What the Black Ferns mean to Aotearoa
The Rugby World Cup starts today!
Kia ora and welcome to The Weekend. Local election season is nearly over – won’t it be nice not to have me banging on about democracy every week? – but we have to cherish it while it lasts by ruminating on the many careers that lead people to the apotheosis of them all, local government. I’m also psyched about the rugby (but not about the sport’s risk of concussion), dreaming about seasons of snow (topical!) and glad that the Auckland train network still exists — because it nearly didn’t. Get yourself some Coffee Supreme, and follow me deep into the content mines, where we find the shiniest diamonds of good stories to click.
-Shanti Mathias, staff writer
The Black Ferns blaze a trail
Today, the Rugby World Cup begins with three games at Eden Park. It’s an incredible moment for the sport of rugby, and especially for New Zealand’s defending Black Ferns champions who will be playing on home soil. The courageous wāhine who started playing international rugby are an inspiration in this country, says Isaac Ross, whose mum was a Black Fern (Ross’s father was also an exceptional rugby player, and Ross himself is an All Black). He writes a letter to his mother, thanking her for her encouragement and support as his first rugby coach – as well as her ability to score conversions.
Rugby players are twice as likely to be diagnosed with dementia, finds new study
Breathing in the falling snow
This week, it snowed across Te Waipounamu; thousands woke to snow coating beaches and backyards. Thirty years ago, in 1992, there was another snowstorm in Christchurch; at the time, essayist John Summers was a small child whose world felt terribly out of control. Summers writes about how it felt to be hospitalised during the snowfall with severe asthma, longing desperately to be a good child, unable to speak about what he desired. “I felt my breathing thicken, that cold air having an effect. I could take only one breath for every two I needed, and then for every three, for every four. I was losing,” Summers writes. He kept breathing through the cold, imagining being someone else, holding on to himself.
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Number of the Week: 1 honeybee scientist
Today from midday we’ll know the results of the local body elections, which will determine who will lead New Zealand’s local councils through the next three years. In the meantime, we have Policy, where many candidates have described their occupations before entering politics. Professionals, businesspeople and teachers are the most common jobs; honeybee scientists, possum hunters, and actors are more niche. There are almost the same number of retirees and students. Keep an eye on The Spinoff from noon today for live updates as votes are counted.
Campaigning is nearly over. What impact has Facebook had on local elections?
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Auckland’s year without trains
Auckland’s train network, a necessity for thousands of commuters, urgently needs an upgrade. That’s the reason that much of Auckland’s Southern, Eastern, and Onehunga lines will be closed for most of next year. For the people who use the trains, this means putting up with bus replacements and month upon month of disruption and delay. Train historian André Brett says it didn’t have to get this bad: Auckland’s train lines today are being impacted by decades of underfunding and de-prioritising. A single decision to acquire new trains from Perth in the 1990s is the only reason that the train network didn’t disappear completely, Brett notes. Bad communication and opaque planning hasn’t helped this crisis, and once again commuters are stuck in the middle.
Keri Hulme trod lightly
Keri Hulme, author of Booker-winning novel the bone people, also wrote short stories – tense and tangled ones, with perfectly balanced words. That’s how it felt to Te Herenga Waka University Press editor Fergus Barrowman, at least, who worked with Hulme on a number of her projects. To mark the re-issuing of some of her shorter work, Barrowman reflects on what it was like to typeset one of her stories just after she won the Booker prize. “I remain awestruck that she produced something so strange and free under the weight of expectation she felt,” he says. Lost Possessions, the collection of her short writing, is available now.
The tournament helping tamariki bring te reo Māori into a new arena
On a rainy Friday in May, 600-odd tamariki gathered for the Puni Reo Poitarawhiti netball tournament in Waitākere. At this tournament, the game may be netball but the kaupapa is all about encouraging te reo Māori outside of kura kaupapa and the marae. Read more about Puni Reo Poitarawhiti on The Spinoff now.
Everything else
Writer Ashleigh Young takes brain supplements, then finds that they work too well
Bad News looks at the grim reality of animal suffering in commercial meat production
Instagram traps work – but they’re based on false promises
Abortions are about to be available at home thanks to a new pill delivery service
Discovering a new blood type could be lifesaving for people with rare antibodies
Listen: outgoing Auckland mayor Phil Goff reflects on a life of politics and idealism
The worrying growth of an invasive seaweed in Aotearoa waters
The politics of authorship on scientific articles
Race briefings: what’s up with Environment Canterbury, Bay of Plenty, Whanganui, Far North, Hutt City, and Palmerston North?
The science of allergies is in flux, as this writer with a cat allergy found
Teachers want academic streaming gone. Here’s why.
Kris Faafoi was a cabinet minster four months ago. Now he’s a political lobbyist. That’s not great for democracy, says Max Rashbrooke.
I not-so-secretly am a bit of a dinosaur fan so of course I was very excited about this new pterosaur (not technically a dinosaur)!
Gritty new Star Wars show Andor is excellent, says Catherine McGregor
South Africa has a new vaccine development hub for the Covid vaccine – but big companies aren’t necessarily on board with scientific sharing
