CULTURE | ISSUE FIVE | PUORO O AOTEAROA / LOCAL MUSIC Written by Te Atamea Boynton (she/her) | Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Ruapani | @tayatamea Contributing Writer When I hear a waiata, my taringa lock in. I catch a sound and want to know what it is. What instrument, how it’s been made. I jump on the rorohiko and start searching, moving from track to track, going down a rabbit hole of endless buzzy hardware until I’m somewhere completely different from where I started. Mu

NEWS | ISSUE FIVE | PUORO O AOTEAROA / LOCAL MUSIC Written by Liam Hansen (they/them) | @liamhanse.n | Associate Editor Marlon Williams - Image courtesy of Independent Music New Zealand The Taite Music Prize has held stature as Aotearoa music's scrappiest little award show for over a decade and a half. With New Zealand Music Month just around the corner, indie musicians packed into the intimate Q Theatre, celebrating the incredible records of 2026 whilst keeping all award win

INTERVIEW | ISSUE FIVE | PUORO O AOTEAROA / LOCAL MUSIC Interview with Arabella Devine (she/her) | @_ringlets | Interviewed by Mads Bradley (she/her) | @shutupmads Debate Mag: What’s something about the music industry that’s surprised you since being part of the scene and growing as a band? Arabella: Oh, there’ve been a few surprises for sure. One thing I’d been made aware of recently is how people want to assume that if there’s one female member in the band, then she must b

EDITORIAL | ISSUE FIVE | PUORO O AOTEAROA / LOCAL MUSIC Written by Tashi Donnelly she/her | @tashi_rd | Editor If you love plugging hot tunes directly into your ear holes, you’ve come to the right place. We’re talking about puoro o Aotearoa, local music, because our homegrown musicians deserve a spotlight, or five. So store your Taylor Swift, Olivia Dean, and even your Tame Impala in the overhead compartment, because this is a domestic flight. Destination: NZ music. These day

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

ISSUE FOUR/20 | RONGO Ā / DRUGS By Know Your Stuff NZ | @ knowyourstuffnz | https://knowyourstuff.nz/ Hi! We’re KnowYourStuffNZ, a peer-led drug harm reduction organisation. We’ve been checking people’s drugs and helping people reduce their drug-related risks in Aotearoa since 2015. We got the Misuse of Drugs Act permanently changed in 2021 so we could do our job without our clients or us getting arrested, which made life WAY easier. Why get your drugs checked? If you’re

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.

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

FEATURE | RONGOĀ / DRUGS Written by Stu Paul (any pronoun) Contributing Writer Painting from Jaipur, India, showing the use and effects of bhang , anonymous, ca. 1800. The spiritual and religious use of mind-altering drugs goes back to the very earliest records in human history. In this article, I will explore several different substances that have been used by various cultures to attain alternate states of consciousness for spiritual and religious purposes. Soma was the name

OPINION | RONGOĀ / DRUGS Written by Simon Saez (Anonymous Contributor) Cocaine is one of the worst recreational drugs that I can think of, besides glue huffing and meth. This is for a wide variety of different reasons. It is clear that there are drug options that are cheaper, longer acting, and less ethically suspect than cocaine. So why is coke so popular, and why is its usage in New Zealand increasing rapidly? Pharmacologically, cocaine is very short-lasting and requires i