Written by Piremina Ngapera (she/her) | @piremina | Contributing Writer Illustration by Maia Staples-Fletcher (she/her) | @maia_sfletch | Contributing Artist Long before calendars were fixed on walls and screens, my tiipuna looked to the eastern horizon before dawn, where Matariki returned with the midwinter sky. Its rising marks the close of one year and the beginning of another. Yet to call it simply "the Maaori New Year" feels incomplete. Across Aotearoa, not every iwi wa

TE AO MĀORI | ISSUE SEVEN | MATARIKI Written by Taigaga (Jamal) Rerecich (he/him) | @417mal | Contributing Writer Matariki 2026 carries the theme Herenga Waka - For Everyone, and the question that theme invites, if we are being honest about the political moment it lands in, is whose "everyone" is being offered and on what terms. The public holiday passed into law in 2022 without the support of National or ACT, both of whom now govern. In the same parliamentary term, those par

FEATURE / TE AO MĀORI | ISSUE SEVEN | MATARIKI Written by Ivy Lyden-Hancy (she/her/ia | Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Wairere, Tūkorehe, Samoa (Falefā), Tonga (Vava’u) | @tekaraipiture | Contributing Writer Illustration by Maia Staples-Fletcher (she/her) | @maia_sfletch | Contributing Artist I see my family in the stars, from Hokianga to Waikato, we are the stars of Matariki. Our waka wairua as we travel through time. Stuck in it, in the nostalgia, my tupuna, my nanas, my papas,

Affordable Matariki Events Around Tāmaki Makaurau ARawhetū A free augmented reality art trail through the CBD featuring virtual sculptures inspired by the stars of Matariki and Puanga. Perfect for an evening wander with friends and an excuse to explore the city. Until: 21 July | Free More info: aucklandlive.co.nz He Ara Hīkoi Take a guided walk through Auckland's Matariki installations and learn the stories behind the stars and artworks lighting up the city. Until: 19 July

NEWS | ISSUE SEVEN | MATARIKI Written by Liam Hansen (they/them) | @liamhanse.n | Associate Editor The Auckland University of Technology Students Association is currently taking nominations for its Student Representative Council, the governing body representing various faculties, cultural groups, and communities across AUT campuses while directing the operations and priorities of AUTSA in their services for students. There are 22 roles sitting within the SRC, broken into subc

EDITORIAL | ISSUE SEVEN | MATARIKI Written by Tashi Donnelly (she/her) | @tashi_rd | Editor Nau mai, haere mai ki Debate. Appearing in the early morning skies of midwinter, Matariki has long served as a time for remembrance, celebration, and reflection. It is an opportunity to honour those who have passed, give thanks for the present, and look ahead to the future. The cluster itself, part of the Taurus constellation, consists of nine stars: Tipuānuku, Tipuārangi, Waitī, Waitā

WEB EXCLUSIVE Written by Ricky Lai (he/him) | @rickthelai on IG & Letterboxd | Columnist Leviticus is named after the book from the Old Testament, which in part lays out the archaic laws of sexual morality. Most controversial is one commandment which, even in its slight variations of phrasing from one translation to another, has rippled appalling consequences throughout the rest of history: ‘18:22 – You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination’. Historia

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