Surveillance | Issue 19

The Art of Surveillance Orion Holder-Monk Who Owns My Data?

Theo Barnard We See You Laura Toailoa Jamie Madhavan Emily Fatu Wiliame Gucake

Salient Issue 19

Surveillance

Vol. 79

Are your cultural achievements great?

Nominate yourself for a GOLD AWARD

THE INAUGURAL 2016

GOLD & SUPREME CLUBS AWARDS ARE NOW OPEN! Think your club’s achievements are great?

Nominate it for a SUPREME CLUB AWARD

These awards recognise outstanding contributions across cultural activities and clubs

Apply at vuwsa.org.nz/golds-awards by 9th September at 5pm For more information email activities@vuwsa.org.nz The Gold & Supreme Club Awards will be held 6 October at Victoria University Kelburn

FACULTY GAMES SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 16 SEPTEMBER / 12PM - 4PM BOYD-WILSON FIELD REGISTER NOW

vuwsa.org/faculty-games

For more information visit vuwsa.org/faculty-games

Contents Features

16

Art of Surveillance

20

We See You

26

Who Owns My Data?

Opinion 15

News

Drones: Who Decides Who Dies

7

Assaults in Aro Valley

8

Tension building over contentious extension

9

VUW makes bank on Karori campus

10

Unsustainable hypocrisy at Te Aro campus

Regular Content 12

One Ocean

34

Letters & Notices

12

Māori Matters

36

Poetry

13

Gee Mail

37

Visual Arts

13

VUWSA Exec

38

Music

30

Queer Agenda

40

Film

30

Breathing space

42

Games

31

Stressed, Depressed, Well-Dressed,

43

TV

31

Mates in the States

44

Books

32

W.W.T.A.W.W.T.A.S

45

Theatre

32

“Sports”

46

Puzzles

33

Digitales

Editors: Emma Hurley Jayne Mulligan

Editor's Letter surveillance, the acceptance of corporate surveillance as normal and inevitable; these are issues that deserve scrutiny and debate. We carry phones that track our every movement, we dissipate data about where we are, who we are communicating with, what we are reading and writing online, and how we are spending our money. This pocket surveillance is unprecedented, even by dystopian novelist standards, as Theo discusses in Who Owns My Data?

We live in a relatively free country. For the most part, we can be critical of our government, we can speak freely, and we can create provocative discussion, art, and academic discourse. This is a privilege that we need to hold on to; as Orion writes in his piece Art of Surveillance, it is not so easy in many nations, and artists such as Ai Weiwei who criticise the government are closely monitored, oppressed, and persecuted for speaking out.

As Youngsolwara have learned, sometimes a government’s oppression comes in the form of invisibility; suppressing their ability to speak out about their very existence, as is the case for citizens of West Papua.

Students on campus have banded together to give West Papua visibility.

The Government is seeking to pass a bill that would ease information sharing between the GCSB and the SIS, and allow the government to spy on New Zealanders in the name of “protecting national security.” Warrants will have to be signed off by the Attorney-General and a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants.

The government also wants to introduce prosecutions for whistleblowers (those with a government security clearance, or access to classified information, who copy or leak privileged information), of up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

This bill highlights the importance of turning the currently loose definition of ‘national security’ into a more concrete one. This, however, is where politics enters. Who defines what constitutes a breach of national security?

Who determines what threatens national security? The looser this definition, the more politicised it can become under the government of the day. Should the government be the one to decide this definition?

What sway do the concerns of public interest have in matters of national security. How many members of our government believe that Edward Snowden should be prosecuted, or that he is a traitor to his nation.

The prosecution of whistleblowers, the justification of national security as a response to increasingly pervasive

Emma & Jayne xoxo

05

Going Up

*Interview* with Beyoncé

•

Lisa’s Feta + Baby Spinach with Black Pepper dip. It’s a revelation.

•

The price of Karori Campus—$10 in 2014, $20mil in 2016.

•

National treasure Eliza McCartney.

•

The DCM Book Fair.

•

Blonde by Frank Ocean.

How does it feel to be the most supreme being on earth?

Don’t flatter me. But for real though male or female it make no difference I’ll stop the world. *world stops*. Carry on. *world carries on*.

Did you enjoy this year’s MTV VMA’s?

It was pretty funny when Drake tried to kiss Rihanna and she dodged it, she can smash windows with baseball bats with me anytime.

Going Down •

Seeing your ex on Tinder.

•

Minister for the Environment / cow apologist Nick Smith.

•

The Real Housewives of Auckland. Plz make it stop.

•

Getting the flu during mid-tri break.

•

Lyin’ Ryan Lochte.

Can you tell us who “Becky with the good hair” is?

Helen Clark.

Do you ever miss the Destiny’s Child girls?

Who? Kanye or Kendrick?

Obama.

How many people helped write Lemonade?

Literally name one person who didn’t.

Humdingers

New York department store Barneys has been criticised for selling “distressed” sneakers for nearly $900. The shoes are deliberately dirty, ripped, and have duct tape covering the front sole. But don’t worry fashionistas on a budget, you can pick up exact replicas hanging on the power lines in Lower Hutt.

A fisherman in the Philippines has been sleeping on top of one of the world’s largest natural pearls for over a decade. The pearl was hidden under his bed, weighs over 34kgs, and is valued at $137 million dollars.

06

05.09.16

news@salient.org.nz

News

Assaults in Aro Valley

07

Alex Feinson

university should be actively monitoring areas where we’ve had reports in the past, such as Boyd-Wilson steps.

We’d like to see plans put in place to increase security in these areas.”

Lights were installed along the Boyd Wilson steps to the Terrace following a series of sexual assaults in 2013 and 2014.

Mayoral candidate Justin Lester responded to the news of the assaults by vowing to upgrade the walkways and street lighting around university areas if he wins the election. Lester said that this was a priority for him, as he wants to “ensure every Wellingtonian can feel safe getting around our city at night.”

Lester has only specifically stated he will light up Plimmer steps, Wigan Street, and Forresters Lane.

Matire Ward thinks Lester’s proposal to “light up areas already lit” is “a joke,” because it does not target studentpopulated areas like Aro Valley or the locations where the assaults took place.

VUWSA supports the Thursdays in Black campaign, led by Tertiary Women New Zealand and the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations, that aims to take a stand against rape and violence. Members of VUWSA have had training from the Sexual Abuse Prevention Network, and they have been working with the university in the past few years to “get sexual violence prevention on the agenda,” resulting in the formation of the University’s Sexual Violence Prevention Working Group and a poster campaign around campus.

The Kelburn Library has two different types of protection alarms for hire. One works on campus, contacting security when pressed, and is only available for staff members. The other type is for students to hire, and consists of a loud alarm and bright light. These items are not regularly issued, nor are they listed on the university’s website, or advertised by the library.

Gee suggested that students who feel unsafe walking to and from campus should ensure someone knows where they are and have their phone on them. If they feel unsafe they could call the police or campus security on 04 463 9999.

There have been reports of at least two assaults on students in the area between Kelburn campus and Aro Valley, around Fairlie Terrace. The assaults were reported to VUWSA, Victoria University, the police, and posted online.

A post was made to the Overheard @ Vic Facebook page on August 19 by Masters student Matire Ward warning students of the assaults.

Ward made the post after a student told her that they had been grabbed and chased from Aro Valley to the Te Puni hall by a male assailant while on the way to an evening exam.

VUWSA posted two warnings on their Facebook page on August 22 and 23 about the assaults. The first post said that VUWSA had notified the university, advocacy and security groups on campus, and the police about the incidents. The second post informed students that police would be patrolling the areas where the alleged assaults took place.

VUWSA President Jonathan Gee said, “we acted quickly once reports of physical and sexual assault were made to us. We informed the relevant services, including the university. We also also informed students via Facebook. We followed up with those who contacted us and have identified areas in which lighting can be improved, including Dixon St steps, Fairlie Terrace above Te Puni, and Adams Terrace stairs. I’ve informed our local city councillor of these areas to ensure it is given urgent attention.”

Jenny Bentley, the Victoria University Director of Campus Services, was quoted in news reports up until August 26 saying that the university had not been notified about any assaults occurring in the area at the time.

A VUW staff member, who wished to remain anonymous, told Salient that they notified campus security, and the course co-ordinator of the paper that the student was about to sit the exam for, immediately after hearing from the victim about the incident. The staff member said Bentley’s claim that the university was not aware of the assaults at the time of the news reports prior to August 26 is “categorically not true,” and “outrageous.”

VUWSA President Jonathan Gee believed that “the

Scarfie Watch: A Warning to the Wicked

Tension building over contentious extension

A group of Dunedin-based students have united under the name ‘Scarfie Watch’ to battle burglaries.

Scarfie Watch grew from a MGMT 252 assignment which asked that students address a prevailing social issue.

19 year old Daniel Paten is the latest member, having joined after his bike and various friends’ belongings were stolen from their central flats.

According to Paten, encouraging attentiveness towards flat security is something “they all feel passionately about.”

The students have developed a Facebook page on which they’ll be sharing videos, advice, and stories of previous thefts.

One of the worst cases this year to occur in Dunedin’s student quarter was an intrusion by four women that left a flat absolutely devastated.

Dunedin police have struggled to determine the perpetrators, managing to link only one to a particular theft. The police stated their intention is to get the recovered property back to it’s rightful owners.

VUW students claim that despite the recent rise in thievery in Dunedin, the fear is as present as it always has been.

VUW Annie Strachan says “If you lock your door, there’s little else you can do to avoid it. It’s just frustrating that people would do it in the first place—particularly because they know what it’s like to be a student.”

Hundreds of individuals, airlines, and residents’ associations have spoken out in opposition to Wellington Airport’s plan to build a 355 metre runway extension.

The Airport’s resource consent request for the project received 776 submissions, with 525 opposing the construction of the extension.

Air New Zealand and Qantas both said that, despite potential economic benefits, the investment in infrastructure would likely result in increased ticket prices which has the potential to reduce demand, thus having negative economic impacts.

Other individuals were concerned about the environmental impacts as well as the construction noise and cost of the project.

Some submitters also referred to the Airline Pilots’ Association concerns regarding emergency stopping areas on the runway.

Applications in favour of the extension primarily point to the opportunity for economic growth. Parties in favour include, Weta Workshop, World of Wearable Arts, as well as tertiary institutions such as WelTec, Whitireia, and Victoria University—who hope it will help them gain a larger stake in the international student market.

Mayoral candidates Jo Coughlan, Justin Lester, and Nick Leggett are also in favour of the extension.

The submissions will now be heard by the Environment Court as part of the resource consent process.

Parliament will be launching a service that will allow the public to use free wifi inside parliament, as part of an initiative to make parliament more welcoming and accessible to visitors.

Claire Curran, MP and chair of the parliamentary cross party committee for ICT, is responsible for the launch of the service and said that “this is another step forward in making parliament more accessible to the public.”

The service will be available in all publicly accessible areas of parliament where use of mobile devices are permitted, and in future will also be extended to cover parliament grounds.

Chief Information Officer for the Parliamentary Service, Michael Middlemiss, who is responsible for the implementation of the network said there would be no content restrictions on the network.

Victoria University Law and Commerce students fed up with the university’s filtering of “objectionable websites” can now walk across the road and enjoy such websites in the public gallery, gift shop, and other such parliamentary hotspots.

Women saying no to UC 2015 saw the number of women studying at the University of Canterbury (UC) fall below 50 per cent of the student body for the first time in ten years.

In 2015 women, studying full-time at UC, comprised 49.5 per cent of the student body.

By comparison, Victoria University sits at 55.9%, University of Otago 57%, and the University of Auckland 55.4%. Lincoln has the lowest percentage of full-time female students enrolled at just 47.6% of their student body.

UC’s vice-chancellor Rod Carr says the decrease in female enrollments stems from increased enrollments in traditionally male-dominated subjects such as engineering and science-based subjects.

“In our College of Education for instance about 70 to 80 per cent of those students are typically female and in the College of Engineering typically 80 per cent of those students are male. What’s happened over the past five years is the proportion of engineering students has risen and the proportion of arts and education students has declined,” he says.

The decline has been steady since the earthquakes and has taken place alongside a drop in arts enrolments, but Carr is confident it will rise again over the next few years.

08

Kate Robertson

Saeran Maniparathy

Now you can scab free wi-fi at Uncle John’s house

Saeran Maniparathy

McKenzie Collins

05.09.16

Student homelessness

VUW makes bank on Karori campus

Recent research has confirmed the prevalence of homelessness amongst students and the wider population.

Statistical analysis undertaken by Dr Kate Amore of the University of Otago (Wellington) has revealed that homelessness has grown by 15 per cent across the country between the 2006 and 2013 censuses.

The general increase is largely due to increasing living costs in combination with non-responsive incomes.

Dr Amore says that “in 2013, more than half (52 per cent) of homeless adults were working, studying, or both, up from 49 per cent in 2006.”

Statistics New Zealand considers homelessness as a state of having no permanent shelter or safe haven, and this definition excludes severely inadequate living situations.

Student homelessness is not an unknown issue, and has affected many different demographics, however the housing market’s prohibitory state against students is only just being formally recognised.

The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA) are urging for an expanded definition of homelessness, as the one currently held by Statistics New Zealand “has exclusions that punish students unfairly,” while they suffer poor housing quality and living situations.

In agreement, Dr Amore and NZUSA would prefer a more inclusive approach to reduce levels of homelessness, as affected people are slipping through the cracks of a failing welfare system and are denied the opportunity to increase their quality of life.

The employment opportunities afforded to university graduates tend to allow a greater potential to escape homelessness, however the wider, and growing, trend will not be resolved without recognition of the structural barriers that prohibit access to safe and affordable accommodation for a large number of New Zealanders.

Dr Amore says that people shouldn’t have to live on the streets for the government to show concern and take substantive action.

“Students are living in impossible situations,” NZUSA President Linsey Higgins echoes.

Despite the Dr Amore’s analysis revealing of the scale of homelessness amongst students, there are some strategies already in place to tackle this growing issue.

Of particular note is Te Mahana in Wellington which is endorsed by many government agencies and community organisations. They have the broad goal of “increasing housing affordability, reducing poverty, and increasing household incomes” by incorporating culturally-specific steps to combat homelessness.

Victoria University will be selling Karori campus for an estimated $20 million, after purchasing it from the government in 2014 for just $10.

The campus is made up of 20 buildings and covers 3.7ha.

Up until 2016 the campus was home to the Faculty of Education and much of the recently outsourced Foundation Studies program.

Campus facilities include classrooms and lecture theatres, but also tennis courts, pools, a hall, a gym, and music suites.

The decision to sell the campus has come after a lengthy review that looked into a number of options for repurposing the campus as accommodation, redeveloping it for other parts of the university, or finding another user.

When speaking on the decision, Vice-Chancellor Grant Guildford said “the role of the Karori campus has long been a subject of debate within Victoria, primarily because of Karori’s distance from the university’s other main campuses, which are in, or close to, the central city.”

“This isolation has always created a sense of disconnection for staff and students at Karori,” he added.

Chief operating officer Mark Loveard echoed this, saying “at the end of the day it comes down to our students and staff really want to be on the main campus, where they have access to support and services.”

Mayoral candidate Jo Coughlan is strongly encouraging the Wellington City Council to acquire the campus, saying, “if we have the asset in the city’s control then we create options for what Wellington may wish to do with this site.”

“There will undoubtedly be strong commercial interest in the site. A mix of commercial and community use for this site may be the best outcome overall. Let’s keep our options open at this stage,” she adds.

Mayoral candidate Justin Lester is also in support of it remaining with the community, and is “urging” the university to work with the Council to retain the facilities.

“It’s essential the campus’ community and sports facilities are retained for future use by Karori residents,” he said.

The Wellington City Council is yet to state whether or not it will seek to acquire the campus, but says they will “continue to work with the community and university to explore options for the community to use campus facilities during the sale process.”

The campus is currently used by the Karori Tennis Club, netballers, Karori Taekwondo, Karori Junior Cricket Club, Fiona Haines dance school, and Karori Normal School.

If you are unable to sustain a healthy living situation you may be eligible for accommodation supplements through Studylink and/or Work and Income New Zealand.

09

Kate Robertson

Billy Dancer

05.09.16

Quiz Unsustainable hypocrisy at Te Aro campus 1. Which trio of early 2000s pop bands last week announced a New Zealand show?

2. Who is headlining everyone’s favourite trash festival Rhythm and Vines this year?

3. What season of Grey’s Anatomy saw Denny Duquette die?

5. How many people watched Real Housewives of Auckland during its first week across all platforms?

6. According to the Richie McCaw biopic Chasing Great, why does Gemma Flynn find Richie “extraordinary”?

7. How much money does the NRL minor premiership winning team receive?

8. How many seasons of The Only Way Is Essex have there been to date?

9. Which rapper last week had his Ferrari repossessed while shopping for Bentley’s with his girlfriend?

10. Which Kardashian is the best?

Thomas Croskery

4. Who won the VMA for Best New Artist?

A Victoria University architecture student has started a petition to install solar panels on the roof space at Te Aro campus.

Fourth-year landscape architecture student, Matthew Stone, launched the change.org petition to encourage the Faculty of Architecture and Design to convert to a more sustainable form of energy consumption at the Te Aro campus.

Stone claims the courses taught by the faculty promote the value of “innovative and sustainable” architectural models. Despite this, there has been no change in the school’s energy consumption to reflect this.

He believes that the current cosmetic upgrade at the campus is lacking sustainable technology and “is not being conducted in accordance with the high standards we would expect from our lecturers and mentors.” The petition lists four reasons as to why the changes should be made.

Sustainable design concepts can be integrated into the renovation process, the petition claims, as it is still in the development process.

The school’s carbon neutral reputation is “unjustified without any sustainable systems in place.”

“The roof has a wide range of potential uses, and a space is needed which reflects the values taught by the faculty to enable students to “make a difference in our professions and in our communities.”

Stone’s idea is to create a building that is as ambitious as its students when it comes to the environmentally conscious movement within the design industry.

One of the university’s areas of distinctive academic emphasis is “enhancing the resilience and sustainability of our natural heritage and capital.”

Initiatives such as a recycling scheme and a carbon neutral certification are proof of this.

The petition is supported by the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Design, Robin Skinner, and has 226 signatures, at the time of writing, with Stone encouraging more to sign in order to achieve funding for the initiative.

1) Atomic Kitten, B*Witched, and S Club 3. 2) Chance the Rapper. 3) Two. 4) DNCE. 5) 632,600. 6) Because he’s “completely ordinary.” 7) $100,000. 8) 18. 9) Tyga. 10) Khloe, obviously.

The five finalists for the 2016 APRA Silver Scroll Award have been announced.

The Silver Scroll has been awarded annually since 1965, and is New Zealand’s most prestigious songwriting award.

This year’s top five are the Phoenix Foundation for “Give Up Your Dreams”, Tami and Jay Neilson for “The First Man”, Thomas Oliver for “If I Move To Mars”, Lydia Cole for “Dream”, and Street Chant for “Pedestrian Support League”.

The finalists have already beaten out those initially shortlisted including Dave Dobbyn, LEISURE, and David Dallas, among others.

Tami Neilson took home the Silver Scroll in 2014 for her song “Walk (Back to Your Arms)”.

While this is the first nomination for both Street Chant and Thomas Oliver, the Phoenix Foundation have now been nominated six times over the years.

In an interview with Salient last year, Phoenix Foundation frontman Samuel Scott described “Give Up Your Dreams” as “1980s Jane-Fonda-aerobics-video-music mixed with a depressing lyric.”

Last year’s Silver Scroll was won by Ruben and Kody Neilson for the song “Multi-Love”.

The awards will be held on September 29 at Vector Arena, with a live video stream being available on the RNZ website.

LAW Postgraduate Study Information Evening Thursday 22 September 2016, 6pm Staff Common Room Level 4, 9 Eden Crescent Auckland City Come along and meet some of our academics, ask questions and find out about our postgraduate programmes, along with our new PhD fellowship and scholarship opportunities.

For more information and to register visit: www.law.auckland.ac.nz/ information-evening

Another university crumbling to the ground

A leaked report has revealed that most staff at Unitec are worn out by the chaotic and ruthless working environment.

The report stated only ten per cent of staff would recommend working at the polytechnic.

President of Unitec’s chapter of the Tertiary Education Union, Wei Loo, said Unitec had received -56 on a staff support survey where zero was neutral.

“If we were talking about an organisation or a corporation in the business sector, -56 would warrant drastic intervention or action,” Loo said.

The dissatisfaction comes after several years of restructuring that moved an unusually high number of teaching resources online.

In some cases, students are now grouped together in broad disciplinary areas, operating more like a self-taught workplace, with industry professionals coming in as parttime tutors and lecturers.

One staff member noted that “some schools are not recommending Unitec to their students at present which is very worrying… job security is not buoyant at present.”

Unitec chief executive Rick Ede said that despite the feedback, they would not be “changing tack,” instead agreeing to slow down the rate of change.

Despite the staffing problems, Ede said the number of students unenrolling from courses was lower than it had been in previous years.

Kate Robertson

Kate Robertson

Silver Scroll Awards creep closer

05.09.16

Maori Matters

One Ocean

Raimona Tapiata

Laura Toailoa

Ko te kaupapa hei arohaehae i tēnei wiki ko te “surveillance.” Heoi, he kaupapa uaua, he kaupapa hou, otirā, he tauhou ahau ki te kaupapa nei.

Nōreira au ka timata ki te rangahau, ā, e ai ki te Papakupu Māori (http://maoridictionary.co.nz) ko tōna kupu Māori ko te “tūtai”, arā, “to keep watch, spy, scout out, keep under surveillance, watch.”

Nā tēnei māramatanga, ka toko ake ētahi kaupapa i te hirikapo. Ko te whakaekeekenga o ngā Pirihimana ki Tūhoe tērā i te tau 2007 tētahi kaupapa hāngai ki te “surveillance.”

Heoi, ko tāku he kōrero mo ngā āhuatanga ka hahū mai i ngā kitenga o Youtube, o Pukamata. He maha anō ngā āhuatanga ka hunaia e ngā Kāwanatanga, e ngā rangatira kaipakihi o te ao kia hunaia ētahi kōrero, ētahi kaupapa rānei e hāngai ana ki te whai moni, ki ngā āhuatanga tōrangapū rānei. Ka kitea tēnei āhuatanga i ngā whenua katoa o te motu, ā, kua waiho ki a Youtube, ki a Pukamata rānei kia puta ngā kōrero tūturu ki te ao.

Hei tauira, kei te tipu tonu te reo o te marea ki ngā hara o ngā Pirihimana ki te hunga e tika ana kia tiakina e rātou. Kei Amerika ngā tino tauira o te āhua kaikiri o te Pirihimana, ā, ko te hua, ko te riri, ko te mamae o ngā iwi mangumangu o reira. Ae, kua kawea e ngā rōpū pāpāhō ēnei kōrero ki te ao, engari ko te nuinga o ngā kiriata e whakaatu ana i te kino o ēnei hara ka whakairihia ki te ipurangi kia puta ki te ao.

I ētahi whenua, pērā i a Papua ki te Uru, kua mū katoa te reo o te tangata kua aupēhitia nā ngā ture o te Kāwanatanga o te whenua rā. Ā, nā ngā here a tō tātou ake Kāwanatanga, nā te kuare rānei, kāore ngā kōrero nei e puta ki te motu. Nā whai anō kua noho kuare tātou, ā, kua waiho ki te tokoiti anake, te hunga mōhio, kia kawe i ngā nawe nei ki te Kāwanatanga hei aruaru.

I ētahi horopaki, he mea pai te whakamahi i te ipurangi hei whakapāoho i ngā kaupapa kōrero nei, kia kaua e hunaia, kia ātā rongo, kia ātā kite te ao i ngā kōrero tūturu mo te ao katoa, kia kaua anō hoki e hunaia kia parea ki rāhaki.

I’m very self-conscious when I’m in predominantly white spaces (e.g. Wellington). This self-consciousness doesn’t always necessarily translate to low self-esteem.

It’s a hyper anxious awareness that being a visible other might mean I’m by default a representative person. This realisation turns into smugness when I get to show them: See! Not all of us are like the brown people you see on the news! We’re more than sports stars, musicians, and gangstas.

On the one hand, I think, who the fuck cares about what other people think about me and my being Pasifika?! My life is my life and I don’t have to represent every brown person ever. I don’t have to prove to palagi that we’re a diverse group of complex people that are simultaneously heroic and unheroic. We’re all human.

But on the other hand, practically, there will be situations in which I’ll be the first or one of the few people in the room or a part of conversations that lack Pasifika voices and faces. I can’t afford to be completely selfish when I’m in a place of privilege in which people are listening to my voice. When we go from being invisible to hyper visible, and if I have the chance to influence people’s perhaps narrow perception of brown people, I can’t just think of myself as an individual—I do not have that luxury.

Upon further reflection I realised that, even in Samoan contexts, we’re representatives of our families and our villages. We’re constantly speaking on behalf of.

If they know your last name, and where it comes from, you no longer stand as just you.

This responsibility becomes tiresome sometimes, feeling like I’m always representing something, someone, or a group of someones. But then I remember that every privilege and success I’ve enjoyed is founded on sacrifices made by those who went before me. My family, artists, educators, leaders, and so many others have opened doors I so easily walk through today. I benefit from those who spoke on behalf of me.

I’m learning now that whenever I’m representing Oceania, Samoa, or my family, I’m not speaking to gain approval, to educate, or to wow those who are looking and listening. Instead, I’m making those whom I speak on behalf of proud.

12

Gee-mail Jonathan Gee VUWSA President Election season is upon us! I’m feeling very nostalgic at the moment, thinking back two years ago when I first ran for VUWSA as Academic Vice President. Choosing to run for the VUWSA executive has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life, and I would encourage anyone who has a passion for students to come forward!

Five reasons you should run for the 2017 VUWSA executive: 1. Voice of students It’s not every day that you get to say that you represent 22,000 people and work day-in and day-out to advance their interests. We are the key stakeholders at the university and a huge interest group in the Wellington region, and by serving on the Executive, you get to be the voice for those who are often unheard.

VUWSA Exec Anya Maule Wellbeing and Sustainability Officer

2. Be at the decision-making table VUWSA is mandated in university policy to sit on a range of decision-making bodies alongside management and academics. We help deliberate on issues such as what new qualifications that Vic should introduce and how the Student Services Levy should be spent.

This is a public service announcement from your Wellbeing and Sustainability Officer: As a keen environmentalist, I’m aware that environmentalism comes in all sizes. But I’ve always been a proponent of small things that can be done on a daily basis, from hanging out your washing instead of using the dryer, or taking a reusable coffee cup. For me, it’s about lessening our environmental impacts, but saving a few (or more) dollars is always a bonus.

And if you’re anything like me, the sight of properly separated recycling and waste gets me a bit giddy (okay, maybe it’s better if you’re not like me…). Moving from Auckland, where rubbish and recycling is separated into wheelie bins, to Wellington, where few properties even have accessibility for such bins, it took some getting used to the bag system, what goes into each bag, and the fact you have to pay for them!

However we’ve collaborated with Victoria University and the Wellington City Council to bring you discounted rubbish bags, free recycling bags (for the ‘burbs’), along with a handy pamphlet (printed on 100% recycled paper—yeah, baby!), outlining what can and can’t go in each bag.

Pop into the VUWSA office at the Kelburn and Pipitea campuses from this week with your student ID. Let them know which area you live in, and get your rubbish bags at half the cost from anywhere else. We sell single bags or packs of five. Just so it’s fair for other students, we ask you only purchase a minimum of five per visit. Happy recycling!

3. Lead an organisation VUWSA is independent from the university. We not only provide representation at the university, but also provide services which are largely managed by our staff. Our governance structure puts students at the top of the organisation. Our student executive not only represents students, but sets the strategic direction to allow the organisation to grow.

4. People I’ve met a huge and diverse group of people while working for VUWSA. My work involves engaging with student leaders, senior university managers, politicians, journalists, community leaders, and many more.

5. Build student experience Being on VUWSA allows you to play a part in building an outstanding student experience at Victoria. Whether it’s leading social events, like O-Week, on campus, or pushing for extended library hours, we help make student life better at Vic. So what are you waiting for? Run for the VUWSA executive today!

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NICOLA YOUNG KEITH JOHNSON

NICK LEGGETT

HELENE RITCHIE

ANDY FOSTER JUSTIN LESTER JO COUGHLAN

JOHNNY OVERTON

THE GREAT FACE OFF MAYORAL DEBATE

14TH SEPTEMBER / 1PM IN THE HUB Hosted by RadioNZ local government reporter, Michael Cropp.

Wellington mayoral candidates square off at the VUWSA and VUW Politics Society’s Mayoral Debate.

Discussing Fairer Fares, Rental Warrant of Fitness, and more.

Your chance to ask those hard-hitting questions!

For more information visit vuwsa.org/mayoral-debate

Drones: Who Decides Who Dies

Opinion

Nicole Fyfe

The emergence of virtual warfare and the concerns surrounding it, has seen an increased consideration of the practices in real life, in representations on our screens, and throughout popular culture. The 2015 movie Eye in the Sky, directed by Gavin Hood, brings with it discussions of morality in real life and the inaccuracies and accuracies we are faced with on our screens. It, like many films, acts as a symptomatic text of its time by reflecting current anxieties and issues.

A drone is a weapon used by contemporary militaries; it is an unmanned aerial vehicle that is operated from afar and seen by very few. The first type of unmanned vehicle was used in the Kosovo War in Yugoslavia in 1998, which was history’s first “virtual or postmodern war.” Drones were later employed in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and have since been used in many bombings and as a means to assassinate people in several countries. In places like Afghanistan and Pakistan drones appear daily in the skies, and despite being launched from Afghanistan, they are largely flown by joystick pilots who are safely positioned at air force bases within the US. A majority of the drones are equipped with hellfire missiles or smart bombs and once the pilots have located the target on their screens, they can fire the weapons by simply pushing a button.

Eye in the Sky acts as a springboard for conversation and engagement in thinking towards such issues. While some see drones as an effective form to counter the threat posed by terrorists, others see them as death machines, which prey on people and reap death. Eye in the Sky also exposes America’s increased reliance on drone warfare. America has come to rely on the use of drones to counter the threat posed by terrorists. As such, America is often placed in a pro-drone position, under which the drones are believed to operate in a surgically precise manner, with minimal downsides and collateral impacts.

Much of the ethical debate surrounding drone use, however, is the horrific manner in which innocent lives are lumped with the targets of such strikes, and the manner of such killings creates a cognitive and emotional distance. Following the Second World War the US and UK made an agreement regarding intelligence sharing; an agreement that applies to drone strikes and underlies Europe’s participation in this type of warfare. Today, this agreement involves an assemblage of countries that collect and share military intelligence with one another. The ability to collect, share, and analyse a large amount of data has meant a new way of war has been established; one that revolves around the tracking and killing of individuals worldwide.

Eye in the Sky’s plot is driven by the decision to use a drone to kill and remove an extremist group who are preparing for a suicide bombing in Nairobi, Kenya. What ensues is a moral battle between various political members as to whether they should strike now, wait, or not strike at all. In the end the strike is authorized and while the extremists are killed, so is an innocent civilian child. Eye in the Sky uses the interplay of psychology and the personal ethics of surveillance to explore politics and legality of whether or not to strike. For example, the man operating the drone, who is the one who would fire the weapon, shows a more emotional response than the general in charge, who wants the threats eliminated despite the potential collateral damage. These collateral damage issues have become one of the biggest ethical considerations surrounding drones, as they have been blamed for a significant number of deaths on the ground. What drones also tend to do is distance the operator from the target by reducing bodies into data or pure information. In the process of constructing these identities, human beings are reduced to what data reveals about them. As argued by Wall and Monahan, this also reduces any “variation, difference and noise that may impede action or introduce moral ambiguity.”

It is important for us to remember all surveillance and dataveillance systems are susceptible to errors, and drone-based surveillance systems are of no exception—as demonstrated by verified cases of ‘collateral damage’ caused by drone strikes. Eye in the Sky reminds us that we need to recognise the costs and implications of drone warfare, opposed to accepting it as an accurate and necessary part of modern warfare and surveillance.

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Orion Holder-Monk

The Art of Surveillance

Ai Weiwei, Surveillance Camera and Plinth, 2015, marble

“You are no longer peacefully assembled�

Fatima Al Qadiri, Brute

Art has forever been a process of observing, interpreting, and expressing. The artist may follow a meticulous process, or be subconsciously compelled down the path.

Having a strong ability to observe and interpret is what produces art that has lasting effects on societies and movements. As Robert Rauschenberg said, “the artist’s job is to be a witness to his time in history.” An artist’s role in society was not merely to produce something with expression but to also record the important events of a time. Paintings depicting the plague or great battles served as reminders and lessons. This process of observation and reflection is important in all industries and situations as humans learn by observing and imitating, or improving upon. As our civilisations grew, we undertook this surveillance of the world around us together. It provided security and the ability to be more comfortable.

The studies of sociology and psychology furthered our understanding of people by intensely monitoring individuals and groups. And now all this surveillance is used in order to provide us greater and greater ‘convenience’. For instance, you might install an app that tracks your fitness: you provide the data of where you walk, what you eat, your weight etc., and then this app can help you decide what to eat in order to stay healthy.

And these sorts of things are great, who wouldn’t want to become more healthy? But they often aren’t isolating the data just to you, this data is gathered and re-distributed, and just as it can prompt you to be more healthy, it can be used as a form of control.

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The idea of ‘convenience’ vs. ‘control’ is an important spectrum from which to understand surveillance and it applies in much larger examples than apps. The most obvious situation of this is being a citizen of a country.

We are provided all of the conveniences of being a citizen such as healthcare, education, identification etc., and we are under certain amounts of surveillance and control from the information that the government holds on us. Getting this balance right is important for governments, as ideally a government’s primary focus should be the wellbeing and security of its people. However some governments use surveillance for far more control than is arguably needed.

Within China there are strict rules in regards to what information its citizens can access or distribute, and the government has huge surveillance capabilities to monitor citizens in order to exercise control. China’s situation is why the work of artist Ai Weiwei is so relevant and engaging. Ai Weiwei, well known for his work on the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing, has been very politically active in China since a young age. Much of his upbringing was in a labour camp post Mao’s Anti-Rightist movement.

His father, the poet Ai Qing, had been one of the many artists and intellectuals persecuted for being involved with groups opposing Kuomintang or Chinese Nationalist Party ideals. Ai Weiwei, being the son of an outspoken poet, and growing up after a time of aggressive suppression, was shaped into an artist critical of surveillance and aware of national issues.

After years of posting his thoughts, critiques, and musings on politics to his Sina Weibo blog he eventually struck a major nerve which got it shut down, and himself thrust into the government’s eye. It was after the 2008 Sichuan Earthquakes when he became motivated to investigate the affected areas. The reporting from governments had been very incomplete, and appeared to be hiding shady building standards in public buildings and schools in particular. He began what is known as the Citizens’ Investigation, which consisted of Ai Weiwei and around 100 volunteers who would visit the affected areas and record the names of students killed or missing. The result of this investigation was a list of 5192 students, with their names, ages, region, school, grade. This has been displayed in galleries around the world, plain black text in tables on white paper. The sheer magnitude of this list is overwhelming, with it covering many walls.

This citizen led investigation turned the situation of surveillance on its head for China, for such a long time it had been a one way street, with citizens accepting the surveillance they were under. Now that citizens were grouping together to investigate the official government’s word the control had shifted. And so the use of surveillance and police power by the government increased in response, the volunteers were targeted by police and 25 volunteers involved in field work were arrested or detained multiple times. Ai Weiwei is not not the sort of person to shy away from encounters with law enforcement; his prominent blog, Twitter account, and a camera symbols of resistance that challenge and antagonise government officials. His steadfast use of these tools have made for some heated encounters, with one resulting in hospital time for a concussion after a raid on his hotel in the middle of the night. This politically motivated art eventually came to a crisis point in 2011 when Ai suddenly disappeared. For 81 days his

whereabouts were unknown. When he did reappear he was under government arrest, and had had all of his travel documents removed, effectively isolating him. He couldn’t and didn’t talk about it, which is a big deal considering how outspoken he had been in the past about government corruption. But this didn’t stop him expressing himself in a determined, peaceful way.

Outside his apartment complex there was a bicycle with a basket, right in view of his gate. And each day he would go outside and place a fresh bouquet of flowers in the basket and take a photo. This became a beautiful somber collection of around 600 photos of the arrangement. This silent persistent protest spoke all the words he could not, the language was one of love, beauty, and strength in the face of the enormous pressing force of surveillance and control.

Ai Weiwei is difficult for the Chinese government to contain as he would play by the rules, but push them as far as he could. They could they labelled him a troublemaker and disturber of the peace, but could never make him out to be evil. This language is an important tool in maintaining control and legitimizing surveillance. The war on terror, or describing protests as riots, are such examples. In order to legitimize the level of surveillance, we as a society need to feel under threat and in a compromised enough position that we would give up our civil liberties. Ai Weiwei continues to be a vocal supporter for accountability in governments and encourage engagement in politics by citizens. His latest plan for work labelled The Red Line came about after Ai received an invitation to the Yinchuan Museum Biennale, which contained a large red scribble depicting where he could place his art. He intended to replicate it in his grand playful style as a “rumination on the idea of censorship.”

His invitation was later rescinded due to Ai’s “prestige overshadowing his work,” which is the predictable language Ai has come to expect from government officials, on his Twitter he posted that “art is used merely as a decoration for political agendas in certain societies.”

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they know they are under surveillance. Elizabeth Stoycheff describes the result as the “spiral of silence.” There were two groups, one of which had been told they were under surveillance, while the other were not told. Their online activity was then monitored and some fake posts were made regarding contentious political issues such as military deployment. The group that was told they were under surveillance were reliably less likely to express their opinions. One of the greatest things about the internet early on was the ability to express your views or thoughts to a very wide audience. This is how many successful protest campaigns thrived. But as people become more aware of their surveillance they will self-censor and repress opinions to fit in with the ‘majority view’. This is increasingly problematic for minority groups as this spiral of silence encourages only a mainstream view of the world, and if that doesn’t include a place for them then there are less people to be allies to their cause, and more complicity in their oppression.

Because of the invisible way that modern surveillance works we increasingly need people to be outspoken, to call out and challenge these ideas. We need for these issues to be out in the open and spoken about. Otherwise the control will continue and grow, and our ability to express will be subdued more and more. Fatima and Ai Weiwei are important figures demonstrating that we have the ability to react to the apparent status quo. Their work encourages discussion and reflection. Their work is a display of strength and peace and is a silent support for anyone out there who needs some strength to stand out and express themselves.

Fatima Al Qadiri has a voice that sharply challenges the language of control. Having come from Kuwait and being based in New York, her unique perspective on control is refreshing to the narrative that the West is a far more civilised and advanced society. “I attended my first large scale protest in the states in 1999, I have never seen more cops in my entire life. There were cops on horses, on bicycles, on bikes, in cars and helicopters. I had a very rude awakening; the illusion of American democracy was destroyed almost instantly.”

She discusses the government’s curbing of protest and the language that is used to assist this in the media. The opening lyrics of her latest album Brute are, “you are no longer peacefully assembled.” This statement is a great example of a threat using innocuous words. This language is maintained throughout government interactions with challenges to their power; Al Qadiri compares some of the language used in Kuwait such as “collateral damage” and “casualty” with the Black Lives Matter’s movement in America where “protesters” become “thugs” and they are “rioting.” This dehumanizes the person and makes it their responsibility to prove their innocence and the validity of their protest or even life. Al Qadiri also discusses the paradox of modern protest methods which involve using social media platforms to get ideas and information out there, “social media functions as both rallying cry and a means of surveillance.”

There is a sound general knowledge of what can be done with surveillance to control people, but there is a more insidious effect that isn’t immediately apparent. A paper was published earlier this year that studied what actions one does or does not take depending on whether

There are also many more surveillance inspired artists out there, challenging and informing. Here are a few to check out: Surveillance by Vito Acconci (1969) Every day for a month Vito Acconci would choose a stranger at random and follow them taking photos and making a written account.

Web 2.0 Suicide Machine by Walter Langelaar (2009) Walter produced a service that would purge your online presence from all your social media hooks, over 50,000 people took part.

Cached Landscapes by Florian Freier (2015) A grid of aerial photos from Germany is algorithmically chosen based on how much surveillance it is under, producing a grid of surveillance hotspots.

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You probably think that it's too far to even have to care We’ll take a look at where you live what if it happened there?

You have to know the urge to make a change lies within And we can be the reason that they see the flag rise again — Drake in “Wavin’ Flag”

Executive Authority gave West Papua to Indonesia who have been in administration since. Under their authority, raising the Morning Star, the West Papua flag, is against the law. As is singing the national anthem. As well as petitioning for independence.

Youngsolwara Poneke is a group of Victoria University students who banded together to join the Free West Papua movement. We want to highlight West Papua as a nation; one that is asking for, fighting for, dying for the right to be their own people. We believe in raising their voices on behalf of those who are silenced, in making visible those who are unseen.

Some governments will turn a blind eye because Indonesia is a beneficial trading partner. Some people will avert their gazes because they feel powerless to help. But we’re choosing not to look away.

In an image saturated world demanding our eyes, it can be difficult to decide what to pay attention to.

This article isn’t to persuade you to stop caring about what you care about and fight for our cause. This is an invitation for those who want to be a part of the movement but don’t know how to begin. Most of us started from hearing about it from a friend which led to some Google searching.

The map of the Pacific is a legacy of colonialism. The names Pacific, Micronesia, Polynesia, Melanesia, and New Zealand, aren’t names given by the indigenous people of Oceania. These are the names we have and it’s a messy subject to detangle and reshape. While we’re navigating our way through post-colonialism, decolonisation, and indigenising ourselves and our world, there are still some of us that are still colonised.

Some of us are still invisible on the map, invisible to the world.

“Western New Guinea is part of Indonesia consisting of the western half of the island of New Guinea and smaller islands to its west.”

Part of Indonesia.

West Papua isn’t on the map. There’s Papua New Guinea on the east side, and Indonesia on the west side of New Guinea. The name “New Guinea” is a name given by a Spanish explorer in the 16th century, who claimed the island as Spanish territory. In the 17th century, the Netherlands had power over the island (which the indigenous people had no say in, of course). During World War II, New Guinea became the background of the conflicts between the Japanese and Dutch forces in which the Dutch came out on top in its “possession” of West Papua. In the 1960s a United Nations Temporary 20

We See You

Laura Toailoa Jamie Madhavan Emily Fatu Wiliame Gucake

Jamie Madhavan

Emily Fatu

Four years ago I became aware of the situation in West Papua. I was sitting in a tutorial and my tutor Rachel Yates made a passing comment on the conflict stricken nation which piqued my interest. I didn’t even know West Papua existed and her introducing it caused me to do more reading than I had done for the entire academic year. After learning about the hardships of the indigenous people of West Papua I was left feeling a combination of anger and sadness. This was the start of my passion and continued participation in the free West Papua movement.

Since then I have been an active member of Youngsolwara Poneke, the student driven activist group lead by Te Kura Moeka’a, which promotes the Free West Papua Campaign here at Victoria University. I’ve been a part of this group for the last three years. Before getting involved with the Free West Papua movement I would never have called myself an activist, probably because it used to be that to be an activist you had to be an academic and that’s just never how I have ever seen myself. Thinking about it now I guess I’m an activist, but I also feel like my involvement in this cause is simply standing up for what I believe to be right, which is more or less me just following my own morals.

Being a New Zealand born Fijian, I feel a strong connection to the Pacific Ocean, this connection stems from the sense of family being a Pacific Islander provides me. Taking part in flag raisings, marches, speaking at events, and participating in other forms of protests is a way for me to show my solidarity with our brothers and sisters in West Papua. Those who are unable to stand up for their own freedoms in their own land. This movement is something that now lives in me and that I will carry with me until freedom is returned to our brothers and sisters in West Papua.

I recall two years ago, sitting in room 103 down at 6 Kelburn Parade, as a postgraduate student in Pacific Studies. It was a safe place of comfort and familiarity. I was invited there by my friends Kura Moeka’a, Mānoa Teaiwa, and my senior lecturer and mentor Teresia Teaiwa, who had all recently returned from a conference in Papua New Guinea and organised a presentation to share their experiences.

I’ve only ever travelled to Australia and was particularly excited to hear about what they learnt, the food they ate (this is always an important part of travel), and what the surroundings and people were like. I was expecting an epic adventure tale. Instead, their stories astounded me, and not because of their grandeur.

This was the day I learnt about West Papua.

My shock and distress grew as they continued to inform us of the tragedies and corruption taking place in this nation not far from my own. I sat in this space, feeling great unease hearing about a place unfamiliar to me. I never thought that such disaster to my Melanesian cousins could be happening in New Zealand’s backyard.

I felt sorrow, anger, and confusion—why was I only hearing about this now?

This was the day I saw West Papua.

After reflecting on what I had learnt about the human rights issues in West Papua, I began to look at my own life and country and I realised just how privileged I was. Since then I, those presenting at 6 Kelburn Parade, and others who sat in that presentation with me created Youngsolwara Poneke. We have researched West Papua’s history, participated and led peaceful demonstrations, we have marched to the Indonesian Embassy, stood outside Parliament holding tightly to West Papua’s Nation flag, the Morning Star.

Most importantly we stand in solidarity for a free West Papua. We fight for West Papuans who face the ultimate circumstance when they fight for themselves, and we use our voices when they are too fearful to speak.

I see West Papua, I stand for West Papua.

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Wiliame Gucake

Ruci Tueli

It’s really hard to care beyond yourself. In economics, you assume that individuals make rational decisions and act in self-interest. So by that assumption charity, activism, and good Samaritanism are economic anomalies. I struggle with my passion for West Papua.

It’s an endless drive that I need to fire and remind myself of.

Because if I don’t, why then should others?

Why should one care for the silencing, by slow genocide, of an indigenous people? Why should one care about the women and children dying every day? For the mutilation suffered by an oppressed people for flying their indigenous flag?

As a Fijian-Samoan, I am privileged to live in New Zealand. I am privileged that my people are peaceful in their country. I am privileged because I sleep safely in bed without persecution or fear. I am privileged to have my rights guaranteed in the country I reside in and in the countries I affiliate with.

I had the opportunity earlier this year to support the lawyers for Tom Hemopo, who brought the claim in the Waitangi Tribunal against Corrections for the high recidivism rates of Māori in the Criminal Justice system. Sitting there and typing up what different witnesses said, I was struck by how great this was.

Not the situation of why we’re here, but that there is a forum for indigenous people in New Zealand to enforce their rights. Here before me, was an indigenous people getting their day in court. Something many indigenous peoples wouldn’t even dare to dream of. It then struck me, when would West Papua get their day in court?

When could West Papua enforce their rights against the injustice and oppression? So many nations have turned their back to West Papua, but nations aren’t governments—they are people.

So what can one do though? My own, first step was gaining knowledge about West Papua and now it is to spread that knowledge. So… will you take that step with me?

Some people have a voice of reason when it comes to internalising and analysing problems before making decisions. I, however, have the voice of Nana, especially when it comes to activism and West Papua.

My grandmother is a proud Samoan matriarch and always expects the best of her family. There are many valuable conversations (well, lectures) I have with her. An important value of Samoan culture is tautua—service to others, especially your family. Nana will always remind me, “i le fale… it starts with you at home.” A conversation that is burned in my memory was about the contributions (or lack thereof, as she pointed out) I make towards our family. When I was tagged in photos of the annual raising of the Morning Star flag at parliament, Nana mentioned the photos in this particular conversation, “how are you going to go out and protest when you don’t know how to do this?” While Nana’s calling me out can feel harsh, it always keeps me grounded, and I ask myself important questions like am I doing things for the right reason?

Being the master of overthinking, this dialogue led to exploring the tensions that come with activism and decolonisation in an intensely globalised world. I write this piece for West Papua on my MacBook which is the product exploited cheap labour and materials, so most of the profit goes back to wealthy countries and multi-national corporates and I get to own this symbol of social status.

Thinking about the injustices and oppressions that are happening in the world is tiring especially because of money being valued over the environment and human life. However, it is in acting, whether small or big, that make injustices heard and seen and creates resistance against exploitations like the genocide in West Papua.

I believe in giving the same alofa I do to my family and home as I would in being part of the campaign to free West Papua. Being connected to other Pacific Islands and being a part of Oceania is to stand up for others who cannot do it by themselves. A great mind of Oceania, Epeli Hau’ofa, states, “if we do not exist for others, then we could in fact be dispensable.” However, I do slip up from time to time, as does the idea of activism. My Nana sees me (on Facebook) and keeps in me in check which allows me to continue to see you with more clarity, West Papua. Papua Ninalik Ariyak!

We don’t have the single right solution, we don’t know the most effective ways to induce change. We don’t know how to make the powerful listen. But we do know we have our voices and we have each other. We are our greatest resource.

Our resilience, our hope, our solidarity. We want our people to be a free people, to raise their Morning Star flag without fear of arrest. We see you West Papua, we hear you, we’ll stand with you. Merdeka!

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surface study (i), 2016 photography + documented installation Cheska Brown (Massey University Wellington, Fine Arts)

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

Theo Barnard

Who Owns My Data?

these organisations [ensure] overall gain for… users.” In 2014 an Amazon survey of 6000 internet users went so far as to say the age of data collection, and the product personalization it enables, will beckon an advertising “Nirvana” for consumers.

But whoa, pump the brakes. As these new practices expand everyday, it might be time we had a bit of a conversation about some fundamentals.

Of course we understand there is a cost to privacy when we use these technologies, you don’t get something for nothing right. And collecting information is fundamental to the function of many of these technologies; Fitbit wouldn’t be much use if it didn’t record our #gainz at the gym.

But who actually owns the data that we surrender to Facebook when we post status updates about the Kardashians, or when we gram the picture of that shit hot Banh-mi from cable car lane? Further, what rights do we have over this data and how it is used? And most importantly, if we disagree with these practices, how do we resist?

Dr Kathleen Kuehn’s media paper “Digital Surveillance and Technologies” had us dive right into some of these heavy issues. The major assignment of the paper was called the Digital Footprint Analysis (DFA), where we had to go out into the world and request a copy of the information that different companies and organisations held on us.

The objective of the exercise was to get us to think about the relationship we had with organisations that held our information. What would happen when you approached Apple and asked for all the data they held on you? What would happen when you approached Kiwi Cabs and asked for all your personal information they held?

I approached a range of organisations and asked for a copy of my personal information. I sent requests via email to Snapper, iTunes, ANZ, Kiwi Cabs, TradeMe, Google, and about a half dozen other government and commercial entities that I knew collected different aspects of my information.

Many New Zealand institutions, like Trade Me, who have to grant users access to their data via the Privacy Act 1993 were ready and willing to offer me access to the information they kept on me. But this willingness stopped cold at the border, with companies like Spotify and Amazon significantly less willing to even entertain a conversation about surrendering my data, in many cases they didn’t return emails or phone calls.

However. The experience I had approaching Apple stuck with me and became the focus of my analysis.

Without going into too much detail (there were phone calls, emails, security verifications, and countless drop down menus on Apples ‘support’ page) I was obstructed from obtaining a copy of the data that Apple held on me.

I was allowed access to my account information (things like purchase history, credit card details, address etc.) but nothing beyond this—despite the fact Apple openly admits that it records geolocation data, the sites visited on Safari, all conversations with Siri, and a range of other information.

The whole experience left me feeling powerless and a little depressed. Who was Apple to say I couldn’t see

These days data collection is everywhere and it is constant. From your Facebook activity to your emails on Gmail, the swipes on your Snapper Card to the bench press reps you record on your fitness app at the gym. In one form or another, all of these technologies are centred on the collection of your personal information.

The sheer immensity of this might not be apparent to most people. You don’t really think about the fact that every time you use your student ID card on campus, your name, the time, and point of entry is recorded by the university. You don’t really think about the fact that Spotify has a record of every song, playlist, artist you’ve ever listened to or liked. But the reality is, a huge swathe of the technologies we use everyday constantly record information about us.

To get a feel of the exponential immensity of the data we create in our everyday lives, consider the fact that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. Some estimate that data production will be 44 times greater in 2020 than it was in 2009. Others estimate an additional 2.5 quintillion bytes of data is being generated every day.

Of course, the nature of data collection is different depending on who is collecting it. Victoria University probably isn’t going to sell your swipe card data to marketers wanting to know more about the use of electric doors by students. But many other companies are. A significant portion of Google’s $70 billion yearly revenue is generated from gathering the data from users interactions with its platforms such as Chrome, Google Maps, and Gmail.

But what are companies actually doing with the data we create?

In short, #capitalism. Put a little longer, they use it to sell us stuff. Or, they sell it to other people who use it to sell us stuff.

Axicom is a great example of the type of company that buys and sells people’s data, and is one of the biggest ‘data brokering’ companies on Earth. Axicom makes money by offering ‘analytical services’ on nearly 150 million households. In 2011, its revenue was just over $1bn, which is small given the emerging big data industry, now sized at over $300bn and employing over three million people in America alone.

Analytical services basically means using complex algorithms and data-sorting techniques to understand more about what things you might want to buy. As the CEO puts it, “companies like Acxiom are trying to get intelligent about what you might be interested in and who you are.” Okay, so far nothing too worrying.

The steadfast conviction of the CEO gets kinda scary, he argues that data analytics are an opportunity for grateful consumers who welcome its arrival with open arms. He goes on, “I don’t think there is a person in the world who wouldn’t agree that data generates tremendous value for both people and for business.”

Scarier still is that this attitude reflects the chorus of voices from technology companies who believe consumers are more than happy to trade their personal information for ‘free’ services like Gmail and Facebook.

The president of Mobiquity, a major mobile strategy consultancy claims that “the average person is more than willing to share their information with companies if

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issues to the extreme helps us think about the path we may or may not want to head down, and it brings me to my final point. What power do we have to resist data collection practices if we disagree with where they might be headed?

If you are thinking of looking to the government, I’m sorry I’ve got bad news for you. Currently we are offered some protection by the Privacy Act 1993 which means that information collected by New Zealand organisations can only be used “for its originally intended purpose.” But unfortunately, this stops short of the border. New Zealand legislation has no power in overseas jurisdictions, and it’s in the US where the major data collection companies are operating.

So maybe, perhaps, we could just be consciousconsumers and reject using technologies that record our data in ways we disagree with? Well, again, unfortunately I’m not so sure that’s a great option either.

Andrejevic argues that we are increasingly in a scenario where we must submit ourselves to surveillance in order to access goods and services or forgo “the benefits of consumption.”

In other words, is it really an option to stop using certain technologies? Is it really feasible to go without a Gmail account? Think about the potential economic cost of this decision, have you ever tried applying for a job without an email address? Is it feasible to delete Facebook? But everyone’s on Facebook and you could lose touch with friends or miss out on events, the social cost may be huge. Unfortunately, both of these platforms fully embrace data collection, and rejecting them may not be as easy as first thought.

Coming back to my Digital Footprint experience, Apple claims that yes it records personal information, but it anonymizes that data and does not “connect the dots.”

That is, it may record horrendously insidious and detailed information about my interactions with my Apple devices, but it doesn’t match that data with a specific Apple account.

This is outlined in Apple’s privacy policy, but it is contested whether this actually constitutes a legally binding contract. In essence, I have to take it on faith that Apple is not using or abusing my data. But realistically I have no power to stop what information they decide to collect, or what they choose to do with it. My only option is to stop using my Apple devices if I disagree with their practices, but this would mean going without some of the most well-designed laptop and smartphone products known to man.

Despite some of the arguably depressing points made in this article, it shouldn’t stop us from forcing a stronger conversation about our rights in light of wholesale data collection.

Data collection is likely a new reality of the relationship we have with technology in the 21st century.

But having no power over how our information is collected and used shouldn’t be the cost of using this technology.

There are still strong remnants of the sanctity of privacy in our society, and is something we should continue to aspire for in the digital era. The task is to find a new balance between what we believe is “acceptable collection” of our information, and what aspects of our privacy we want protected.

the data that they recorded about me—it’s my data isn’t it, I mean, I put it there right? And if I don’t actually know what Apple is recording, then how am I supposed to know how it might be used?

Was I going to have to throw away my three Apple devices to avoid their data collection practices?

As it turns out, I’m not alone in these feelings of powerlessness. Quite the opposite to the idea that data collection “empowers consumers,” there is a growing sentiment that people feel exploited and concerned by the emerging norm of wholesale data collection.

A recent survey asked 1500 Americans about the control they felt they had over their personal data being collected. It found that infact, people don’t like wholesale data collection at all, but endure it because they feel powerless to stop it and are “resigned” to accepting it.

In the study, ‘resignation’ was identified by two statements: ­“I want to have control over what marketers can learn about me online” ­and­“I’ve come to accept that I have little control over what marketers can learn about me.” In order for consumers to be identified as ‘resigned’, they had to answer yes to both questions. 84% agreed with the first statement, with 65% agreeing to the second.

The resignation overlap indicated that 58% were ‘resigned’ to the fact.

Even more worrying is that when combining these results with those who answered no to the question—“what companies know about me from my behaviour online cannot hurt me”—the findings reveal that a significant portion of Americans (41%) are “not only resigned, they hold a dark concern that the basic dynamics of the emerging marketplace will cause them injury a ­ nd that they cannot control it.”

Cue some heavy media theory to keep the dystopian theme going. Theorist Mark Andrejevic believes that data collection practices create an exploitative relationship between consumer and those that collect it. He argues that the amount of information being collected by companies could eventually constitute a form of control, “especially in a context wherein consumers have very little knowledge about what information marketers have collected and how they are using it.”

So basically what Mark Andrejevic is saying is that one day, companies will have so much information on us, we could be manipulated by computers into buying stuff.

Postulate with me for a second. One night you’re lying in bed on your computer. You’ve been talking to your recent ex on Facebook and you’re feeling a little blue…

Meanwhile… Facebook knows you’ve recently broken up with your girlfriend and you’ve been chatting online… your Maccas loyalty card knows you’re favorite order is a Mac Attack… Google knows you’re further than walking distance from the nearest McDonalds… and Mastercard knows from aggregated purchase history that people are three times more likely to purchase fast food when they’re feeling emotionally vulnerable…

And what pops up on your newsfeed? Mac Attack Combo with free delivery! Without even thinking you’ve placed the order, devoured the combo, and the burger wrappers and loose fries are laying scattered on your bedroom floor—much like the agency you once had over the things you bought…

Perhaps that’s a little dramatic, but taking these

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Facebook knows you’ve recently broken up with your girlfriend and you’ve been chatting online… your Maccas loyalty card knows you’re favorite order is a Mac Attack…

Google knows you’re further than walking distance from the nearest McDonalds… and Mastercard knows from aggregated purchase history that people are three times more likely to purchase fast food when they’re feeling emotionally vulnerable…

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Queer Agenda

Breathing Space

Alex Mark

Tawhai Moss (Bubble Leader)

Almost every queer person knows what it means to be watched. We are under a social heteronormative gaze every single day of our lives. This is true for everyone, but the further you are from the social norm of cis, white, straight, able-bodied, male, middle-class (etc.), the more you stick out—and the greater the target on your back is. For some, just walking out the front door is an invitation for harassment and abuse.

It’s a sad irony that queer folk need more visibility, when it’s often being visible that brings us harm. From glances and whispers as you walk by, to being called a f****t in the street, to having grossly drunk men telling you to kiss for their entertainment, to being grabbed at, to having bottles thrown at you, to being beat up, to being murdered: this is the result of being visibly queer in our intolerant society.

Queer people should not have to hide to feel safe.

We need to change the attitude that society has towards us so that no one has to endure any level of harassment.

UniQ has some important events coming up: • We are having a special meeting this Thursday (September 8) in SU219, from 6-8pm, to draft new clauses that incorporate the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi into the UniQ constitution. We will provide food!

• This Friday (September 9) is the International Day of Silence, a movement bringing attention to homo-, bi-, and transphobia in our communities. UniQ is holding an event at 12:30 in the Hub, see our Facebook page for details.

• Our AGM is coming up on Thursday, September 29, in KK203 from 6-8pm. We’ll be doing a wrap up of 2016, approving constitutional updates, electing new executive members, and making plans for 2017. As always, food will be provided!

We’re still having our weekly meet-ups—every Friday from 1-3pm in SU218—and we’ve got another movie night coming up on September 16 (Friday) at 5:30pm in KK202.

We hope to see you there!

If you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide. Sounds simple right? I haven’t done anything wrong (well, maybe some things, but nothing serious), so I shouldn’t have anything to hide. Well I do. I have plenty to hide. I wear clothes, not just because it’s cold but for other reasons as well. I wear them to hide my body as society has decided that walking around naked is inappropriate. Sometimes I wear long sleeve shirts simply to hide my tattoos, not because I am ashamed of them, not because I regret them, but because in particular situations they may not be appropriate. Are clothes the only exception to when I can have something to hide and not have done anything wrong? Of course not. It would be absurd to assume otherwise. People hide emotions for various reasons, they hide documents to ensure their business survives, they hide plans and details to successfully arrange a surprise party, sometimes they hide information to make the world a safer place.

“Would you give me your username and password please?” Glenn Greenwald asked this on the TED stage, and in countless articles. He even set up a Gmail account specifically for people to send him their username and password. No one has. Should we be surprised by this?

I don’t think so. We like our privacy, we always have.

We live in houses with curtains or blinds, we build walls and fences to keep others out, we change the privacy settings on our Facebook accounts. We need privacy. It keeps us healthy, it keeps us sane.

It’s important to our well-being to be able to choose what to share, with whom, when, and how much. We value our privacy, we value our secrets. This does not mean they are bad, this does not mean that we have done something wrong. This means we are human.

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Mates in the States

Stressed, Depressed, Well-dressed

Renee Petero and Tessa Cullen

Jess Scott Greetings from the United States! Holy shit, it’s a big BAD world out here team, but we are in love already.

Here are some of our initial observations after three weeks abroad:

What to wear when you know you’ll be seeing your ex We’ve all experienced the feeling that comes with perusing the invite list of an upcoming social event, only to discover that a former dating human shall be in attendance. That amalgamation of dread and some sort of sadistic, twisted satisfaction, at the thought that they’ll see you there, (ideally) shit hot and exquisitely unattainable.

The following is a sartorial guide on how to negotiate such encounters:

1. Firstly, NO ONE CAN PRONOUNCE THE NAME TESSA. Like, what the actual heck, for an English speaking country, the language barrier 100% exists here.

Variations include: Tissa, Teeeesa, and Tassa.

2. No one can guess where we’re from. The common guesses are either England (naaaah) or Australia (ugh no thanks). Added to this, the usual reaction to us stating we’re from NZ is “omG, LoRD of DA ringz! All BlaCKS!”

Seeing them for the first time since before you broke up because you’re a fucking child and did it via Facebook messenger: Let’s be real—inevitably you’re either hooking up or engaging in a drunk screaming altercation of some description. It’ll be horrific either way. Subsequently, ensure that you’re wearing your slinkiest little black dress, one that gives just enough away to cruelly remind them that they’ll (probably?? hopefully?) never ever see you naked again. However, I would also recommend wearing exceedingly nice underwear in case they do so happen to. Apply winged eyeliner sharp enough to slit throats, paired with highlighter that took 20 minutes to flawlessly apply, then 20 seconds to cry off after they yell at you so aggressively that the bar staff intervene.

3. The road rules. Firstly, disregard everything you think you know about driving etiquette, it’s useless here. Zebra crossings do not necessarily entitle pedestrians to the right of way (learnt this the hard way), and this friggin’ driving on the other side of the road thing is just ultraconfusing and really unnerving when when you’re sitting in the front seat of a moving vehicle. Also, people use their horns here A LOT. 4. SUPERSIZE ME. From free refills to unbelievably huge portion sizes, in the Deep South in particular, you’re more likely to see a confederate flag than to come across a fresh vegetable (if you ever want to see something scary, google, “Dixie Outfitters, Lynchburg”).

It also seems that when cooking any sort of food, American’s must go “hey, you know what!? We need to add AT LEAST ten more cups of sugar to this, just in case our diabetes isn’t progressed enough!” Seriously, we will arrive back in NZ in five months with blackened teeth, wrecked livers, and only one functioning kidney left between us.

With your new boyfriend: Cultivate the ultimate power couple aesthetic, as though you’ve both stepped out of the pages of Dazed. The look that says “we both effortlessly flung this ensemble on out of the his-and-hers pile of black designer clothing,” or “probably have matching stick-and-poke tattoos after two months,” or even “we share a unisex Comme des Garçons fragrance” couple. She wears Stolen Girlfriends Club, Calvin Klein, and sneers over her Miu Miu shades, he wears Kenzo, vintage McQueen, and debatably more jewellery than she does. Both eat vegan, drink boutique gin, shop at Zambesi, and listen to electronic remixes of African chanting.

5. Everyone has been incredibly welcoming towards the two newest Kiwi’s abroad. From being randomly gifted free ice cream (Ben and Jerry’s is DA BOMB btw), to people taking pity on us on the subway when we’re blatantly lost, American’s are surprisingly friendly creatures.

“It’s been six plus months but it’s still awkward”: Honestly they’re so beyond irrelevant that as long as you maintain an air of “why do you think you can speak to me” and a glare that could melt the polar ice caps, you’ll get through this. Bonus points if you get them banned from your workplace for the next two years.

FINALLY, EVERYONE THINKS WE ARE OBSESSED WITH SHEEP ( we low-key are, let’s be real).

Renee and Tessa (plus an added ten kilos) signing out.

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"Sports"

What We Talk About When We Talk About Science

Joe Morris

James Churchill

Kieran Read: Ah yeah Shag, Boss, mate—just before you start—there seems to be a bug on my seat.

The listening device found at the All Black’s hotel in Sydney was surely meant for a high level diplomat, or some multi-national CEO type. It was, I thought, more likely to have been there since Putin visited Sydney for the APEC summit in 2007. Then it was reported the device was still active with a three day battery life: somebody was spying on our All Blacks!

Steve Hanson: Well just give it to Colesy!

Read: Nah, somebody’s trying to spy on us coach!

The established media, alongside NZ and Australian rugby unions, have little more to say while police are investigating. The ARU have stated that implicating them is “completely ludicrous”—although there is no such thing as paranoia in this day and age. The Herald’s best guess is a betting syndicate bugged the room.

Hanson: Struth! Smithy, mate, how do we turn this thing up?! I’ve got some words for Cheika.

Aaron Smith: Ah… Ben? Ben Smith: I think you’ve got the wrong end of the stick here, Shag.

Hanson: Nah piss off mate, where’s Conrad!?

The betting syndicate theory is a sound one.

Australians don’t care much for rugby union. Participant wise, it doesn’t even feature in their top ten sports.

It should have been an easy score for said syndicate: hear the team list and injury concerns before they are publically announced, predict any changes in the odds and profit. They may well have targeted the wrong team. The Australian’s confirmed they don’t carry out the type of security checks that found the device for the All Blacks.

Suddenly, Dane Coles leapt from his seat like a prize trout, mouth agape, plucking the bug out of his captain’s fingertips. With a gulp, the small electronic device would not be seen again until hours before kick off in the second Bledisloe test.

Upon learning of the incident only hours before kickoff—five days after the uncovering of the bug— NSW police queried why there was such a delay in alerting authorities. Steve Hanson addressed this question in a post-match interview: “The reason that we didn’t go there straight away was because we went through a process with the hotel and our CEO was away at the Olympics… he arrived and he needed to be spoken to and fully briefed on it … once he was fully briefed, he said ‘righto, we need to take this to the police.’” A likely story.

Art has often been driven by science. In the mid19th century the introduction of paint in tubes and increasingly portable easels allowed painters to work outdoors and experiment with natural light. The futurist movement in the early 20th century emphasised and glorified the dynamism of the modern technologies of the industrial city. The invention of photographic and cinematic technology allowed for entirely new artistic mediums.

In 2009 Roger Hiorns produced a work called Seizure that combined art with chemistry. The work seeks to turn the idea of sculpture inside out. Rather than present a sculpture inside an architectural space, he’s turned every surface of the architectural space into sculpture.

The entirety of a derelict London apartment was sealed with plastic sheeting. 80,000 litres of a copper sulphate solution was mixed with the aid of a chemist and then pumped through a hole in the ceiling. When dissolved in water, salts dissociate into the ions that make them up. In this case the ions were copper and sulphate which have charges of 2+ and 2- respectively, making them attract each other. When the water is removed by evaporation or by being pumped out the ions come together to form a solid. A crystal is a solid in which the atoms are arranged in a highly structured lattice. The rate at which this crystallisation occurs is connected to the rate at which the solution cools. For this work, over a month was allowed for cooling, such that large and complex crystal structures could form.

Last year the work was saved from demolition and is now displayed in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

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Digitales Matt Plummer

Towards the end of 2012, journalist Glenn Greenwald received an email from an anonymous source calling himself Cincinnatus. Intimating insider knowledge of the American government’s mass surveillance programmes, the email piqued Greenwald’s interest, but there was a stumbling block: his source insisted on using the encryption tool PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) for any ongoing correspondence. Despite Cincinnatus’s repeated attempts to ease the learning curve associated with PGP—even creating a suite of training materials specifically for journalists—Greenwald found the required upskilling a bridge too far, and the correspondence fizzled out.

Frustrated, but driven to carry on, the anonymous source contacted someone who’d already learned the necessity of encrypted communication, filmmaker Laura Poitras. By this time Cincinnatus had chosen a new name, Citizenfour, and was soon to be revealed as CIA contractor Edward Snowden.

If you’re a fan of Snowden’s efforts to expose the farreaching surveillance strategies of the Five Eyes alliance, you might say all’s well that ends well—except for his exile in Russia, I guess. After all, it was arguably due to Greenwald’s tech naivete that we ended up with Poitras’s Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour, and once aware of the extent of the story’s implications, Poitras did quickly bring Greenwald into the PGP fold. But the lesson I take from this anecdote, and the one Greenwald takes from it too, is how his reticence to prioritise upskilling in security measures nearly stopped him from getting the scoop of the century.

As he writes in No Place to Hide, “on my always toolong list of things to take care of, installing encryption technology at the behest of this unknown person never became pressing enough for me to stop other things and focus on it… how close I came to blowing off one of the largest and most consequential national security leaks in US history.”

What is it about our reluctance to learn knew things that might greatly benefit us, and to prioritise setting aside time to do so? We can always trundle out the convenient excuse of being too busy, but my theory is that much of the time we know better. Often we suspect there’s a more efficient way of doing things, or an important thing we don’t know how to do but should, but due to some combination of fear and laziness—and sure, busyness as

well—we fall short of putting in the required effort to reap the rewards, and sell ourselves short in the process.

As a case in point take Last Week Tonight host John Oliver. Despite knowing the ramifications and reach of Snowden’s revelations, and travelling to Russia to interview him in person, Oliver found it hard to stay focussed during the whistleblower’s earnest technical explanations: “This is the whole problem, I glaze over. It’s like the IT guy comes in and I’m like ‘oh shit don’t teach me anything, I don’t want to learn.’”

I guess these days I’m one of those IT guys, and while I understand the sentiment, I find it disappointing all the same. Shouldn’t we always want to learn? Oliver did, however, have a typically subversive solution to offer. Rather than talk about privacy in general terms, he asked Snowden to relate these issues to something the American public apparently care a great deal about— whether dick pics can be intercepted, viewed, and stored by the government. The answer is yes, a lot of the time, according to Snowden. My takeaway? Activating selfinterest is the gold standard in motivating someone to learn something.

Whatever the motivation—but hopefully something a little more pure than fear of dick pic exposure—I do encourage anyone interested in this area to take the Open University’s excellent, and entirely free, “Introduction to Cyber Security” online course, beginning in October. You can sign up at bit.ly/1pMMKhk. It’ll not only help protect yourself from cyber attacks and data theft, but also give you a great overview of how information travels around the internet. Trust me, the payoff will be well worth the time invested.

Of course, these days it’s not just clandestine intelligence agencies aiming to “collect it all” that we might consider surveillance, but companies hankering for data (and not shy about mining it from their customers), news hungry media, closed circuit televisions, smart phones cameras, and ubiquitous social media feeds.

Victoria media studies lecturer Kathleen Kuehn has done some interesting research in this area, and I for one will be keeping my eyes peeled for her forthcoming book The Post-Snowden Era: Mass Surveillance and Privacy in New Zealand. Yep, that anonymous source that Greenwald came so close to blowing off? His name is now not only a household one, but invoked to mark a new era.

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Notices

Letters

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Why not study overseas as part of your degree?!

Study in English, Earn Vic 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 10:30-12pm

Rivalling the New York Times People of a certain disposition recoil from the complexities of everyday life. Life, with its ceaseless tumult, bears down on those who abhor its chaos, to whom the vicissitudes of the world bring needless distress. For such people, it is those simple pleasures which provide that much sought-after sense of contentment.

One pleasure which I have delighted in, and come to hold dear, is the crossword puzzle in your magazine. In recent months, your publication has supplied one of these puzzles consistently with every issue—a worthy achievement, as anyone who has tried their hand at crossword setting knows that it is an undertaking which requires much dedication, and a passion for the form. I believe that the devotion this magazine has shown with these puzzles should be heartily celebrated.

It is admirable that a student-run weekly would allocate such a portion of its limited resources to deliver this simple joy to its readers.

And what a joy it is! Regrettably, many seem to ignore such puzzles, and to those who have not yet experienced it, it is difficult to describe the gentle happiness found in a crossword—the thrill of endeavour, the satisfaction of triumph.

Crosswords bring a richness to life not found in many other places. And so, on behalf of we few who solve and enjoy your crossword—who find hope on the last leaf of each issue—with boundless gratitude, I thank Salient magazine, and, of course, their merry wanderer of the night.

Guzzling for Puzzles

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Why don’t you join us and help make a difference?

Do you have a passion for putting other people first?

Support Workers help children and adults with intellectual disabilities to lead a satisfying and fulfilling life.

To find out more or view current vacancies: Register online to receive job alerts P. 0800 WORK 4 IHC E. recruitment@ihc.org.nz

www.ihcjobs.co.nz

The Arts Section 36 Poetry 37

Visual Arts

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Music

39 Music 40 Film 41 Film 42

Games

43 TV 44

Books

45 Theatre

The Arts Section is sponsored by:

Hera Lindsay Bird

Objectively speaking ‘Hera’ is a beautiful name even if in formal situations you introduce yourself forthwith: ‘Lindsay Bird’. A half lie propagated before the whole in which you deliver sincerely the lines: “I am savant in the breeder business I’m re-elongating pugs’ noses.”

Poetry

With your hair pulled back a nondescript audience— nodding—fails to recognise you Henceforth one day I’d like to recite a muffled myth of Oedipus to you as Frank O’Hara’s cum moves down my back— with an apple in my mouth, and through no opiate I still think Keats would be up for it.

Joe Morris

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There’s something about Corita

Ruby Joy Eade

It’s not surprising I fell in love with Corita.

Sister Corita—a Catholic nun, artist, and teacher—is my kinda gal. Her bold colourful screenprints glean their source material from scripture, advertising, music, and pop culture. Quotes from E. E. Cummings, Martin Luther King, and Simon and Garfunkel mingle with those from Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. She sold her work to the people, at markets, stalls, and fundraisers. She shared her craft with people through murals, happenings, and teaching. She was earnest, sincere, clever, political, witty, and quietly radical. She challenged her own faith in a time where the Catholic Church was going through tumultuous change, in the end leaving her ostracised from her community. Her work radiates hope, love, and concern for the world around us. She is unapologetic and completely sincere. I don’t know the last time I felt so… cheerful in a gallery.

The exhibition is supplemented by a selection of works chosen by City Gallery’s Chief Curator Robert Leonard.

The works in these three galleries read like a disclaimer.

Don’t get too comfortable in Corita’s cheerful world. This is still a serious art gallery. “[Corita] Kent doesn’t fit into the suspicious, conflicted, cynical, agnostic (aka ‘critical’) attitude we associate with contemporary art,” Leonard stresses in his essay. But don’t worry, this is where the curators army of contemporary (male) artists come into their own.

Parekowhai’s punny four formica Micha’s, and Michael Stevenson’s willfully naive depiction of small town religious Jesus Saved my Life, and the California Jesus depicted in Boy with the Surfboard Cross are all presented wrapped up in a evangelical soundtrack. In the larger

What’s on this week: Circuit Symposium 2016: Phantom Topologies Saturday, 10 September City Gallery Wellington. $40 waged / $20 unwaged

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Visual Arts

room, placed as an altar piece of sorts is the obligatory McCahon—‘New Zealand’s answer to Corita’. It seems dour and depressing.

I expected the crew of contemporary artists—their irony, ‘complexities’ etc. But what throws me with these rooms is the three other pieces on display. The non-art or “recent Christian videos featuring kinetic typography.”

Each room is host to a video work by, respectively, One King Productions, Jake Grochowalski, and beat poet David Bowden. This decision to include these three video pieces in the show has left me torn. On the one hand they represent well the contemporary version of Corita’s commitment to making God ‘cool’ and ‘relevant’. Corita used the language of pop, these guys the language of movie trailers and viral videos. However the difference is intent. Corita was aware of the way in which her work was operating, and being experienced within a ‘contemporary art’ context. These works are presented in a context where they are, almost, being mocked. The videos are sincere, but being used by the curator insincerely. I am just not convinced the producers of these works were under full disclosure of the context in which they were included in the show. And I think that is unfair.

I left the show mildly bothered, but then again have been back four times. The lack of sincerity on Leonard’s side was irritating but expected, the inclusion of the ‘nonart’ videos morally dubious but ultimately interesting, and the whole thing, although segregated, worked.

Go see it, it’s good. Take your Catholic aunt, your mum, a child. Feel happy. Hum a Simon and Garfunkel song. Live, Laugh, Love. Buy a postcard. Enjoy it.

And if you hate that kind of shit or end up getting overwhelmed by joy, go stare at the McCahon.

A few facts to begin: 1. I cry in trailers for movies. If I haven’t watched TV in a while, adverts for insurance, milk, and phone plans get me. One time, hungover, a giant back-of-the-bus advertisement for an old peoples home reduced me to tears. I am soft.

2. I spent a (short) time as a born again Christian.

3. My own art work and research interests are invested in a) found text, b) empathy and sincerity, c) feelings.

Music

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Photos by Jose Mathias

From Her With Love

Jazz Kane

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shit excels / so I’m out here walking on eggshells.” What I took away from her performance is the unexplored world of lyrical material in rap when it comes to the experiences and problems faced by women on a daily basis. Arcee pointed out that one of her songs is about a friend who wanted to get plastic surgery, and she likes the challenge of targeting those issues and being part of a new era in rap; she said, “my mum doesn’t wear makeup [or] low cut tops, and take whatever you want from that but I see it as a blessing because I never grew up with a mum that had expectations of how I looked. It was never a conversation we had. [I was taught to] practice, work hard, and be nice to people.” Her music speaks to more than just gender though, as she also focuses on issues around the rap industry’s obsession with image. In her latest song “alg” she highlights the unhealthy obsession that many rap artists have with creating a brand and not necessarily about appearing as a real person who smiles, wears pyjamas that aren’t Versace when they sleep, and are just generally an ordinary human being. Arcee’s raps are very real and presented in a palatable format, particularly in this piano rap form.

Mahalia Simpson was the final performer of the night, and was reminiscent of artists such as Lauryn Hill and India Arie, both of whom she cites as inspiration. Fresh from the X-Factor Australia, where she finished fifth, I was concerned that she would still be stuck in the cookie cutter mould that most contestants appear to leave in, but Mahalia’s performance was nothing but genuine, humbling, and spell-binding. Her elegant control over her voice, as well as smooth guitar lines brought her ability as a musician and a performer to the forefront. She played songs I was unfamiliar with, but they all still felt like home. Mahalia has a certain aura around her personality and presence both onstage and off that just makes you feel like you’ve known her for years and the audience responded well to this, especially towards the end of her set when she told the crowd that the other songs she had were sad and she wanted to play happy songs, so she just strung some chords together and asked the audience for topics to sing about. The gig finished with the best possible conclusion, as Arcee and Yanyé returned to the stage and had an impromptu jam together—Mahalia played guitar, Arcee rapped, and Yanyé sung. It was amazing to watch the three of them interact, and the performance spoke volumes about the quality of New Zealand music and women in music.

This gig was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. The cumulative effect of beautiful, powerful music, and taking a stand against an area in music that urgently needs amending, left this gig a lingering success in my mind, and certainly in the minds of many. I look forward to seeing each of these performers in future, as well as other creative concepts THEO and FMK may think up.

Music

She/Her was more than just a gig, it was an intimate exploration of marginalisation; a transient look into the world of those who aren’t under-represented, simply under-appreciated and overlooked. Each performance was a lesson in humility; they were raw, egoless, emotional and stood for more than just that moment. This was the first time in a long time that I felt struck to the core, and I hope it made leaps in changing dominant attitudes towards women in music, and most importantly the perception of the ways women can achieve success in the music industry.

The gig was conceived by THEO and FMK, who said, “She/Her was kicked into motion one night [when] all the artists we were listening to at the time were fucking amazing women… we became wedded to the idea of having an all female lineup.” This event undisputedly promoted women in music, and particularly recognised those who are making huge leaps in an industry which doesn’t cater as well to them as it does to men.

Yanyé played her first Wellington show, and opened with incredible beats, and an unbelievably soulful voice that left me feeling weightless but anchored. She played songs off of her upcoming EP Simple Pleasures which has been delayed due to a whisky related incident, but after hearing Yanyé live, I’m more than happy to wait. Her stage presence is mesmerising and draws you in with slow purposeful sways and gesticulations that compliment the music. Her set up was very casual, with her singing and Mali as DJ, but this arrangement strengthened the performance. She was the only person on the stage to look at, and no one could look away. Having played regularly with rap/hip-hop artists from Auckland including RaizaBiza, Melodownz, and Tom Scott (Average Rap Band / Home Brew), Yanyé was well versed in entertaining a crowd. Similar to a listening party, she stopped after each song to resounding applause, thanked the audience, and then explained a bit about her next song. My only critique was that I wish she’d have let some of the songs speak for themselves and left no gaps between some of them.

The second performer was Arcee Rapper, a Manchester born and Dunedin based hiptronic artist. She had just returned from gigs in Germany and Switzerland opening for American rap acts at various shows. In an interview before the gig began she said, “being a female rapper they don’t take you as seriously I guess.” This is just the beginning of a world that many musicians and people may never understand but it is so vital that is illustrated and amended. Arcee Rapper has cultivated her hiptronic style, but on the night she performed her piano rap act, illustrating that her musical ability extends beyond provocative lyricism. This was an emotional and powerful performance which left the crowd in unanimous applause after every single song of her set. On a currently (I believe) nameless song, she stressed the inherent one-sidedness of sexuality in rap, singing, “it’s no secret that sex sells / We got girls degrading themselves / and rap is where this

Film

The BFG

Eddie the Eagle

Director: Steven Spielberg 2/5

Director: Dexter Fletcher 4/5

Review by Hamish Popplestone

Review by Livné Ore

It’s a mystery whether Steven Spielberg's BFG will impress young audiences in the same way that his cinematic offerings to previous generations did. We can assess the commonalities that The BFG has with E.T., Hook, and Jurassic Park—they’re all surreally good-looking surrealism—but The BFG is boring, and the rest aren’t.

If you’re Roald Dahl illiterate, BFG abbreviates Big Friendly Giant. It’s a story about an orphan girl (Sophie) who is kidnapped by a friendly giant (BFG) who is in constant hostility with unfriendly giants, more ‘giant’ than he. The story was read to every class by every primary school teacher ever and, the more I think about it, the more I believe that no one is Roald Dahl illiterate and this paragraph is likely to be cut out by a Salient editor due to its complete irrelevance.

I reiterate that the film is a bore, but only for the sequence. You’ve probably seen the trailer and noticed how good the visual effects are, providing the backbone of the film. Within Spielberg’s exceptionally creative and original interpretation of a Dahl universe, the animation presents us with real giants, real environments, and a real sense of danger. The voice acting complements the visual strengths, with Mark Rylace’s peculiar English accent carrying the BFG’s dialogue.

To justify why The BFG is boring: the sequences just take too long. Either you absorb all the visual spectacle long before the cut, or a joke is so frustratingly augmented and diluted that you wonder if the youngest of viewers will learn to cringe before they walk. Films based on the Dahl stories have always turned into classics. The global fandom would seem to make that an inevitability. If The BFG does make it on the list of classics, it will have to be content on being at the bottom.

Loosely based on the true story of Michael ‘Eddie’ Edwards—the first competitor to represent the UK in Olympic ski jumping and who was famous for persevering as an underdog and being a “heroic failure”—Eddie the Eagle may sound vaguely familiar to many. That’s because it has been in the works since 2007, and went through several iterations before making it onscreen. Directed by Dexter Fletcher, with actor Taron Egerton cast as the main role of Eddie, the film works to capture the essence of this ‘real life’ cast. Hugh Jackman as Bronson Peary, Eddie’s coach, is an entirely fictional character.

The film has good acting all round. Egerton is marvellous as Eddie, with an odd walk, defiant chin up (to keep the large glasses from falling off his nose), and a woebegone cast to his mouth. Jackman’s crotchety drunk plays foil to Eddie’s characteristic tenacious naivety, and the relationship between the two unfolds in a charming albeit predictable way. Furthermore, Jo Hartley is delightful in her role as Eddie’s mother, and her sweet, cheeky way of continually bypassing Eddie’s father in support of Eddie is one of the highlights of the film for me.

The score enhances viewers’ emotions throughout the film and successfully helps to build tension, while the original 1988 Olympic footage is skilfully interleaved and serves to enrich the scene that it’s in. Terrifying to watch (for me, anyhow), the ski jumping is mesmerising and even Eddie’s comparatively paltry distances seem incredible.

The snow-white landscapes in the background only add to the surrealism of people flinging themselves off slopes and falling, utterly straight-backed, through the air… for fun.

Eddie the Eagle maintains a cheesy poignancy, which is in tune with the film’s dramedy genre and it successfully walks the line of being ridiculously believable without crossing to the preposterous.

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Suicide Squad Director: David Ayer 4/5 Review by Benjamin Lister

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Film

of no one, Harley Quinn turns out to be the film’s stand out character. Margot Robbie manages to capture the combination of bubbly excitement and volatile psychosis, all wrapped up in a violent cheerleader look.

One of the biggest selling points of the film was Jared Leto’s new take on the crown prince of crime. Leto definitely makes the role his own, giving us a take on the Joker that has something the others never did—sexuality.

It becomes clear that Joker actually loves Harley (as much as Joker could love anything), showing us a different side to the crown prince and princess relationship. There is never a dull moment when these two are on screen together. The main problem with Joker is that he is barely in the film long enough to leave a truly lasting impression, made even more disappointing by the news that much of his footage was cut.

Will Smith as Deadshot is the most well defined character in the film, in part due to his love for his daughter and because of Will Smith’s charm in the role.

The rest of the squad doesn’t get as much time as I would have liked, but in an ensemble cast that is to be expected.

The biggest let down is Cara Delevingne as Enchantress; a big misfire for the film. Delevingne does the best with what she is given—unfortunately what she is given is an uninspired, forgettable villain, with a generic plan. This ultimately leaves Delevingne spending the film as either a boring love interest to Kinnaman’s Rick Flag or as a witch with vague powers and a magic ­bikini.

Ultimately Suicide Squad isn’t likely to win over a new audience, but with all its true-to-form characters, director David Ayer clearly loves DC lore as much as any fanboy.

It’s no secret that DC’s cinematic universe hasn’t gotten off to the roaring start that Warner Bros would have hoped for, with their first two big­-budget superhero films, Man of Steel and Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, receiving middling critical and commercial success. Now, critical reviews have come flooding in for Suicide Squad and they are, to put it kindly, not great.

This will without a doubt disappoint many DC fans, myself very much included, who were hoping for some critical redemption. The truth is, despite the critical curb-stomp, the film, while not perfect, is still, perhaps arguably, good entertainment.

Following on from the events of Dawn of Justice, all around government badass Amanda Waller gets approval from the US military to create a covert mission force comprised of the “worst of the worst.” Making up Waller’s covert team is the assassin who never misses— Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) the Joker’s (Jared Leto) former lover who puts psycho in psychotherapist, Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) the squad’s resident hot­head, and old school mutated cannibal Waylon Jones / Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye­Agbaje). Master soldier Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) leads this ragtag group of misfits to defeat the ancient witch, the Enchantress (Cara Delevingne)—who doubles as an archeologist when not being possessed by a mystically deranged witch.

The characters and cast of Suicide Squad excel.

While some characters get more time and focus than others, it becomes clear that director David Ayer clearly understands and cares about all of them. To the surprise

No Man’s Sky Developer: Hello Games Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment 3/5 Games

Review by Cameron Gray do that; it’s probably more fun to just fuck around, and there’s a bit of lore that kept me interested.

The game isn’t exactly a graphical marvel, but its visual aesthetic helped immerse me in the experience almost immediately. With the whole universe filled with pastel colours and soft lighting, it was certainly an experience that was easy on the eyes. This provides a real contrast with more recent releases that, while equally filled with colour, often distract from the rest of the experience by shoving it in your face. The subtlety, combined with an eerie ambient soundtrack, made for a relaxing play session as I bounced around, collecting iron, and looking for signs of life.

Sadly, as tends to happen with games of its type, mining and crafting can get quite tedious at times, especially if you’re looking for essentials. While there is some combat, the little drones serving as enemies early on aren’t exactly satisfying to bring down, and the rewards may not always be worth it. By far the most fun part of my experience has been flying around in my spaceship, thanks to the accessibility of the controls compared to full-on space simulations. Take my advice: get spaceborne as soon as you can, because you’ll be amazed at just how massive the game’s universe actually is. With a decent trading system, you’ll be able to upgrade your ship and see even more of it.

I’m pretty sure now that No Man’s Sky could never live up to the hype or fulfil all of its promises, but I still got a fair bit out of the experience. I certainly want to go deeper and reach the centre, but the farthest reaches of space won’t suit everyone.

In my last piece of 2015, No Man’s Sky was one of the numerous games I was hyped for this year, probably more than anything else. All through the gaming community, the hype for this game was beyond anything I have seen for many years, thanks to a marketing campaign that was all about intrigue and mystery. Vague promises were made of a vast procedurally generated universe to explore, with no two planets (all 18 quintillion of them) exactly alike, and all home to unique flora and fauna. It all looked amazing; to quote myself from 2015, No Man’s Sky would be “an accomplishment if it is even half as good as the hype suggests.”

Well, is it? And what the hell do you even do?

No Man’s Sky is an open world survival game with crafting. Yes, like a million cheap knockoffs before it, it’s basically Minecraft in a new setting. If the very idea of “open world survival game with crafting” puts you off, then you’re probably going to hate this game, and I honestly wouldn’t blame you. It has been done to death, and it is an often poor experience.

Thankfully, this game is more than just a new take on clichéd mechanics, if only just. Rather than plonking you in a random map and telling you to go for it with nowhere else to go, there is a real attempt to make an entire universe out of the experience. You’ll start off on a barren planet at the very edge of the galaxy, with a broken spaceship and a trusty multi-tool. There’s numerous resources to collect, and once you’ve met the requirements to fix your ship, you’re free to explore the galaxy. You have an ultimate goal—to make it to the centre of the universe—but thankfully you don’t have to

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Fresh Meat TV

5/5 (AGAIN) (I KNOW) Review by Katie Meadows I remember when Skins came out. I remember being 14, on MSN Messenger in a group chat talking to my friends as we watched the first episode. “Oh my god, they’re just like us!” we said as we saw a group of alternative young people. “Oh… a little less like us” we said as they crashed a car into a river and did a lot of hard drugs. Skins was not a relatable show at all, but it wanted to be and ultimately alienating its audience. Fresh Meat is relatable to the point of pain, where you will see all the dumb shit you ever did after high school but live with the knowledge that when you did it it wasn’t funny. The show is written and created by masters of painful relatability Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain of Peep Show and could perhaps be viewed as its more wholesome younger cousin (though no-one eats a dead dog), but it is just as hysterical, bleak, and British.

The premise sees a group of first year university students miss out on dorms and ending up all living in the same shared house, none of them knowing each other or what they are doing. Everyone is very anxious and stressed out, all while just trying to get to the kitchen to make a fucking cup of tea without having to bump into each other until you’ve all got drunk at your first party and broken the ice a bit. But you’ve got a boyfriend who you cheated on the night before moving in and it turns out it was one of your new housemates that you banged already… and that other one is kind of cute… is that smell weed? And who ate the last of your bread? There’s Josie, a little neurotic and a little bit more of an alcoholic. Kingsley, desperate to be cool and also have sex some time. JP, “utter knobhead” 43

/ ”posh twat” who draws dicks on everything. Writer Vod, constantly rolling a spliff. Melissa aka Oregon, who tries too hard and is hiding the fact she has a pony at home.

And Howard, Scottish geology student lurking in the shadows, loves a good knitted jumper.

There’s not a lot to it beyond that, but it’s lovely as heck to watch four seasons of such funny and wellwritten characters bond with each other as you bond with them. My favourite shows are always the ones with the best character development, because it kind of feels like those characters are your friends and you are simply a person looking through the camera and hanging out with everyone, like an emotional Oculus Rift. The show’s final season just finished airing earlier in the year and I finally got around to watching it this weekend and the last episode hit me pretty hard—I didn’t know any of these people when they all moved into that house and now I don’t want them to leave, even though they eat too loud and never do the dishes. The series almost didn’t get a fourth season, and so I’m happy with the conclusion I got, plus Jack Whitehall’s on Graham Norton a lot so I’ll see him soon, like when you hit up your old flatmates for the weed connects. If you have never seen it, Fresh Meat is a short sweet show with a lot of warmth and cringe and banter. I’m nearly 25 and I’ve never actually been to university, but between flatting, watching four seasons of Fresh Meat, and writing for Salient it almost feels like I have. Cheers.

Can You Tolerate This?

Author: Ashleigh Young Publisher: Victoria University Press 5/5

Books

Review by Cassie Richards

The Girls Author: Emma Cline Publisher: Chatto & Windus 2.5/5

When reading a personal essay I look for that glimmer of recognition, that secret sign, that the writer knows me in some inexplicable way. Often what I’m looking for, without really knowing it, is a perfectly formed sentence or phrase which captures wholly what I’m feeling, or have felt before. Wellington writer Ashleigh Young’s debut essay collection, Can You Tolerate This?, is filled with such glimmers and moments of companionship.

This is a collection several years in the making and it roams widely: from the story of a postman in rural southeastern France building his legacy, to young Japanese people who withdraw to their bedrooms and hide themselves away from the world, to Young’s own childhood in Te Kuiti, and on to her adolescence and adult years in Wellington. A dedicated runner, she writes of the thrill of running in the early morning dark around the southern coast of Wellington, and her time spent working at the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace with a host of dedicated Mansfield-ites.

Young’s family feature prominently throughout the book, in particular her brother JP. “Big Red” follows JP from the music scene in Hamilton where he fronted the band Clampers, to jobs such as mushroom picking and a stint as a shuttle driver braving the icy roads in Colorado, and back to Wellington. Throughout, Young observes herself as the younger sister enthralled by her brilliant brother, and also wonders about the problem of trying to make his stories her own. The essay takes its title from the moniker given to the ugly red bomber-style jacket that JP wore incessantly during his Hamilton days, causing great embarrassment to his family and friends. An illustration of Big Red features on the cover of the book, perhaps as an apology to the spurned jacket itself.

The most personal essay of the collection is “Bikram’s Knee”, in which Young writes about dealing with an eating disorder, and her obsession with Bikram Yoga.

It’s the kind of essay that resonates, even if the topic in question isn’t one the reader can directly relate to. It’s brave to write about something so personal, but also, it feels imperative—it’s one of the ways in which we can help others to feel less isolated, and Young is excellent company.

Can You Tolerate This? is a heartfelt, wise, and important book. For a collection of essays to immerse yourself in, look no further.

Review by Tamsin Grigg

What is as good as eating an entire packet of biscuits, one after the other? Reading about cults. It is so much fun. The Girls is a novel with a cult-survivor at its centre. How tasty and delicious will this cult themed offering be?

Middle-aged protagonist Evie Boyd lives modestly from job to job, not happy but not unhappy. The degenerate tail end of a Hollywood dynasty, Evie can count her friends on one hand, but she isn’t lonely—just a bit sad a lot of the time. Evie is staying for free at a friend’s isolated beach house when the friend’s no-hoper son lumbers in unannounced in the middle of the night with his teen girlfriend in tow. Evie is triggered back in time to 1969 when, as a young teenager in thrall to a beautiful hippy cult member, she came very close to taking part in a murderous home invasion.

A premise with all the potential for an excellent cultcentred novel, but sadly, the lack of idea and character development is frustrating, despite the talent with language Cline demonstrates. The story shifts back and forth in time between Evie in the present as a dissatisfied adult, in the past as a dissatisfied fourteen year old, and finally as a naïve teen hanging around a cult ranch. Evie is an annoying and pitiful character, both as a kid and as an adult. Her experiences through life do nothing to suck the personality failures out of her.

So, what is the point of The Girls? In its favour: it is slightly exciting, the writing is consistent, and though it drags a little early on, the pacing is solid for the most part.

This is definitely not the worst fiction I have ever read, but that sweet cult voyeurism you are craving will not be found here. The Girls is excellent reading perhaps for those who like the notion of transgression but don’t want it to be too wild, and readers for whom fact might be too uncomfortable. For anybody else, The Girls offers a solid but lacklustre few hours reading.

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Well? by Women Aren’t Wolves Review by Adeline Shaddick

WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK? HOLD ME BATS Theatre, The Propeller Stage Sep 6-10, 6:30pm THE NEXT BEST THING BATS Theatre, The Heyday Dome Sep 1-10, 7:00pm Late Night Knife Fight BATS Theatre, The Studio Sep 10, 9:00pm A new monthly improv show where three teams face off in a battle for glory, honour, and the audience’s favour.

No Post on Sunday Circa Theatre Aug 27 - Sep 10, 7:30pm

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Theatre

grows, and Brown’s breathing gets heavier, as the other character’s voices and movements increase too. I was sat right in front of Brown, making this scene even more powerful. All I wanted to do was get up and give them all a hug.

The play shows the audience that wellness and unwellness will always be present, and that we all experience and deal with our thoughts and feelings in different ways, and that this is all okay. Another scene that stood out, one that has stuck with me, was when they spoke about what they do when they are anxious or down.

These were things that the 30 people interviewed would have mentioned; from listening to podcasts to entering a space, putting your hands on your hips, and saying, “I’m a powerful woman”—things that myself, and many others, would have made note of for the future. Anyone could have watched Well? and enjoyed it and walked away with something. It was a beautiful show and did indeed shed light on this often disregarded topic. I am sure the play will be back, and when it is, get along to see it because it is well (pun intended) worth the watch!

Upon arriving at BATS Theatre a couple of weeks ago, for the performance of Well?, I immediately felt comfortable upon entering The Heyday Dome. The set design, sheets and mesh hanging across the majority of the back wall, welcomed you into the space. The space was almost empty except for a white bath in the centre of the stage.

What was most special about the space was the lighting

by Tony Black; it felt dream-like, with a great beam of light hitting the bath and a purple tone across the stage. I felt very tranquil, considering knowing the show’s content was going to be deep.

Well? is a performance shedding light on a rather personal and overlooked topic: mental illness. Director and writer Zoe Joblin combined thirty interviews about the experience of living with mental illness, which Courtney Rose Brown, Annabella Gamboni, and Aimee Smith then performed. These stories were interwoven into three separate narratives, occasionally interacting together.

As the audience lights dimmed and the show was about to begin, the three women came running in one by one, with a spotlight on each of them as they looked out at the audience. Using their real names as their character names, Aimee began to speak about mental illness, followed by the other two. I was surprised by the style of their entrance; I expected the entrance to follow the warm and inviting experience created by the set. I had expected the audience to slowly be exposed to understanding what wellness and unwellness is and feels like. It seemed we were being thrown right into the deep end.

Nevertheless, throughout the performance each character gets to share their stories. These are told through movement, words, and sounds, and their only occasional interactions reveal the support they have for each other. The support they showed was beautiful to watch. There were moments of playfulness as well as panic attacks and talks of suicide both together and individually, but it was clear that they were always listening to each other in some way, showing their support for one another.

There is a climactic scene where Courtney Rose Brown kneels right in front of the audience, rearranging jars, while Aimee talks and Annabella moves around—all individual, yet totally together. The sound of the jars

Puzzles Made by Puck

Crossword: 'Secret Identities' Note: The four longest answers across all have a secret identity hidden inside.

Hard Crossword answers from last week

Target goals Good: 20 words Great: 22 words Impressive: 25 words

ACROSS 1. Breakfast burrito dish named after the people who traditionally ate it (6,9) 9. Makes a mourning sound (5) 10. Like nodding or giving the finger to someone (3-6) 11. The last of Daenerys' titles, in 'Game of Thrones' (6,2,7) 13. Treat by ignoring (7) 15. The heart of the matter? (7) 18. Rock Master Scott song whose chorus (and title) was sampled by the Bloodhound Gang... actually, all I need to do is shout the line 'We don't need no water' and you'll probably get it (3,4,2,2,4) 21. Crowdfunding platform where the 'Let's Build a Goddamn Tesla Museum' was funded (9) 23. Seminal 1988 anime with the repeated line "TETSUOOOOOOOO!" (5) 24. "Give me a hand", in contemporary terms (4,1,7,3) DOWN 1. Winged army led by Brian Blessed in 'Flash Gordon' (7) 2. Poet who wrote 'The Wasteland' (5) 3. Not for innocent eyes (7) 4. Doesn't have in stock any more (4,3,2) 5. 'The Sound of Music' extra (3) 6. Savannah scavenger (5) 7. He played Chris Traeger on 'Parks and Recreation' (3,4) 8. Outfit for a jockey (5) 12. "Put down the gun!" (4,5) 14. Beowulf's foe (7) 16. Type of mirror that magnifies an image (7) 17. Island that's home to the Oban settlement (7) 18. Home of your quads (5) 19. The end for the Greeks (5) 20. Montoya whose father was killed by the Six-Fingered Man (5) 22. Propeller for some boats (3)

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Contributors

About Us Salient is published by, but remains editorially independent from, the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA). Salient is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA). Salient is funded in part by Victoria University of Wellington students through the Student Services Levy. The views expressed in Salient do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor, VUWSA, or the University.

Salient is printed on environmentally sustainable paper, and with vegetable ink, and is completely FSC approved.

Complaints People with a complaint against the magazine should complain in writing to the Editor at editor@salient.org.nz and then, if not satisfied with the response, to VUWSA.

Editors Emma Hurley and Jayne Mulligan editor@salient.org.nz Design and Illustration Ella Bates-Hermans designer@salient.org.nz News Editor Kate Robertson news@salient.org.nz Chief Sub Editor Tim Manktelow Sub Editors Bronwyn Curtis Georgia Smith Distributor Joe Morris News Reporters Alex Feinson Billy Dancer Saeran Maniparathy Thomas Croskery McKenzie Collins

Feature Writers Orion Holder-Monk, Theo Barnard, Laura Toailoa, Jamie Madhavan, Emily Fatu, Wiliame Gucake

Read Salient online at salient.org.nz

Opinon Writer Nicole Fyfe

Printed by SMP, Wellington.

Section Editors Cassie Richards (Books) Dana Williams and Isaac Brodie (Film) Harri Robinson (Music) Ophelia Wass (Theatre) Ruby Joy Eade, Lucy Wardle, Louise Rutledge, Robbie Whyte (Visual Arts) Cameron Gray (Games) Katie Meadows (TV)

Advertising Jason Sutton jason.sutton@vuwsa.org.nz 04 463 6982

Contributors Jazz Kane, Jonathan Gee, Raimona Tapiata, Laura Toailoa, Tamsin Grigg, Adeline Shaddick, Tawhai Moss, Matt Plummer, Renee Petero, Tessa Cullen, Jess Scott, Joe Morris, Alex Mark, Anya Maule, James Churchill, Puck.

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Contact Level 2 Student Union Building Victoria University PO Box 600, Wellington 04 463 6766

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