Kia ora and welcome to The Weekend, the newsletter containing the best articles of the week from The Spinoff and around the internet. Not everyone has a long weekend this weekend, but much of the country is celebrating Auckland Anniversary. Is celebrating really the right word, though? The history of anniversary days is a contested one; these regional specific public holidays are often commemorations of early Pākehā arrivals. There have been suggestions of alternate days to celebrate, like September 18 which marks the day Ngāti Whātua rangatira Āpihai Te Kawau mapped out the portion of lush volcanic soils to offer to Pākehā to establish a city. I’m planning to enjoy some time in the sunshine eating lots of fruit this weekend, but before sinking into a day off catatonia, I’ll have some of this history in mind.
-Shanti Mathias, staff writer
What have we learned in the year since the Auckland floods?
Auckland Anniversary weekend also marks a year since the Auckland floods. For many people, it was just a blip in their lives, a weirdly rainy weekend with lots of texts to loved ones to make sure they were OK, but hundreds of others are still living with the impact of that one weekend. In a comprehensive piece this morning, Gabi Lardies and Tommy de Silva look at the ongoing consequences for housing, roads, parks, insurance, infrastructure — and future emergency planning. While most of the takeaways are pretty bleak, reporting this story did remind Gabi of the Domain going back in time and becoming a lake; one of many Auckland locations that were meant to flood.
A powerful voice for unity
Last weekend, te hui aa motu gathered thousands of people at Tūrangawaewae marae to say, together, that the future of Aotearoa depends on resisting the processes of colonisation that continue today — most notably in the Treaty Principles Bill. Reporters Tommy de Silva and Eda Tang were there, and writer Jamie Tahana explains why the Kiingitanga is such a vital political force in Aotearoa. “Many of the words and actions from Tuurangawaewae have been political, from every Māori monarch. [Current Kiingi] Tuheitia’s mother, Te Atairangikaahu, was leader Kiingitanga when the last such hui was held to protest the fiscal envelope in 1995. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries the Kiingitanga has been central to Māori political movements, such as when the 1975 land march passed through Ngaaruawaahia, or when Te Atairangikaahu endorsed the hikoi to Waitangi in 1984.”
Explaining why meeting at Rātana Pā is a yearly tradition
The hyper specific delight of bygone schoolyard insults
Are you a tryhard? Even had your feelings hurt by being called scody? This week a group of Spinoffers dredged up buried memories of insults from times past. Here’s Claire Mabey on a term used in university: “In the iconic New Zealand movie Eagle v Shark (2007) Jemaine Clement’s character Jarrod amps himself up for a confrontation phone call by spitting out “Sucka, foolish, foolish sucka” and a mid-2000s insult (of the fond variety) was born. I was at university in Ōtepoti by this time and have fond memories of this phrase as common usage, whether bellowed, murmured or slurred.” (For more on the cultural customs of children, read this article!)
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Finding more hopeful stories about climate change
Writer Nadine Anne Hura has been travelling the country talking to Māori communities about indigenous responses to climate change. She shares some of what she learned in this piece. Here’s an excerpt. “The immensity and cascading nature of the environmental challenges facing Māori communities – coupled with a severe lack of economic resources to respond, while occupying a position of ongoing structural inequity – is overwhelming. More than once I felt like kneeling down. There’s a kind of awe that hits you when you understand the scale of the loss and the commitment required to heal and recover…Hope isn’t a passive thing you sit around and wait for. It is pragmatic. It’s sober.”
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Rolling the dice on a Dungeons and Dragons romance
The Spinoff’s advice columnist Hera Lindsay Bird has some advice this week for a reader wondering whether it’s OK to express romantic interest in a younger player in her Dungeons and Dragons group. “As a dungeon master, you have significant power over this girl. Such as the power to unleash a horde of vengeful goblins, or raise a skeleton army from the dead. Of course, you should wield this power wisely. Don’t send her to rot in the lost caverns of Tsojcanth if she rejects your advances. But in terms of your age gap, what responsibilities do you have? You have to accept a few basic realities, such as accepting there’s a higher than normal probability of you getting dumped for a guitarist named Jethro, or your girlfriend quitting her job and running off to South America to work a tourist riverboat,” Hera says.
See Gone By Lunchtime live at Q Theatre!
On 15 February, Gone By Lunchtime is taking the stage to bring its unique blend of insight, humour and irreverence to a very special live episode in Auckland’s Q Theatre. Join The Spinoff’s Toby Manhire, along with Annabelle Lee-Mather (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Māmoe) (executive producer of The Hui) and Ben Thomas (former press secretary in the Key government), as they boldly step out of the studio and in front of an audience to cast a curious and caustic eye on New Zealand politics. Click here to get your tickets now!
Everything else
Why there are concerns about New Zealand government ministers attending a right-wing Hindu rally – plus, how data collection is key to India’s ruling party’s election strategy
Who should you blame for Wellington’s water shortage?
An appreciation of Our Flag Means Death, the show of queer joy that ended too soon
Wheelchair users need to get to the beach
The late great David Graeber on surveillance in Palestine
A Goop acolyte describes what she spends in a week
Understanding South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Talking to a foreign policy expert about New Zealand’s self-contradictory stance in supporting attacks against Houthis in the Red Sea
It’s essential to recharge aquifers so we have groundwater for the future
Does having New Zealand specific tables in bookshops help promote local writers, or quarantine them from their international peers?
Love this interview with musician Waxhatchee about the creative power of an ordinary life
This podcast about disability activist Ed Roberts made me return to an incredible longread from a few years ago about life in an iron lung.