ICYMI: What to consider before fleeing Auckland for a small country town
27 January - 3 February
Fairer Future: Fixing Poverty in Aotearoa. “As New Zealanders, we believe in justice and compassion. We want everyone in New Zealand to have the opportunity to thrive. But right now, hundreds of thousands of people in our country are living in poverty,” writes Toby Morris in his latest comic, which asks: what can we learn from the history of our welfare system to improve the lives of people today?
Māori tennis star Ruia Morrison meets Serena Williams. In March 2019, Morrison featured in episode one of Scratched, speaking from her home and marae in Rotorua about her illustrious career in the sport. In a special follow-up episode, Morrison attends the ASB Classic as a former champion and honoured guest, experiencing the attention and recognition she deserved all those decades ago. Her playing style and legacy have been compared to Serena Williams and on that sunny January evening, the two legends shared the court they’d both conquered.
What to consider before fleeing Auckland for a small country town. “Every summer, more Aucklanders will leave their sweaty gridlock and come to us in our sleepy town for a couple of weeks peace and seaside calm. They marvel at the cheap housing, the quiet beaches, the pleasant locals, the endless blue skies. And every year, their holiday ends and they trundle back to their rat-on-a-treadmill existence, stop-starting on the Southern Motorway for hours and thinking: maybe I should make the move?” So should you? Amanda Thompson has some answers.
Just briefly, a quick word from Toby Morris, editorial cartoonist and illustrator at The Spinoff:
I don't think there's anywhere apart from The Spinoff that gets what I'm trying to do and would support it in quite the same way. Similarly – as readers you get to make that choice now too. You choose to read The Spinoff, and by becoming a member you can directly support the kind of stories you want to read more of (and, for $8 a month, get a tea towel!). You support us making something new and different – and, hopefully better, you get to read it.
Waitangi Day and Auckland Pride: An intertwined history of oppression. “Minority groups are often persecuted by the same dominant power structures, and furthermore, LGBTQI+ people come from and exist within all communities in Aotearoa, including Māori,” writes Richard Orjis. “Pride should honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a living document, and one that signifies living relationships. The implications of this include taking a stand alongside Māori on issues of ongoing institutional racism in the New Zealand police force or the land injustices highlighted at Ihumātao. An empathetic allegiance between Waitangi Day and the Auckland Pride Festival has the potential of collective empowerment.”
On rugby, attack memes and modern leadership: The Spinoff meets David Kirk. The man who led the All Blacks to victory in the first World Cup went on to become a Rhodes scholar, political operator and business leader. Today he’s worried about tribalism and the Trumpian tendency to vilification. He sits down with outgoing Spinoff business editor Maria Slade in Sydney.
What Studio Ghibli did for me and my mother. “What makes these films special to me, and millions of others, is their complete lack of condescension. As a child, I was forbidden to watch Disney films by my mother. Her reasoning, I think, was half that she didn’t want to be stuck watching the same sentimental, mind-melting films over and over again, and half that she didn’t want me to be indoctrinated with Disney's questionable messages,” writes Sam Brooks. “But a child is still, you know, a child… [and there were] times when my mother was forced to acknowledge that I was a child who liked bright colours and fantasy creatures. So Studio Ghibli became a kind of bridge between us.”
The Sawmill Brewery on fires, feuds and forging an identity. In the near decade since Sawmill Brewery’s new owners came on board, they’ve made some of the best beers in the country, won awards and watched their brewery burn down. And their former landlords at the Leigh Sawmill Cafe accuse them of acting unethically. Alice Neville reports from Matakana.