Volume 80 | Issue 01

1 SALIENT

06 MARCH 2017

WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED

SALIENT Salient was established 80 years ago, ~~80 years!~~,

by A. H. (Bonk) Scotney. It has morphed considerably but the legacy of the Organ of Student Opinion is one we’re honoured to be a part of.

To dream up an idealised past is to distract from the reality of the present. While we acknowledge the years that pre-date our iteration, Salient is firmly located in the present and is a platform that addresses the issues we face as a student body and as members of wider communities. *** “Particularly in these critical times there is an even more urgent need to preserve the liberty to know, to speak, and to criticise, for these are the liberties that are anathema to dictators, and are the first to wither in the heat of war.”

— M. L. Boyd. Salient (vol. 3, no. 1, 1940)

Editors — Tuioleloto Laura Toailoa and Tim Manktelow

Contact — editor@salient.org.nz 04 463 6766

Designers — Eun Sun Jeong and Ellyse Randrup

Level 2, Student Union Building Victoria University of Wellington PO Box 600, Wellington

News Editor — Brigid Quirke

Printing — Service Printers 258 Taranaki Street, Wellington

News Reporters — Alex Feinson, Billy Dancer, E A Tombs, Saeran Maniparathy, Thomas Croskery

Paper — Sun 90gsm Salient is printed on environmentally sustainable paper, with vegetable ink, and is completely FSC approved.

Feature Writers — Laura Toailoa, Justin Kim Chief Sub-Editor — Georgia Lockie Distributor — Josephine Jelicich Section Editors — Annelise Bos (Podcast), Cameron Gray (Games), Finn Holland and Mathew Watkins (Film), Hanahiva Rose (Visual Art), Katie Meadows (Television), Kimberley McIvor (Books), Olly Clifton and Lauren Spring (Music) Contributors — Ben Leonard, Tessa Cullen, Rory Lenihan-Ikin, Marlon Drake, Chelcia Gomese, Kahu Kutia, UniQ, Georgia Steel, Aileen Wang, Amber White, Sasha Beattie, Joe Morris, Tom Danby, Awak Apiok, Paul Tuiloma, Amparo Santamaria, Abeba Yeholegela, Ibrahim Omer, Golda Matthias, David Escott, Alistair Murray, Kii and Tom, Sasha Francis, Puck, Aubergine, Celeste Advertising — Grace Gollan grace.gollan@vuwsa.org.nz 04 463 6982

Typefaces — Wedge by Bruce Rotherham, Adobe Caslon Pro by Carol Twombly, Churchward Samoa

by Joseph Churchward About Us — Salient is employed by, but editorially independently from, the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA).

Salient is a member of, syndicated, and supported by the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA).

Salient is partially funded by Victoria University students, through the student levy. Opinions expressed are not necessarily representative of those of VUWSA, ASPA, Service Printers, or the editorial staff.

Complaints — Please email editor@ salient.org.nz and if not satisfied with response contact VUWSA. Salient — 06 March, 2017 Volume 80, Issue 1

CONTRIBUTORS & COLOPHON

CONTENTS Editors’ Letter........................................9 Notices ..............................................10 Letters................................................11 News General News.....................................15 Fairer Fares, Finally?...........................18 Students stung by renting crisis..........19 Interview with Andrew Little.............20 Politics Political Round-Up............................22 The Trump Front................................23 The Party Line....................................23 Columns Presidential Address...........................24 VUWSA............................................24 One Ocean.........................................25 Ngāi Tauira.........................................25 Shit Chat............................................26 From within the fallout zone..............27 Queer Agenda....................................28 Can Do at Vic....................................28 SWAT.................................................29 Postgrad Informer...............................29 Sports.................................................30

Features Our Hidden Figures................... ........31 We Know The Way.............................34 — Laura Toailoa Superstardom and Modern Death: David Bowie's Final Works...............38 — Justin Kim

Arts Television............................................43 Visual Art...........................................44 Film....................................................46 Music..................................................48 — Interview with Miles Buckingham from Radioactive Food...................................................50 Theatre................................................51 Music .................................................52 — Interview with Kane Strang Games.................................................54 Podcast............................................... 55 Books..................................................56 Poem...................................................59 Puzzles ...............................................60 Horoscope..........................................61

Commerce & Law Careers expo Thursday 16 March 2017, 11am - 2pm Rutherford House, Pipitea Campus victoria.ac.nz/careerhub hosted by Victoria Careers and Employment

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9

Editors’ letter

Whether you were an organiser, volunteer, participant, or avoider, O-Week is no mean feat so well done for surviving.

After having a few weeks to prepare our orientation issue, having only days to prepare this issue has been enlightening, to say the least.

It was harder than we anticipated and we had to work through the night, soothed by the comforting thump of the Toga Party raging right next to our office. Tim suffered from mild insomnia and we are still learning to step away from our computers, even just for a moment, to nurture our well-being.

But this issue made it to the printers, to the stands, and presumably to your hands. If it is the first Salient of 2017 that you read, welcome, there have been a few changes. However the ethos remains the same — it is still your organ of student opinion.

We want to hear about your experiences of renting as this city appears to be in the grip of a crisis — rents are rising faster than wages (and the minimal student livings costs and allowance) and the quality remains sub-standard.

It’s the beginning of the academic year and finding somewhere to live should not be at the forefront of students’ concerns.

Advocacy work is being performed on these issues but we want to hear your stories, so get in touch — editor@salient.org.nz.

Renting stories aside, your thoughts and writing make this little magazine so send them through. We’ll also have a stall at Clubs Week on March 7 and 8, so come and say hello!

— Tuioleloto Laura Toailoa and Tim Manktelow

10

NOTICES

A listing in our notices section is free for all VUW students, VUWSAaffiliated clubs, and not-for-profit organisations. If you would like to post a notice please email editor@salient.org.nz and include NOTICE in the subject line. There is limited space in this section so notices will be prioritised at the discretion of the editors.

CAREERS AND EMPLOYMENT Are you in your penultimate or final year of university? Employers are on campus this month to recruit YOU. • • • • •

Monday, March 6 — First NZ Capital and Forsyth Barr Tuesday, March 7 — PWC and Boston Consulting Group Wednesday, March 8 — EY and Deloitte Thursday, March 9 — KPMG Friday, March 10 — Reserve Bank of NZ and PWC

Interested in finding out more and coming along? Or just after some free pizza? Head to www.victoria.ac.nz/careerhub and book in today.

VICTORIA ABROAD – ATTEND AN EXCHANGE INFORMATION SESSION! Why not study overseas as part of your degree?!

Study in English, earn VUW credit, get Studylink & grants, explore the world!

Weekly Information Sessions: Every Wednesday at 12:50pm, Level 2, Easterfield Building.

Drop-in hours: Tuesday & Wednesday 1-3pm; Thurs & Friday 10:30-12pm Website: http://victoria.ac.nz/exchange

11

LETTERS If you don’t want to write for us – write to us!

Salient welcomes, encourages, and thrives on public debate. Send us your honest feedback, be it praise or polemics.

Letters must be received before 5pm on Tuesday for publication the following week. They must be 200 words or less. Pseudonyms are fine but all letters must include your real name, address, and telephone number — these will not be printed. Letters will not be corrected for spelling or grammar. However the Editors reserve the right to edit, abridge, or decline any letter without explanation.

Email: editor@salient.org.nz with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line Post: Salient c/- Victoria University of Wellington Hand-delivered: Salient office, Level 3, Student Union Building (behind the Hunter Lounge). ouch :(

hungry

Dear Sadlient, Yep, sad. Sadness is what I felt as I opened your inaugural issue, dissuaded from even reading the articles printed on those uninspiring pages.

Where’s the colour? The weird and unusual art?

Even the front cover was dreadfully bland. After five years of reading you guys, I expected more.

Hi Salient Because I’m a 5th year, I have both the courage and (literal) hunger (i’m so, so hungry) to attend free-food-stuffed, Victoria run events, like the Migration and populism in the 21st Century panel discussion a couple of weeks back. A large, impeccably printed banner ensured Victoria’s global presence was omnipresent as we hunted down miniature pulled pork tacos and the (probably) over $15 Sav.

Visuals are important! What was it that let you down? Was it a lack of funds? If so, understandable.

Perhaps you couldn’t afford to hire someone good to make your pages pretty. But perhaps it was a lack of editorial vision, in which case I implore you to get more creative! It's only o-week after all.

There's still plenty of time to impress.

Sincerely, A Jaded Postgrad xo

Along with the V-C: Prof. GG’s public Facebook statement damming Trump’s anti-immigration policies, this paints quite a lovely little picture of prioritising a global perspective — you can know ur mind wherever you may be from, or situated presently, or dreaming of in the future.

Dear Salient, Hallelujah for your new design. I actually want to read your sweet content thanks to the simple, beautifully set type. No more distracting illustrations and colours, just good str8 up journalism.

…except, of course, if your mind would like to speak something other than English.

I’m not sure how 1st years can be reassured they’ll make it out the other end as ‘globally confident’ citizens, if the university doesn’t have the confidence to ensure languages are (at the very least) an important, prioritised option. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

— Anon., ex-Salient Designer

p.s. the re-design is bloody stunning.

praise be

Flash your student ID when you visit before 30 June 2017 to score a great deal.

BECOME A GLOBAL CITIZEN Study a language or culture, enhance your prospects and begin your journey to becoming a global citizen.

We teach all our languages from beginner level and offer insights into a range of cultures. Choose from: Asian Studies, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish and German.

SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES AND CULTURES www.victoria.ac.nz/slc

SALIENT

SALIENTNEWS/SALIENTTV/SALIENTFM/SALIENTMAGAZINE

NEWS #LOVEHUMANITIES FRESHER FEVER CHECK YOURSELF, WELLINGTON CITY COUNCIL DIGNIFIED NICK SMITH FINDS HIMSELF IN FRESHWATER… BUT CAN HE SWIM? SEXUAL ASSAULTS COVERED UP BY AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES YEAR AND A DAY FAIRER FARES, FINALLY? STUDENTS STUNG BY RENTING CRISIS INTERVIEW: ANDREW LITTLE — PART TWO

POLITICS POLITICAL ROUND-UP THE TRUMP FRONT THE PARTY LINE

15

News NEWS

for humanities over the last five years as part of “a serious and ongoing assault on the place of the university as Universities across New Zealand a critic and conscience of society, and took part in the national Love Hu- a site for free discussion.”

Vice-Chancellor Grant Guilford manities day of action on February declined to discuss the campaign 22.

Organised by the Tertiary Ed- specifically, but said, “the university ucation Union (TEU), the day supports the rights of staff to take centred around a teach-in at the part in any legal protest or demonUniversity of Otago and responded strations.”

He also stated that the humanto a wider concern about persistent undervaluing of humanities subjects. ities are “integral to the core posiIn 2012, the then-Minister for tioning and strategic vision” of the Tertiary Education, Steven Joyce, university.

“Without destroying what we oftold Radio New Zealand that he would be shifting funding away from ten want to achieve in the Bachelor humanities towards maths, science, of Arts (BA) — the ability for people to be free thinking and engaged in engineering, and technology.

In late 2016 the University of democratic and social issues — [...]

Otago cut the equivalent of 16 aca- we’ve been working hard to make demic positions from its humanities sure that we can say, hand on heart, division in response to decreased that there are cross-cutting compeenrollments. Other universities, in- tencies that come with doing a BA cluding Victoria University of Wel- relevant to an employer.”

— Brigid Quirke lington, have also undergone restructuring and reduced funding.

At Victoria University, the day of action involved a public panel FRESHER chaired by the TEU which sought FEVER to “encourage discussion about the place of the humanities in our society more generally [...] and raise this Last week, new students were welcomed to life at Victoria University as a political question.”

When approached by Salient with the inaugural O-Week.

This year’s lineup saw a range of about the day of action, Paul Goldsmith, the Minister for Tertiary sold out events, including the iconic Education, Skills and Employment, Toga Party and a comedy show with recognised the contribution that hu- Guy Williams. As usual, tickets to manities make to the economy and events were highly sought after, with a number being on-sold across social our culture.

However he stated that “the media for inflated prices.

The enthusiasm for O-Week, Government has been focused on ensuring that tuition subsidy rates however, did not extend to all Welreflect the different costs of provi- lington residents. Salient spoke with sion, and in particular addressing an Uber driver, who wished to rethe evidence that the sciences and main anonymous, who said that he agriculture were comparatively un- always had a “feeling of anxiety” surrounding O-Week. derfunded.”

While he welcomed the extra Dougal McNeill, chair of Victoria’s public panel and secretary of the business and was looking forward TEU’s Victoria University branch, to being busy, he was concerned that viewed the effective “funding freeze” many young students were “unable

#LOVEHUMANITIES

to handle their alcohol, and don’t know when to stop.”

His sentiment was echoed by a Toga-goer on Tuesday night, who told Salient, “I’m going to piss on the floor if I can't find a toilet soon.”

All VUWSA events have been operating with a safe space for students who may need some “time out.” A third year Victoria student who visited the safe room during Monday’s Hermitude gig said they found it “really disturbing.”

“There were probably a few dozen people sitting in the room, eyes glazed over and heads in their knees.

It was pretty scary to be honest because everyone just looked so drunk.”

— Saeran Maniparathy

CHECK YOURSELF, WELLINGTON CITY COUNCIL In response to one of the biggest party weeks of the year for students, the Wellington City Council (WCC) and NZ Police released the Check Yourself campaign. The WCC says the campaign is designed to encourage people aged between 18–25 to be safe and responsible in the city.

The campaign, which was developed by Massey University Creative Enterprise students, features a video depicting a young, drunk woman.

The campaign urges young people to not be “that girl,” and to think of their elderly neighbours.

The video has drawn criticism for negatively portraying young people, particularly women. Salient spoke to one second year student, who wished to remain anonymous: “It’s so classic — trying to appeal to a younger audience with ‘white girl wasted’ [...] that trope is boring, stereotypical, and kind of offensive.”

The President of the Victoria University Feminist Law Society, Chennoah Walford, questioned the

16 direction of the message, particularly in relation to incidences of alcohol-related harm. “Each person has control over their own behaviour, but victims/survivors cannot be expected to control those who hurt them.” Instead, “the ‘checking yourself ’ thing could potentially add to our culture of victim blaming.”

Two first year students, who wish to remain anonymous, were less than impressed with the campaign. One said that the WCC had “missed the mark” as the video was “not likely to be viewed by and taken in by first year students.”

“No one who is drunk is going to think back to this video and actually check themselves. It’s more like a joke.”

— E A Tombs

bility issue is less about affordability and more about people being caught short,” without sanitary items on hand in the office environment.

“There is so much societal stigma, female employees are often in uncomfortable situations when it comes to periods.”

When Salient asked if Victoria University would participate in the initiative, Pam Thorburn, Director of Student Academic Services, stated that “there are no plans at this point in time to be part of the Dignity scheme, but we would be happy to open a dialogue with VUWSA on the issue.” Dignity was “eager to work with the university,” but acknowledged that this might take some time.

As part of the wider discussion about sanitary items, some advocated for more environmentally friendly options such as mooncups.

DIGNIFIED Hitchings agreed that this was “in line with Dignity’s values,” but Two Wellington-based women are “as tampons and pads are more widepioneering accessible sanitary prod- ly accepted by high school students, ucts for New Zealand high schools it was a case of what was going to and corporate businesses. be the most usable, and accessible Borne out of the Victoria En- option for them.” However “it is trepreneurial Bootcamp, Dignity definitely something we would like — founded by Miranda Hitch- to revisit.” ings and Jacinta Gulasekharam — Hitchings explained that corpopaired with Organic Initiative (OI) rate businesses were targeted “due to sell and deliver sanitary product to them generally having more resubscriptions to corporate employ- sources to promote wellbeing and ers. This subscription is a part of a workplace care,” but there has also unique buy one, give one model that been discussion of extending Dignithen donates sanitary products to ty’s reach to employers in hospitalhigh schools in need. ity and retail industries. “Not only Recent media attention has ex- would that help fund high school posed major issues around the pro- students, but the hospitality indushibitive pricing of sanitary items, try in particular has a lot of women with Radio New Zealand reporting with accessibility issues surrounding that students have been forced to sanitary items, so that would be fanskip school or use “newspaper, tele- tastic.” phone books, and rags as sanitary — Brigid Quirke products.”

Hitchings said wide research pointed to two different, but prominent, problems: “for high school students, the need is really there in terms of accessibility,” whereas for corporate employees, “the accessi-

News

NICK SMITH FINDS HIMSELF IN FRESHWATER… BUT CAN HE SWIM? On February 23, the Government unveiled a plan to ensure that 90% of New Zealand’s fresh waterways are “swimmable” by 2040. Presently only 72% are considered safe to swim in.

The 23-year plan is estimated to cost more than $2 billion for local councils and farmers.

Bill English described the proposal as an attempt to find a “practical balance” between appeasing primary production and reclaiming a presentable and liveable natural environment for New Zealanders.

Under the proposed classification system waterways would be required to contain less than 540 E. coli units per 100ml of water for at least 80% of the time to be considered ‘swimmable’.

A river of these conditions would be classed as ‘fair’. A ‘good’ classification would fulfil the requirements of ‘swimmable’ freshwater 90–95% of the time, and ‘excellent’ upwards of 95% of the time. These grades would be added to existing data published on the Land, Air, Water Aotearoa website.

Under the proposed system the Hutt River is been labelled as ‘swimmable’ but is susceptible to higher risk around Melling Bridge. Wainuiomata River carries a similar status.

Waikanae River presently holds a weak but passable rating while other monitored sites in the Wellington region generally have good ratings.

The ‘swimmable’ target incorporates a controversial higher acceptable potency of E. coli: an increase from 260 units per 100ml of water to 540 units per 100ml of water (previously considered by the Ministry of Health to harbour “moderate risk” of infection).

17 The risk of catching water-borne disease is one chance in a hundred or less in water containing 260 E. coli units per 100ml. Whereas a potency of 540 E. coli units per 100ml has a risk factor of one in twenty or less.

The Green Party, freshwater ecologist Mike Joy, and health experts are skeptical of the policy due to the “shifting of the goal posts” for water quality standards, and have referred to it as “deceptive.”

Minister for the Environment Nick Smith responded to these criticisms by emphasising that in conjunction with a maximum permissible E. coli level, the adherence to a far lower median value of E. coli (130 units per 100mL of water) would ensure a legitimate standard for ‘swimmable’ freshwater.

— Billy Dancer

into halls of residence and are in contact with strangers, and exposed to partying and excessive drinking.

The submission identified a number of assaults as part of ‘hazing rituals’.

Anonymous victims of assault offered multiple accounts, as part of the submission, of their university staff being ineffective, victim-blaming, and being discouraged to go to the police or seek legal action. One woman was even told not to tell her parents of her assault.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics currently estimated that one in five women in Australia, and one in 25 men, have experienced sexual assault since the age of 15.

It is also estimated that one in five women in New Zealand will have experienced sexual assault since the age of 15, and women between the age of 16–24 are four times as likely to be victims of sexual assault than the rest of the population.

SEXUAL ASSAULTS Sexual assault in and around uniCOVERED UP versity campuses remains an issue in

BY AUSTRALIAN New Zealand, including at Victoria UNIVERSITIES University of Wellington (VUW) as TW: This article contains discussion of assaults have continued around the Boyd Wilson walkway since 2013, sexual assault. with the latest occurring on January A submission, made by advocacy 20, 2017.

VUW PhD student Samantha group End Rape on Campus Australia to the Australian Human Keene studied sexual assaults on Rights Commission, has accused all New Zealand university campuses 39 universities across the country of for her Masters.

Keene stated that “universities “actively covering up sexual assaults.”

The submission claims that there are not immune from a wider culture has been only six assailants expelled that supports rape and sexual viofrom a university despite 575 report- lence” but thinks VUW has “made ed cases of sexual assault in the past good progress” in the effectiveness five years, with 145 cases being rapes. of support and response to sexual From the 575 reported cases, 153 assaults on campus. cases were reported to the police.

Keene also highlighted that the Other than expulsion, some of “myths about rape and sexual viothe punishments for assailants in- lence persist within university popcluded community service, writing ulations, and the stereotype that apology letters, and a $55.00 (AUD) sexual violence only occurs late at fine. night in a dark alleyway by a stranger The submission claims that a sig- is still a prominent one. In reality… nificant number of the sexual assaults the majority of sexual violence is occur during the first few weeks of perpetrated by somebody known to the academic year as students move the victim.”

News If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, contact the Police, VUW campus security on 04 463 9999, the Wellington Rape Crisis on 04 801 8973, or the Wellington Sexual Abuse HELP hotline on 04 499 7532.

— Alex Feinson

YEAR AND A DAY A centuries-old New Zealand law has sparked controversy after George Siaosi recently died as a result of an assault in Auckland that occurred 15 months ago.

Under section 162 of the Crimes Act 1961, a person cannot be held liable for the death of a victim who dies a year and a day after the causative incident.

Siaosi’s family have slammed the rule as arbitrary, allowing defendants to effectively be excluded from liability, not by the merits of the case but instead through the advancements of medical technology, like life-support.

Conversely, the Criminal Bar Association has pointed to the dangers in revoking the law, saying discretion could lead to defendants facing a potential culpable homicide charge indefinitely.

Criminal Justice lobby group, JustSpeak, says that the criminal law should be “open to scientific change,” and that discretion may be warranted in “complex cases.”

Dr Yvette Tinsley, Associate Professor at the Victoria University Faculty of Law, said that the law serves to ensure “clear lines of causation between the defendant’s actions and the death.” However there was no “magic” to the time limit, which could be up for debate given scientific advances. Ultimately, the amount of cases caught by the rule is “minimal.”

The provision has been abolished in England and Wales, and most Australian states.

— E A Tombs

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News

FAIRER FARES, FINALLY?

The battle for cheaper public transport fares for Wellington students has come to a head in the last two weeks, with VUWSA attending two Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) meetings to make submissions on the issue.

The Fairer Fares campaign was launched by Victoria University Students’ Association (VUWSA) in 2013, highlighting Wellington’s lack of student transport discounts. Auckland, Palmerston North, and Waikato all provide free or heavily discounted fares for students.

The campaign has been a constant for many university students, with progress stagnating in 2014 when it was stipulated that tertiary institutions would need to help fund it. Since then, VUWSA have slowly been working over councillors, with some — like Sue Kedgley — pledging their support in the local election. However, other councillors are yet to be convinced, such as former Chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington, Ian McKinnon.

The GWRC convened on February 22 to hear submissions about the discounts. VUWSA President Rory Lenihan-Ikin called upon the council to act, stating that "we, and the students we represent, are asking you to be a council of action." He was supported by National Party MP Chris Bishop, who stressed that discounting fares for students was "the equitable and right thing to do."

Bishop pointed out that "Wellington is clearly an outlier both nationally and internationally in terms of student discounts," and that if if the council wanted more students from their respective regions to study then they would have to make it affordable for them.

After this meeting, the Consultation Document for the GWRC Annual Plan was released. The document included a commitment to consider the issue, but councillors are still reluctant to take full financial responsibility.

VUWSA President Rory Lenihan-Ikin responded to the Consultation Document in a following Council

meeting, on March 2, stating, “the responsibility for funding lies squarely with the council.”

“However, if progress is truly hinging on other parties; then let’s see the GWRC truly put their weight behind getting people in a room and having this conversation. […] We’ll do what we can, but if a volunteer student organisation is being relied upon to [coordinate] parties, then we’ve got a bigger problem on our hands then tertiary discounts.”

Grant Guilford, Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University, said to Salient last week that the university is “open to exploring options for how tertiary student concession fares can be successfully delivered but the process needs to be led by the GWRC, as the ones running the public transport network, and needs to involve all the tertiary education providers in the region.”

Wellington Mayor Justin Lester has also supported the campaign, suggesting that the Wellington City Council could dedicate funds towards the discounts in their 2018–19 Annual Plan. “This will go a long way for students… I’m committed to working with the regional council towards this."

With the GWRC Annual Plan being approved in April 2017, Rory had described it as “crucial” that a commitment is made now.

“For years we’ve been told, ‘yes,’ but with conditions.

But now the time has truly come for action. The time for consideration is over, and the time for action is now.””

— Sofia Roberts

19

News

STUDENTS STUNG BY RENTING CRISIS

Increased competition for a limited number of rental properties has driven up prices, sparking a crisis in the Wellington market.

Students have been forced to offer more than advertised on listings to secure substandard accommodation.

Kerry Foster, an Architecture Student at Victoria University, outlined the difficulty in finding a flat while competing with other prospective tenants.

“In total I had ten viewings, about twice as many rejections, and twice that in still-unread messages. [...] I've viewed places with broken windows, no windows, mouldy (black) ceilings, damp rooms, cold rooms, 20 minute bus rides away.”

Another student affected by the renting crisis managed to secure a low-quality flat in the second week of February, for which she pays $190 per week. The rent on the property has increased annually despite no improvements being undertaken. “I talked to the old tenants and they said they paid $170 and the flatters before them paid $150.”

VUWSA President Rory Lenihan-Ikin said that this year “students are simply desperate to secure something.

Landlords and rental agents hold all the power, which is even forcing bidding wars between students.”

VUWSA's Welfare Vice-President, Anya Maule, said the VUWSA Advocacy Services have been contacted by numerous students seeking accommodation support.

She expressed her concern for students signing up for “flats that may be an earthquake risk, or where the landlord had not done sufficient maintenance.” Maule said the quality of some available flats was “appalling,” citing cases of properties which were cold and damp, infested with fleas, or had inadequate plumbing.

“A number of students [...] feel desperate and they're prepared to take whatever's available.”

Maule also highlighted the academic impact of the rental situation. “Students moving frequently and having to stay with friends could cause stress and uncertainty.”

Grant Guilford, Victoria University’s Vice-Chancellor, urged students experiencing difficulties to contact the university’s accommodation services.

He stated that “all student cities face difficulties in providing student accommodation that is appropriately costed and close to university campuses — the problem is not unique to Wellington.”

He added that the university is “conscious of the stress the situation places on students and [is] committed to working with other agencies, including the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency and local councils, to ensure there are adequate, good quality housing options for our students.”

Employment and tenancy statistics show Wellington rents are increasing faster than wages, at 8.3 per cent compared with wage growth of just over one per cent. Potential first home buyers are staying longer in rentals, impacting supply, while the influx of students prior to the start of university has boosted demand.

Rising enrolment numbers and a tendency to avoid high-rise apartments after the November earthquakes are also adding to the issue.

Nigel Jeffries, head of Trade Me Property, said listings on Trade Me Property were down 70 per cent from last year.

Economist and author Shamubeel Eaqub said Wellington rent increases are at a level not seen since 2007-2008. “Rents are rising really quite rapidly now, [...] in Wellington it's becoming really unaffordable.”

Eaqub believes that housing should be a major issue in this year's general election campaign. He asserts that recent governments have “failed on housing in every imaginable way.”

“We must make this the number one issue and it is the biggest problem that faces New Zealand society today.”

— Thomas Croskery

20

News

INTERVIEW: ANDREW LITTLE — PART TWO

The Salient editors sat down with Andrew Little, Leader of the Opposition, to chat about recent events, Labour’s intended policies if elected, and stuff that affects students. Below are the juicy parts of the second half of the 45 minute interview, including commentary on Labour’s policies regarding corrections, prisons, and tertiary education. The first part was printed last week, and an extended transcript of both parts are available on the Salient website (salient.org.nz).

We were hoping you could run us through Labour’s policy for corrections. In October 2016 you said that Labour will put 1000 extra police on the front line and that this would cost an additional $180 million a year.

What we’ve got at the moment is the fastest increase in population that we’ve ever had. [...]

So [in addition to] a rapidly rising population we now have, for the second year in a row, a rising crime rate in what I’ve described as ‘street crimes’ — burglaries, robberies, assaults — as well as an increase in serious assaults, including sexual assaults as well, and we’ve got a lid on police numbers. [...] The target police-to-population ratio we used to work to was 1:500; we are now at about 1:530, roughly, 1:528. What that means is that community police stations and rural police stations that used to have a police officer stationed there, don’t, which means response times to incidents and events are a lot slower.

You talk to some suburban communities, particularly the small businesses which operate there,

and they say that, ever since the local community police station closed, [...] the burglaries and the robberies and the shoplifting has gone up. So that police presence is an important deterrent.

So, I’ve committed to us heading back towards that ratio, knowing the general police philosophy is working in the community; build trust and confidence, and work as a deterrent to crime.

In terms of criminal justice measures, deterrence isn’t the most effective strategy. Would the $180 million not be better spent on restorative justice programs and support for those who have offended — on addressing more systemic problems, rather than a band-aid approach?

I think more is needed than just that. I don’t agree that a good police presence in communities isn’t preventative, I think it is. I think in terms of underlying causes, there’s a whole heap of other things we need to do, [...] actually accepting that we do have a poverty problem, and a child poverty problem — working on lifting families out of poverty is just as important as anything else that we do. We have a commitment to doing that. [...]

Where I would rather reallocate money from is the other end of the criminal justice system; the corrections system. The government just announced, at the end of last year, building an additional, new, $1 billion prison with another 1800 beds — that, to me, is the mark of failure and we know from all of the research that a large proportion of those who go into prison have a whole heap of underlying problems [...] that never get addressed in prison. They do their sentence and they come out of prison ill-equipped to deal with the world as it is, because they were ill-equipped to deal with it the way they were

News

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before. And then we wonder, why do we have this high reoffending rate? I would rather work on that stuff.

Māori and Pacific peoples are disproportionately represented in imprisonment statistics.

How would you address the underlying issues specifically in regards to Māori and Pacific communities?

This goes back to communities where there is a high degree of poverty; you need to address income issues, you need to address education issues — so an education system that is accessible and relevant to young people and their families. In regions, you’ve got to work on regional economies, encouraging investments that are going to lead to job-creating activities, and give people opportunities. [...] If the state does the right thing, it will encourage investment from private investors.

[We need] to be working on those community issues and the economic issues that are the drivers of poverty and low incomes; and giving those communities a sense that there is a future.

Is there the potential for the Working Futures Plan — which includes a policy aimed at New Zealand students that provides three years of free, post-secondary education — to be expanded to cover those who wish to pursue further study?

We’ve limited it to three years because we think that’s the most affordable at the moment. I think, if you ask me what’s ideal, it is tertiary education generally being freely available, at least the tuition. [...] This is an important starting point to reflect what we know about a universal set of changes about the way work is going to be done.

It doesn’t matter what you do — the technology that is being used now, and in order to get the most out of the job, requires a high level of skills and training. Could we do something further down the track? Anything’s possible; I can’t make that commitment, but obviously there is value for those who do formal tertiary study like a university degree to do postgraduate study.

A burning question, one close to our hearts, is what will happen to existing student debt?

Last year the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations held a campaign marking student loan debt reaching $15 billion — is this level sustainable?

No. We are thinking very hard about it, [...] we’ve looked at ways we can deal with kind of debt write-offs. One of the things we are looking at is a scheme where, certainly, if you work in the public sector or in hard-to-recruit areas, that you get some sort of debt write-off. We want to look at something that also applies equally to the private sector as well [...]. We have to think through this.

There is a cost to trying to eliminate as much of $15 billion as you can over a period of time, and we do have to be conscious of that. I don’t want to be seen to be making promises that I know, in the back of my mind, are going to be hard to keep. So we’ve got a bit more work to do on that, but that’s something I’d like us to consider at some point.

Lastly — what’s your favourite colour?

I suppose I’m meant to say red, but my favourite colour is actually a muted orange.

— Brigid Quirke

22 That’s not to say that all of Labour’s problems have gone away with POLITICAL ROUND-UP their Mt Albert win. The furore over Willie Jackson’s nomination and Mt Albert by-election the current infighting over Annette With two by-elections in the last King’s deputy leadership make that three months, both in adjoining perfectly clear. But the fact remains central-west Auckland electorates that people are talking. There is still beginning with the word “Mount”, a long way to go, as polls suggest, you would be forgiven for turning a but Labour is slowly clawing its way blind eye to last week’s contest in Mt back into the conversation.

Albert. However, like the Mt Roskill race last year, these by-elections are proving crucial in establishing the National’s “Clean Water” Policy power dynamics and important po- As far as political issues go, the state litical issues leading into Septem- of New Zealand’s rivers has been ber’s general election. something of a slow burner. While That Labour’s Jacinda Ardern the Green Party have been dutifully won should be a surprise to no one. raising their collective hands for sevThe fact that she walked away with eral election cycles, it’s taken a while over 75% of the vote, however, is im- for the idea to gain mainstream curportant. rency.

Mt Albert, like Mt Roskill, is However National’s recent polabout as safe a Labour seat as exists icy rollout shows that pressure is in 2017. Its working class roots and mounting. The policy, released last immensely diverse suburban voting week, included a commitment to population make it ripe for the cen- make 90 per cent of all lakes and rivtre-left picking. Prior to outgoing ers swimmable by 2040. On the face MP David Shearer’s tenure, the seat of it this seemed like a rare moment was a Helen Clark stronghold for of bipartisan agreement, but the opmore than 20 years. That said, Ard- position parties were quick to raise ern’s win was a significant milestone the thorny issue of defining what for Labour. exactly a “swimmable” river is.

In the lead up to the vote, comThe problem is that the definimentators and journalists speculated tion of a “safe” river leaves a surpristhat Ardern might just barely scrape ing amount of political wiggle room. over the line against the Green Par- In the new policy, a river is declared ty’s Julie Anne Genter. Some even fit for swimming if its bacterial count suggested that in the current fervour is less than 540 parts per 100 milof anti-establishment politics, La- lilitres of water. The previous Minbour might have seen a shock defeat istry of Health guidelines, however, to The Opportunities Party’s Geoff put maximum levels at 260 parts per Simmons or perennial Auckland in- 100ml. dependent Penny Bright.

To put that into perspective, a Yes, turnout was low, but that is “swimmable” river at the previous the rule rather than the exception in maximum gave you about a one per by-elections. It was also unsurprising cent risk of infection. The new maxifor what was essentially a contest of mum, however, gives about a five per the left, thanks to National’s decision cent chance of getting sick. to forgo standing a candidate. As a Environment Minister Nick result, National managed to avoid Smith fought back against criticism, another embarrassing showing like accusing the opposition of “junk sciMt Roskill, but may have failed to ence”, by comparing previous maxistymie Labour’s emerging narrative. mum median levels of bacteria with

Politics POLITICS the new policy, and its aim to achieve the standard for rivers 95 per cent of the time.

If that sounds a little confusing, you’re not alone. Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright, admitted not being able to tell whether the policy tightened or loosened the law. While she welcomed plans to increase river fencing from livestock, she also conceded that the goalposts had probably been moved.

Mrs Wright also made the rather deft observation that the new policy seemed to be a direct response to mounting public concern on the issue. Until now, the Government has remained relatively quiet on water quality, but public perception is changing fast.

A recent study from Lincoln University showed rising concern over the health of our waterways.

Importantly, the survey also found that twice as many people now blame farming as the main cause of lake and river pollution as did in 2000.

For the past three terms, the National-led Government has developed an impressive talent for reading public opinion. When polls showed support for marriage equality, enough MPs came around to pass the law, and as opinions on medicinal cannabis have shifted, so too has the Government’s response. The rollout of the “Clean Water” policy, however, has been a rare stumble in an otherwise winning strategy.

— Ben Leonard

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Politics

THE TRUMP FRONT

THE PARTY LINE

VUWSA presented a submission to the Welcome to your second edition of Greater Wellington Regional Council the not-good, very-bad, extreme- on February 22 that argued for a 50% ly-scary Week in American Politics. discount on public transport for stuThe two biggest pieces of news in dents. What are your thoughts on fairer the Trump-osphere this week are as fares? You are welcome to include some follows: aspects of your party's public transport 1– If you hadn’t already guessed policy. it, Trump doesn’t have any real fondness for those he deems to be “fake Young Nats — Lower North Island news outlets”, primarily the New In principle, the Young Nats believe York Times and CNN (as exemplified public transport is a local governin various tweets over the past 10 ment issue and should be dealt with months, for example, 24/02: “FAKE on a regional or city level. That said, NEWS media knowingly doesn't we are very proud to support Weltell the truth. A great danger to our lington-based National Party MP country. The failing @nytimes has Chris Bishop who joined with the become a joke. Likewise @CNN. VUWSA team in presenting to the Sad!”. So, in an unprecedented move, Greater Wellington Regional CounCNN, the New York Times, and other cil, pushing for discounted tertiary “leftie” news networks such as Polit- student fares. Major student hubs ico, the Los Angeles Times, the Guard- such as Dunedin and Auckland offer ian and Buzzfeed (why Buzzfeed was their students discounted fares and actually even invited I have no idea) if Wellington is to continue to comwere straight up B A N N E D from pete as a destination for students, we attending a non-televised briefing must follow their lead. Every student on February 24 at the White House. we encourage on to public transThe White House Press Secretary port will reduce car congestion and Sean Spicer (better known as, and emissions in and around Wellington, played much more convincingly by, keeping our city clean and beautiful.

Melissa McCarthy), stated that these We’re proud of National’s track renews organisations were blocked cord in the transport area, with insimply because “the pool was already vestments in cycleways and roading represented without them.” making Wellington a more accessi2– Trump also decided to amp up ble student city, and look forward to his inner terrible-human-being-ness, further efforts from local MPs and repealing federal protections put in authorities. place by the Obama administration — Sam Stead that allowed for transgender students to use bathrooms and locker Vic Labour rooms matching their gender iden- Students are an important part of tities. Even Caitlyn Jenner, a trans- Wellington’s economy — without gender woman who was one of the them there would be no Victoria, very few “Hollywood celebs” to at- Massey, Otago School of Medicine, tend Trump-o’s inauguration, heavily Whitireia, or Weltec. criticised the decision, stated that Alongside tuition fees, most stu“This is a disaster.” You’re only JUST dents pay for accommodation, food, getting that now @Caitlyn_Jenner??? and other necessities. Yet with the I would say “look forward to see- meagre $176.86 p/w allocated for ing you next week”, but god knows student loan living costs, most of what we have instore for us in the those studying have very little, if any, next seven days. money left to pay for public trans— Tessa Cullen port.

Forking out a decent propor-

tion of their weekly budget to pay for public transport is a ridiculously unfair burden for those trying to further their education — most of whom aren’t earning full-time.

Student allowances are not something that local government is able to remedy, however fairer fares are. They were one of Wellington’s Labour Mayor Justin Lester’s campaign promises in last year’s election.

Government of all levels can be active in making students’ lives a little bit better and easing their financial burden. We fully support VUWSA’s submission.

Greens at Vic “Please pay the driver” are the four little words every Wellington student dreads hearing when they passively-aggressively press their Snapper card against the machine.

“Fairer fares” is more than just a quirky name, but a great concept.

Every student is acquainted with having to use public transport — and each time grumbled about how expensive it is. Public transport is the most environmentally sustainable form of transport —classic “clean green machine” work.

Allowing students to have the ability to use it more frequently would encourage a more extensive use of public transport, which would alleviate financial stress and encourage sustainability.

The Green Party of Aotearoa envisions implementing a sustainable transport system that supports liveable, people-friendly towns and cities, encouraging the safe movement of goods locally, regionally, and nationally with the least amount of social, environmental, and financial cost. Fairer fares for students is the first of many steps that would make this achievable.

— Elizabeth Gaiduch If you are a representative of a youth political group and wish to participate in this section, please email editor@salient.org.nz.

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Columns COLUMNS

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS Kia ora!

It’s great to have you back, and if you’re new on campus, welcome! I’m humbled and honoured to have been elected as your President and am proud to be representing you this year. VUWSA exists to get the best deal for students and to ensure that your time at university is as good as it can be.

Our focus in 2017 is based solely on how we can better engage with you: whatever you study, whatever year you are in, and whatever campus you are on.

We want you to feel that VUWSA is your association — that it effectively represents your interests and welcomes you in.

A big part of this is responding to the issues that matter. Housing and transport are incredibly tough for students at the moment, and we’ve been working hard over the summer on solutions to the rental crisis in Wellington and campaigning for student public transport fares.

Feeling safe on campus and in our communities is crucial. We’ve been working with the university and the Wellington City Council to improve the Boyd Wilson pathway.

You will also see me wearing black on Thursdays as a statement of support for survivors of sexual violence.

It may seem like these issues have been talked about over and over, without achieving any wins — sometimes I feel the same way. But I can assure you that progress is happening. We have more councillors and stakeholders than ever supporting student fares and we are going to push hard in 2017 to get it over the line.

To be effective on these things we need you alongside us and with the general election this year having a collective student voice will be essential in pushing for change.

Don’t forget to sign up for VUWSA and grab your wall planner and diary in the Hub courtyard any day this week!

— Rory Lenihan-Ikin

VUWSA Dear reader, I’m glad you’ve decided to take solace in a copy of Salient during this busy time of year.

Throughout O-Week, a lot of first year students came up to me and expressed fears around one issue in particular: making friends.

“Making friends” is something you’ll be repeatedly encouraged to do. Not all of us know what that means though, and that’s okay; it’s a fairly vague instruction. I’m aware that this is a feeling that can extend beyond first year, and I thought I’d touch on it because I had the same feeling when I started.

Finding something in common with somebody is the easiest way to get to know them initially. But, if you’re not someone who likes to get on the piss, it can be tough to get out there and meet people with similar interests.

Luckily you’ll be starting lectures this week, where everyone in the lecture hall has a few things in common: subject, university, city – boom! Instant yarns.

In saying that, you don’t have to have heaps in common with someone to be mates. One of the first and closest friends I made in my first year had differences in politics, music, and gender, but sometimes it’s these things that can spark a conversation, and frankly if you get along, nothing else matters.

It’s Clubs Week, and joining a club is a fantastic way to meet people with similar interests, and get involved. There are more than 100 clubs to pick from, so check them out!

They’d love to have you.

However you feel, rest assured most people share that feeling. Just remember to look after yourself, be yourself, and take a breather every now and again. You’ve arrived, settled, now it’s time to explore.

— Marlon Drake (Clubs and Activities Officer)

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Columns

ONE OCEAN

NGA¯ I TAUIRA

THE RIGHT TO LEARN (Dedicated to my mother and my grandmother)

Tēnā tātou!

So we have all come out the other side of O-Week (mostly) unscathed. Hopefully by now the empty Scrumpy bottles and 3-dayold KC’s takeaway containers on your floor are accompanied by textbooks and your first lot of readings for the year. It’s the second column of the year, and I am already struggling to find motivation to get back into the flow of university life. In the possible situation that some of you re in the same waka, I have been thinking about what we can all do together, to become better tauira.

As enticing as it is to rewatch the all roopu at Matatini for the sixth time this week, and as obvious as it seems, you should actually do your readings. If you are one of our law tauira, chances are you are already onto this, but for most of us, staying motivated is a difficult task.

Set up the mood with a nice desk lamp, some mellow music, and settle in for a wild night of researching and reading. Stay prepared with highlighters, tea, and some kai for a break.

Speaking of kai, better mahi is done when we are healthy and well-fed. When you’re at uni all day, try not to fall into a pattern of chicken salt chips from Revive every day. Make kai at home, and bring it with you — bring lunch boxes back into fashion. Failing that, the cheapest meals on campus can be found at your wharekai, across the road from Vic Books. Lunch is served Monday to Friday for just $5, and if you are nice to the ringawera and help out with some dishes, you may even get it for free. If that’s not your thing, the Krishna plates in the courtyard by KK301 are a beautiful feast, and again only $5 every day.

Good mahi, and kai. It seems simple, but these are just a few useful whakaaro to help you all get through week 1 of the trimester. Best of luck with this week whānau!

– Nā Kahu Kutia

Bare feet, a bush knife, and string bag swung across the back Fresh bananas, nuts and yams, all in a neat stack A bundle of leaf on her head, walking down the track Her skin, and her hair, Melanesian black The sun scorched her head, and sweat washed her brow Panting breaths, and stooped back as she bent low Down the rugged village track she walked slow To the market to sell her goods, there she’ll go Her garden pays an extra wage for her children to learn Two more need to go to school, so she works hard as she can She used to stay home while school was for men However, she works hard so that her daughters too can learn In a few years’ time her daughters go to school To be like other girls, and to be as cool To have textbooks, and to sit on their own stool To be educated, this is the most important tool Today, there is a doctor, lawyer, teacher, and an intern So in school we worked as hard as we can To show that women are as good as the men Because we were given the right to learn This poem won the Pacific Community 2013 Pacific Human Rights Award of special recognition for highlighting the right to education through creative writing.

— Chelcia Gomese

26

SHIT CHAT

Columns

I cannot believe that Salient is indulging my narcissism and giving me a platform from which to talk shit. The moniker Shit Chat isn’t (just) a show of self-deprecation to offset the auto-fellatio inherent in having a public platform to talk about yourself. It’s a genuine disclaimer. This column is inspired by those super shit chats you have at 3am with someone at the party who's just a bit too pinged to form a coherent sentence but won't fucking stop spouting half-assed meta-trash (I'm that guy). my nihilism is crooked and roses are red I keep a framed picture of Hilz by my bed I love women. I love women loving women. But as I booked flights to hang out with two of my exes’ exes I realised that while I love women, I also really love to piss off men; and nothing pisses a man off quite like when women refuse to shit on each other for his benefit.

Some of the most meaningful friendships I’ve made this year came about when women supported each other through a really McShitty situation. If I can support some pretty fucking phenomenal women while also getting under some entitled dickhead’s skin, then count me the fuck in you know. roses are red and violets are blue you like my face natural, why not my pits too?

It’s as if people like this (check yourself white men) (also @ u white women, I’m still not over your betrayal of Hillary) never question the assumption that whatever they say out loud will be taken seriously: “Oh, you’re not a smoker,” as I’m standing there, Minding My Own Damn Business. Oh, I’m sorry Richard, was it my generation that advertised tobacco as a surefire way to Lead Her Around By The Nose? Oh, you don’t like women in dark lipsticks? Oh, we should be thinner/fatter/quieter/more confident? Well I don’t want to have to keep explaining to men why I want autonomy over my own body, but alas we don’t always get the things that we want. blue eyes white privilege; buttercups are gold tattoos are unladylike? colour me sold If you’re reading this (thanks for persevering) and thinking “god you’re overthinking this, we’re just sharing our opinions,” listen: little things are indicative of a bigger picture.

The little things like boys telling you “you should wear your hair down more often” enable the bigger things, like how apparently Family First is genuinely content with going down in history as the raging dumpster fire of an organisation that tried to stop people from taking a piss in their school bathroom. Their “Ask Me First” campaign is just a circle-jerk of Traditional Family Values. I mean, for fuck’s sake just let people piss where they’re comfortable pissing? “Nobody asked me first!” Fuckin keen spotting there Laura, that’s because, shockingly, it’s none of your damn business! orchids are white and orgasms are cool but let’s take a nap to make me drool I don’t hate men, but I love women. I don’t hate men, but men need to do better. This wave of feminism is so difficult to ride because it’s arguably less tangible than the wave before ours; how do you fight the gender pay gap when you’re still trying to convince men that it’s real?

Just, try not to be a dick, ok? Love u, xoxo

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Columns

FROM WITHIN THE FALLOUT ZONE

“Why did you move to London?” has been the question of the last two months.

“Wellington was getting very small” is the fallback, along with something about using an EU visa before Brexit. Although these responses are prepackaged, there is something to them. (And “I wanted to stay with my girlfriend” seems all a bit much for the guy next to me at the bar). Having spent the best part of the last 24 years in Wellington, the city had become very familiar. It began to feel small beyond it’s-nice-to-walk-everywhere. There are only so many times you can walk down the same street without getting bored. It’s not meant to be depressing, just kind of inevitable.

London, in all its newness, feels simultaneously massive and claustrophobic.

With a group of friends, all new to the city, we went into the Boxing Day sales.

The ridiculousness of it all made it seem like it had to be done. We knew it was a bad idea. Soon we were ants in a crowd with no sense of cooperation.

We were split up among 500,000 Londoners, spat out from Uniqlo to Muji to H&M. At this point I was a teenager going to their first film without parental guidance, or Winston Smith going to work. The number of people, the history and architecture of the buildings, the taste of expensive fashion, all work to make the city feel very disorientating. How calm Wellington must seem to all those backpackers on Victoria Street and Cambridge Terrace.

The choice vs. the necessity of living in another country is a great delineator of our world’s inequality. The expat’s experience — as opposed to the immigrant’s experience, or the refugee’s experience, or the asylum seeker’s experience — is imbued with Western privilege. For one, the expat always expects to be able to return home. The O.E. is finite, and we are happy for this as the world’s borders become increasingly hard to navigate. The expat’s justification is that the experience might ultimately teach kindness and open-mindedness. “Maybe it is here I will really be able to find myself.” Yet we still flock to Melbourne, London, and Berlin, where, if you are lucky enough to speak English, you can.

A Contiki is still the quintessential O.E., and no one finds themselves while comatose in the back of a tour bus.

When writing this column on ‘the expat experience’ I don’t want to shy from the fact I am writing from a privileged position. I’ll forever be asking myself why I moved to London. I answered it again last week, though. I had my first ever conversation with a women in a niqāb. She liked English Breakfast tea.

— Joe Morris

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Columns

THE QUEER AGENDA Last week, we gave a rundown of everything that is par for the course for UniQ during the year — UniQ 101 so to speak. This week, we can finally announce what out-of-the-ordinary (sort of like us) start-of-year activities we have in store for the rest of the month.

Keep an eye out for us at Clubs Week. We’ll be loud, proud, and hardly difficult to find — just look for the flags. If you’re not the Facebook type and would rather keep up with our goings-on via email, this is the ideal time to sign up for our mailing list as well.

On Friday 10, this week, we kick off our monthly movie nights with 2014 film Pride. It has laughter, tears, AND a happy ending — a requirement for films we screen. Catch it at 6pm in Cotton 119. We’ll bring the snacks!

Next up is our very own Vicnic! Weather permitting, we’re going to set up shop in the Tim Beaglehole Courtyard on March 15. From 11am–1pm, come enjoy some catering and conversation.

On March 17 our lunch spaces start. Every Friday from 1pm–3pm in SU218 we alternate between casual afternoons of board games and structured discussions on topics relevant to the rainbow community. These will continue for the rest of the year.

The following Tuesday (March 21) marks the relaunch of our Gender Club space. It’s a study space, quiet safe space, and lowkey discussion space dedicated to (but not exclusively for) our trans, nonbinary and/or gender nonconforming whānau.

Finally, our IGM is going to be held on March 31. Come have a peek behind the curtain and see how we run things in SU218 from 6pm.

We’re always welcoming to people wanting to get involved.

As usual, keep an eye on our Facebook page for reminders of each individual event as it comes up, so it’s really easy to get stuck in with the rainbow community at Vic. Nau mai, haere mai. Come say hi!

CAN DO AT VIC CanDo at Vic is the representative group for students with disabilities. We’ve started the year with our new executive group and fortnightly Salient column! We're hoping to have a mix of informative and personal pieces throughout the year.

Moving from work or school to university can be a tough transition. Even moving from one university to another has its challenges.

Here are some tips for disabled students who are new to university: Get in touch with Disability Services.

Even if you don't feel like you need any accommodations, being registered with them will help down the road if you encounter any hiccups. They can have many students per advisor, so get in early. University-style teaching is very different to what you may have encountered before, and Disability Services is the best place to help you figure out solutions to new problems.

Introduce yourself to your lecturers and tutors, by email or in person. I’ve found it very helpful to let my lecturers know of any accommodations that I might need. Sometimes I didn’t end up needing them, which was great!

But when I did, they were already aware of it.

You don't have to disclose your exact disability to them if you're not comfortable doing so.

Be kind to yourself. The expectations placed on new students are huge, to take part in everything, get good grades, or make millions of friends in the halls of residence. The oft repeated phrase “living in a hall will be one of the best times of your life” isn’t true for everyone, for reasons as simple as bad luck or as complex as having multiple disabilities to manage.

Find your niche, find where you fit in, but don't be afraid to challenge yourself too.

Feel free to email us at can.do.at.vic@gmail.com or visit us on Tuesday and Wednesday of Clubs Week.

— Georgia Steel

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Columns

SWAT

POSTGRAD INFORMER

We, the Student Wellbeing Awareness Team (SWAT), want to share some helpful wellbeing tips with you! Spend time getting to know the services that are here to help your wellbeing. The main one to check out is Mauri Ora Student Health and Counselling.

Pop in and say hello — the friendly team is more than happy to help you out. Disability Services is another great resource if you’re experiencing some form of impairment (from physical to emotional, like anxiety or depression) and you think it might impact your study now or later. Other amazing services on campus include VUWSA, Student Learning, the Women’s Room, Te Pūtahi Atawhai, and the Recreation Centre.

If you are wondering how you are going to eat healthy on a budget over the year, don’t worry — every Wednesday of the trimester the fruit and vege market runs in the Tim Beaglehold Courtyard. Later in the trimester there will also be the fruit and vege co-op where you can buy a bag of fruit and a bag of vegetables for $10–12 every week!

More tips from the SWAT volunteers: Don’t compare where you are to everyone else!

It’s so easy to do, especially in a university environment, and it can be hard on your overall wellbeing! Focus on yourself; everyone is at different stages in their life. — Jaylee Keep a regular daily routine, such as going to bed and waking up at the same time, eating well and on time every day, etc. — Sharpay Listen to funny podcasts while walking to uni to drown out the existential worries in your head.

— Ella Avoid the 4 C’s: Compare, Criticise, Complain, and Compete with others. — Ha Learn to be kind to yourself e.g. not feeling bad if you want to watch a film or go to the cinema, cooking yourself something extra nice for dinner, or sleeping in when you’ve worked hard the night before. — Taryn — Amber White

Two months before my 27th birthday I started to feel lost, anxious, and panicked. My friends back in China were getting married, having babies, and settling down with a job in a city.

From WeChat moments to Facebook statuses, they appeared to be enjoying their lives so much. Whereas I was doing my doctoral study alone in a distant country, with no job promised, no family around me, no great sense of achievement, and an unpromising relationship.

Approaching the number 27 ahead of me it looked scary, flashing like a huge countdown sign of failure. I had no motivation to get out of my bed and no interest in cooking or eating. Then I found out about the Quarter-Life Crisis.

Allan Patrick wrote this about the crisis: “I’m desperate to hold onto the youth I feel slipping through my fingers, yet I want nothing more than the fabled stability adulthood brings. It’s a gut-wrenching feeling of fear, uncertainty, and an overwhelming desire for everything to just ‘be okay,’ even though I don’t know what that means yet.” It sounded just like me.

I stopped torturing myself with unrealistic ideas and finally took the courage to get out of my relationship. But the pain of the quarter-life crisis didn’t end just like that. I’m currently in Phase Three. The confusion and anxiety come back from time to time, and this is likely to last over a few months or even years. But I am starting to accept myself as being older and surrounded by the uncertainty of life. Time is unstoppable, but it cannot stop me from being stronger. I’m not what I’m doing or what I’m about to achieve. I need to be patient with myself and enjoy being now and here even if it means nowhere.

— Aileen Wang (PGSA Executive Member)

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The eminently punchable quarterback of the New England Patriots, Tom Brady, had just orchestrated the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history — leading his team to 25 unanswered points, sending the game into overtime at 28-28. His team’s victory in overtime seemed inevitable after the toss of the coin; NFL overtime rules are needlessly complicated, completely arbitrary, and absurdly unfair. With a touchdown the Patriots would end the game and the Falcons wouldn’t even touch the ball. Of course, the Patriots scored a touchdown, and after a hilariously awkward handshake between Tom Brady and the commissioner who had suspended him for the first four games, the Patriots were crowned SB champions, their prodigal son awarded the game’s MVP. For Falcons fans this was a particularly painful loss. They were the firm underdogs who had raced to a seemingly unassailable lead. Fans had reason to hope, and hope always makes the loss harder.

But unlike maybe any SB before it, this game seemed to be about more than just football.

Neutral observers were rooting for the Falcons not just because of their underdog status. Two months prior the US elected Donald Trump, and during Trump’s campaign Brady had left a Make America Great Again (MAGA) cap in his locker for all the reporters’ cameras to see. The Patriots’ SB victory was salt on the election wound. A metaphor for the white establishment’s inevitable victory.

Of course, the retort is that I am making something out of nothing; that the game was played outside of the bubble of politics. It’s a lazy, and now typical, silencing tactic post-election for people to tell sports writers to “stick to sports,” and there may in fact be little to say about Brady and his MAGA cap. But there is no way to ignore the relationship, or the symbolic significance of the game in the current political climate, and I believe I would be a worse fan for doing so.

— Tom Danby

Features:

SPORTS

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Features The idea of a living wage is not a radical one: to have a job with wages that are enough to live off. It is about equity and fairness, and can significantly change the lives of those who facilitate ours.

The Living Wage campaign calls on employers to pay a rate that’ll allow workers to lead dignified lives and be active participants in their local and national society. The current NZ living wage is $19.80 an hour. The 2017/18 rate of $20.20 was announced on February 21 and becomes effective on July 1. This rate is determined by the New Zealand Family Centre Social Policy Unit.

This piece brings to attention those who carry out the unseen work that allows our esteemed institution to function. Here are some names and faces of those who you’d see pushing trolleys and smiling through the university corridors every day and through the night. The stories below are from only four of the university cleaning staff. There are many other cleaners and essential staff who make this place tick. Bear a thought for them all.

OUR HIDDEN FIGURES Awak Apiok

Amparo Santamaria

Paul Tuiloma

Abeba Yeholegela

These stories were compiled by Ibrahim Omer. Ibrahim came to New Zealand as a refugee from Eritrea and has worked as a cleaner at Victoria University of Wellington. After becoming a manager, and increasing his salary to roughly the living wage, Ibrahim was able to study and complete a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. He graduated last year and now works for E tū Union.

You can read more stories like these online at salient.org.nz. If you’d like to find out more about the campaign, or show your support for the Living Wage, there will be a stall at Clubs Week — March 9 and 10 on Kelburn Campus.

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AWAK APIOK

PAUL TUILOMA

Awak is a solo mum with four kids who came to New Zealand as a refugee from wartorn South Sudan with her husband and three children. She’s now been here for ten years. For the last few, Awak and her husband worked full-time jobs doing different shifts.

Paul Tuiloma is 66. He and his wife both do cleaning work. They have two children. The youngest is a student at Victoria University, the eldest is looking for a job, and they both rely on them for everything.

“We never actually spent time together,” says Awak. “Because of our work hours, we also didn’t spend much time with our kids and that impacted on our lives and our relationship.

Now I am a single mum as a result.”

“Both me and my husband were working full-time jobs and still struggled. We never made ends meet and we always struggled to provide food for our kids. Life is even harder now that I’m a solo mum supporting four kids.

I work the whole night and have to care for my children during the day time. I work hard but life is still a struggle. I struggle every day.

That is what my life looks like on the minimum wage. It’s not fair at all. We clean the university.

It’s dirty and it’s a tough job, but what is worse is we do all this hard work on very close to the minimum wage.”

“Life on the Living Wage would be better. I wouldn’t say our life would be luxury, but I’d be able to provide basic things for my kids.

When you have four kids in school and you only do 40 hours a week on a few cents more than the minimum wage, it’s a struggle. The Living Wage will definitely improve things for me and my children.”

“All the cleaners at Victoria University work hard and we all deserve a living wage. We will feel valued and respected for the work that we do. At the moment we don’t feel valued and respected and we need a living wage.”

“We are supposed to be retired now, but sadly we can’t as we need to keep working,” says Paul. “My wife and I have been cleaners for a very long time — my wife doing both morning and night shifts — which means we hardly see each other and by the time we get home both our boys are in bed.”

“Living on low pay is rough. There’s too much pressure and we hardly have enough money to pay the bills on time. When the prices go up the minimum wage pretty much stays the same and that makes life harder. Earning a low wage means we have to keep working long hours to buy what the family needs. I am talking about basic necessities. It also means we never have holidays at all because we simply can’t afford it. Earning low wages for the work that we do is unfair, as cleaning is a hard job and quite physical, so life on a low wage is shit!”

“The Living Wage would mean a big change for us. We would be able to work less hours and get to spend more time with each other as a family. It would also mean we don’t have to rely on charities for extra food. We wouldn’t have to buy junk food anymore, as it is the only cheap food we can afford at the moment. The Living Wage might even enable us to have a long overdue holiday and even to visit family in Samoa.”

“Working two jobs at the age of 66 is hard on me. I would like to relax and have some time off. The Living Wage would take some of the pressure off.”

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Our Hidden Figures

AMPARO SANTAMARIA

ABEBA YEHOLEGELA

Amparo came to New Zealand from Colombia as a refugee with her family. She and her husband have four children and have been in New Zealand for seven years. They live in Lower Hutt and commute daily to Wellington.

Abeba is from Ethiopia. After living all her life in Sudan as a refugee, she arrived in New Zealand in 2008 and started cleaning in 2010. All the jobs she has done were paid the minimum wage or very close to the minimum wage. Both Abeba and her husband clean at Victoria University.

“I am now a New Zealand citizen and work as a cleaner,” says Amparo. “I work multiple jobs and cleaning at Victoria University is one of them. This is really tough on me but I have no option as I am on low wages.”

“Life on the minimum wage is hard. Food, rent, and everything else keeps going up which is why I have to keep doing long hours.

My daughter works alongside me, cleaning — even my husband comes and helps. Life is really tough and we want fair wages for the hard work we do, as cleaning is a really tough job.”

“A living wage would mean a lot to us. We would be able to afford to buy more food and save money for our retirement. I would also reduce some of the hours I do because I clean other places as well as the university. I am old and doing long hours, which is hard on me. We could even buy some good furniture for our house. If our wages increased we would be able to live like humans, because we are not at the moment.”

“Life on the minimum wage is hard,” says Abeba. “I have four children — all teenagers in school — and they need money for things. You just can’t provide them everything they need when you’re on the minimum wage.”

“The Living Wage would really make a difference. It doesn’t mean it’s a good life but it definitely means providing three meals for the children, supporting their school activities, and even camping trips. It’s really hard for many refugees who often do jobs that pay minimum wages.”

“New Zealand is a beautiful country but life on the minimum wage means, for many people, living in poverty. Life on low wages means it’s hard to provide everything for your family and when you have teenagers at school it’s even harder providing uniforms. Cleaning is hard and dirty and we deserve a decent pay for the hard work we do. Imagine cleaners not doing their job for one day. The university just won’t function.”

Features

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Written by Laura Toailoa

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Laura Toailoa

We Know The Way

I had my reservations about Moana. I braced myself for cringe-worthy cultural misunderstandings and outright disrespectful and offensive representations. The conversations about the film began long before its release, much to the annoyance of those who felt social media was being flooded with irrelevant opinions.

After the release of a teaser clip of a scene in which Maui tells Moana legends about his amazing feats, there was a resounding cry of outrage online about the portrayal of Maui’s character as one of buffoonery and arrogance. Loudest of all, however, was the criticism that Maui’s portrayal as an overweight “half pig, half hippo” (online meme, 2016) was inaccurate and disrespectful. Maui is given the role of comedic relief (I think) and Moana’s reluctant side-kick.

After visiting the Pacific, directors Ron Clements and John Musker (Aladdin, The Little Mermaid) wanted the film to showcase the Pacific as more than a holiday destination, “because we had a life-changing experience — going to a world we weren’t familiar with and coming away changed.” They felt inspired to tell these never-before-heard stories. How novel. They asked Taika Waititi to draft the initial screenplay, then changed basically everything aside from, apparently, the spiral as the symbol of voyaging, and naming “Tafiti [sic]... and characters like Heihei.” When asked via Twitter if any of the original script was used in the final cut, Taika responded, “Yes, this bit: EXT. OCEAN - DAY.”

Moana is a product of a giant multi-billion dollar transnational conglomerate.

Disney is a very well-oiled money making machine. It sucks up stories from everywhere in the world, throughout history, and retells them in a way that is digestible, profitable, and very emotive. Disney took recognisable elements of Pacific history, culture, and language, squeezing them into familiar plot sequences such as a main character trying to define who they are (Mulan, Tarzan), struggling to balance following your heart versus doing what is “responsible” and “right” (Tiana, Pocahontas, Mulan again), and meeting a mostly-nuisance sidekick based on myths and legends (like in Mulan). I should note here, the similar stories in parenthesis are mostly non-white stories.

The story is familiar for all its Disney tropes. Of course they were going to beat Tamatoa and get Maui’s hook back. Of course Maui and Moana were going to have a rift in which they’re separated (he ditches). Of course she wanted to give up and of course she didn’t. Of course he returns. These are familiar narratives, not known for their indigeneity.

Disney’s primary audience isn’t Pacific people (big surprise). Their business model has no reason to cater to the interests of Pacific nations, people, and stories, until their profits are threatened. Remember when they pulled production of the children’s Maui costume?

This movie does not claim to be an accurate anthropological telling of the Pacific, but if its creators recognise that these stories haven’t been heard before, and should be told, why wouldn’t they give the platform to Pacific people to tell them? This story is not for us, not primarily anyway. It has enough Pacific elements to look like a Pacific story, which is apparently enough. For some people, Moana is an empowering representation — finally, Pacific culture and knowledge (particularly in navigation)

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Features is being validated on the big screen. For others, it’s yet another example of nonindigenous people taking the attractive and digestible parts of a people, disregarding the historical and contextual nuances, and repackaging it for their own people to showcase how knowledgeable and talented they are. For others still, Moana does both. I had my reservations going in, and I still have them now.

So much good has come out of this movie, though. The world is all the better now that we have Auli’i Cravalho in our lives. Hearing Te Vaka in surround sound gave me chills in a way no soundtrack has before. Hearing Opetaia’s voice as rich as ever and knowing “Tamahana” can have exposure to a global audience makes me so proud. Seeing the power of maternal relationships portrayed on the big screen as the source of Moana’s comfort and wisdom was nothing short of amazing.

For the record, I cried when I watched this movie — harder than I did during Frozen’s "Do You Want To Build A Snowman". Although the story archs and Maui’s characterisation felt exasperating and uninspired, there were discrete moments that blew me away. Moments that I held onto to get me through all the parts I rolled my eyes at.

The moments between the wahine/vaine/fafine ma tama’ita’i were breathtaking, particularly Moana and Grandma Tala dancing by the water, and the hongi between Te Fiti and Moana. The most poignant relationship for me, however, was between Moana and her mother, Sina. The brief screen time that Moana has with her mother were scenes I tried not to sob during (just a silent endless stream of tears).

When Moana’s mother explained why her father was so strict on her to stay within the boundaries of the reef, she explained how he was trying to protect Moana from suffering the dangerous and fatal consequences of the same mistake he once made. The ocean didn't choose him, the way it did Moana, but he didn't know that.

Sina was the patient mediator between two people she loved. She counsels Moana by telling her, “Sometimes who we wish we were, what we wish we could do — it’s just not meant to be.” There was something about the longing in her voice, and the sadness in her eyes, that made me wonder, did she wish to have more autonomy and opportunity to go on adventures the way her daughter wants to? In this scene I saw a glimpse of “what if” in her. But she chose to remain where her village needed her to be, she fulfilled her role as was necessary.

She does not urge her daughter to stay, but explains her father’s perspective.

When Moana runs away, she is the only one who sees. She goes to Moana, she says nothing, she helps her pack. She hugs her daughter goodbye, not knowing when or if she’d return. Cue endless stream of tears.

Sina would have been so frightened for her daughter’s safety, knowing what her husband had experienced, knowing the history of those who never made it back home. And yet, she helped her pack. This courageous gesture of love was inspiring — to watch a parent let their child go, despite all their instincts to keep them close, keep them safe.

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Laura Toailoa

We Know The Way

She let her daughter go, and her daughter came back. This reminds me of a famous proverb:

E lele le toloa ae ma'au i le vai Though we leave, venture far and wide, we always return home Moments like this resonated in a deep way. However, it's this resonance that Dr Vincent Diaz cautions us to be wary of, as a tool used by expert storytellers to lure us with rhetoric that plays to our emotional realities without giving us substance.

Dr Teresia Teaiwa reminds us further that, “not everything that makes you feel good is good for you.”

I have no simple response to or review of Moana, no easy way to reconcile the many contradictions I experience when consuming it, engaging with it, questioning it. Seeing my nieces and nephews bellow out the lyrics, The village believes in us! The village belieeeeeves!, warms my heart, knowing that there’s an example for them of brown-skinned beauty and heroism. I hope that they grow up without differentiating the fair-skinned, blond-haired, blue-eyed dolls as the only pretty option while the dark-skinned, dark-haired, dark-eyed dolls are labelled ugly. I hope they grow up knowing they are descendents of greatness. I hope they become curious about the plethora of stories and histories that can only be heard in their indigenous language. I hope they are eager to learn their indigenous language. These are the bestcase scenarios I hope will be the effects of Moana.

Aue, aue, We keep our island in our mind And when it’s time to find home We know the way

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Features

SUPERSTARDOM AND MODERN DEATH: DAVID BOWIE'S FINAL WORKS

Written by Justin Kim

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Justin Kim

Superstardom and Modern Death: David Bowie's Final Works

Where the fuck did Monday go? asks Bowie on "Girl Loves Me", the fifth track from his final album Blackstar (2016). An eerie line for someone who died on a Sunday night. David Bowie passed away on January 10, 2016, only two days after the release of his final album Blackstar; the release date also marking his 69th birthday.

Close sources say that Bowie meant for Blackstar to be a swansong and parting gift for his fans. His terminal liver cancer, known only to close confidants, was only publicly announced after his passing. His death was immediately followed by extensive media scrutiny of Blackstar. Even a shallow examination of the lyrics shows that he did very little to hide it: I know something is very wrong / The pulse returns to the prodigal son.

Prior to 2016, we didn’t usually associate David Bowie with dark subject matters. He created “Let's Dance” and drew a lightning bolt on his face, and we danced to “Modern Love”, and we laughed at his dance moves in "Dancing in the Street". However, in an interview in 2002, Bowie told The Associated Press that he had worked with the same subject matter his entire career: "isolation, abandonment, fear, and anxiety." The Independent described him as "the outsider’s outsider" who fought against the thenmainstream macho rock ‘n’ roll. He wasn't being quirky for the sake of it.

He takes a subject that is often framed in discomfort and disparity and not only confront it, but embrace and play with it. If anyone was going to turn their own death into a performance piece, it was going to be David Bowie. ***

Bowie’s off-Broadway musical Lazarus (2015) received significantly less attention than Blackstar, but covers similar themes of despair, anxiety, and death. Four prominent tracks from Lazarus’ soundtrack would later feature in his posthumous EP, No Plan. The thematic approach found in No Plan foundational for any great album. David Bowie performs his fear of the afterlife from the afterlife. He saw his death coming, and he responded in remarkable fashion.

The opening track “Lazarus”, which also features on Blackstar, sets the the tone of No Plan with its now oft-quoted opening lines: Look up here, I'm in heaven / I've got scars that can't be seen. Its imagery is both poetic, metaphorical, and hauntingly literal; it embodies the sense of despair that characterises Blackstar. “No Plan” takes the mood set by “Lazarus”, and paints the experience of an out-of-body experience, made through the lyrics and its intrinsic sound. The synthesisers in the background are faint and poignant. Bowie’s vocals resemble howling more than singing. Hell, even the guitars seem to crescendo to the heavens.

The diversity of sounds in No Plan as a whole is haunting and satisfying. "When I Met You" showcases a classic rock sound, but its startling opening bars belong in dark, modern albums like Radiohead’s A

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Features

Moon Shaped Pool (2016) and Death Grips’ The Money Store (2012). "Killing a Little Time" uses classic instrumentation to produce a trendy, alternative, and minor sound, reminiscent of The Arctic Monkeys' AM (2013). No Plan provides a wide variety of sounds while maintaining a cohesive theme of death and despair, making its title misleading to say the least. ***

It is fitting that the social relevance of Blackstar and No Plan would be emphasised throughout 2016 — a year known for wide media coverage of celebrity deaths. Bowie's death seemed to be the first of an array of them.

Alan Rickman died just days after. Then came Prince. Wilder. Ali. Cohen.

Michael. Fisher.

You could make the case that a celebrity never dies. Actor Hugo Weaving, donning a 4chan mask, once said that “ideas are bulletproof.” The public image of a celebrity will most certainly outlive them — whether they are accurate representations or not. After all, Bowie himself sings, in “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)”, Stars are never sleeping / Dead ones and the living (The Next Day, 2013).

Artist and professional snake-interrupter Kanye West seems to be one of the few public personalities aware of their own mortality. A close examination of his lyrics reveals a fascination for, and fear of, death.

In "Power", Kanye’s clock is tickin’ as he just count[s] the hours. In "I'll Fly Away", Kanye’s choir soulfully sings: One glad morning, when this life is over / I'll fly away. After receiving the Grammy for Best Rap Album in 2005, Kanye said that one of the biggest lessons he had learned was that “nothing in life is promised except death.”

The tension between Ye’s ego and his Christian beliefs provides for an interesting take on mortality. He has always made his way into the limelight, and it could be argued that Kanye's way of dealing with death has been to garner a highly controversial public persona; to use stardom as a way to immortalise every aspect of himself: I'm a star, how could I not shine? His death-anxiety and corresponding goal of wanting to live forever is perhaps best enshrined in one of his most controversial quips: “You don't think that I would be one of the characters of today's modern Bible?”

His controversial remarks have truly made waves in the mainstream.

In his 11-minute VMAs sermon, Kanye passionately shouted at the audience that he would “die for the art”, and that his fellow artists only needed to worry about how they felt at that present moment, before announcing his run for presidency in 2020. Many people can be in the limelight for fifteen minutes, but staying in it is a different story altogether. Kanye is a lot smarter than the public gives him credit for. If you interpret Kanye's performances as a very public conversation with himself about how he is going to evade death, the “w a v y” comments on the internet start to make some sense.

Coincidentally, Kanye’s approach is summed up in the track aptly titled

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Justin Kim

Superstardom and Modern Death: David Bowie's Final Works

"Waves" (The Life of Pablo, 2016): Waves don't die... even when somebody go away / The feelings just don't go away.

No Plan provides a compelling counter to West's approach. Where Ye uses music to fight against his own mortality, Bowie embraced death, and turned it into a performance piece. Blackstar, Lazarus, and No Plan are not only a music icon's final releases, but they are about his own death. In any case, these works are so cohesive, and No Plan is a truly tasteful posthumous release. It is, perhaps in true Bowie fashion, simultaneously ahead of its time and nostalgic. This is perhaps why No Plan is so impressive — its tracks are retrospective in that they invoke his older materials, contemporary in that they are influenced by his fellow modern peers, and future-facing in that he is speaking about his imminent passing. 2016 produced some great musical works, but Blackstar is a true standout and No Plan is its worthy by-product.

Not bad for a supposed old-timer whose career spanned nearly 50 years.

As mythologist Joseph Campbell puts it, the archetypical hero who overcomes a difficult force will return "with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man." Bowie has directly faced death with No Plan, and immortalised his stature as an artist.

However, a morbid side effect of the death of a public figure is a huge boost in sales in relation to their works. Michael Jackson made $1 billion since passing in 2009. Amy Winehouse sold 1.7 million records in the year after her death. Even Vincent van Gogh was brought to tears when he found out about his posthumous success on Doctor Who. And despite being nominated consistently throughout the years, Bowie’s only Grammy award, before his passing, was in 1984 for his music video, "Jazzin' for Blue Jean". Four more have since been posthumously added to his collection , all of which were awarded to Blackstar. The death of superstars will result in great success — a tragic fact of life that Bowie and Kanye both understood very well.

And so, here we are. David Bowie's death was melancholic, tragic, and untimely. What was it all for? Well, Bowie once said that he was most proud of the fact that he had “affected the vocabulary of pop music.” At the same time, you can also hear the influences of Death Grips, Swans, and Kendrick Lamar in Blackstar and No Plan. His trailblazing approach to death in this EP was ultimately a product of his own offspring — including Kanye West.

Bowie's last pieces of work thus do two things: immortalise his unique approach to musical performances, and pave a path for the new generation to come. No Plan is a culmination of David Bowie's works — past, present, and even future — all wrapped up in a nice little package from the afterlife. By embracing his fate, Bowie completed the age-old tale of death and resurrection. With Blackstar and No Plan, he has mastered both life and death.

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ARTS

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Television

TELEVISION GIRLS, Season 6, Episodes 1–2 Written by Golda Matthias Lena Dunham’s bourgeois white millennial opus is back for its final season. Any discussion of Girls should begin with the disclaimer that yes, Lena Dunham is very problematic, as is the show. But with that in mind, Girls can be enjoyed for what it is — an entertaining half hour very much of its time.

Thus far into season six, it seems the show would like us to believe that Hannah is maturing.

At the risk of sounding corny, I guess it would make sense that the story of Girls would end with them as “women”. In the season opener, “All I Ever Wanted”, Hannah starts off as whiny and self-involved as ever. As part of a freelance assignment for a trendy magazine, she gets to attend a surf club, expenses paid. So what does she do? Pack a sad about how the beach isn’t fun and sulks in her hotel room. This really is Hannah at her most grating. Of course, this being Girls, there is an insanely attractive man (Riz Ahmed!) on hand to teach her about herself, a surf instructor who shows her how to relax and enjoy things instead of instantly finding all the things to hate. It is nice to see Hannah learn about “chill” from a surf instructor in an open relationship, but it is hard to figure out why he would spend all that time and energy on such a killjoy.

In the second episode, “Hostage Situation”, great pains are taken to draw attention to how Hannah’s newfound chill has changed her enough that she barely notices when her brand new tea set is smashed by a raging Desi. But a lack of material attachment plus performative self awareness (Hannah calling Marnie out for being self-involved while acknowledging her own black-kettle status, repeatedly claiming that she is “done judging”) can only go so far; it feels less earned by the show and more forced.

And Marnie! God, Marnie is just the worst. Yes, smash up the only oxycontin available to your drug-addicted ex-husband because withdrawal definitely isn’t a thing. It’s absolutely a Marnie move, but I’m alarmed (though unsurprised) the show didn’t touch on that. Girls wants to be a drama when it comes to someone’s dad being

gay or someone’s friend hooking up with their boyfriend, but has consistently eschewed any meaningful engagement with addiction despite having so many afflicted characters.

Shoshanna, despite her more overtly “girlish” taste and squeaky adderall-Barbie speaking voice, has been the frontrunner in the Girls maturity contest for a while. This time, she asserts herself over her messy cousin Jessa after the latter crashes “W.E.M.U.N.”, a meet-up for women entrepreneurs (“For those of you asking on our Facebook if the group is open to trans women, the answer is… we don’t know, okay?”). I’ve had enough dramatic friend break-ups however, and I don’t feel I learned anything about either of them except that they don’t like each other now.

It was a difficult episode for me as a longterm Jessa fan, with her behaviour getting more difficult to excuse. Although, the image of her in “Wanted” nonchalantly talking to Ray, while naked on a couch eating yoghurt, is enough to get me through to next week. I still feel that the way Jessa handled things with Hannah, while shitty, was slightly justified, but I don’t think that many viewers, or the show itself, would agree with me, so we’ll have to see how that pans out when the girls inevitably run into each other.

Unless they don’t, and Jessa and Adam get a spin-off where they move to California so Adam can further his acting career and Jessa learns to become a midwife specialising in dolphinassisted birth. One can hope.

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The always-already-seen:

Cindy Sherman at City Gallery

“None of the characters are me. They’re everything but me.”

— Cindy Sherman “I recognised every woman I knew in that photograph.”

— Jamie Lee Curtis

Cindy Sherman is a construct. A composite image. Her (un) self-portraits reveal nothing of herself and everything about ourselves. While this is a popular theory, it inevitably raises the question: what is there for those of us who find nothing in the work that resembles our own reflection?

Cindy Sherman

at City Gallery Wellington is a full gallery show, with various series of post-2000 works arranged roughly chronologically. Sherman’s face, in its familiar masquerade, is everywhere. There are two places to hide: the Adam Auditorium, where Andy Warhol’s plays on repeat, and upstairs, in the Deane and Hirschfeld Galleries, where a selection of found photographs and albums from Sherman’s own collection are on display.

Boys

13 Beautiful

One of the albums in Sherman’s collection documents the travels of an American GI on an unidentifiable Pacific island.

He takes photos of himself, the beach, the trees, and the locals. He appears, in the largest photograph on the page, squatting on the ground outside a building with a thatched roof, surrounded by native people. The island is an idyll of palm trees, calm seas, warm weather. The myth of the Pacific paradise is rampant, the narrative familiar in our minds, the warm breeze on our skin.

The GI’s album happens to be the single place in the gallery where brown bodies are a part of the display. There is a comfort in finding them, tucked away upstairs under the glass surface of the vitrine, and a discomfort at the imagery: brown bodies working, brown bodies providing a counterpoint to the soldier’s pale skin, brown bodies frozen in someone else’s history. These photos are a part of a display that is intended to give a sense of the ways in which Sherman “amasses, mines, and reimagines images, identities and mythologies from a variety of sources.” It reminds us of

45

Visual Art

how little a photo has to give in order for a narrative to be rendered implicit.

In her own work, Sherman shows us the always-alreadyseen of pop culture, the always-already-seen of “the culture within which she operates,” and her own alwaysalready-seen: the semi-tragic but well-off white woman, or, “The Real Housewives of New York.” She knows how to suggest, rather than impose, narrative; how to create an image that is so clearly a construct that it can’t help but resonate with some lived experience. Her work is deliberately composed and manipulated in post-production.

It simultaneously exposes and works towards the fiction of the self, but it’s the viewer who assigns each character the narrative.

It’s hard not to come back to the photographs of the Pacific — on one level, because so much has already been said of Sherman’s work that everything seems like a crude reinterpretation, and on another, because they allow for a reading of her work that exposes the always-alreadyseen as being nothing more than the always-visible: the nothing-new. What does it mean to fill our public art gallery with dozens of versions of the same woman, a handful of clowns, and thirteen beautiful boys — all white?

Where the show was first exhibited, at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, at least seven other exhibitions were mounted, variously, during its

Fluent: Aboriginal Women’s Paintings from the Collection, Contemporary Asian Collection, and Line + Form: Paintings and Sculpture from the Indigenous Australian Collection. Sherman’s cultural stay. They were all free, and included

studies of the white woman in capitalist society existed alongside works by women with different concerns, placing her oblique imagery within a context specific to the space it was occupying.

— Hanahiva Rose

Cindy Sherman—• runs at City Gallery Wellington until March 19.

Admission is $12 or $8 with concession.

46

FILM Welcome to another year of film. We, Finn and Mathew, are the curators and referees of this section this year. As the year progresses we hope to cover a wide range of topics, regions, subgenres, events, and as always are hugely keen for contributions from you. To be honest, we were planning on doing some Oscar coverage, but the awards season was pretty much business as usual this year (Best Picture fuck-up aside).

While we’re on that topic, if you're stuck on what to watch AT THIS VERY MINUTE literally any of the films nominated are worth your time, and most of them are still in theatres, to be found in Aro Video, or (more likely) your friendly neighbourhood Pirate Bay. Kubo & The Two Strings in particular needs more love, and Sing Street was criminally overlooked by the Academy. Go forth, get amongst.

We’ll be putting out reviews this year for films both mainstream and obscure, English language and otherwise, new and old, classic and cult, and hope to bring to your attention as many quality films as possible, while also vigorously waving red flags when a true shitstorm hits the theatres — looking at you Transformers 5.

With that, enjoy these three reviews, and hit us up with any and all content.

Peace and love, ya'll.

Pork Pie (2016) Director — Matt Murphy When I watch a film, I often take it as a bad sign whenthat I'm left wondering “who is this being made for?” Unfortunately, this was my primary concern when watching Pork Pie. Well, that, and “how much more could they miss the mark by?”

Pork Pie is the retelling of the NZ classic Goodbye Pork Pie (1981), withand has three misfits cavorting the length of theour country in a never-ending parade of hi-jinks and mischief, and that mischief is where the majority of Pork Pie’s appeal liescan be found.

Despite a very small budget, the action actually comes off with flair and ingenuity. Sadly it is in the calm stretches, where the film falls to the central characters, that things start to splutter. Dean O’Gorman pulls a charismatic turn, and probably has the best batting average in turns of comedy throughout the film. What often drags is his front seat companion played by James Rolleston, who is bland and unconvincing in

almost all aspects of his performance. And don't get me started on the nose-pierced, liberal, veganismadvocate riding backseat — let’s just say I was left deeply unsure where the film’s sense of self- awareness lay after the crew’s voyage merges into a pseudoanimal -rights campaign.

But the underlying flaw thatwhich I never could never quite get over is the film’s relianceone that relies on a fair yet unfair comparison with last year’s Hunt For The Wilderpeople. Where that film had its moments of referential and NZ pop culture references, they were often brief, withand there were deeper themes and story threads flowing underneath. Sadly, Pork Pie did not have the foresight to include the latter, and instead relyingies on beefy tourism stock footage, and at least three ham-fisted cameos — an overall disappointing result.

— Finn Holland

47

Film John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) Director — Chad Stahelski

Following up from 2014’s bizarrely successful John Wick, stunt man come director Chad Stahelski returns with more promises of lavishly stylised cinematography and masterful fight choreography.

Wick, played by Keanu Reeves, is a widower, and/ an ex-hitman, possibly the world’s finest, until a Russian mobster ushers him out offrom retirement. The sequel starts with a quick recap from the first film before the regular gun violence and face stomping continues almost seamlessly.

Less effortless and more lacking- in- effort, the forever vacant Keanu Reeves seemingly coldreads his lines directly to the camera, leaving the “‘acting”’ to his superior onscreen counterparts Ian McShane (Sexy Beast) and Lance Reddick (The Wire). That being said, as he’s proven time and time again, Keanu’s presence in an action sequence is one to behold.

Though the film’s plot is relatively vapid, and filled with a number of cliché action film tropes such as cheesy one-liners and montages revealing cool new outfits, guns, and villains,; the pacing and cinematography is on point. When the action returns as it always does — forever trying to oneup on the louder, brighter, and more violent fights — it truly steamrolls you into your seat. Writer Derek Kolstad, smelling blood in the water in the wake of the first film’s commercial success, rightfully leaves John Wick 2 open-ended for another sequel.

Ruby Rose’s character is entirely superfluous and Common’s feature as a rival assassin feels forced, and at times their exchanges are downright silly.; Hhowever, it is still thoroughly entertaining by an American action film standards.

Writer Derek Kolstad, smelling blood in the water in the wake of the first film’s commercial success, rightfully leaves John Wick 2 open- ended for another sequel. On the whole, the film is worth the big -screen watch if you found the first agreeable, but I wouldn’t hold your standards as high as the original.

— Mathew Watkins

T2 Trainspotting Director — Danny Boyle Within the overwhelming torrents of sequels in recent years, there seems to be a growing category I like to call “oh shit, that made money a decade (or two) ago, let's make another!” Enter an under-cooked Sin City sequel, a third Bridget Jones film, and now a follow up to ‘90s Scottish smash hit, Trainspotting.

Despite validating my feelings about the movie industry milking properties to death, I will always turn up for any film by Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave, 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Millions, Slumdog Millionaire, and the highly underrated Trance and Steve Jobs), and the talent assembled both in front and behind the camera is reason enough to see this film. All the original cast return, to great result, and Danny Boyle is as visually invigorating as ever. In fact, for the majority of the run time I felt that the team were executing this new chapter with a welcome degree of prowess.

Unfortunately, this effort doesn't quite make it to the finish line. The film gets confused between expanding the ideology of the first film and exploring the new themes of this film, meanwhile stacking a somewhat light plot in the middle.

Trainspotting went straight to the heart of ‘90s existentialism; I thought the sequel could do much the same. It comments on the current goings-on of the world occasionally, but needed more than just another “Choose Life” speech from Ewan McGregor.

That is not to say it’s a bad film; it’s one that is certainly worth your time. But every now and again the incredible visual flare and uncompromising language don't quite distract f rom a larger opportunity being missed.

— Finn Holland

Fin

48

Music

Interview with Buckingham Radioactive If you’re into quality, local, and independent music, enjoy being treated to an aural smorgasbord of global sounds, and don’t give a flying flip about those tunes being interspersed with witty repartee about Kylie Jenner’s latest foray into unnecessarily trendy makeup — you’ve likely been blasting Radioactive, or community-based stations like it, into your earholes for decades. If you’d like to endow yourself with a little history about this bastion of Wellington musical culture, then hot damn, you’re in luck! I recently sat down with Miles Buckingham, the station’s long-time music manager, to get the lowdown on all things Active.

You can find Radioactive on the airwaves at 88.6FM, and wherever good Wi-Fi exists at www.radioactive.fm.

Miles from

Salient: At what point in the life of the station did you join, and what made you interested in it?

Miles Buckingham: The station started in 1977, but I joined in late February 1986, which makes me feel so old! Before I even enrolled at Victoria, I went into Active and told them I wanted to be involved, and they said “Come back once you’re enrolled!” So I came back three hours later, they trained me up, and that was that.

S: What was your role at Active during that time?

MB: I ended up doing the Friday night shows, which was a lot of playing records and blathering on air, and just hung around a lot! That eventually wound up with me running their mobile disco, which was a lot of fun. It involved driving around with a fairly substantial amount of sound equipment in a really crappy car, and getting some money on the side for Active, DJing these university parties. I actually managed to recruit a number of Active DJs playing The Jesus and Mary Chain and bands like that at those events.

S: How did Active undergo the transition from university radio station to where it is now?

MB: That all happened around 1989.

By that time I was just doing shows, as my academic career had well and truly gone down the toilet [chuckles]. The students’ association at Victoria had decided that Active was costing too much money and that it could stand on its own two feet.

That involved them putting a security guard on the door and changing the locks to the station, although I think Liam Luff managed to break back in and run “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy on a loop.

It then resulted in around 25 Active

49 DJs and fans getting together, each chipping in $2000, and setting it up as a limited liability company; suddenly it was financially viable again. We stayed at the Students’ Association building for a while, then moved the station down into Ghuznee Street, just across from where we are now.

S: What kind of contribution do you think Radioactive has made to Wellington and New Zealand’s musical communities?

MB: Well, I don’t think something like Fat Freddy’s Drop would’ve existed without Radioactive, because Mu (Chris Faiumu, the group’s founding member) was such a huge part. The station was the meeting point between a lot of musical cultures that allowed him to formulate his style.

We are more often than not the first station to play a lot of New Zealand artists, which can be quite a big thing. If you want to talk to Matt from Universal Music, he will maintain that we were the first radio station in Aotearoa to play Lorde’s “Royals”.

S: Can you think of any particular moments that strike you as really emblematic of your time at Active?

MB: One time, we were doing a chocolate delivery promotion, and so I had to cart around this chocolate, riding around Wellington on a completely illegal motor scooter. We dubbed it something like “the burgundy putt-putt”. I was doing these live reports back to the station on a field telephone and having to pull over whenever I had to talk, as the phone obviously didn’t fit under the helmet!

Another one was getting kicked out of the Newtown Bowling Club at our 30th birthday party as a station, because Beastwars were playing on the lawn, and they were a little bit loud! That was pretty momentous.

Music S: I assume, as music manager, that a significant part of your job is trawling through platforms like Bandcamp and Soundcloud to find new music. Does it get difficult at times to divorce yourself from your own subjective taste, so that you can provide a wide sonic variety to the listeners?

MB: Yeah, I get to sit around looking for stuff that people would otherwise be wasting their time looking for, in a “normal” workplace.

When I got the job, the joke was that the station was going to be just nonstop Congolese rumba, as that would’ve reflected the music that I was actually listening to at the time. But I think my job requires you to go outside of yourself and think, is this a good song, is this going to work for our listeners, is it filling a part of the jigsaw puzzle that our on-air sound is?

S: Coming back to your own tastes, are there any local acts that have been really exciting you recently?

MB: Lake South! Really looking forward to his album, which is out mid-March. Also this morning I discovered a Kiwi two-piece called Coyote. It’s possibly ever so slightly unlistenable, but really good! They’re one of the guys from Rackets and his 13-year-old brother, and they make this wild, lo-fi, clunky electronica, but with singing, and what they’re singing about is awesome.

S: Finally, are you able to discuss what you think the ethos of the station is, possibly what has made you stick around so long?

MB: I would definitely say diversity, and supporting local music. Active’s relevance to the community has changed as Wellington has changed, but its ability to be a thriving part of the multiple cultures and subcultures of Wellington has been a constant, and has become even more important now.

Throughout the ‘90s there was this real groundswell, suddenly there were all these New Zealand bands. We were the only station that was supporting them, so we got to be the centre of this super cool thing. I really hope that’s something that we continue to do.

— Lauren Spring

50

Food

REVIVED When you enter you are greeted by the welcoming sounds of mainstream radio: The Edge is playing, and who doesn’t like Shawn Mendes? I don’t. The atmosphere apart from the music is warm and the banter is strong between the identical brothers who work there.

I will admit it took me way longer to realised they were multiple people.

You come into the place and immediately get the feeling you are in a street-market type food shop turned lower-class restaurant, and that’s its jam. The brown paper bags and polystyrene containers sitting on top of the buffet full of fried chicken, plus the noodles, rice, and curry let you know that what you are about to taste has come from years of culinary fine-tuning.

The chalkboard menu settles the idea that your food is gonna be some Rachael Ray type-shit.

There are heaps of seats for you and your friends (wearing a pair of headphones equates to exactly one friend).

The chips at Revive are a hit and miss, but today they were a hit. The real attraction for Revive’s chips lies in the array of salts that are on offer. The selection includes chicken salt, lemon pepper, cayenne, and Moroccan. There’s also vinegar for those of the British persuasion. This free choice has often led to my downfall due to my overestimation of how much seasoning I need, an indication of the fact that we, as humans, just cannot be trusted to make our own decisions. The fries receive a good 3.5 out of 5, not perfect by any means but enough to get me through a tough day.

The fish burger is a stand-out, as it’s something you can’t fuck up. The main element to the dish is the fish. If you put fish in there, you’re 90% of the way to a positive review. The fish burger came stacked with tomato, lettuce, onion, pickle, mayo, and cheese. I have never had a fish burger with cheese. It felt like an expensive Fillet-o-Fish, but since I was not intoxicated

on cheap vodka shots and sweaty from an hour long fist-pump session at The Establishment, I was not down for an upper-class Fillet-o-Fish.

Throughout the burger the only crunch was the onion and that was a let-down. The buns were extra soft (which may be okay with some people, but I am a firm believer in firm buns).

The soft buns made the burger crumble quicker than Leicester’s reputation in 2016 season. For $4.90, it comes in at a strong 3.5 out of 5. It’s not terrible, it’s not the greatest fish burger I’ve ever tasted, and I haven’t vomited yet.

— Kii and Tom

51

Theatre

CONCHUS SUMMIT

As part of Circa Theatre’s WTF! Women’s Theatre Festival, arts collective The Conch put together a two-part event on February 25 celebrating Pacific women’s performative art.

During the day, Nina Nawalowalo, Tusiata Avia, and Anapela Polataivao shared their stories and experiences of creating and performing art that was not only challenging in subject matter, but also difficult to produce where there was a lack in structural, financial, and creative support from the creative industries. Nina emphasised that for Pacific stories to be told, Pacific storytellers are going to need a lot of courage.

But these stories also require courage and faith from those in power to fund and facilitate their telling.

Throughout each shared story was a running theme of the absolute necessity of sharing our platforms, our spaces, and our talents with each other. There is enough to go around. The speakers encouraged artists to leave behind the sense of competition with each other; our stories will travel further if we build them together. Tusiata explored the many moments of doubt about not being smart enough, brown enough, literary enough, creative enough, skinny enough, enough enough, to take her place in the creative world.

In the evening was the Conchus Showcase, with an array of song, dance, readings, and acting from several artists at different points in their creative careers. Selina Alefosio’s Whatupaepae paid homage to her mother, grandmother, and ancestors who have shaped her identity, through traditional Tokelauan dance mixed with contemporary elements. Tusiata read an excerpt from a novel in progress, prose being a form outside her usual comfort zone of poetry. Tupe Lualua and Le Moana showcased the final act of their captivating show 1918, a dance show about the ‘Spanish’ influenza epidemic that spread across the world, but hit Samoa’s population significantly due to New Zealand’s poor colonial

administration of Samoa.

Filoi Vailaau choreographed and directed a piece titled Ie toga: A Samoan Woman’s Legacy that honoured two of Samoa’s precious measina (sacred treasures): Ie Toga, the fine mat gifted ceremoniously to show deep respect and alofa to the receiver; and the people who pour their spirit and sweat to weave these treasures. The performance piece did what I thought was unusual for theatre (that even I, a non-theatre goer, would know); it had the Samoan women performing as themselves. There’s something inexplicably breathtaking about seeing the women from generations before us, on a stage that would be foreign to them, but telling a story that is weaved into their being. Seeing older Samoan women, the unsigned authors and painters of many sacred tales over generations, get their time to shine and be celebrated was a beautiful moment. I don’t know if all theatre shows have this effect, but as a first-timer, this was a great first impression.

— Laura Toailoa

Interview with Kane Strang

Salient: That’s nice the venue is still being used in some capacity.

Kane: All my favourite gigs were there, and that's the thing, it’s still benefitting the Dunedin music scene, just in a different way. And perhaps an even more important way. Obviously gigs and playing live are super important, but recordings are immortal. If you want to capture a period in time, that's the way to do it.

Salient: So you recorded with Stephen Marr of Doprah; whereabouts did you record?

Kane: Yeah I did, I recorded at Chicks Hotel. When they shut down the venue, Tom Bell turned it into a studio, and it’s just the best place to hang out in. There’s so much crazy gear in there now and it was the best studio experience I’ve had by a mile.

Salient: I felt people were kind of into that though?

Kane: Yeah that’s the thing, I know people like that and a lot of the time — well, not a lot of the time — people have asked me to send it to them, and I’ve happily sent it. It’s not really what I want to sound like anymore, so I took it down.

Salient: I wanted to ask about your somewhat unofficial first record. You released A Pebble And A Paper Crane before Blue Cheese but took it off the internet, why was that?

Kane: I just found it a bit embarrassing, I don’t know why. It was a weird one. I guess I just wasn’t happy with it and Blue Cheese was a fresh start for me. Every time I saw it had a play on Bandcamp I started cringing a bit, and I realised I could take it down and maybe be happier. Maybe its because I know how roughly it was recorded and I can’t unhear that.

Dunedin musician Kane Strang released his self-recorded debut album Blue Cheese on Flying Nun in 2015. It’s pretty straightforward indie rock, but underpinned with some excellent pop songwriting and Kane’s particular knack for writing dismally sad but incredibly catchy lyrics.

Kane had also released a very good album (since removed from the internet) A Pebble and a Paper Crane, recorded while on a trip to Germany in 2013. This album is rough, with a slightly shambolic recording lending it a woozy, psychedelic feel that won Kane a bit of a cult following early on. His latest album Oh So You’re Off I See is due out on Dead Oceans later this year.

Before heading off to the US, Kane played three shows in New Zealand, and gave Salient an exclusive interview:

Music

52 Music

— Olly Clifton

Salient: When you come back from your tour are you planning on staying in Dunedin?

Kane: Everything's a bit up in the air for me at the moment. My girlfriend lives in Auckland so that's always an option. Living here’s just cheap and it allows me to have a flat and have a practice space and also go away and not be freaking out about paying two hundred dollars a week while I’m not even there. It’s just a cheap place to live and I think that’s why so many creative people wind up here.

Salient: So what’s the plan for the upcoming tour?

Kane: We are playing Dunedin, Auckland, Wellington, then a couple days back in Auckland, and then Tuesday we fly to New York which I can’t really comprehend. I was pouring milk for my cereal this morning and thought that when this milk expires I’ll be playing a show in New York — it was just the weirdest what-the-fuck moment.

Salient: What is your songwriting process? I think a lot of people really admire your lyricism, does that come first or do you write the music and fit the lyrics later?

Kane: I do things in reverse to a lot of singer-songwriters, I think. I’ll often start by writing the drum beat and the bassline. So pretty much the rhythm section. Obviously it’s different every time, but it does seem to happen that way quite a bit. I enjoy it, it’s almost my favourite part, writing the actual groove of the song.

I have quite a short attention span so there’s a lot of luck involved. I just pick up my guitar and if I don’t come up with anything I like very quickly I put it down and leave it for a day. Lyrics wise, I’ll just get one line that I like and, rather than that being the first line and then trying to come up with the second, I’ll make the song around that. More often than not it will become the chorus or the theme and I’ll go from there. I don’t have a routine, it's all very random for me.

Salient: Have your influences changed at all between Blue Cheese and this new record?

Kane: I think with Blue Cheese I was kind of like “oh this is what indie rock should sound like” and I think this album's a blend of that and my earlier stuff. It’s a bit more singer-songwriter-y. I was listening to heaps of Elliot Smith and there was literally no acoustic guitar on Blue Cheese, it was all just short chuggy songs. On this one there are acoustic guitars and heaps of different sounds.

53 Music

54

Games

ROMINE VS STERLING: THE FINAL INSULT Sometimes the most fascinating news stories in gaming don’t come from the games themselves, but the people who make a living playing them.

One such story, one of the most bizarre sagas in the history of games journalism, has come to a satisfying conclusion and I’d like to offer a (perhaps belated) hot take on the situation.

In March last year, James Romine, one half of the #FucKonami Memorial Award-winning game development company Digital Homicide, sued games critic Jim Sterling for “assault, libel, and slander” related to the latter’s coverage of the company’s games. Seeking damages of US$10 million, Romine tried and failed to crowdfund his legal fees and was forced to represent himself in court. After nearly a year of wrangling in the US courts, the case was finally dismissed with prejudice on February 21, meaning Romine cannot pursue the charges any further.

It should not surprise you that Digital Homicide’s games were terrible, usually made from pre-purchased asset packs and produced in a matter of weeks. In their two years of selling games on Steam, they managed to launch TWENTY-ONE games, more than some developers have made in decades-long careers.

Digital Homicide’s first game, an awful zombie survival shooter called The Slaughtering Grounds, was discovered by Sterling in 2014 and covered as a ‘Jimpressions’ video on his YouTube channel. He called the game “an absolute failure” and stated that it was a contender for the worst game of the year.

Romine and his brother/business partner Robert lost it, launching into a barrage of ad hominem attacks against Sterling before abusing YouTube’s copyright system to have the video taken down. Sterling, undeterred, continued to cover the company’s games and shitty business practices, including how they abused Steam’s Greenlight system by uploading game projects under different names, rightfully

criticising them at every turn. It quickly became clear to observers that the Romines had nothing on Sterling.

When the lawsuit was eventually filed, the legal papers were incoherent, trying (and failing) to paint the Romines as the victims of a harassment campaign orchestrated by Sterling and his fans. While there probably were some overzealous people doing just that, Sterling himself decried such tactics. His critiques of the studio were reasonable (if occasionally crude, since he mostly plays a character: an exaggerated version of himself that believes he is a prophet).

Did I mention that James Romine couldn’t get the money for a lawyer? Yeah, it was always going to be a skinny little jobber going up against Brock Lesnar.

Despite all their failings as game developers and as people, the Romines seemed to have an unusual amount of pride in their work, claiming, without a trace of irony, to work hard on every game, and viciously attacking anyone who dared to criticise them. The lawsuit against Sterling was the culmination of these efforts. Make no mistake: this was a gross attack on an individual’s freedom of expression, an attempt to ruin the career of someone whose job is legally protected.

Yet, they failed. They even managed to tank their own business while their alleged destroyer said nothing about them for nearly a year!

Meanwhile, the Greenlight system that enabled Digital Homicide to exist and even thrive is being dismantled, to be replaced with one designed to keep chancers like the Romine brothers away from Steam. Whether it will succeed is yet to be seen, but what we do know is that Digital Homicide is dead, buried and rotting away in an unmarked grave, never to insult the gaming public again.

Thank God for Jim fucking Sterling, son.

— Cameron Gray

55

Podcast

DESERT ISLANDERS Kia ora! Welcome to the podcast corner of Salient. I’m Annelise, and I’m the Podcast Editor. This is a new feature for Salient, and I’m so excited to discuss my favourite podcasts and elaborate on podcasts as a medium. I love listening to podcasts because they offer endless possibilities. Podcasts can be emotive, entertaining, informative, and provocative.

You can listen anywhere, anytime. Anyone can create a podcast for very little cost, and anyone can listen for free. If you love podcasts too, please contribute! Salient is an expression of the student voice, so if you’d like to submit some podcast related content, please get in touch — email editor@salient.org.nz with the subject “Podcast”.

In the meantime, download the truly excellent Desert Island Discs. This show is a BBC institution, and has been on air since 1942. The premise is simple: guests are “cast away” to a desert island, and asked to choose eight tracks to lift their spirits on the island. In between tracks, they are interviewed about their life, including their upbringing, education, and achievements.

The guests are outstanding, with a plethora of big names being “cast away” such as James Corden, Lily Allen, and Malcolm Gladwell.

However, just as many guests are not household names, yet equally as interesting. I particularly enjoyed the episode with Inga Beale, a phenomenal woman who overcame prejudices about her gender and sexuality to become CEO of major international insurance firm Lloyds of London.

The guests are interviewed by Kirsty Young, whose warm Scottish brogue makes me want to listen to her for hours. She’s a great interviewer: funny and kind, but a straight shooter. Desert Islands Discs relies on honest portrayals of guests’ lives, and Young is unafraid to call someone out when she senses they are being evasive.

Ultimately, Desert Island Discs is wonderful

because it reveals every part of the human experience. Someone had a terrible childhood, someone else had a loving childhood. Someone landed their big break out of sheer luck, someone else through sheer will. Someone will always dedicate a song to someone they love, or were loved by. Touching and life-affirming, listening to Desert Island Discs you can’t help but think that everything will turn out just fine.

Episode to start with: Tom Hanks — Annelise Bos

56

South of the Border, West of the Sun — Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami’s South of the Border, West of the Sun is set in 1950s post-war Japan, and centres around the comfortable, complacent existence of Hajime, a family man and owner of a jazz bar. However, Hajime comes to face the internal predicament of whether or not to give up this life when his childhood companion, Shimamoto, mysteriously reappears and their relationship soon evolves into romance.

This novel is stunningly interpreted from Japanese to English by Philip Gabriel.

Murakami’s language is fluid and accessible, creating a smooth, simple read that is equally gripping and complex. He manages to evoke strong feelings of nostalgia for a time and a culture associated with the bohemian jazz music scene, by weaving throughout his work a romanticised strain of unbridled sensuality. This work is also no exception to Murakami’s practice of presenting the reader with multiple concepts and ideas requiring a real effort to wrap your head around, and you leave the page pondering many of the lines he has crafted.

You are left with a sense of empty space, a need for closure after reading; you somehow want the narrative interpreted a second time, not from Japanese to English, but from haunting intangibility to something more concrete, that makes sense… but that’s not the point. After the last page of this book, you will always feel like you’re still there.

South of the Border, West of the Sun is definitely going to be appropriate for those at all levels of literacy; the reader is welcome to delve as shallow or as deep as they choose.

That is part of the book’s charm. I encourage people to pick it up sometime and have a go, and do it with an open mind. Murakami’s style is in some ways very unique, but also very beautiful.

— David Escott

Books

Night — Elie Wiesel

With some stories, as a reader, you know from the first sentence that this is going to be nothing less than a heart-churning experience that will reach your soul and there remain for many, many years. You know this. Your body alerts you to this prophetic knowledge by coming over entirely with a palpable wash of frightened anticipation.

This is one of those stories. You will know, before anything has happened, as if before anything was even written, that you must take great care not to dismiss or forget what is about to happen. You must Pay Attention.

You might remember the recent death of the author, Elie Wiesel, last year. Night is the autobiographical account of his hellish stay, along with his father, in a string of Nazi concentration camps at the time of the Holocaust. He was 15 when the Jewish community in his town of Sighet, Transylvania, was ghettoised, and then marched into cattle cars and driven away, first to Birkenau, and then to Auschwitz, and several further camps after that.

All the while as those around him — hundreds, thousands, millions, men, women, children — passed through the fires of the ‘chimneys’, the crematoriums that were used to kill the Jewish people.

Wiesel’s father died near to the end of their time imprisoned, but Wiesel survived. He would go on to receive a Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his life’s work fighting against all forms of systemic oppression and hatred. His writing here, only a short novel, is clear and careful, and beautifully intelligent. He narrated this nightmare because he knew that he must “bear witness.” He writes in the preface, “Others will never know. But would they at least understand?” And that is why he must be read, so that this will never happen again.

— Kimberley McIvor

57

The Book of Love Is Long and Boring

The title of Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life gives a promise of brevity which the text itself, at over 700 pages, clearly breaks. Even if this novel displays an ironic knowingness or even embarrassment about its length, narrative scale nevertheless has its uses and pleasures. It looks at the outset as though A Little Life will use its several hundred pages to trace the lives of a group of college friends across several decades, though the panoramic gaze of the novel quickly settles on Jude, a brilliant and troubled lawyer.

So far, so familiar. But rather than unfolding into an earnest, masculine rewriting of Girls, the vast length of the novel is instead used to slowly and painfully delineate, through a series of flashbacks, a horrifying series of unspoken but defining episodes of violence in Jude’s childhood.

Perhaps surprisingly, given the seeming banality of its premise, A Little Life was met with enormous acclaim. It was exaggeratedly greeted by one reviewer, Garth Greenwell, as “the Great Gay Novel.” In Greenwell’s reading, the novel translates its protagonist’s personal childhood trauma into a synecdoche for “the collective traumas that have so deeply shaped gay life.” But the central concern of A Little Life is less the personal or collective trauma than the drama of narrative disclosure. Tellingly, a key scene of confession and self-realisation — in which Jude finally tells his boyfriend stories from his childhood that “are unimaginable, that are abominable” — literally takes place in a closet.

The reader needn’t have read much D.A. Miller or Eve Sedgwick to see that, for Yanagihara, the ongoing project of coming out — in this case, as a survivor of abuse — is at the same time a cominginto-being.

What struck me most forcefully, however, is the remarkable extent to which, despite its strained register of secrecy and trauma, Yanagihara’s novel traffics largely in boring details of bourgeois domesticity. If there is any redemptive possibility here, it is to be found in lengthy descriptions of marble bathrooms, converted SoHo loft apartments, and upstate holiday houses. In these scenes, the novel reads less like a chronicle of “damaged life” (to

Books

misuse Adorno) than a catalogue of middle class aspiration, or a post-queer pastiche of one of those CGI walkthroughs on Grand Designs.

Just as Tom Ford’s film A Single Man (2009) filtered its protagonist’s grief over the death of his lover through a ready-to-wear aesthetic sensibility, A Little Life gives normative gay coupledom the literary equivalent of a spread in Architectural Digest.

The pressing question here is not the political conditions of possibility for the everyday lives of queer people — these conditions seem, in the moneyed and liberal milieu in which these characters move, largely taken for granted.

Rather, the novel’s primary interest is in what kind of ‘upmarket’ forms such a life might take. David Halperin may be right that interior decoration is one of the “mainstream cultural objects that gay male culture appropriates and endows with queer value.” But Yanagihara’s novel does not locate itself within this cultural tradition, since to do so would be to participate in the very regime of sexual identities and strategic essentialism that its characters openly disavow (to his friends, Jude is “post-sexual, postracial, post-identity”). This refusal of codified categories of identity is less about seizing the emancipatory potential of Sedgwick’s “open mesh of possibilities,” I suspect, than something more reactionary: imagining an historical present in which renewed skirmishes over identity politics, and the persistent demands of social justice, are either illegible or have somehow disappeared.

— Alistair Murray

59

Poem

DRIED FLOWERS

I am walking in circles besides square windows: you do not stay to hear my answers.

Space never knew the balance between apologies and presence.

Plates find their way to the dishwasher, tucked beside each other down the bank.

The plateau of two conversations that meet their end, get tangled, walk apart, tingly fingers, clank of glass, wisp of hair.

The polite balance of wind and warmth, walls of artwork that perform before my eyes.

Who are you, the synth and hazy lavender that makes movement murky? — Sasha Francis

60

Puzzles

CROSSWORD: 'NIGHTFALL'

ACROSS

1. *Sci-fi TV series parodied by Futurama's 'The Scary Door' (3,8,4) 8. *With 28-Across, when everything's considered (2,3,3,2,3,3) 10. Oak fruit (6) 11. Philosopher who wrote 'The unexamined life is not worth living' (8) 15. *With 21-Across, it's bordered

by Resolution Island (5,5) 19. *Quick-growing flower sometimes referred to as a sundrop (7,8) 21. *See 15-Across 24. Made music, perhaps (8) 27. Device whose stats may be measured in megapixels (6) 28. *See 8-Across 30. *1950 film noir with the line "I am big; it's the pictures that got small!" (6,9)

SUDOKU

Sudoku difficulty: Hard

DOWN

TARGET Make as many words of three letters or more as you can. Each word must contain the letter in the central square.

LAST WEEK'S SOLUTION

Target goals: Good: 7 words Great: 10 words Impressive: 13 words

1. Move to a new location (8) 2. Consume (3) 3. Bad at one's job (5) 4. River that flows through Pakistan for over 2,500 kilometres (5) 5. Listened to (5) 6. Moves quickly (5) 7. Mary Poppins, for one (5) 9. That woman (3) 12. Singer Green who attended the Grammys this year entirely in gold (5) 13. 'Prince ___' ('Aladdin' tune) (3) 14. They can be served florentine (4) 16. Is familiar with (5) 17. McFlurry cookie (4) 18. How many people look in 9 a.m. lectures (4-4) 20. Road trip need (3) 21. Total fuckup of a situation (5) 22. People on drugs or computers (5) 23. First attempt at a piece of writing (5) 24. Prefix for -holic or -late (5) 25. Place to stay by the highway, often (5) 26. 1988 Metallica hit (3) 29. It's in a double helix (3)

61

HOROSCOPE

~*~ MEET YOUR HOROSCOPE ‘EXPERTS’ ~*~ Salutations! We are Aubergine and Celeste, two pals who read the horoscopes in That’s Life a bit, and own at least 20 crystals, so are fully qualified to predict your future. Future weeks will include horoscopes, but this first column introduces you to our friends.

~*~ MEET YOUR PLANETS! ~*~ Inner planets affect your day-to-day life: Sun: Personality Moon: Mood and emotion Mercury: Communication Venus: Love and frisky times Mars: Energy

Outer planets affect wider life trends: Jupiter: Luck and wisdom Saturn: Discipline and challenge Neptune: Change and originality Uranus: Dreams and healing Pluto: Power and transformation

~*~ MEET YOUR HOROSCOPE! ~*~ Aries: March 21–April 19 Ruled by Mars Lucky stuff: red, Tuesday You are enthusiastic and passionate, but this often manifests itself through impulsive and self-centered actions.

Libra: Sep 23-Oct 22 Ruled by Venus Lucky stuff: blue, Sunday Ruled by Venus, the planet of <3, everyone loves you even though you are melodramatic and a lil’ spoilt.

Taurus: April 20–May 20 Ruled by Venus Lucky stuff: green, pink, Friday, Monday You are devoted to all you do, and approach life with a practical, head-strong, and stubborn attitude.

Scorpio: Oct 23-Nov 21 Ruled by Pluto Lucky stuff: red, Tuesday Scorpio, you put passion into everything you do, whether this be your bravery, possessive nature or revenge plans.

Gemini: May 21–June 20 Ruled by Mercury Lucky stuff: light green, yellow, Wednesday No denying that Geminis have a reputation for being two-faced bitches, but they are also social and adaptable friends.

Sagittarius: Nov 22-Dec 21 Ruled by Jupiter Lucky stuff: light blue, Wednesday You are an honest and optimistic friend, but your honesty can be interpreted as arrogance.

Cancer: June 21–July 22 Ruled by Moon Lucky stuff: white, Thursday Your tenacity and loyalty make you a persuasive person, but also a suspicious one.

Capricorn: Dec 22-Jan 21 Ruled by Saturn Lucky stuff: black, Friday Your devoted and fearless nature is unforgiving when this devotion is not reciprocated.

Leo: July 23–August 22 Ruled by Sun Lucky stuff: gold, Sunday Leo, you are A LOT to deal with, but your passionate nature nearly makes up for the fact you are stubborn and self-centered. Nearly. (A Leo definitely didn’t recently dump me).

Aquarius: Jan 22- Feb 19 Ruled by Uranus ;) Lucky stuff: electric blue, Thursday Aquarians are great at communication, but this need for communication often comes off as desperate.

Virgo: Aug 23-Sep 22 Ruled by Mercury Lucky stuff: green, Monday No one is as witty and analytical as a Virgo, but this can lead to you being easily overwhelmed and self-destructive.

Pisces: Feb 19-Mar 20 Ruled by Neptune Lucky stuff: aqua, Tuesday You are a romantic and imaginative angel, with a tendency to be self-pitying and clingy.

Out of Site — Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection

18.02.17– 23.04.17

Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi – your gallery on Kelburn campus

FREE ENTRY Tuesday–Sunday, 11am–5pm The gallery is located beside the Student Union building on Kelburn campus adamartgallery.org.nz

See you again next week, â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Salient

HELLO Send your art submission to designer@salient.org.nz and be in to win a $100 Gordon Harris voucher.