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Ash Buick Just from reading the title of this article, you might be wondering: “ Tumblr? That’s still a thing? ” And yes, dear reader, I am proud to announce that I am one of the over 130 million active Tumblr users. The cultural icon of the 2010s is still alive and kicking. Johnlock  even made it into the top 100 ships of 2025 (if you know, you know). Even though I only joined the site in 2019, my status as a survivor of 5 November 2020 means I feel comfortable calling mysel

Hajji Abdullah Drury According to the most recent national census, the Muslim population of New Zealand exceeds 60,000 individuals. This figure reflects not a homogeneous constituency but a complex social formation shaped by successive migrations, refugee resettlement, conversion, and the maturation of locally born generations. Whilst first-generation migrants remain numerically prominent, refugee communities have introduced additional linguistic, ethnic, and theological dive

An account of a mature student returning to study after 30 years in the work force Marek Pipi If you had said to me in 1996, when I graduated with a B.A., that one day I would return to Vic for postgraduate study, I would have told you where to go. As much as I loved my time here, I was on a mission: get my teaching diploma and become a mover and shaker in the classrooms of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Now, at fifty, I find myself once again walking past the Hunter Building each mo

Zia Ravenscroft The first Latin Cuirs event I attended was an erotic poetry night last July. I had no idea what to expect. The poster advertised live performance and earthly delights — two of my favourite things—–while also making it clear that the evening would be sex-work positive, queer and takatāpui only, and prioritised BIPOC. The dress code was “whatever makes you feel good”.  I arrived in jeans and a gay-guy skinny scarf. A friend of mine attended in green lingerie and

Content Warning: Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault When I moved to Pōneke on Valentine’s Day last year, everyone warned me about how bad the dating scene was going to be. My guard was up. I expected players, mummy’s boys, mansplainers, maybe even chlamydia. What I discovered, however, was far more sinister: men with allegations. Allegations of sexual harassment and assault. Wherever I turned, my friends informed me, there would be men with allegations. The frontman of that lo

A conversation on the diversity of sexual experience.  Saskia Barker Sex—both the thought of it and the act—is a totally unique concept. As a friend of mine put it, it is “simultaneously entirely universal yet extremely personal.” In spite of this, often when sex is the subject of a group conversation, there’s one person who seems less inclined to contribute. The fact is, though, that the way each of us considers and goes about sex is individually variable, so it’s only fair

Martha Schenk On the morning of 22 January 2026, a disastrous landslide claimed the lives of six people in a Mount Manganui holiday park. Hours later in nearby Pāpāmoa, two more people died when another slope failed and crushed their home. Eight deaths in a single morning: a statistic at once shocking and strangely familiar in Aotearoa. Research from GNS Science reveals that landslides are responsible for more deaths than earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, flooding, and tsunami

Jackson Firmstone A quadruple axel is the premier skill in figure skating, long seen as the El Dorado of the sport, and has only recently been within reach of humanity. The American figure skater Ilia Malinin (known as The Quad God) is the first person in history to complete all 4.5 rotations in an international competition. His recent stumble at the Olympic Games in Milan was a shock not only for himself but for the entire figure skating community, as he was considered the f

Ali Cook  When I told my family I was moving from America to Aotearoa for university, they reacted as if I’d announced plans to join a cult—or worse, a megachurch. My uncle swore I’d lose all my rights, my guns first, though I had to remind him that I do not, in fact, own any. He warned me that I’d wake up each morning to fetch water from a river with my bare hands, presumably before churning butter and writing letters by candlelight.     He asked if I even spoke the language

An Insider’s Guide to the Wellington Fringe Festival Rebecca Stirling It's that time of year again. Boosted campaigns stalk your social feeds, posters multiply across campus, and theatre students begin materialising in your first lectures, eager—desperate, even—to tell you about their shows. Ah yes: the New Zealand Fringe Festival (just Fringe is fine) is nearly upon us.  For one month a year, artists truly run rampant across Wellington, transforming the city into a low-level

TW: Medical Neglect, Graphic Content There’s a photograph I can’t stop seeing: A small house in Illinois, 1938. A woman, Catherine...

On March 4, 2024, I was sexually assaulted by members of a visiting Vietnamese delegation. I was an international student from the U.S., far from home but trying to build a life in Aotearoa, a place I believed could be safe for me.

On Wednesday, October 1, 2025, Detective Scott Rankin called me into the Wellington Police station. I hadn’t heard a word from him since February, when Stuff was told an extradition file was being prepared for the Vietnamese officials who sexually assaulted me. At 6:30 p.m., sitting in a bland police office under fluorescent lights, Rankin told me the file was being dropped.

There is another, less headline-grabbing element of Cook’s experience that has led her to seek Parlimentary support: the absence of readily available, publicly funded, non means-tested legal advice for survivors of sexual assault.

Nā Taipari Taua (Muriwhenua, Ngāpuhi) It’s that time of year—exams are looming, lecturers are breathing down your neck, your to-do list...

“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time”—Angela Davis For the past...

By Sophie Cook I look back fondly on a time when smoking was gross and pokies were cringeworthy. For years, attitudes in New Zealand have...

If you’ve survived break-up season, I commend you. If you haven’t, brace yourself: dating in Wellington sucks. 

Unpacking Politics' Most Beloved Shallow Phrase. By Maia Berryman-Kamp (Te Arawa, Mataatua, me Tainui) In this most humble of election...

When our money becomes bullets, missiles, directed into Gaza—towards children, journalists, doctors, families, people who just want to live—we must boycott.

By Pluto Rennie (He/They/She) "Humans are just selfish." You’ll hear it in lectures, see it in comment sections, feel it in flatmate...

An essay on the evolving landscape,  By Sophie Spencer  Historically, women’s desire and capability to produce art has not been taken...

Dedicated to my second mother, who is always here for me and filled with wisdom. Love you lots.  By Te Urukeiha Tuhua (he/they/ia,...

By Ryan Cleland (he/him) In Brazil, there is a sweet known as Morango do Amor, or Strawberry of Love. At its heart lies a whole, ripe...

By Dan Moskovitz (he/him) What is the value of a native species? And is every species of equal value? Ultimately, the answer to these...

By Marlena Chambers It’s 1 pm on a Friday arvo. I’m pulling thick neoprene on, balancing on a chipped boulder on the south coast. A...

Words by Jia Sharma (she/her) Calling all emerging artists! Meet Klo Promotions, a fresh-faced new presence in the Wellington music...

Angel Vic-Marie (all pronouns)  To the Free Store Wellington,  I want to tell you how I feel.  It’s grief and anger. It’s frustration and...

Phoebe Robertson (she/her) On the afternoon of Tuesday, 5 August 2025, a glass window pane detached from the Hunter Lounge and plunged to...

Words by Jamie Livingstone (he/him) Before I begin, let me offer a quick disclaimer: I’m deeply grateful to live a life that allows me to...

Darcy Lawrey (he/him) This week, Salient  asked candidates running for Wellington City Council a simple question: have you ever attended...

Author: CDP (he/him) For as long as I can remember, Wellington has been heralded as New Zealand’s culinary capital.The city offers...

Te Urukeiha Tuhua (he/they/ia, Tūhoe) So, we’re at university—what now?  By the time Trimester Two rolls around, many of us are already...

Arabella King   (Ngā Ruahine, Taranaki, Te Ātiawa, Te Aitanga a Hauiti, Ngāti Hauā) Books:  Aroha & Wawata  by Dr Hinemoa Elder  These...

Ryan Cleland (he/him) TW: Sexism, harassment  Lena Forsén was a Swedish model featured in the November 1972 issue of Playboy . More than...

TW: Online abuse and misogyny By Marcail Parkinson (she/they) “She’s thuuuuuuuuuuck.” “Kiwis like Ms Parkinson need to be mocked &...

By Zia Ravenscroft (he/they/it) One of the most common concerns I hear from young queer people is that they don’t look “gay enough.”...

By King Markiss: Drag king, philosopher, feminist, queer woman (he/him) Drag performers catch a lot of shit. We’re called mentally ill,...

By Maia Berryman-Kamp (They/she/ia), Te Arawa me Mataatua Wellington - gay, artistic, expensive. Nothing sums up the city like a series...

by R2-BEAR2 (he/him) and Jar-Jar Twinks (glup/shitto) 8:   Lando Calrissian Coming in strong at number eight is Lando Calrissian. He...

By Will Hansen (he/him, PhD student in History at Te Herenga Waka) “Look out, straights! Here comes the Gay Liberation Front. We are the...

By Tanumia Matega The Pacific has long recognised and respected gender diversity.  MVPFAFF + is an acronym used to encapsulate the many...

by Annabelle, DSA Co-President Let’s start with this uncomfortable truth: many disabled people have been hurt by the Church. Not always...

It’s Matariki, and I am with my whānau by the coast with a bowl of hot boil-up on my lap and some fry bread in my hand. We’re gathered...

by Ari (they/them) Kia ora, and Shalom aleichem. I’m a PhD candidate here at Te Herenga Waka and I am of Ashkenazi (Jewish people whose...

The first time I was introduced to Islam was through a terrorist joke.  Just a kid playing Halo  on my Dad’s Xbox 360, on a tiny TV in...

By Ryan Cleland (he/him) So you want to be the Pope, eh? Well, you’ve come to the right place! Your journey to the Papacy is a busy one —...

By Will Irvine For nearly a decade, a utopian socialist community existed right on the doorstep of Victoria University of Wellington....

By Nick Heine-Sheldrake Andy Johnston didn’t mean to become a wildlife expert, but the 25-year-old now finds himself traveling from...

By Magenta Kaos (they/he) Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whare, Tūhoe “Sex Is Only Sex If There's Penetration” Sex education has long been lacking,...