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

INTERVIEW | QUEER ARTIST'S TREE | ISSUE FIVE | PUORO O AOTEAROA / LOCAL MUSIC Interview by Maebh McCurdy (she/her) | @leighapparently | Trans Music Aotearoa Interview with A.V Des Forges (she/her) | @vraikalzre | Musician, producer, & animator Welcome to the first edition of Queer Artists’ Tree. A column where I sit in a tree (not really) with a queer artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau and talk to them about their craft, and how their queerness interacts with their artistry. Thi

COLUMN | ISSUE FIVE | PUORO O AOTEAROA / LOCAL MUSIC Written by Luke Fisher (he/him) | @lukefish7__ | Sports Columnist This piece is set to be a bit of a boomer-esque grumble, so I thought I’d bring in the big guns. The other day, I messaged my dad (he’s very tech-savvy) asking him what he thought about music at live sports events. Having heard him consistently moan about it throughout most of my childhood, his response was somewhat predictable: “Shit, except for Bumble belti

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

COLUMN | ISSUE FOUR/20 | RONGO Ā / DRUGS Written by László Reynolds (he/him) | @laszloreynolds | Contributing Columnist It is recommended to read your rising sign first, then the Sun after. You can read for your Moon sign as well, especially if you were born at night. Aries The vengeful God of War and sinister Father Time have one hand each enclosed around your throat. This has made speech impossible. Conserve what energy you’ve left; the grip will loosen as April winds up.

SPILL THE TEA WITH TASHI | COLUMN | RONGOĀ / DRUGS Written & illustrated by Tashi Donnelly (she/her) | @tashi_rd | Editor-in-Chief Q: Ryan, 18yo , he/him My girlfriend goes to UOA, I go to AUT, she wants to take the bus into the city with me the days we both go in, but I have a good system going where my dad drives me most of the way and I bus from there, it works and I'm getting accustomed to it, but I also wanna spend time with my girlfriend, should I stick with my curren

COLUMN | ISSUE FOUR/20 | RONGO Ā / DRUGS Written by the Hot Lesbian she/her | @hot_lesbian_initiative Before I was a hot lesbian, I was a big stoner. You could say weed made me gay, but I always had it in me. Don’t wanna sound like a Tom Scott song, but I love getting stoney bro. The political and economic state of the world right now fades to the back of my hinengaro. A wave of deep relaxation sets in, and before you know it, kua tau te rangimārie. When I really thought abou

RICK'S REEL RECOMMENDATIONS | ISSUE THREE | WHENUA Written by Ricky Lai (he/him) | @rickthelai & Letterboxd | Film Columnist Chocolat (Claire Denis, 1988) Don’t get mixed up here: I don’t mean ‘ Chocolat ’ (2000). Not the shlocky rom-com starring Juliette Binoche as a travelling chocolatier who brings love back to rural France with the power of sweeties, the DVD which you find on op-shop shelves next to Hayley Westenra CDs. I mean the lesser-known ‘Chocolat’ , about a nati

SPORTS | ISSUE THREE | WHENUA Written by Luke Fisher (he/him) | @lukefish7__ | CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST My first encounter with the concept of climate change was seeing the bumper stickers on my primary school bible studies teacher’s van. Climate change is just a load of hot air. It’s always been hot. Aged seven, I didn’t have a clue what these meant. I honestly thought the first one was nothing more than a scientific fact. But fast forward 14 years (good god), and the phrases

NEWS | ISSUE THREE | WHENUA Written by Liam Hansen they/them | @liamhanse.n | Associate Editor The university experience isn’t moulded to every student’s needs. It varies from course to course, but the overreliance on readings, tests of rote learning, and reflections tend to serve the needs of most students fine . But the number of students who feel like they’re working against a brick wall has increased year on year, and with AUT’s cohort of domestic and international stude

EDITORIAL | ISSUE THREE | WHENUA Written by Tashi Donnelly she/her | @tashi_rd | Editor We forget how unpoetic English can be as a language until we encounter words like ‘whenua’. Those words that say what English would need ten words to describe. Words like ‘wabi-sabi’ or ‘schadenfreude’. Translated into English, ‘whenua’ could mean ‘land’ or ‘homeland’. It could mean ‘Motherland’ or ‘Mother Earth’. ‘Ancestral land’ might come close. Another translation is ‘placenta’. Whenu

COLUMN | ISSUE TWO | WAIRUATANGA / SPIRITUALITY Written by The Hot Lesbian she/they | @hot_lesbian_initiative I’ve always had a complicated relationship with religion. When I was younger, I saw no issue with my somewhat religious upbringing. But as I grew older, the shadows became harder to ignore. As a lesbian, I carried an internal battle with internalised homophobia, something that is hard to unlearn in spaces that quietly (or loudly) tell you that you are wrong. I think t

COLUMN | ISSUE TWO | WAIRUATANGA / SPIRITUALITY Written By László Reynolds he/him | @laszloreynolds | Contributing Writer Aries Resist the urge to postpone everything, but also refrain from sprinting ahead too quickly with your tasks; you will simply be forced to go over them again. Ignore half-lies exchanged between hidden enemies. If you like someone, let them make the first move. Deeply scrutinise everything coming your way; the World is trying to rebirth itself through yo

BREAD & CIRCUSES | COLUMN | SPORTS | WAIRUATANGA / SPIRITUALITY Written by Luke Fisher (he/him) | @lukefish7__ | CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST “I believe sport is actually a chance for us to have other human beings push us to excel.” Though I can’t say I’ve ever recited a line from a poem as part of a football drill, this quote resonated with me. It felt like a suitable one to start this piece with, not least because I look like every student from the Dead Poet’s Society put togeth

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