell (she/her)

TW: This article discusses eating disorders and mental health.

CREDS, the Central Region Eating Disorder Service,

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currently has a waiting list of up to nine months, which continues to grow due to ongoing mental health pressures from the pandemic. For some sufferers, this is a matter of life or death.

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness. It is estimated that over 100,000 New Zealanders suffer, with many more struggling with disordered eating and feelings of body dissatisfaction.

Treatment is possible at any stage, and early detection and intervention is key to a prompt recovery. Early intervention is crucial to mitigate medical concerns which can be caused by eating disorders.

The waiting list has a devastating impact on sufferers.

Eating disorder sufferer and student Meredith RossJames says the issue is “reaching crisis point.”

She has been suffering with symptoms of an eating disorder for years, and says the long waiting list for specialist treatment discourages her from accessing support.

The last time eating disorder services received a government review was in 2008—14 years ago. 14 years without a review is too long, claims Nicki Wilson, the chairperson of EDANZ, an advocacy group which focuses on providing hope, information, support, and resources on the topic of eating disorders.

National’s Mental Health Spokesperson Matt Doocey agrees. Doocey accepted a petition last year calling on the Government to provide “ugent expert care and subsidy assistance for young people with eating disorders,” saying in Parliament that “eating disorders aren’t even on the radar” for the Government.

In an interview with Salient, Doocey claimed that Wellington’s nine-month waiting list is a failure of the mental health system.

“I feel pretty hopeless,” she says, sighing with anger.

“If someone chooses to recover, under the current system, they have nine months to reverse that decision, they have nine months to fall back into their old habits, and they have nine months to keep getting worse.”

“A really important thing is that care [needs to be] there for you when you want to access it,” she said.

When asked if that was the case with the current system, she responded with a prompt “no, of course not”.

Getting a referral can also be difficult, says RossJames. “By the time you even get a referral to this nine-month waiting list, you’re already bad. You have to prove that you have an eating disorder, and with that comes the privilege of having enough money and time to see a doctor.”

Throughout the time a person is on the waiting list for CREDS, they receive no support from the service themselves, having to rely on private counselling and medical services. According to Mental Health, Addictions, and Intellectual Disability Service (MHAIDS) Executive Director Karla Bergquist, “the number of adults referred to CREDS in the past decade has doubled, and the number of young people referred has nearly tripled.”

The reality of eating disorder sufferers in Aotearoa is grim; the months-long waiting list for public care makes the journey towards recovery even more painful.

EDANZ, an advocacy and support group for eating disorders, told Salient that changes need to be made to the system, saying, “waitlists are long and they are affecting lots of people that need urgent help.”

The Ministry of Health responded to these concerns in a statement to Salient, saying they “are transforming the way mental health and addiction services are provided in New Zealand to focus on early intervention so people are supported to stay well.”

Matt Doocey Accepts Petition Source: NZ Doctor “What we’re seeing is a huge spike in eating disorder admissions to hospital. Emergency Department and hospital admissions over the last two or three years have increased by well over 200%,” which Doocey claimed was due to the increased demand in services and the growing waiting list.

“We need an urgent mapping of specialist eating disorder services in the country to identify where the gaps are, which would inform an investment strategy.

I think we’ve got to urgently invest into an eating disorder strategy for New Zealand, that will ultimately provide more accessible services,” Doocey said.

Capital and Coast District Health Board told Salient that they acknowledge the challenges that are being experienced, saying, “The service is dedicated to minimising this impact and is working to ensure current models, resources, and capacity are aligned with the needs of the people we provide care for. This includes re-mobilising resources to better respond to the increasing demand for services, exploring maximising opportunities for earlier intervention, and reducing the need for treatment journeys to begin in acute or crisis care settings.”

If you or a loved one are impacted by an eating disorder: Call the NZ Eating Disorder helpline on 0800 2 EDANZ / 0800 2 33269 or email info@ed.org.nz.

www.salient.org.nz

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H e a dline Junkie:

A Bite-Sized Look Into the Big Stories

Words by Salient News Team

Supermarkets Compete With ‘Frozen’ and ‘Reduced’ Items Countdown have promised to ‘freeze’ the price of 500 essential items for the duration of Winter. The move has been criticised for not including pasta, cooking oil, or any fresh fruit. Almost one fifth of the pricefrozen items are herbs and spices. Foodstuffs have countered Countdown’s offer by reducing 110 items to 2021 levels. Their list includes some fresh produce and cheese.

J-Day a Flop in the Capital The first Saturday of May usually sees stoned students take to Parliament grounds to protest cannabis laws in a show of spaced-out civil disobedience but the hangover of February’s “freedom” protest killed the buzz of the event. What was supposed to be the 30th annual Wellington “rally and concert” was cancelled due to the damaged Parliament lawn being cordoned off from the public. A smaller sesh was suggested at Aro Valley’s Aro Street Park, but a low turnout and gloomy weather contributed to what was a humdrum affair.

Where’s the Queen At? Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth has stepped down from multiple public engagements, prompting theories that the monarch may be on her last legs. After missing the annual Easter service earlier this year, the Queen has recently ditched yet another vital appointment, delegating Prince Charles to open Parliament. Her Majesty’s health has steadily declined in recent years with a recent Covid-19 infection leaving her feeling “very tired and exhausted.”

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Aotearoa Borders to Open Earlier Than Expected Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced the early opening of borders and immigration, calling Aotearoa “in demand and now fully open for business.” All tourists and Visa holders will be able to enter the country from 11:59pm on 31 July, two months earlier than initially planned.

Gloriavale in Hot Water, Again Gloriavale residents have been ruled to be ‘workers,’ rather than ‘volunteers,’ as the community had claimed. Former Gloriavale members took the religious community to the Employment Court which recognised that they were, in fact, subject to dangerous labour from the age of six. The ruling comes after a string of legal action against Gloriavale which has long been accused of human rights abuses and serious mistreatment of community members.

Mr. Bean NFT Launch Garners Mixed Reactions Last week, the official Twitter account of iconic British comedy character Mr. Bean announced their venture into the metaverse with 3,333 Bean-inspired NFTs to be made available on the Ethereum blockchain. The collaboration with FOMO LAB caused outrage, with some Twitter users calling it “cringe.” One user said, “my childhood has been completely destroyed in one tweet”. Others are pleased with the project, calling it “exciting” despite the recent market crash which left investors with huge losses.

Mika’s Minute Modern Slavery Words by Mika Hervel (he/him)

Kia ora and welcome to Mika’s Minute! In this new column, I hope to help you engage in the big political decisions being made and provide you with the information you need to have your say! I will break down central and local government consultations as they come up, highlight how they are relevant to students, and then suggest a couple of things to think about when making your submission.

In 2021 there was a big push from World Vision, Trade Aid, and over 100 NZ businesses, as well as a petition signed by over 37,000 people calling for a new law to be created to address modern slavery.

Making a submission is a great way of engaging in democracy and letting the Government know your thoughts on a particular issue. Submissions help the Government to consider a wide range of perspectives when designing new policies and making laws based on what the people of Aotearoa want. After all, we live in a democracy and that is their job.

As you submit, it might be worth considering if you think all companies, big or small, should have the same responsibilities to mitigate modern slavery?

Or should larger employers have more rigorous standards? How could modern slavery in small businesses be mitigated?

Until 7 June, the Government is asking for submissions on how to tackle the issue of modern slavery and worker exploitation in Aotearoa and abroad. The Government is asking if you think creating new laws to eliminate modern slavery is a good idea.

These laws would put responsibilities on corporations to identify and take action to address modern slavery in their international and domestic operations and supply chains. The bigger the company, the more responsibilities they will have to address modern slavery.

Modern slavery is an extreme form of worker exploitation, defined by the Ministry of Buisiness Innovation and Employment as “severe exploitation that a person cannot leave due to threats, violence or deception. It includes forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage, slavery, and human trafficking.”

This consultation arose after a recent case of modern slavery was uncovered in Aotearoa. This high-profile case involved a man luring people from overseas by promising work or schooling. They were forced to work 14-hour days, as horticulture contractors, with no pay.

In response to this, the Government created a plan in 2021 to explore ways to eliminate worker exploitation and slavery. This consultation is part of that plan.

More broadly, consider what you think successful business practice should look like. Modern slavery is used by businesses to unethically cut costs and produce cheap goods. Does worker exploitation really give companies a competitive edge? What measures could be introduced in new laws to make exploitation an undesirable business practice?

As students, we often have small budgets and can only afford to buy cheap food and goods.

Unfortunately, the cheapest goods are often produced using slavery and exploitative practices. Considering this, what might help you be a more conscious consumer?

You can submit on this consultation by going to: www.mbie.govt.nz/have-your-say/modern-slavery You have the option of completing a short survey, a questionnaire, or writing your own detailed submission and emailing it to: modernslavery@mbie.govt.nz

www.salient.org.nz

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A Grape-Flavoured Façade Words by Molly Duval (she/her) Addiction is a good business to be in.

I know this because in Year 9 Business Studies, we were taught the basic tenet of capitalism: Businesses make products that consumers want, we buy them, they make money, and everybody wins. It sounded fair enough: I got a Zombie Chew, they got my 50c, and the world kept spinning.

What I didn’t understand, however, was just how corrupt that money could be. We didn’t learn that the key to a ‘miracle’ sales strategy was to create a product that customers literally could not refuse.

Funnily enough, my classmates and I were about to learn that lesson.

The first e-cigarette was made in 2003—by a threepack-a-day smoker. It was made, with genuine intention, as a tool to help smokers. It was designed as a less harmful nicotine fix for people looking to quit.

It was hailed as a miracle. Smoking tobacco is one of the leading causes of premature death, with 5,000 people dying each year in Aotearoa alone.

Now, the physical and psychological torment associated with nicotine withdrawals could be eased, and quitting smoking could be far easier. For smokers, it really was a gift—with the health risks associated with vaping far fewer than smoking, and without the 70% tax and GST the government puts on tobacco purchases, it was far, far cheaper.

In the decades since, this earnest invention has taken on a life of its own. The vaping industry has been likened to Silicon Valley in its approach— growing as fast as possible and worrying about the consequences later. The technology has evolved from basic e-cigarettes to bulky light-up mods, to the modern (and most widely loved) fourth generation: sleek, discreet Caliburns. The iPhone of nicotine addiction.

In its early days, Aotearoa’s vaping industry had, comparatively, very little government regulation surrounding it. There was no nicotine concentration limit and little regulation on the ingredients allowed in vape juices. For context, the nicotine concentration limit of the European Union is 20mg/ml. The advertising, marketing, and packaging of these products were widely unrestricted and the industry was left to effectively self-monitor who they were selling vapes to. I shit you not—a ban on selling vapes to under-18-year-olds was only implemented in November 2020.

It is, in a way, understandable why our government took such a soft approach in regulating this industry.

In light of our SmokeFree 2025 goal, making a quitsmoking tool more difficult to access seems counterintuitive. Alongside this, the voice of the vaping industry is loud, with many producers stating that their industry’s noble cause is to end the social harms of smoking tobacco. www.salient.org.nz

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It was at this point in the industry’s evolution that I, a 14-year-old at the time, first got my hands on a vape. A friend had told me that I could order it online and it would come—no I.D checks, no verification—I just had to check a box on the website saying that I was over 18.

Easy.

It was an alt. Pod, Grape, 40mg. It tasted like gum and I had my first ever head spin. It felt like a scientific achievement—everyone could finally have harmless nicotine addictions, or at least, that’s what it said when we Googled it. A miracle!

Slowly, myself, my friends and the majority of the people we knew got their own and got addicted.

When I reflect on it now, I can’t decide whether it was funny or tragic how easily it happened. By Year 12, it seemed like all of my socialising occurred in a thick cloud of artificially flavoured vapour. In the bathrooms at morning tea, lunch, during maths class, on the way to and from school, even sometimes on a bathroom break during assembly. We would have competitions about who could handle the highest mg., who could blow the best Os and who could vape at the most inappropriate times.

We thought it was funny, and in classic teen spirit, whenever any of us had a hacking smoker’s cough we would laugh about how the world was ending anyway—better to enjoy life while we still could. In talking to my fellow addicts a lot of us have the same story. It felt like a pretty inevitable process—vapes were cheap, easily accessible, and tasted good.

What a lot of us weren’t aware of was the harmful and often predatory nature of an industry that created the perfect conditions for young teenagers to get addicted.

Somehow the evidence that vaping was safer than smoking evolved into the widely perpetuated narrative that vaping was effectively harmless.

This was a coincidence lovingly paid for by vested interests. Philip Morris, the infamous global tobacco giant who has been dipping its toes in our

vaping market, was recently found to be funding public health research on the subject of tobacco and vaping control in Aotearoa. This pales in comparison to the global context, in which countless questionable studies and lobbying campaigns have attempted to discredit the risks associated with vaping.

Alongside this, the industry remained pretty much unregulated—complete with negligent age controls, wildly high nicotine concentrations, Instagram campaigns, promo codes, and loyalty programmes.

It comes, then, as no surprise that most teenagers I knew were devout customers and that 38% of teenagers have tried it.

Through a slow stream of publicly-funded journalism exposés (thank you RNZ) the miracle that was created in my mind shattered.

I had known that vaping was probably bad for my lungs, but after ten minutes of researching the growing public and independently-funded research, I found that vaping was known to increase anxiety, the likelihood of lung injuries, pneumonia, seizures, high blood pressure, and heart problems. Alongside this, the World Health Organisation had stated its concern about the mounting evidence that vaping was more harmful than originally thought.

I immediately had a panic attack (which came with no surprise, considering my 60mg vape and nicotine-related anxiety). I got pretty emo, and saw how my “accidental vaping addiction” probably wasn’t an accident for the people I had paid to give it to me.

It took me six months to properly quit. Even now, as I reminisce about that time corporate and governmental negligence hurt my health, I’m still thinking about how nice one little hit would be.

I asked some of my friends who still vape, who still have these coughs, who I’ve vented about this shitshow to. Each of them has tried to quit. One of them told me that by the time it becomes a real

It took me six months to properly quit. Even now, as I reminisce about that time corporate and governmental negligence hurt my health, I’m still thinking about how nice one little hit would be.

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problem, science will have solved lung cancer.

Another said “yolo”—I understood. Trying to quit when your brain says no is easier said than done.

In the last couple of years, it seems that our government has also become aware of the harms that the unregulated industry was causing. In 2020, it finally implemented some meaningful legislation— only specialised stores could sell vape flavours other than menthol or tobacco. Most advertising and marketing was banned and stricter enforcement of 18+ sales came into force. Some vape producers, as respectful of the regulation and committed to a Smoke-Free society as they were, have now diversified their menthol selections to include grape, peach, pineapple, and watermelon. And, you can still buy vapes online without I.D. It’s the best kind of regulation! That which is almost purely ceremonial.

It seems that the legacy of this lack of regulation is entrenched in our communities. In Tawa, my beloved hometown, our local dairy has already side-stepped the ‘stricter’ regulations by creating a makeshift sign that reads “Tawa Vapes”—a ‘specialised’ store within a store. Not only that but on the main road there are two of these ‘specialist’ vape stores and

four other places to buy vaping products. Each of these stores remain just a few minutes’ walk from eight schools: one of them a high school with 1,400 students.

The newest and flashiest looking shop on the main road is a brand new Shosha—a five-minute walk from my primary school and situated next to the public library on a street that hundreds of school children frequent. I used to walk down that road with my scooter in my school uniform, wondering if I had enough for hot chips. Last week, I drove past and saw two kids wearing that same uniform, staring into the window at (probably illegal) promotions for vape juice. I wondered whether we would ever recover from this disease, and whether the disease is nicotine addiction or greedy old men in suits.

Either way, in these trying times, do what you need to do to cope. Sometimes that does mean a cheeky hit of peach ice—I don’t judge. But join me, the next time big businesses tell us they’ve found a miracle, in questioning whether that miracle might just be a higher profit margin.

www.salient.org.nz

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Washing Their Hands of Student Survivors Words by Rhea Dias (she/her) and Maia Ingoe (she/her) TW: This article discusses sexual harrassment and assault.

In Rhea Dias’s year as a Residential Advisor in a hall of residence, she saw Victoria University of Wellington’s Sexual Harrasment Response Policy in practice. It fell short of its aim to protect survivors.

She shares her experience in this article.

First-year halls teem with excitement and energy.

New friends, new experiences, a new place to call home. It’s a place where you’re supposed to feel safe. But the first time I accompanied a sexual assault survivor to their meeting with managerial staff, I watched as staff encouraged the victim not to escalate their disclosure with police. They were told that it would be a tiresome and difficult process, and that the situation would be adequately handled by halls, but it was not. I watched everything we learnt in RA training go down the drain. It was supposed to be my job to make sure that my residents felt safe and supported, yet the support the University prided itself on was missing. I was shocked. Who was really being protected, the survivor or the University?

It’s rare for Residential Advisors (RAs) to speak to

the media, as university employees are typically silenced when it comes to speaking out about university policy. It’s a weight I’ve carried with me for two years, as the inability to speak out rendered me powerless to help. More than that, it’s difficult for the public to get an accurate portrayal of what happens behind closed doors when RAs are silenced. The University applauds itself on its sexual harrassment policy, but during my year as an RA in 2020, I saw sexual harrassment cases swept under the rug to protect the reputation of the university. There were survivors walking through the halls filled with fear, while their perpetrators ambled freely around campus.

VUW introduced its Sexual Harrasment Response Policy (SHRP) in December 2019, the first standalone sexual harrasment policy at any Aotearoa university. The aim of the policy was to create an environment where sexual harrassment would be unacceptable, where students could make complaints knowing they would be handled effectively. The policy outlines a student’s right to make a disclosure, which identifies that harm has occurred, or a complaint, where specific action is intended.

I watched everything we learnt in RA training go down the drain. It was supposed to be my job to make sure that my residents felt safe and supported, yet the support the University prided itself on was missing. www.salient.org.nz

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In the first year of the policy, the university received 79 complaints and disclosures; 18 of these were formal complaints. This was more than double the year before: 29 had been made in 2019, and ten in 2018. Since the policy was released, the rate of people coming forward has increased, but these numbers alone don’t tell us how many were addressed in a way that met the needs of survivors.

The application of the SHRP within halls comes up faulty in two ways. Firstly, it lacks proper support for survivors. Secondly, it often lets perpetrators walk free. When the policy is applied in real cases of sexual harm, what’s written on paper does not hold up.

Two particular experiences stand out to me: The first incident involved one survivor enduring multiple assaults and experiencing consistent harassment. There were no repercussions for the perpetrator. The university didn’t conduct any formal investigations, nor did they take steps to change the living situation of the survivor.

In the second incident, multiple rape allegations were laid against a single perpetrator. The only action made by the university was to transfer the perpetrator to a different hall, with little restorative action. The lack of action taken by the University reinforces the behaviours of these perpetrators, as they know the system favours them, enabling it to continue in new settings.

Article 7(3a) of the SHRP states the university will not consider taking formal action on a disclosure unless there is a serious or imminent threat to the complainant’s life. The policy doesn’t measure how survivor’s lives are ruptured after experiences of sexual assault, or the psychological harm it causes.

The way the SHRP treats perpetrators gives them power, directly draining it away from survivors in the process.

A former RA, shared similar concerns, “It’s an intimate situation when they’re living with the person

it happened with, it makes the process so much harder for everyone involved. As an RA it can be tricky to watch because you want to be able to help, but once it’s in the hands of management staff, there’s not a lot you can do.”

As an RA, you’re trained to handle harassment disclosures and to support survivors. But RAs are students too, who have to watch the system that is supposed to support these survivors collapse in front of them.

VUW admits that there are occasions where survivors and perpetrators remain living in the same hall or floor. “These situations are stressful for all involved and it is challenging to reach an outcome that both parties find acceptable,” VUW told Salient.

Just because a situation is challenging doesn’t mean effective action should be dodged—there are real people involved who have to live with the consequences of decisions made by the university.

Article 10(1) states that the University supports the right of a survivor to decide whether to report to the police. In practice, university managerial staff emphasise the potential gravity of the situation if the claim is to be escalated within the university or to the police, discouraging survivors from doing so and creating a space in which they’re scared to speak up. This is where it becomes clear that the SHRP serves to protect the reputation of the university rather than students. There’s no threshold which constitutes whether a claim should be escalated or not. Dealing with disclosures in a way that allows perpetrators to walk free leaves room for largerscale incidents to happen. How many survivors have had to sit silent and watch their perpetrator walk scot-free? How many more students are currently in harm’s way as a result of the University’s inaction?

Last year, a joint investigation between the university, police, and the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association was launched after students called for greater transparency into allegations of sexual assault in halls of residence. A letter

The application of the SHRP within halls comes up faulty in two ways. Firstly, it lacks proper support for survivors. Secondly, it often lets perpetrators walk free.

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As an RA, you’re trained to handle harassment disclosures and to support survivors. But RAs are students too, who have to watch the system that is supposed to support these survivors collapse in front of them. addressed to the University said hall management had failed to create a safe environment for students, breaching their residential agreement.

VUW claims to create “supportive and inclusive” environments for all students living in halls of residence, through connection circles and online modules. “Posters highlighting the reporting pathways are displayed in each hall of residence, and each hall now has an allocated Student Interest and Conflict Resolution Adviser that supports any residents involved in disclosures or complaints,” said the University.

They affirmed that, throughout the year, all staff receive refresher training from Student Conflict and Interest. The University’s guidlines require RAs to contact a Head of Hall immediately after a disclosure of sexual harm. From there, the Student Conflict and Interest team steps in to handle allegations. However, this doesn’t capture the weight of the emotional support which RAs inevitably end up providing.

The issue of sexual assalt within halls isn’t new. By failing to address these issues, institutions allow perpetrators to keep doing what they are doing, whilst preventing cases from formal investigation as to not create a university scandal. This lack of accountability is a scandal in itself.

My experiences with the university’s SHRP in practice were in the first year of its implementation.

In the two years since, we can only hope that the system now operates to better protect its survivors.

It takes an immense amount of courage to reach out for help as a survivor of sexual assault. Treating every case with a high level of seriousness is what stops the cycle of sexual harrassment. We need to be centreing survivors, their access to effective and understanding support, and their ability to live in halls in safety.

If you need support regarding sexual violence: Safe to Talk is a free sexual harm helpline. You can contact them via free text: 4334, free call: 0800 044 334, live chat: www.safetotalk.nz, or email support@safetotalk.nz.

If you need to report a case of sexual violence within the University, you can contact the Student Interest and Conflict Resolution team at studentinterest@vuw.ac.nz.

Alternatively, you can contact the independent VUWSA advocacy team at advocate@vuwsa.org.nz.

www.salient.org.nz

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Seatbelts everyone!

We’re going to explore...

...ACADEMIC MARKING! 22

Hugging the Curve: The Aspiration of Grade Transparency Words by Bridget Scott (she/her)

If you’ve applied for a job, checked Student Records, or considered postgrad recently, you’ll have been reminded of the unpredictable but wholly central role that grades play in student life.

Regardless of whether you’re poring over readings and spending late nights in the library, or going months without checking Blackboard, grades heavily impact everyone’s student experience.

Despite the importance of assessment, there is almost no consistency across faculties, schools, papers, and teachers. When every class has different grading processes, that students have no say over, what happens when a grade that feels fair, let alone good, seems elusive?

For Ben*, a lack of transparency of grading in a high level Maths course, coupled with a generally unprofessional assessor, has led to a semester that can’t end soon enough. When attending office hours to catch up on a missed section of an unrecorded class, Ben joined the Zoom call with his professor and another student. Rather than addressing content relevant to the call, the professor turned to Ben and announced he was currently marking their assignments and that Ben’s was “horrible, just horrible.” Despite challenging the professor’s conduct, Ben has continued to be subject to discouraging public discussion about his work from

the same professor. Tutorials are now a minefield of pointed remarks, such as the declaration of “stupid” mistakes on his work and commentary on how “the person in this class who made these mistakes doesn’t understand what is happening at all.”

While there are a range of obviously upsetting factors in this situation, one of Ben’s greatest sources of frustration is the obscure assessment procedures used by the course. The course is unusually small, and the professor has sole discretion in allocating marks, despite the expectation that STEM subjects usually demand answers that are easily identified as either right or wrong. No assessment schedule or marking explanation is provided to the class and all work is submitted alongside students’ names.

Now, Ben is in the position of having concretely unfair interactions with his assessor but no way of measuring how his grades have been assigned and nothing to prevent his work from being targeted.

When asked about assessment policy, the University referred Salient to the Assessment Handbook—a 62-page document establishing the principles and processes used to appraise student academic work.

Whether these are fit for purpose is unclear. Within it, Victoria University of Wellington says that the values of validity, reliability, fairness, inclusivity, learning, and manageability should drive the frameworks

I watched everything we learnt in RA training go down the drain. It was supposed to be my job to make sure that my residents felt safe and supported, yet the support the University prided itself on was missing. www.salient.org.nz

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Brooklyn wants to improve the quality of her marking, but in the face of structural underinvestment in tutor wellbeing, unless large numbers of people are unjustly failing, “I don’t get paid enough to care.” used to examine the capabilities of students.

However, the guidelines allow significant discretion for faculties to self determine their own rules within separate and additional bureaucratic procedures.

On the question of assessment schedules—something that could allow Ben to see how and why he is being marked in a particular way—section 6.1 notes that a marking guide is only mandatory where marking is spread between different people, and does not require breakdowns of how grades are assigned to be published to students. As a result, Ben’s lone marking professor is able to abide by University guidelines to assign grades without explanation or accountability.

Even when guides are developed and provided to tutors, this is often not sufficient to prevent injustice or bad-faith marking from occurring. For Bella*, an encounter with a Politics tutor stopped her from continuing with a subject she loved. Entering tutorials as a first-year, she was enthusiastic and keen to engage in robust discussion on the subject matter.

When her tutor repeatedly made comments such as “all the left do is kiss puppies,” she regularly spoke up in class and offered her own perspective, even when it clashed with his. Once it came time for their first essay, still buzzing with fresher optimism and invigorated by the course’s content, she devoted herself to the assignment. But after spending weeks meticulously researching, helping friends, and editing what she considers even now to be the best essay she’s ever written, her grade was much lower than anticipated.

Like any committed student, she emailed the tutor asking for feedback. She received no response. After following up four times, he eventually replied to let her know that the paper was completely lost and provision of feedback was impossible.

= 24

Determined to work out what had gone wrong, Bella reached out to the course coordinator. Within days, she heard back from the tutor who had since found her paper and discovered it had a completely different mark: two grade boundaries higher than the original. Cases like these, filled with plausible deniability and potential for human error, run rampant throughout university, but Bella wonders about all of those who don’t have the time, energy, confidence, or knowledge to advocate for themselves getting left behind as a result. She doesn’t participate in tutorials anymore.

To address this, the Assessment Handbook notes that every faculty should have “procedures specifying faculty requirements on assessment and moderation,” that includes tutor instructions, tutor support and monitoring of grades. But for Brooklyn*, tutoring a compulsory Commerce paper has revealed big gaps in the grading process. While the assessment guide prepared for tutors by the course coordinator is excellent, “there’s really no way to know if what you’re marking is too harsh or easy.”

From her perspective, moderation is limited to the lecturer, who failed to attend six weeks of tutorial meetings, giving the papers a quick flick to confirm each one has a mark and no student has plagiarised. This hurts students and tutors. Brooklyn is left “constantly worrying that I’ve marked students wrong.” Meanwhile, students’ names are on assignments, meaning she knows what grades they have received thus far and the pressure to mark responsibly becomes entwined with the guilt of potentially failing students who will have to retake the course to graduate.

This is a problem greater than individual tutors.

Brooklyn wants to improve the quality of her

+

+

? marking, but in the face of structural underinvestment in tutor wellbeing, unless large numbers of people are unjustly failing, “I don’t get paid enough to care.” As far as traditional bias goes, training on cultural differences and factors that impact student engagement is restricted to an online learning module, where the existing pressures on tutors meant she simply sought to complete it quickly.

The structural insecurity of casual academic labour means that even tutors trying their best are struggling.

For students dealing with unprofessional or unequipped assessors, support is possible. Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association Academic Vice President Jessica Ye and advocate Erica Schouten note it’s normal to find the transition from highly structured NCEA standards to opaque university processes—with no continuity, large discrepancies, and inaccessible resources—difficult to navigate. They emphasise that when dealing with concerns, talking to the course coordinator or a friend for support and prioritising your wellbeing are useful steps. Erica is able to provide confidential

meetings to help students access their rights, advocate for their interests, and connect them to relevant services across the university bureaucracy.

Acknowledging that we care about grades can feel cringey to admit, but the role of assessment in student confidence and engagement as well as employment and study opportunities, means academic justice is worth fighting for. Balancing the act of improving accountability in assessment alongside the increasing pressures acting on academic staff is a long-term challenge. Mandating that faculties publish assessment schedules, mark anonymously, and robustly moderate, would strengthen the transparency of the grading process, but must be coupled with the necessary implementation by staff.

For now, students should feel confident knowing that if assessors are acting in bad faith, support and advocacy is always possible. *Pseudonyms are used in this article.

Acknowledging that we care about grades can feel cringey to admit, but academic justice is worth fighting for.

www.salient.org.nz

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Thursdays In Black VUW Holding Neoliberal Institutions Accountable—Nationally and Internationally Words by Sophie Clark (she/her) and Charlotte Forsyth (she/her) CW: sexual violence, sexual harassment Although Covid-19 has compounded the occurrence and subsequent effects of sexual violence, it would be remiss to say that what we have been seeing in the news this year is a novel issue. Those of us working in the sexual violence prevention space know the opposite to be true. Two damning articles about the University of Auckland’s response to instances of sexual violence have highlighted that sexual violence is not only a prevalent issue within such institutions, but also that universities are illequipped and uninterested in doing anything about it.

As we have typically seen, when—and only when—a case goes to the media, the relevant university will issue a response expressing remorse and perhaps offering vague steps on how they will do better. However this is a very reactionary and reputation-centric approach, and their subsequent actions do not match up. For example, in a Te Herenga Waka context, the university stated they consulted with students on their recent Sexual Harassment Response Policy, yet Thursdays In Black VUW did not hear from them once. Although the implementation of such a policy is a welcome step, there are still significant shortcomings, and it is disingenuous of them to say there was proper consultation.

Internationally, neoliberal institutions continue to be guided by principles that are out of touch with the realities of sexual harm and bodily autonomy.

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On 2 May 2022, a draft majority opinion from the United States Supreme Court was leaked, suggesting that Roe v Wade, a landmark case protecting the liberty to choose to have an abortion, was to be overturned. If the draft opinion is confirmed as law, states can make it illegal to perform, recieve or help someone get an abortion. Already, Louisiana is debating House Bill 813, which considers life to begin at ‘fertilisation,’ with no exceptions made for instances of sexual violence. The sad truth is that abortion (including Plan B) is often required for survivors of sexual violence. Taking away this right under the guise of leaving it for democratic institutions, which are significantly influenced by financially-armed lobbies, is wrong. The ramifications for sexual harm compound as only eleven states require students learn about consent.

While the United States is not Aotearoa, it has only been since early 2020 that Aotearoa’s abortion law was modernised. We have similar rates of sexual violence. Our neoliberal institutional framework is all too similar. It emphasises liberty and equality, yet refuses to review the structural inequities that reinforce the positions of those who hold power, and entrench existing inequalities.

Neoliberal institutions continue to see sexual violence as outside of their influence, despiteoften being the very places where the culture is reinforced.

Sexual violence continues to be pushed under the rug, and it is only through continual and everincreasing public accountability that real change will happen.

The Peach A peach velveteen and ripened by the herculean sun its supple skin strained ready to burst as its syrupy pulp ripples beneath the surface A businessman in a crisp suit each hair immaculately entitled his face riddled with complacency he pulls open the sharp glass door and the peach bursts a combustion of sweet orange flesh treacly juice erupts from its fragmented shell the skin splinters hardening like chromatic glaciers “don’t make a scene” the businessmen bellows he uses intense hold hairspray to perfect his smirk he picks up his straw basket full of fruit jams he is a very professional man after all - Cambelle Cook

www.salient.org.nz

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Podcasts For Justice We here at Salient Podcasts know the importance of getting diverse voices and stories out into the world. Podcasting can be an amazing platform for seeking justice, by opening up space to have crucial conversations, spread awareness, ask questions, and provide representation. For the Justice Issue, we’ve collected some of our favourite episodes that aim to dive deep and strive for greater justice.

Stranger At Home

Zeitgeist

with Alex Marinkovich-Josey and Gil Ostini.

• Collective Responsibility

with Jess Ye and Kate Schellekens.

• Consume, Eat, Bras & Briefs

Alex speaks to Wellington City Councillor Tamatha Paul about her experiences growing up in a small town, what her experiences there meant for her future in Wellington, and the importance of “Collective Responsibility.”

Oftentimes, it feels like consumer culture is the only way we know how to live but shit gets grim when we think about what we can do about it. Elisha, founder of Nisa joins us on episode two to discuss the good, the bad, and hopes for a more loving and sustainable consumer culture

• Youth, Climate and Wellington Alex shifts focus to the upcoming election and the city of Wellington while chatting with his guest, Jesse Richardson. Jesse is an independent candidate for the Wellington Central Electorate, and he shares his thoughts on what makes the city special, why the government needs to maintain a strong focus on climate change, and how the youth vote and youth movement are important.

• Racism and Activism CW: Discussions about racism, colourism, and issues with migration Alex sits down with VUWSA Equity Officer Monica Lim to talk about her journey with being accepted in Aotearoa as a migrant, being an activist, and the racism present within our country.

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• Dismantle and Rebuild Making change is a daunting prospect, especially inside your own university, so we catch up with Monica Lim who’s trying to do just that. Listen to hear about allyship, student community, and doing better.

• Third Wheeling in a ‘Bicultural’ Society Jess chats to some of Salient’s tauiwi podcasters— Alex, Tharushi, and Sahir—to figure out our place and identity in Aotearoa, its history, and its future.

• Occupying Space We take some time to reflect on how Zeitgeist occupies space and how our conversations are influenced by our privilege and who we are as people. Criticise us. Please.

SheCess with Zola Prendeville.

• Ghazaleh Golbakhsh: Islamophobia in New Zealand

Above Standard with Alice Chrisp and Ella Hoogerbrug.

• Colonisation

Cherida, a representative from The Aotearoa New Zealand Sex Workers’ Collective, talks about her experience of being a sex worker, the importance of decriminalising sex work, and why no one should be shamed for the industry they work in.

We take a more serious turn and encourage ourselves and others to learn about the true history of Aotearoa and the impacts of colonisation on indigenous people. We are grateful to have our friends Saf and Liam come in and guide us through Aotearoa’s history, pre and post-colonisation. Safari guides us through Te Tiriti o Waitangi and some short term consequences of the signing. Liam looks at the modern and long term impacts of colonisation on indigenous youth. The episode concludes with a discussion around decolonisation and how you can do your part in helping to ensure all people have an equal and equitable experience in Aotearoa.

• Becki Moss: The Female Gaze

• Know Your Stuff ft. Wendy Allison

Becki Moss talks about the importance of a wider and more diverse lens within photojournalism.

She comments on the differing approaches to photography she has as a woman, as well as her masculinity photography project.

We interview Wendy Allison, the managing director of Know Your Stuff. Know Your Stuff is a volunteerrun organisation striving towards the goal of reducing and mitigating drug-related harm in order to create safer communities.

Ghazaleh talks about her novel The Girl from Revolution Road. She unpacks her experience growing up in Aotearoa coming from Iran, the shift she experienced after 9/11, and her reaction to the Christchurch mosque shooting.

• Cherida: Sex Work in Aotearoa

Know Your Stuff has testing facilities that help festival-goers identify the substances they are potentially inducing. They then educate the client about the side effects of that substance and then allow the client to make an informed decision about whether or not they will consume the drug.

Rock Dog with Tharushi Bowatte.

• Is Bird of the Year nationalist propaganda?

No! It’s not... well, maybe. In this episode, I share my thoughts on the way it’s a national requirement to love the birds of Aotearoa and how the Bird of the Year competition is representative of this tendency.

At its most nefarious, Bird of the Year signals corrupt conservation rhetoric that erases colonial history.

At its best, it’s a fun educational campaign to raise awareness about endangered birds.

To check out these episodes and more, here’s our Podcasts For Justice Playlist:

www.salient.org.nz

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UniQ In my seven years of being a man, the shell has just begun to crack. Trans people are classed in two states, hatched and unhatched, yet this does not take into account the agonising period where our membraned, laboured breath is pecking, desperate, against our containment. Nor does this account for the entire period of hatch^ing, which for some takes merely seconds… for others, urgent years.

In seven seconds I’d been fertilised, in seven minutes I’d divided, in seven hours I’d travelled to the womb, in seven days I’d twirled within my blood, in seven weeks I’d kicked and stretched, in seven months I’d wept, and over seven years, I’d trained myself to lie still.

To weep was to be cracked. How dare this person, who claims to be a man, be tender? How dare it be sensitive? How could its gentle supple flesh and natal, lilted tone, convey any such authority over us?

Eggshell Words by Anthony Delaney (he/him) This deeply vulnerable thing, dare we walk near it at all for we may crush its shell? Who told it to sit out in the open like that? To peep at any one of us for help?

I’ve matured within my egg. The deepening of my timbre, a rebalanced stress in words, a chirp, then a screech, then a caw, injected within the pinprick from which my beak sits, until their ears, at my hatchéd resonance, pricked. Yet gentle still, I spoke.

I sidestepped accusation, dodged implication, as delicate sodden wings brushed against my coop I staggered my cause forth with caution: for if my true demands were detected, they’d despise my feathered sight, reconstruct my fractured cell… who is the sensitive one, again?

Who walks on whose shell?

Gain some work experience while studying 30

How To Avoid Activist Burnout Words by Cileme Venkateswar (she/her)

Youth have always been an integral part of activist movements but social media has increased political literacy and global social awareness in younger generations. As a result, youth take on far more responsibility in activism, determined to make change on issues that will have drastic consequences on our collective future. But we’re young, still learning to balance adult responsibilities, and this all-or-nothing attitude towards activism is doing more harm than good.

3.

Develop a balanced relationship with media and social media

The main causes of activist burnout are:

No single person is the hero in activism. You’re the result of generations before you and your work will empower generations after you. Learn to step up and step back. Build a community to keep you motivated and to share both wins and losses with.

• Emotional and physical exhaustion • Feeling jaded and cynical about your cause(s) • Doubting that you’re making a difference

Social media is vital in 21st century activism. But it can be overwhelming to work towards one cause… only to see a million more arising. It’s important to stay aware of current events, but obsessive doom scrolling can lead to feeling hopeless and disillusioned with your work.

4.

Don’t go it alone

If you’re starting to lose momentum in your drive to make change, see if any of the following might help:

5.

A therapist can be part of your support system

1.

- Taha hinengaro (mental health)

Some activists cannot step back from their cause because social justice is linked to their lives and communities. Activist burnout can be debilitating because it’s tied to identity, injustice, and a sense of control over actions and consequences. Getting professional help through therapy or counselling that helps with the anxiety, disillusionment, and exhaustion of working in activism can be a necessary addition to a support system.

2.

6.

Care for your body and mind

Use the Te Whare Tapa Whā model to identify your needs and how they can be met: - Taha tinana (physical health) - Taha wairua (spiritual health) - Taha whānau (family health) Create healthy boundaries

Unhealthy attitudes about the perceived ‘selfishness’ of burning out are prevalent in activist circles. While it’s a privilege to be able to switch off to a nonpoliticised state, activism culture needs to shift to address personal burnout and widespread toxic work ethics within youth activism.

Schedule ‘action hours’ into your week where you intentionally set aside time to work on activismdriven tasks. Such boundaries ensure this work is blocked into your schedule but doesn’t prevent you from focusing on your life and studies.

Keep track of your wins

The issues we’re fighting for come from centuries of systemic injustice. It’ll take far longer than we’ve been involved in activism to enact long-lasting change. Recognise and celebrate small wins that will make future efforts easier for you and other activists.

Legislative changes, election wins, raised awareness, reports of improvement and acceptance—these all count as victories. You are making the world a better place.

www.salient.org.nz

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Pasifika Students’ Council

‘Justice: Just Us’ to ‘We Are Not Drowning, We Are Fighting’ The landscape of Aotearoa as it stands today, is one that is still inequitable, still racist, still a breach of rights.

But that hasn’t changed since my Poppa arrived on these shores. But I’m seriously depressed with the news, it’s getting harder to keep up the fight. The consistent efforts by decision-makers to be ignorant, continuing to vilify my brothers in their homes. The appropriation of Tapa and anything with a frangipani within these same workplaces. There seems to be no justice—just us.

What is justice and legality today, in this quirky murky capital? This is a time of political tension, financial uncertainty whilst hating the labour they require. Only last week, Tiana Epati, the first Pacific President of the NZ Law society, was barred from entering the courtroom by security on the assumption that she wasn’t the lawyer, but the defendant (Plantation Convos). But family has always come first, and always will. But without justice, there is no peace.

Based on the late Dr. Moana Jackson, Restorative Justice is a template of three parts (and can create the practical changes suggested for your week!)

1. Share one campaign or need that is necessary, or share information which you know your community would benefit from understanding.

This isn’t overplayed. Don’t be afraid, speak up for yourself and those you love.

2. Sign up for Tupu Toa /Tupu Tai or a social justice movement. Tupu Toa/Tai will introduce you to the machine of government. Its priorities, decision makers, and the flaws in its operations.

P.S. if you’re white passing, your job is to make room. After all, one person has never represented the Pacific.

We’ve formed our own protections, communities, and voice. We have never neglected our family. An unmoving priority through time, as we’ve navigated Wharf strikes, Dawn Raids, displacement in the diaspora, climate emergency, all the while surviving in Te Ao Pākehā within Aotearoa. Movements such 3. As you stand in your competency to learn and as the Polynesian Panthers and Pacific Climate serve, as Pasifika people of university, never Warriors highlight the urgent need for change, but forget, Plantations Convo said “higher education also the personal sacrifice, intrinsic motivation, is a form of classism and if you’re not careful you time, and resources needed. Effort and energy end up looking down on the people you swore of young people, to campaign for other people you were going to help”. to care. Carrying the need for all, on our backs to parliamentary steps. This work is not light, it is desperate and urgent. And these efforts come with requirements.

We cannot give our elders the lives they deserved to have lived. We cannot turn back the clock, or sit back, simply wishing for better. But today, there is a cause for celebration, for this land treats me better now than it did my Poppa, because of the work my poppa did for me, what mother dreamed for.

I celebrate their sacrifice, and weep for our future. God has given me the strength to keep going, there will be no more rocks thrown at my aiga. I will use their system to protect my people.

But for the interest of the past. To all the employers who didn’t let the loud brown woman speak—I’ll pray for your souls today.

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Ngāi Tauira—Māori Students Association Te Ao Waiata

Words by Mason Lawlor (he/him; Ngāti Pāhauwera, Ngāti Maru) Nau mai haere atu taku reo manamanahau, taku reo mihi ki a koutou aku manu waraki o te ata hāpara e noho peka ana ki tēnei wao o Te Herenga Waka. Ki konei koekoe ai te tūī, ketekete ai te kākā, kūkū ai te kererū kia rangona ai ngā tini manu o te wao e whai ana i te mātauranga. Koutou ngā manu tātāriki kua ngū, kua kī kore i te wao nui a Tāne, e rere rā ki te whānau marama, hei whetū mō te uma o te pō.

Tauārai o te pō ki a koutou te tini o Hakuturi, tītoko ko te ao Mārama ki ēnei manu o te wao!

Ka heke ana i ngā arawhata o te whare Student Union, ka tae ki te papatahi, ā, i taua wā tonu kua pāorooro ngā tino waiata e kaingākau e Ngāi Tauira. Tomo ana te tatau o te whare, kei reira te tauira e mahi ana i ngā mahi (tōna mahi nei) ā, kei te whakarongo ki ngā waiata Māori i runga Tiriata, ko Lowfi kē rānei ka kai ngāwari ki aku taringa. Heoi ko tātou e pīringi ana, ko tō Te Matatini ;)

hoki. Mua kai kiriata, muri kai maumahara! Kua waimaria ngā tauira i a ETV, engari ko ngā mea i Matatini 2013, kāre i reira. Nā runga i tērā, kua kōpakitia ētahi nō ngā tau e 50 ki muri.

Kua 13 ngā waiata kua puta, ā, ko ‘Hunara’ pea tētahi kua kaha te pērāhia ōna, nā Te Tū Mataora.

Te ātaahua o te rangi, te rangatira o ngā whakaaro, koia kei a Hunara. Katoa ēnei āhua e kōrero nei au ētahi o ngā āhuatanga i pupū ake ai te rongonui, me te kaingākau ki ēnei waiata rongonui. I te wā e tuhi ana ahau i tēnei e 12 noa iho ngā waiata kua whakairihia, nau mai rā te toenga!

Koutou o Te Matatini, me kore ake koutou!

Hei whakanui i te rima tekautanga o Te Matatini, ka tāia he pukapuka, ā, ka whakaputaina he pukaemi o ngā tino waiata nō ngā tau 50 o Te Matatini. Mō ngā rā e 50, ka whakaputaina he waiata kapa haka i ia rā wiki. Kei te mōhio au ki ō whakaaro, āe! E 50!

Kua wawe te taenga mai o te Kirihimete!.

Ko ngā manu tīoriori pēnei i a Rob Ruha mā, Pere Wihongi mā, ētahi ka rangona. Mai i te whakaputanga tuatahitanga, ko ētahi kua noho tonu ki ngā ārero ētahi waiata. Nā te mea, i rikoatahia i te taiwhanga waiata, ka taea te whakanikoniko o te oro me ngā rangi. (kāore au i te kī he koretake te kawe o ngā waiata i runga atamira) engari ka pai ake. Nā wai i kōunga, ka kōunga kē atu!

Kotahi tau pea ka pahure i tētahi whakataetae pēnei me Te Matatini, kua whakakorehia ngā kiriata i te ipurangi. Nā reira, mēnā kāre i tikiake, ka aroha www.salient.org.nz

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“Blind” Justice / Be Anti-Establishment, Go On, You Won’t Anoushka (she/her): Is justice really blind? I mean, they say that it is, but lowkey I think justice can see just fine.

When a country is as diverse as Aotearoa, it is also important that we are accepting and unbiased in our judgements. I don’t think this is reflected in our justice system. The phrase “justice is blind” implies that justice is based on facts and evidence, but then you take a look at the disproportionate rates of incarceration of Māori and Pasifika in Aotearoa and it seems this isn’t the case. So where is the discrepancy coming from? Bias. We live in a society where we inherently view many ethnic minority groups as greater threats to the community than Pākehā.

It is natural to have biases; after all, cognitive biases and heuristics have helped humans to survive for so long. But when these biases end up having horrible impacts on the lives of others, maybe we should take a step back and try to address them. Part of the problem is that we also may not value non-Pākehā lives as much as Pākehā lives, and this means that as a society, we don’t really care if those lives are harmed or not. Maybe if we valued all lives equally, then we would see that reflected in our justice system and we would be able to rid society of the crippling flow on effects discrimination has.

Laurelei (she/her): The news bombards us with horrifying statistics everyday. At most, we acknowledge the injustice for as long as it is on screen and then move on with our daily lives. Instead of learning about the actual human lives behind every wrongful

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death and arrest, we only learn to distance ourselves completely from situations unless they directly affect our communities. Desensitisation is a luxury that apparently many can afford. I can only hope that you, dear reader, will take this week’s Salient as a reminder to take action.

Indigenous and POC activists don’t want to be activists—being born into marginalised groups means that our very existence is an act of rebellion in itself. The same goes for every other marginalised person—activism is something born out of a survival mechanism in a world that is rigged only in the elite’s favour. Not only are we constantly at odds with Eurocentric, patriarchal institutions, but we also tend to battle ourselves in deciding which issue is “more deserving” of our attention. When the struggle of one is used to erase the struggles of another, oppression turns into an ugly competition that defeats the purpose of any calls to action around it. Instead of falling into an individualistic mindset, try to focus on the parallels between each struggle. If we can’t have each other’s backs, then how can we expect those in higher positions of power to relate and advocate for us too?

Justice is a tricky thing. How can we use our privilege to advocate for others without tapping into a white-saviour complex? How do we prioritise which struggle to care about the most when there are an infinite number of injustices circulating at any given moment? Why do we have to spend so much energy fighting against problems that should never have existed in the first place?

We Aren’t Inconsequential Words by Teddi (they/he/she)

When I say everyone benefits from paying attention to disabled people’s rights, I mean that they directly impact you even if you aren’t disabled—though the difference is between having someone be mildly annoyed at you (but being able to brush it off) and being unwelcome to take up space.

Out of all the dodgy elevators at uni, my least favourite have to be the Kirk ones. Even though they don’t take five minutes to arrive and they do deliver you where you want to go (we love the bare minimum!), they were not designed for people to use on level three. Considering that level three connects to the bridge and gets very crowded with people coming in and out of the large lecture halls, maybe, just maybe, the architect would’ve allowed room to wait around the elevators for those using them. Having the elevators in the middle of the most common narrowed path doesn’t seem like the best idea when people need to wait in the middle of a walkway. For someone non-disabled, it means that there is someone in your path blocking where you need to be. For me, it means I have less time to get on the elevator because I need to dodge around people, when it’s already a race to not get smashed by the closing doors—some elevators only open the doors for ten seconds.

I really don’t need a physical reminder that my existence is inconvenient to those around me.

There are these little things that just make life hard and show a lack of consideration for disabled people. There are so many that I could go on for days.

I’m hopeful that the new Ministry for Disabled People will mean more awareness for those that are disabled and will lead to more consideration of others who live a different life than the general population. So far, my experience of having disabilities is that government departments do not talk to each other. I tried to get mental health support but was denied due to being under the chronic pain team, who weren’t available to help for many more months. In my health records my name isn’t even correct most of the time since it’s only been corrected in certain systems and won’t automatically switch on all the rest. When I am too sick, I don’t care. I’m barely well enough to advocate for my own medical needs.

Disabled people need non-disabled counterparts to advocate when they can’t. I physically can’t get out of bed some days but that doesn’t mean I no longer care. It means my voice is gone. Never feel bad for advocating for something even if only one person needs it because that person might not be able to have their voice heard.

I am trying to get the laws around hysterectomies changed. As someone with endometriosis, my voice will be heard because I’m disabled, regardless of the fact that a hysterectomy is not right for my body. If it means someone else gets the help they need I am happy to email anyone and everyone, saying, “hey can you think about others please?” I don’t want anyone else to live like me. Being disabled is tough but a big part of that is the lack of accommodations and care.

www.salient.org.nz

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Word of the Week: Protest, Strike Te Reo Māori: Moutohu, auporo New Zealand Sign Language:

WEEK 9 ANSWERS

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SUDOKU

THE DEVIL INSIDE CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1. Clothing item that can be odd or darned (4) 3. Celebration usually held over June (5,5) * 10. There are seven of them in an Akira Kurosawa film title (7) 11. Makes a noise that gives away you’re hiding in that pile of dry leaves (7) 12. Turned a profit (4,5) * 13. Central, like the five demons in this puzzle (5) 14. ‘The Water Lily Pond’ Impressionist painter (6,5) * 20. Singer who had a 2010 hit with ‘DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love’ (5) 22. Othello’s ill-fated lover (9) * 24. Meat vendor (7) 25. Type of paint that dries faster than oil paints (7) 26. Jonathan Coulton song about an uninspired computer programmer (4,6) * 27. “That ___ what I said” (4)

DOWN

1. Street where Big Bird lives (6) 2. Amusing (7) 4. Held the throne (7) 5. Rhys of ‘Our Flag Means Death’ (5) 6. Spy’s undertaking; the Alamo, for one (7) 7. ‘Tenet’ director Christopher (5) 8. Company that owns Monopoly annd produced ‘Transformers’ (6) 9. Word that can follow ‘snare’ or ‘ear’ (4) 15. The most famous Lincoln ever to be shot in a theatre (7) 16. Early social networking site that let you embed music into your page so everyone had to listen to ‘Sk8r Boi’ every time they checked what you were up to (7) 17. Cressida’s love, in Shakespeare (7) 18. It’s the largest province of Canada by area (6) 19. Gritty, or the Phillie Phanatic (6) 21. Loathed (5) 22. Half of the ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’ band’s name (5) 23. It’s spent in France and Finland (4) www.salient.org.nz

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Aries There will be more eyes on you than usual this week. Being an Aries, we know you’ll love the attention and, honestly, it’s fine. I think it’s about time you had your moment.

Cancer Cancer, here’s your word of the week: Fulfilment. Think about this word before you make any big decisions. I think you’ve been ignoring what you find fulfilling recently and I doubt you’re surprised to hear this.

Libra You rely on groups too much.

Risk getting to know that one person you only know because of your friend group. Take a chance on anyone who asks you out. It doesn’t always have to be awkward!

Capricorn Okay, bear with me, kinda specific this week. This is the week to stop putting off your licence. Hold yourself accountable and actually book the test, whether it’s for your learner’s, restricted or full.

Independence, baby!

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Taurus The eclipse in your place of love has really shaken things up for you. Maybe you’re single and have suddenly found yourself in a serious relationship. Maybe the opposite. Whatever the case, it’s for the best.

Gemini You’re falling back into old habits that don’t serve you. It’s tempting to be the ‘old you’ right now, but it isn’t going to help anything. Don’t avoid difficult things. Discomfort is how we grow.

Leo

Virgo

Get excited to be a ‘good listener’ this week. That one chatty friend isn’t gonna give you a break. And the best news? They’ll be talking a lot and not really saying anything.

Mercury’s still in retrograde, you’re still running late, and on top of that, you’ll be feeling extra forgetful. The 25 alarms you set and the reminders you write on your hand will all be in vain.

Scorpio

Sagittarius

Cute animals always put people in a better mood. Even you aren’t immune to the charms of the adorable, Scorpio. Play with your pets if you’re feeling anxious. It always helps.

Jupiter is shining on you, bringing good luck and fortune of the best kind. I’m talking that weirdly specific, finding $50 on the ground when you’re $50 short of rent, “wow-the-universe-does-hear-me” kind of luck.

Aquarius Someone’s over due a break. Do what you can to get out of that rut you’re in, because you are one day’s work away from burn out.

Don’t you dare even start with those ‘buts’.

Pisces Remember that influx of money we talked about last week? Well, stop spending it for God’s sake!

Would it kill you to save, even a little bit? People with good fortune always waste it. Smh...

THE SALIENT TEAM YOU CAN THANK THESE PEOPLE FOR YOUR WEEKLY FIX.

Editor Janhavi Gosavi

News Editor Beth Mountford

News Editor Azaria Howell

Designer Alice Brown

Chief Reporter Ethan Manera

Sub-Editor Lily Holloway

Features Editor Ronia Ibrahim

Staff Writer Bridget Scott

Staff Writer Maia Ingoe

Staff Writer Zoe Mills

CENTREFOLD ARTIST

This week’s amazing centrefold is brought to you by: Tanya Putthapipat Instagram: @no_sleepovers

Social Media Manager Seren Ashmore

Podcast Manager Francesca Pietkiewicz

Teddi

Website Manager Annalise Scott

Contact Us features@salient.org.nz poetry@salient.org.nz editor@salient.org.nz designer@salient.org.nz chiefreporter@salient.org.nz news@salient.org.nz

CONTRIBUTORS Niamh Vaughn

Mika Hervel

Puck

Elisapeta Dawson

Sophie Clark

Anoushka Divekar

Mason Lawlor

Charlotte Forsyth

Laurelei Bautista

Cileme Venkateswar

Molly Duval

Cambelle Cook

Rhea Dias

Anthony Delaney www.salient.org.nz

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STARTUP SPEAKER SERIES STARTUP SPEAKER SERIES

BE INSPIRED TO LAUNCH YOUR OWN BUSINESS IDEA HEAR FROM AMBITIOUSTO ENTREPRENEURS HAVE OWN DEFIED THE EXPECTATIONSIDEA OF THEIR BE INSPIRED LAUNCHWHO YOUR BUSINESS

AGE TO BUILD WORLD (AND SPACE) CHANGING BUSINESSES. YOU'LL GAIN INSPIRATION AND HEAR FROM ENTREPRENEURS WHO HAVE DEFIED THE EXPECTATIONS OF THEIR SUPPORT TOAMBITIOUS LAUNCH YOUR OWN IMPACTFUL VENTURE. AGE TO BUILD WORLD (AND SPACE) CHANGING BUSINESSES. YOU'LL GAIN INSPIRATION AND SUPPORT LAUNCH YOUR OWN IMPACTFUL VENTURE. MAY | 12 -TO1:30PM 16 AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY MAY | 12 - 1:30PM 17 WAIKATO UNIVERSITY 16 AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY 18 CANTERBURY UNIVERSITY 17 WAIKATO UNIVERSITY 20 DUNEDIN 18 CANTERBURY UNIVERSITY 20 DUNEDIN STARTUPSPEAKERSERIES.COM STARTUPSPEAKERSERIES.COM

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23 AUT 24 VICTORIA UNIVERSITY 23 25 AUT MASSEY UNIVERSITY 24 VICTORIA UNIVERSITY 25 MASSEY UNIVERSITY