Featured Articles

Microforested — Salient Magazine

I breathe in and inhale the smell of dampness and cold and rot. It’s a rich smell: full of growth, moistness, and winter after rainfall. The water seeps through the trees, through the fallen leaves coating the ground, the mulch forming underneath; slinks between the soil and the granules of stone and past all of the tiny critters chewing, munching, decomposing. It runs down into the deep reservoirs and buried rivers that run beneath suburbs. I step over the leaves and keep walking.

The lichens

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

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

All my published work:

How to Survive the Renting Rat Race — Salient Magazine

It’s that time of year again: hordes of freshers perform the annual ritual of scurrying to find a flat before the next academic year begins. The difficulty to even be offered a flat as a first-time renter has forced our news intern to accept a flat in the ditch of Devon Street in Aro Valley (pray for him).

To save you from the same fate, we’ve put together our top tips on finding a flat. Hit up the VUWSA Advocates, Brie Keatley and Erica Schouten (advocate@vuwsa.org.nz), for more free advice an

Grant Robertson Votes, Eats Sausage, and Ignores Protesters on Campus — Salient Magazine

VUW has become a hotspot for politicians heading to cast their vote, with Labour’s Grant Robertson and Ibrahim Omer voting in the Hub last Wednesday, and the Greens’ Tamatha Paul and James Shaw, alongside Wellington mayor Tory Whanau, voting here last Monday. Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni showed up in support, but didn’t cast her vote.

As part of their political efforts, Grant Robertson and Wellington Central candidate Ibrahim Omer “awkwardly paraded around university, disturbing studyi

OPINION: The VUWSA Election Gives Us No Choice —

Unless you actually have a life, you may have noticed it’s VUWSA election season—students’ yearly chance to have somewhat of a say in who makes up our student union. By the time this article is published, voting on yet another lacklustre VUWSA election with, for the most part, zero options, will have closed.

It wasn’t any surprise to anyone who the newly elected VUWSA President was when announced at the AGM on 28 September: Marcail Parkinson, a student activist well-versed in VUWSA and universi

Candidate Kōrero: Prime Minister Chris Hipkins (Labour Party) —

We met the Prime Minister at his office in the Beehive—Chippy was 15 minutes late, largely due to a tray of sausage rolls being wheeled into his office (Fair enough).

“Hi, I’m Chris,” the PM introduced himself, chipper if not a bit clammy, fresh from National’s tax policy announcement (and Labour’s worst polling results since 2017, dipping into the 20s). We took a seat on one of the sofas in his Beehive office and wasted no time getting stuck in.

Chippy was VUWSA president in 2000 and 2001, wh

Candidate Kōrero: Julie-Anne Genter —

Julie-Anne Genter regularly braves the cold for a swim in the South Coast’s marine reserve, Taputeranga. “It’s really magic,” she says. So it was an easy choice to film a campaign video there—until a whale visited Island Bay the day of their filming, disrupting their plans. Genter wasn’t disappointed. What a better sign, she thought, for a Green campaign than a whale visiting. She posted on Twitter: “This is basically an endorsement, right?”


A Green Party MP since 2011, this is the first time

Cuts to Theatre: Undervaluing an Industry —

The teachers and students of the VUW Theatre programme are staring down the barrel of severe job cuts that have been described by staff and students as “blindsiding” and “tearing apart a community”.

The VUW Theatre programme is one of the only ones in the country where students are trained in a practical, multi-disciplinary way that enables students to combine Theatre with other programmes in the BA. The original job cuts proposed by the university would split the Theatre school in half—cutting

Microforested — Salient Magazine

I breathe in and inhale the smell of dampness and cold and rot. It’s a rich smell: full of growth, moistness, and winter after rainfall. The water seeps through the trees, through the fallen leaves coating the ground, the mulch forming underneath; slinks between the soil and the granules of stone and past all of the tiny critters chewing, munching, decomposing. It runs down into the deep reservoirs and buried rivers that run beneath suburbs. I step over the leaves and keep walking.

The lichens

OPINION: Seeking Justice for my Emotional Support Halloumi Wrap —

The LAB’s halloumi wrap was, on some days, the only reason I came to uni. I dragged myself to 9 a.m. lectures, knowing that since my disorganised ass hadn’t made lunch, my beloved halloumi wrap awaited me. At $10, it was a spicy price, but I was willing to pay for the mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical support the halloumi wrap gave me. One bite into that delicious, salted, cheesy goodness mixed in with seasonal vegetables, beans, and that beautiful aioli sauce and I was insatiable.


Stafford House Evades the Residential Tenancy Act: Payout of $4800 Ordered —

A past resident of Stafford House has been awarded $4800 in compensation and damages by the Tenancy Tribunal, in a ruling combining eight different breaches of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 (RTA).


The resident lived at Stafford House from February to November 2022, during his first year at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, in accommodation he described as “disgusting”.


Stafford House is operated by UniLodge, who operated under agreement with VUW as a Hall of Residen

Over Budget and Overtime: Why is Now the Time for the Living Pā? —

The building extension of Te Herenga Waka Marae, the Living Pā, is unique, ambitious, and future focused, but burdensome challenges have continued to push the project backwards.

An OIA received by Salient confirmed that a revised budget of $52 million for the project was approved in late 2022, an increase of $17m from the original budget of $35m approved in 2019.

$17.5m has been spent on the project to date. This marks a significant spend for the university in a fraught financial climate, with

The Loud & Queer Comedy Showcase Shimmers with Pride — Salient Magazine

The Loud & Queer showcase was stuffed full with glorious LGBTQIA+ talent from this year’s NZ International Comedy Festival, and enough Best Foods mayonnaise to feed a small army. Equipped with two free comms tickets, I headed to the most vulnerable seat you can take at a live comedy show: second row, dead centre.

An audience member getting the shit ripped out of them is, arguably, the most entertaining part of live comedy (if you’re in the back row). So when Sainsbury turned the house lights up

Kura Turuwhenua: The Hōhā Guy in Aotearoa Comedy —

Kura Turuwhenua greets everyone who comes to her comedy show with a hug at the door, demonstrating the kind of welcoming, unassuming yet witty, comedy she does.

Kura is an up-and-coming comedian from Tāmaki Makaurau, hailing from Tūhoe, Kāi Tahu, and Ngāti Porou. Hōhā Guy is her solo comedy debut, showing as part of the 2023 NZ International Comedy Festival. I caught up with Kura while she was in Pōneke performing the show to chat about how she stumbled into the comedy scene and what it means t

Salient’s Budget Breakdown (the bits that are actually relevant to you) — Salient Magazine

Each year, the government drops a hefty document outlining how they plan to spend taxpayer money over the next 12 months. The budget is typically peppered with exciting initiatives to court voters’ attention, but this year, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins warned us that it would be a “no frills budget”. He really meant it. Budget ‘23 had less frills than a commerce student’s crusty jockeys.

One of the key announcements from the budget is the government's plan to permanently extend half price publi

This IS the Pōneke music scene! — Salient Magazine

Words by Maia Ingoe (she/her), photos by Ruby Millichamp (she/her) and Bella Maresca (they/them)

For the 2023 Salient music issue, we wanted to highlight local musicians changing the scene in Pōneke. Wellington has a thriving music landscape, from staples like Meow, Moon, San Fran and Valhalla, to annual central city festivals like CubaDupa and Homegrown, to the student culture that finds its life with live music. But we know that the music scene in Pōneke and Aotearoa has been dominated by mal

OPINION: VUW’s Natural Gas Boilers Cannot Be Replaced Fast Enough —

Climate Change Minister James Shaw recently announced that public hospitals and tertiary education institutions would be included, along with public schools, in the goal to replace all coal boilers by 2025.

In total, the government invested $78 million to 38 decarbonisation projects across the state sector. “This means […] students will be going to work at a place with cleaner air,” Shaw said earlier this month.

So, what does Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington get out of this in

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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.
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