Maia Ingoe

I am a writer and journalist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, New Zealand). I'm currently the Co-Editor of Salient Magazine. 

Featured Articles

Salient Magazine •

Imagining a Climate-Altered Future —

“[This] is a code red for humanity. The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable.” - UN Secretary General António Guterres on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, 9 August 2021.

I check the news as I wake up (not doing my anxiety any favours). A ^Guardian article tells me there's a new study analysing a stack of research carried out by ExxonMobil scientists. The article reveals they predicted climate change, with striking accuracy, in t
The Spinoff •

Saving Moko - The Spinoff

It might be selfish to focus on one species when entire ecosystems are under threat. But I was worried about the Māui dolphin when I did a speech about them at intermediate school, and I’m still worried now.

Extinction is all-consuming and eternal. When an animal, plant or fungi goes extinct, an entire system changes, like how a family is never the same after the loss of a child. To my generation, extinction seems to be a cascade, an uncontrollable phenomenon we have set the trigger for. Often

Whakarongo ki te Tai Ao | Headland

My best mornings are spent on the couch squeezed onto our thin, sloping veranda. Washing hangs at eye level, paint peels from the railing, dust and grime coat the windowsills. On the blue-sky days, sunshine twists and spirals around shadows of trees stretching in the wind. Lime green and darkened emerald leaves, spindly branches patterning the sky. The buildings behind are hidden from view. If I’m lucky, a tūī might come to hop between the branches, or maybe a kererū.

Brick steps lead to our ho

Editorials - Salient Magazine

Salient Magazine •

Deconstructing Social Construction — Salient Magazine

This century is the first time we’ve been able to admire everything at our fingertips. We can collect and consume a kaleidoscope of content displaying a variety of styles, decades, cultures, possible futures, and patterns between the past and present. Our brains have become Pinterest boards filled with content, combining ideas in a new visual context like never before.

It’s overwhelming and exciting. We can now see beyond our individuality, and relate to others. Subcultures adjacent to the main
Salient Magazine •

Climate in Crisis Mode — Salient Magazine

In the face of existential doom, it’s not unusual to ask how in the world another magazine writing about climate change is really going to help.


The Salient “Climate Crisis” issue doesn’t reduce emissions, nor build new public transport routes, nor burn down capitalism. If anything, our beloved print medium kills a big boy chunk of trees (at least we’re self aware right?).


But our words fill a need just as great—they get us talking about the crisis.

There are many days when the news bec
Salient Magazine •

Enter the Editorial Hivemind — Salient Magazine

Disclaimer: Some of the content in this issue deals with pretty heavy stuff. If you, or someone you know, needs help, we’ve put together a list of helplines to call on page 36. Kia kaha <3

“When we think of the term ‘mental health’, our minds tend to go to the extremities of poor mental health, as if mental health is inherently a bad, negative, scary thing.” - Chloé Hayden, Different, Not Less

Mental illness is not something new to us in the Salient office. We think it’s important to move past
Salient Magazine •

Sexploration — Salient Magazine

We’ve all been there. Giggling with our friends and pushing ourselves into a sex shop for the very first time. You enter through the iridescent bead curtain and are confronted with a whole new world: dildos of all sizes, vibrators of many colours, lube in each and every flavour, and lingerie in a range of lace and frills. There are fleshlights and buttplugs, handcuffs (fluffy and industrial), and mysterious rope and chains. You are shocked by the number of vessels, toys, and trinkets you don’t e
Salient Magazine •

You Better Werk, Bitch — Salient Magazine

It’s 10 a.m. on a Tuesday morning. You’ve just finished your morning shift at the part-time job that constantly rosters you on during university hours, and now have to boost it up from Lambton Quay to Kelburn Campus for the last two hours of your three hour (unrecorded) workshop. After that, it’s onto your freelance gig due the next morning, which takes priority over the 3000-word essay you haven’t started.

If you're reading Salient, this won’t be unfamiliar. Students gotta hustle, and hustle h
Salient Magazine •

Let’s Make This House Our Home — Salient Magazine

Making a home away from home gives us a sense of belonging and safety. When we moved into the Salient office, we had to make it ours. We brought in plants, revived a struggling peace lily, and made a lounge of couches and crochet blankets. It’s not just our office now, it’s our second home.

Over the past three years, we have been stuck inside a fuck tonne. If you weren’t a homebody before 2020, you now at least have an appreciation for the WFH lifestyle. Over this time, we either thrived or alm
Salient Magazine •

Shweedietopia — Salient Magazine

Back in 2020, any weed positive young person was excited for the possibility of a legal-high utopia. With the referendum right around the corner, it felt like we were on the precipice of a future where weed would be sold on Cuba Street dispensaries; where medicinal cannabis would be widely available for all who needed it; where growers would get legitimately paid for their skills; where weed could be safely regulated, out of the blackmarket; where people would be educated about it, without stigm
Salient Magazine •

Let's Get Physical — Salient Magazine

So we’ll be real with you. We can confirm we’re not the sportiest Salient editors. If anything, we might be the two of the least sporty. Does this mean that we’re couch potatoes? We do froth a Love Island night, but we’re definitely active, just in our own way.

Aotearoa is obsessed with sport and fitness. It’s a culture so strong, being unsporty in school could get you bullied; not just by other kids, probably by their mums too. But being active is not exclusive to the sports field or gym. Keep
Salient Magazine •

It's 2023, Time for Reinvention! — Salient Magazine

Maia: I came to university in search of a new identity. I’m not quite sure I ever managed some soul-shattering identity change where I became unrecognisable from my earlier self (apart from an over-inflated sense of change when I cut my hair short). But I definitely did change in small parts; in the ways I dressed and spoke; in the people I surrounded myself with; in how I expressed my passions. Pōneke has become foundational to this new identity, so much so that going home to Tairāwhiti disrupt

All my published work:

Salient Magazine •

Review: ‘What if We Just Made Art, Not the Climate Crisis?’ —

Generation Zero’s opening night for their exhibition, ‘What if we made art, not the climate crisis?’, felt close and touching. Run by the youth climate activism group, their aim was to curate art through community hui leading up to a competition, receiving over 80 submissions. The winners were featured in the exhibition hosted at Te Auaha from 15-26 April. The focus of the art was imagining what the world in 2050 could look like through art.

The opening event was hosted by Janine Kaminski and A
Salient Magazine •

The Ballad of Matty Healy and His Brain: The 1975 At Their Very Best —

On 19 April, crowds gathered in their hundreds at TSB Arena to see indie-pop band The 1975 for the Wellington leg of their At Their Very Best tour. Every concert-goer was ready to live out their 2013-Tumblr-girl fantasy.

The show opened with ‘The Birthday Party’, but in the wrong key, prompting a re-start with frontman Matty ‘The Ratty’ Healy saying, “There are no rules to this show.” There was not a dull moment in the 25-song long setlist, delighting fans and bringing a high-energy intensity t
Salient Magazine •

Disrupted Highways and Disgruntled Drivers: Restore Passenger Rail —

Recent disruptive climate protests have riled Wellington motorists, as activists from Restore Passenger Rail (RPR) have blocked roads and glued themselves to highways.

Five protestors are in police custody after a blockade in which protestors glued their hands to State Highway 1 at Vivian Street last Monday, lasting 30 minutes before police intervention. This followed another protest the week before, blocking Adelaide Road by the Basin Reserve on 20 April, and another on 17 April, blocking the
Salient Magazine •

Imagining a Climate-Altered Future —

“[This] is a code red for humanity. The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable.” - UN Secretary General António Guterres on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, 9 August 2021.

I check the news as I wake up (not doing my anxiety any favours). A ^Guardian article tells me there's a new study analysing a stack of research carried out by ExxonMobil scientists. The article reveals they predicted climate change, with striking accuracy, in t
Salient Magazine •

The down low on: MOVING IN WITH STRANGERS —

One room to fill – AVAILABLE NOW!

These words are all too familiar for anyone who has spent copious hours scrolling Wellington’s flatting Facebook groups, searching for a new home. Whether it’s on Vic Deals, Flats &Flatmates-Wellington, or Flats and Rooms for Rent Wellington NZ, the outlook is the same: single bedrooms in existing flats, searching for someone to move in ASAP.

With a housing market under pressure, flat hunting is a gruelling process made worse when entire flats are few and far
Salient Magazine •

VC Nic Smith on Community, Capital, and Letting the Dust Settle — Salient Magazine

Freshers aren’t the only newbies on the scene at VUW. A hot new bombshell has entered the villa: Vice Chancellor Nic Smith. He has busted into his new job as of January, telling Salient, “I'm in the listening phase.” In fact, he appeared to be a big fan of “letting the dust settle” (he used the phrase three times, twice in the same sentence), “understanding” (ten times), “capital” (six times), and “community” (ten times). As for action, this wasn’t mentioned much.

In his first interview with Sa
Salient Magazine •

Fringe Festival: A Stage for Students —

Fringe is known as the birthplace of brilliance for a reason. Over February and March, emerging artists and established performers take to Pōneke stages. Salient talked to three shows making their fringe debut.

King Shit explores online masculinity through an anthology of mediums. It is the first professional production by Wills Toon-Lister and Oliver Knott, who both completed degrees in theatre at VUW last year.

The show was born from recollections of the oppressive influence of anti-feminist
The Spinoff •

Saving Moko - The Spinoff

It might be selfish to focus on one species when entire ecosystems are under threat. But I was worried about the Māui dolphin when I did a speech about them at intermediate school, and I’m still worried now.

Extinction is all-consuming and eternal. When an animal, plant or fungi goes extinct, an entire system changes, like how a family is never the same after the loss of a child. To my generation, extinction seems to be a cascade, an uncontrollable phenomenon we have set the trigger for. Often
Salient Magazine •

From 1989 to 2022: Student Activism Endures —

Students are a fiery bunch. We enter university, an institution full of new people and new ideas, and we have a hunger to change what’s wrong with the world. Students have a rich history of being at the forefront of activism and movements of the day, from the 1970s and 80s to now. But 2022 looks a lot different to the 80s: university takes place via Zoom, students work one or more jobs to pay exorbitantly rising rents and struggle to afford the basics, and we pay thousands of dollars per class.
Salient Magazine •

Students and Long Covid: When the Infection Overstays its Welcome —

When Monica Brooks got Covid-19, the infection didn’t go away after seven days.

Her eyes puffed up pink, her neck swelled, and she was exhausted. A month after the initial infection, she went to the after-hours doctors and was diagnosed with Long covid—the highly variable post-viral condition that lingers after a Covid-19 infection. When the symptoms were at their worst, Monica couldn’t recognise herself. “Not looking like myself, not recognising my own face because it was so swollen, was reall
Salient Magazine •

Climate Court is in Session — Salient Magazine

The fight for climate action happens on parliament lawns, on lines of rising sea levels and…in courtrooms. Reflecting a global trend of climate lawsuits, a group of law students from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University have banded together to take the Minister for Energy and Resources to court over the decision to grant two oil and gas exploration permits in 2021.

Students for Climate Solutions v Minister for Energy and Resources: The Case

Climate activists rejoiced when a ban on offshore oil
Salient Magazine •

Ratatouille at Dads Place — Salient Magazine

“The trick is to salt it first and then add shitloads of oil.”

We stand over his big gas stove, wheels of eggplant sizzling in two cast-iron pans. The sheer amount of the stuff, when laid out flat and coated in olive oil, is overwhelming. I half-heartedly poke the eggplants around the pans with a spatula. Dad calls it a fish slice, despite never using it for fish. “None of that American shit,” he’d say.

I always assumed Dad didn’t fit in the kitchen—scarred from a childhood memory of being ser
Salient Magazine •

Washing Their Hands of Student Survivors — Salient Magazine

In Rhea Dias’s year as a Residential Advisor in a hall of residence, she saw the Victoria University of Wellington’s Sexual Harrasment Response Policy in practice. It fell short of its aim to protect survivors. She shares her experience in this article.

First-year halls teem with excitement and energy. New friends, new experiences, a new place to call home. It’s a place where you’re supposed to feel safe. But the first time I accompanied a sexual assault survivor to their meeting with manageria
Salient Magazine •

Foraying Into the World of Fungi — Salient Magazine

What makes a scientist? Is it a lab coat and a framed university degree? Or, does it look more like an enthusiast fumbling through their neighbourhood bush? A bookshelf filled with flora and fungi field guides, or maybe a phone camera roll with nothing but mushrooms?

Sometimes, science is lucky enough to drift out beyond peer-reviewed journals and into the lives of everyday people. This is the case for mycology, the study of fungi.

Fungi enthusiasts might call themselves ‘mycophiles’ or ‘forag
Salient Magazine •

Interview with Jefferson Collective — Salient Magazine

Flatting creates all kinds of new connections and communities. For the Jefferson Collective, it sparked a creative collaboration, combining the individual strengths and interests of flatmates Savanna Stent (she/her), Kat Rowan (they/them), and Rosie Mazur (she/her). The Jefferson Collective sells jewellery by Sav, art prints by Kat, and collaborative zines put together by Rosie.

Their first zine series combines poetry, illustration, and collage to tell a story of adolescence in three stages: hu
Salient Magazine •

Let’s Get Wellington Walking — Salient Magazine

It’s spring, and my manifestation for sunnier days is finally working. There’s no better time to get out and explore what Te Whanganui-a-Tara has to offer. I used to gawk at people who revelled in a good hike up a hillside, unable to think of a worse way to spend my time. But now I’m thoroughly hooked. Nothing makes me feel more alive, and more proud of my body, than spending my weekend walking one of the many beautiful tracks our city has to offer. I acknowledge that walking isn’t accessible fo

Guidebook of Noticing | Headland

Below, you’ll find what could be described as a photographic diary—little moments of noticing and interactions, recorded on an Iphone camera roll. There are many more moments made listening to the living things we share the world with, simply experienced, with no record to plaster into a zine/journal/guidebook.

In between these images, there are human going ons: three trimesters of university, moving house and home, a breakup, a summer, a Gregorian new year, new friends, two trips to Tairāwhiti
Salient Magazine •

VUW Student Activist Wins the Impact Award for Climate — Salient Magazine

When Rilke Comer nominated herself and the work of the incorporated society Climate Clinic for the Climate Impact Award, she never expected to win. But last Saturday night, exactly that happened. Rilke Comer walked the stage at TSB Arena to receive the Impact Award for Climate, an award recognising work by rangatahi on climate action.

Rilke is one of the founding members of Climate Clinic, a VUW club focused on advocating for climate action within the law. In the same week as the Impact Award c
Salient Magazine •

Ariel and Aurora, Jasmine and Juliet — Salient Magazine

My most treasured costume was a princess dress of silk and tulle. I imagined myself as the princess of these fantastical tales, lovestruck but trapped. I wanted a love who would overcome any obstacle to be with me. Now, a bit older and a little scarred by heartbreak, yet still as hopeless as ever, I’ve begun to wonder if my idolised ideas of Disney love aren’t all they're cracked up to be.

My parents divorced when I was seven; I didn’t see love there. Dad rounded through the girlfriends and Mum
Salient Magazine •

A Rainbow Refugee Quota — Salient Magazine

In March this year, the Government was due to review the New Zealand Refugee Resettlement Strategy (NZRRS) for the first time in a decade. This prompted calls for a new subcategory for ‘rainbow refugees’; those seeking resettlement because of their gender and sexual identity.

While homosexuality has been decriminalised in New Zealand since 1986, seventy countries still criminalise private and consensual samesex activity, and fifteen countries criminalise the identity of transgender people.

Suc
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