Great rugby and great hairstyles

This newsletter stans the mighty Black Ferns

Kia ora and welcome to The Weekend. I have spent just enough time in the sun over the last week that I’m musing changing my default emojis to a darker skin colour. (I would like to thank my ancestors for giving me melanin – but sunscreen is still a good idea!) Thinking about emojis – a particular preoccupation of my generation, I admit – is a good way to think about the politics of semiotics, why our little digital pictures are a source of such concern. Whenever I’ve had to explain the connotations of emojis to older people, I’ve wondered about this, and going to a Taylor Swift seminar this week reminded me that academics, popstars and poets also get worked up about symbols. Also on The Spinoff Weekend this week we have a celebration of rugby hairstyles, an essay about motherhood, and reasons to take passenger trains – stories that all pair well with the supreme coffee of our sponsor Coffee Supreme.

-Shanti Mathias, staff writer 💁🏾‍♀️

Rugby scrunchies are an excellent idea

The Black Ferns and their many scrunchies. (Photos: Getty Images / Design: Tina Tiller)

This afternoon the Black Ferns are playing Wales in Whangārei for the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup. The Black Ferns are national icons; they’re also hairstyle icons, as Alex Casey argues in a piece this morning. She says: “in the opening Black Ferns game, I could not tear my eyes away from the various hair accessories out on the field from Ruby Tui's red streak to Renee Holmes' mermaid ribbons. But one accessory dominated the field more than any other: the scrunchie. I spoke to Black Ferns back Stacey Fluhler about how the scrunchie is the perfect rugby accessory, and how it inspired her own scrunchie side hustle. Imagine an official Black Ferns scrunchie?! Would cop.”

• Why did New Zealand Rugby schedule the Black Ferns and the All Blacks to play at the same time? They forgot.

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What do the two political donations cases say about money in New Zealand politics?

Two legal cases concerning donations to political parties have just gone through New Zealand courts; one involving the New Zealand First Foundation, which commentator Max Rashbrooke describes as a “fundraising vehicle” for Winston Peters’ party. A loophole allowed hundreds of thousands of dollars given to the party via the foundation to be concealed from the New Zealand public. The defendants were acquitted on a technicality. In the second case, the Serious Fraud Office was able to convict Yikun Zhang and his associates, twin brothers Colin and Joe Zheng, of donating to the National Party by splitting their money into sums below the threshold. What both cases reveal, Rashbrooke says, is that New Zealand’s political and legal system isn’t set up to deal with complex donations. It needs to be.

• Another funding question: why do low density suburbs get all the new infrastructure?

Number of the week: 10 myths about passenger rail

What’s stopping New Zealand from having a cross country train network? (Image: Tina Tiller)

Public transport advocate Suraya Sidhu Singh is imagining the click clack of trains filled with people speeding across Aotearoa as the government’s inquiry into the future of passenger rail rolls on. There are a lot of barriers to installing passenger rail – including many of our entrenched attitudes towards it, and public transport in general. Singh tackles some of these beliefs: she says New Zealand’s culture of cars, small population, earthquakes, bus alternatives, hills, and emissions aren’t reasons not to take passenger rail seriously. Complex organisational structures, poorly maintained infrastructure, and a refusal to consult potential passengers, on the other hand, are more difficult hurdles to cross.

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Uber drivers *are* employees

Uber isn’t known for fair treatment of drivers (Image: Toby Morris)

In a landmark court case this week, a judge ruled that four Uber drivers counted as employees, not independent contractors. This is the kind of action that has been seen elsewhere in the world, and is a first step to allowing drivers to unionise – and asking a company that has profited from the gig economy to accept responsibility for the workers it pays. Charlotte Muru-Lanning has a recap of the ruling, and talks to Bill Rama, one of the drivers involved in the case. Rama says that the solidarity built in the rideshare area of Wellington Airport, followed by eating fries together at a nearby Burger King, laid the foundation for taking the issue to the courts.

One year of motherhood

Writer Maddy Phillips celebrates a year of being a mum by reflecting on everything she’s learned so far. One example: giving birth is extremely, extremely weird, “so surreal that it resists description”. And being a parent is relentless, day after long, long night. Within all the anxiety, the abandoned good intentions to use cloth nappies, and the reaction to her partner introducing their son to a swamp, there are moments of bliss and surprise at how easy some parts of it are. The best lesson, perhaps, is that parenting is all about letting the hard stuff and the wonderful stuff, the fear and the joy, both be true at once.

In partnership with Panasonic, The Spinoff’s newsletter Rec Room is a weekly recommendation of the best in entertainment with deputy editor (and TV and music expert) Catherine McGregor, who has excellent taste. Subscribe today to win one of five sets of Technics True Wireless Earbuds. Your eyes and ears will thank you.

Everything else

• Practise your reo for raumati! ☀️

• Yes, I’m still talking about museums – Iraq’s cultural institutions are rebuilding after the plunder perpetrated during the US invasion

• Tova O’Brien finds lots of adrenaline on the radio too

• Working at Macca’s for a day? Posting an homage to Bill English’s walk-run? Chris Luxon is definitely trying to be an everyman.

• I’ve received some reader feedback that there isn’t enough New Zealand photography in this newsletter. The winners of the NZ Geographic Photographer of the Year are here – enjoy!

• Parkour athletes in Paris are making a statement about the energy crisis by switching off building lights

• This week, I’ve been reading Australian writer Rebecca Gigg’s Fathoms, an extraordinary book about what whales mean. Her writing about whales is wonderful, but I also loved this essay about heat and turtles.

• Who is Rishi Sunak?

• Whanganui’s latest Booker winner and the literary brilliance in the city

• Sāmoan early childhood centres are leading the way with advocacy for digital resources

• The obsession with exotic houseplants leads to poaching vulnerable species on the other side of the ocean

• Rumour (it’s definitely just a rumour) has it that Jacinda Ardern is quitting to become an Antarctic explorer

• Really enjoyed this interview with Chelsea Manning, especially the parts about how she’s a messier hero than Edward Snowden

• Siddartha Mukerjee experienced profound depression and started wondering if it was his cells that needed to be fixed

• A lovely interview with actor Erana James about feeling grounded by knowing her whenua

• Auckland Transport didn’t have to respond to the new mayor’s directives without the rest of the governing body’s approval. But it did anyway.

• And finally, for the weekend toast lovers: Metro magazine has a wonderful series about bread, and I especially enjoyed this story about rēwena bread