THE HOT LESBIAN | COLUMN | ISSUE SIX | MAHI Ā-RINGA / CRAFT Written by This Week’s Hot Lesbian, Wren Probett (she/her) @inkdogshirts | @hot_lesbian_initiative | Contributing Lesbian What could possess someone to wear a shirt that reads “Gay Dog” or “Dyke”? What must go wrong in a person’s life, for them to spend hours carefully carving those words from linoleum? Of all things, why a shirt? I mean, are you planning on wearing that on the bus? At the mall?? If you’ve seen my sh

KŌRERO TOI | ISSUE SIX | MAHI Ā-RINGA / CRAFT Written by Jana Nee (she/her) | @jahncreates | Contributing Writer The darkroom in my high school art class was my creative haven. At sixteen, I spent most lunch breaks there, developing negatives from my film camera. I made strange, carefully staged images of fish heads with doll bodies. There were no creative constraints, and I embraced that freedom, experimenting and finding my voice through art photography. I learned to mix ch

Carrying Care KŌRERO TOI | ISSUE SIX | MAHI Ā-RINGA / CRAFT Written by De Jana Sveistrup (they/she) | @dejana_sv | Contributing Writer Photos by Camden Jackson @camdak.g Studio space with hurricane fence displaying yarn collection, crochet panels and paintings. Photo by Camden Jackson Craft has a way of offering many metaphors to life, such as threads of connection, having a yarn, and unwinding. The art of craft is powerful in its ability to connect. After the resurgence of

Tohi Kumi Koloa KŌRERO TOI | ISSUE SIX | MAHI Ā-RINGA / CRAFT Written by ‘Uhila M.L Jr (she/ her) | @uhila_nai | Contributing Writer The project Tohi Kumi Koloa, delves into the Tongan practices of ngatu barkcloth and kupesi embroidered relief stencil, as a lived document of my ancestors. The work is grounded in the Tongan way of thinking, making, and doing, while adapting to the present day. A practice that exists within and across the past, Tonga, and the present, Aotearoa

KŌRERO TOI | ISSUE SIX | MAHI Ā-RINGA / CRAFT Written by Jeorja Duffy (she/her) @jeorjaduffy & Te Ra Awatea Kemp (she/her) @te.ra.kemp | Contributing Writers @herehere.co We, Jeorja Duffy (Ngāti Kuri, Sa’fanene, Pākehā) and Te Ra Awatea Kemp (Ngāti Raukawa, Te Ātiawa, Pākehā), both embrace craft at the heart of our art practices. Through generational craft, we utilise knowledge such as crochet and quilting in our personal artworks. Working with the handmade, we found common g

WEB EXCLUSIVE | REVIEW & INTERVIEW Written by Skye Lunson-Storey (she/they/ia) | @uku_rangi | Arts, Culture, and Te Ao Māori Editor Dates: May 7, 8, 9 Location: Basement Theatre Tickets: $15-$28 Use code GOODCANT to have 20% off tickets Serving Can’t Created by Marshall Lorenzo is an energetic and chaotic dive into the absurdities of modern work, capitalism, and burnout. Packed with hyper-pop transitions, bright lighting, and a constant rotation of eccentric characters. Mars

COLUMN | ISSUE FIVE | PUORO O AOTEAROA / LOCAL MUSIC Written by Ricky Lai (he/him) | @rickthelai on IG & Letterboxd | Columnist Music and movies pair together like Marlborough wine and Eltham cheese. For this issue’s film column, I’ve plucked out three song lyrics from present-day Aotearoa and partnered them with films that, to me, evoke those words. Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961) Song: Avantdale Bowling Club, Friday Night @ The Liquor Store (2022) The lyric: “The best of We

RICK'S REEL RECOMMENDATIONS | ISSUE THREE | WHENUA Written by Ricky Lai (he/him) | @rickthelai & Letterboxd | Film Columnist I Don’t Hate Las Vegas Anymore (Caveh Zahedi, 1994) A warning: mileage may vary for this road trip documentary. Caveh Zahedi is perhaps the documentarian most committed to self-sabotage since the time Morgan Spurlock ate 270 Big Macs to conceal his alcoholism in Supersize Me . Zahedi, an impolite, offhanded nebbish who is openly manipulative, is as h

FEATURE | ISSUE FOUR/20 | RONGO Ā / DRUGS Written by Jed Scott (he/him) | @jed__scott | Contributing Writer Hello Debate readers! I have decided to review albums in this amazing magazine because I think my friends are getting tired of my ramblings, and I need other avenues to discuss music. Anyways, here are 6 new albums from 2026 that I would like to discuss with you all. Listen to them and support artists! Also, feel free to rip out this page and burn it (safely!) if you

The Work of Cinema in the Age of Algorithmic Reproduction WEB EXCLUSIVE Written by Trevor Pronoso | Contributing Writer Last February, the Library of Congress discovered what was thought to be a lost film by renowned early cinema illusionist Georges Méliès titled Gugusse and the Automaton (1897). What makes this film uniquely special isn't just limited to film historians and cinephiles (though it doesn't hurt to see more recovered films lost to time). What makes this film tr

REVIEW | WEB EXCLUSIVE | ARTS Written by Sanskruti Banerjee ( she/her) | @san._.banerjee | Contributing Writer BEHIND AERA THE LABEL Aera The Label, featuring their limited edition runs of ready to wear clothing made their debut of the Ride My Coattail collection, at Ahua Fashion Week 2026. Aera’s house of experimentation and stories revolves around conceptual fashion, every piece underpinned with whimsical, lace and flowy incorporations. A brand that celebrates community an

ARTS | ISSUE THREE | WHENUA Written by Ken Faber (they/he) | @_kekeno_ | Contributing Artist The End We Are Together confronts the internal biases rooted in the ideology of the Anthropocene - Eurocentrism, chronocentrism, and anthropocentrism - clawing at its reifications of the innate sin of humanity in causing our extinction. It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. Egg tempera is a naturally occurring emulsion, a nonbinary combination of o

ARTS | ISSUE TWO | WAIRUATANGA / SPIRITUALITY Written By Noesheen Sherreeze Buksh she/her | @bon._.bon._.908 | Contributing Writer My art practice examines mortality. Through my interpretation of the apocalypse, my practice is shaped by my interfaith Christian-Islamic upbringing and Fijian-Indian heritage. Painting is a tool I use to escape the never-ending dread I feel in the pit of my stomach when the topic of religion and spirituality are brought up. I use the means of c

ARTS | MUSIC | ANAMATA / THE FUTURE Written by Jed Scott (he/him) | @jed__scott | Contributing Writer Illustration by Kiki Hall (she/her) | Contributing Artist Rock is DEAD! Or at least, that's what your uncle has been spouting ever since he gave up on Rolling Stone magazine. Plenty of amazing rock bands have been striding through the door, pushing new and interesting ideas to the public: Viagra Boys, Model/Actriz, Tropical Fuck Storm, Maruja, Jeff Rosenstock, and Fontaines

ARTS | ANAMATA / THE FUTURE Written & illustrated by Stella Roper (they/she) | @stellyvision / @dodofrenzy | Arts Editor There is an unmatched, twisted and complex nature contained in the English language, with its cruel rules, ifs and buts and “i’s before e’s” – you’d wonder how any of the literary greats got anything done. I think back to high school, in moments looking over reading materials in class, and remember having thought that the author's writing was leagues bey