SPILL THE TEA WITH TASHI | COLUMN | ISSUE 7 | MATARIKI Written & illustrated by Tashi Donnelly (she/her) | @tashi_rd | Editor-in-Chief Scroll to the bottom of this webpage to submit your own question for Tashi to answer: https://www.debatemag.com/spill-the-tea-submissions Q: Dear Tashi, I feel bad writing this, but I have a very irritating classmate. They talk over other people a lot and also talk over the lecturer, interrupting them and disrupting the discussion. I have neve

"Have you Eaten Yet?" COLUMN | ISSUE SEVEN | MATARIKI Written by y Priscilla Zhang (she/her) | @p.zhangxy | Columnist Illustrations by Sophia He (she/her) | @meoskyan.art | Graphic Designer Every time my mother calls from China, she asks the same question within the first two minutes: “Have you eaten yet?” For many Chinese people, this question carries a weight that has very little to do with hunger. Conversations happen around dining tables. Friendships begin over shared m

ARTS | ISSUE SEVEN | MATARIKI Written by Tohu Harris (she/her) | @tohu._.harris | @tohu_wairua_aroha_ | Contributing Writer Project Introduction This practice-led research project explores my identity grounded by my whakapapa Māori and connection to God. I seek to find harmony between these two worlds, culture and religion, establishing wairua as the common thread that binds them both. I navigate the complexities of this multi-dimensional state of being through painting and

HOROSCOPE | COLUMN | ISSUE SIX | MAHI Ā-RINGA / CRAFT 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 You’ve made it over the crest of the hill (hell?); any lingering extreme heat is fading in the rear view. What’s left is a lingering heaviness. If you look closer, though, the reason it’s so h

FILM COLUMN | ISSUE SIX | MAHI Ā-RINGA / CRAFT Written by Ricky Lai (he/him) | @rickthelai on IG & Letterboxd | Columnist A Bucket of Blood (Roger Corman, 1959) Whether you’re burdened by imposter syndrome or choked by a creative block, if you’re an artist in a rut, seek the protagonist of A Bucket of Blood for reassurance that you’re not fucking up this badly. In this dark comedy, Dick Miller plays the nebbish Walter, a busboy at a beatnik café who doesn’t fit in with the so

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

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.