debate Issue 12 | September 2019 | Protest
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Contents
If You Love Something, Hold It Accountable :: Page 28
Lack of study space in WZ Page 6
The Amazon is on Fire Page 12
Profile: Qiane Matata-Sipu Page 18
To Protest Is To Be Human Page 24
C OV E R I L L U S T R AT I O N BY L E O WA LTO N
EDITOR Ben Webber ben.webber@aut.ac.nz DESIGNER Ramina Rai rrai@aut.ac.nz ADVERTISING Jesse Jones jesse.jones@aut.ac.nz
CONTRIBUTORS Dan Brunskill, Nathan Limm, Katie King-Miaow, Jennifer Pannell, Sophia Romanos,Emily Wilton, Pholcidae, Abigail Johnson, Leo Walton, Ben Mollison & Melissa Koh
PRINTER Nicholson Print Solutions DISCLAIMER
Material contained in this publication does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of AUTSA, its advertisers, contributors, Nicholson Print Solutions or its subsidiaries.
Debate is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA).
This publication is entitled to the full protection given by the Copyright Act 1994 (“the Act”) to the holders of the copyright, being AUT STUDENT ASSOCIATION (“AUTSA”). Reproduction, storage or display of any part of this publication by any process, electronic or otherwise (except for the educational purposes specified in the Act) without express permission is a break of the copyright of the publisher and will be prosecuted accordingly. Inquiries seeking permission to reproduce should be addressed to AUTSA.
PUBLISHED BY
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Editors' Letter Hello! It’s hard to believe that we’ve come to our final issue of Debate for 2019. I’ve had a really fun year as Editor and whilst there’s been times where it’s felt like a real rush to put everything together, there’s also been times where things seemed to seamlessly slot into place. Maybe that’s the nature of student media? It can be hectic and challenging but it’s also incredibly fun and interesting. It’s very rewarding and I’ve come to realise what a privilege it is to be the editor of Debate. Lucky for me (and you) the Debate team
consisting of Ramina Rai (Designer), Sophia Romanos (Editorial Assistant) and Dan Brunskill (News Editor) have been wonderful this year and they all care immensely about the success of the publication. I really hit the jackpot in that I get to work with a team that puts so much pride and effort into what they do. On top of the core team, we’ve also had a small, but strong group of contributors, whose enthusiasm for the mag never fails to surprise me. This final issue of Debate is ‘The Protest Issue’ and we had a great range of work submitted. On page 12 we’ve got a piece by Katie-King Miaow and Jennifer Pannell that will fill you in climate-wise. On page 18, Emily Wilton profiles Qiane Matata-Sipu
of Ihumātao and on page 24, Abi Johnson explains how protesting is part of being human. Finally, I hope you all make the effort to vote in the AUTSA elections (Voting open Sep 30 - Oct 11). A strong Student Council will help to fuel a stronger AUTSA which would be good for AUT students (and Debate!). Finally, for those of you graduating and moving on, congratulations! For those of you coming back next year, congratulations on sticking with it. Have a wonderful holiday (if you’re getting one) and we’ll see you in the new year! Ben
Can't get enough of Debate? Check out our website, like or follow us on social media, or email the editor to get involved. www.debatemag.com
facebook.com/autsadebate
@debate_mag
debate@aut.ac.nz
What's on
Bloom
Fa'Asinomaga - Identity
Boom Boom Room
Where: Q Theatre, Queen St When: Thurs 3 October - Fri 4 October What: A shared programme for choreographers at any stage of their career whose work is in a blossoming, shifting or changing state. Designed in response to the dance industry’s current questioning of terms used to describe artists such as ‘emerging’, ‘mid-career’ or ‘established’. How much: $29.90
Where: Q Theatre, Queen St When: Tue 8 October - Wed 9 October What: Straight off the back of their highly popular multi-season successes, Sau E Siva Creatives showcase Fa'Asinomaga | Identity. This epic tour-de-force of Siva Samoa with over 50 performers weaves new choreography with the "Best of Le Best" from previous sold-out shows (Rosalina, Lalelei and more!). How much: $39.90
Where: The Basement, Lower Greys Ave When: Sat 12 October What: Tempo Dance Festival is closing with a bang! Party into the morning at Boom Boom Room, the free multi-venue arts party jam packed with some of our city's hottest dance performers, live musicians, and art installations. How much: Free
Love Food Hate Waste
A Way Through - Colin McCahon's Gate III
Eemyun Kang - This Path is Made by Walking
Where: Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery When: September - October What: As part of the Colin McCahon centenary year, McCahon’s epic 1970 mural, Gate III, makes its first appearance in Auckland since it was originally commissioned for Auckland City Art Gallery’s Ten Big Paintings exhibition in 1971. How much: Free
Where: Trish Clark Gallery, 1 Bowen Avenue When: Fri 13 September & Sat 26 October What: Trish Clark Gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition by Eemyun Kang in Australasia. Kang’s work has been exhibited widely in the UK and internationally. Selected solo shows include Dozing River (2010) at Tina Kim Gallery in New York and Fungalland and the Stranded Mother Whale (2012) at Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Norway. How much: Free
Where: Hikuwai Plaza, AUT City Campus When: Tue 1 October What: Love Food Hate Waste needs your help to find the missing giant carrot, pea and banana who are hiding around campus. Snap a photo with them and share it on the Static FM Facebook page for a chance to win an eco prize pack worth over $200! The Static FM crew will be at the Hikuwai Plaza on October 1 to give you hints on where to find them. How much: Free
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news
Engineering club president laments lack of study space in WZ “We’re not going to play cricket in here” By Dan Brunskill
A shortage of furniture and social spaces has left some students feeling dissatisfied with AUT’s $120 million engineering building which opened last year.
decision to leave the top floors of WZ vacant was due to budget and space becoming available in other leased buildings.
President of the AUT Computer Science Club, Ryan Bircham, told Debate that many students he spoke to were frustrated by the lack of functional spaces in the building for students to work and socialise in.
“Overall, the quantity of space provided in relation to the number of students based in this building is higher than in previous spaces,” they said.
“There is a joke going around: WZ is like a triangle graph, you can sit next to a power port, a chair, or a table. Choose any two, but you can never have all three,” he said. “There is a lot of empty space that is not being utilised. We need more seated space. We’re not going to play cricket in here, we want to sit down and study…we don’t need space to run around.” Bircham said the university had combined two student spaces (the ASE club room and the computer science student lounge) into a single, lightly furnished space on the second floor of WZ.
AUT however, has accepted the consensus that there is not enough furniture in WZ and has committed to buying more. The spokesperson also said damaged tables have either been repaired or replaced. “We did have some initial quality control issues with some of the furniture and these have been addressed by the supplier.” AUT describes the 18,000 m² building as having “student focused social learning spaces on every level” and as being “designed and built with the end user in mind”.
He said the frustration of not having enough space was amplified by the top four floors of WZ sitting empty and unfinished.
President of the AUT Student Engineers (ASE), Dan Lee, said while he was grateful for the new building, he wished it was more “student orientated” with more space to sit and work.
“It appears they [AUT] are way over budget, so they kind of ran out of funds. That’s the reason they gave for not finishing the top floors.
“I see that this building had to come up and I’m glad that it is open. It’d be real great to use those four floors for anything, but I’ll take any piece of the pie,” he said.
“There is not enough space for everyone,” he said.
“In terms of what it lacks, it is very ‘AUT style’. It looks real fucking nice, but the problem is there is no space for you to dwell. There are no shared community
An AUT spokesperson told Debate the
spaces.” When WZ building opened in July 2018, AUT Vice-Chancellor Derek McCormack said the building was needed due to the number of STEM students tripling over the last decade. “Our forecasting shows this growth is set to continue due to government push, but also a shortage in these industries in NZ,” he said. Bircham said another unexpected hangover of AUT’s decision to leave WZ unfinished is that a ‘glitch’ can result in students becoming stuck in the elevator on the top floors. “The lifts counter balance so if lift one is on the first floor and no one has pressed any buttons on lift two it will go all the way up to the 12th floor,” he said. “The elevator door will not open and you can get stuck on the top floors. Someone got stuck there for like 20 minutes.” Bircham said that once a lift arrives on the unfinished floors, the buttons only work with swipe card access and any student unlucky enough to be caught out must press the elevator help alarm, or wait for the lift to be called back onto an accessible floor. Bircham told Debate he is aware of students getting stuck three separate times, although it is rare since it only happens if a person gets into a lift but doesn’t select a floor destination.
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Increase in student levy to fund class representation and O Week block party By Dan Brunskill AUTSA has allocated more money for several of its services in 2020. New funding includes an extra $100,000 that will be pumped into the AUTSA events team and $100,000 for a class representative system. When asked how “lit” the new and improved O Week party will be, AUTSA General Manager, Will Watterson, asked Debate to repeat the question. When asked how “awesome” the new O Week party will be, Watterson told Debate he was very excited about having an extra $100,000 to put towards hiring a new staff member for the events team and doubling the number of O Week acts. “Most of that [money] is going to go on Semester 1, we are planning a block party,
so we are going to close down St Paul Street and have a pretty massive party there,” he said. This year’s O Week and Re O week events cost AUTSA $135,000 to run, so this new money will nearly double the budget. Watterson suggested that this is partly an effort to compete with other universities. “You don’t want to be perceived as being a poor cousin to your competitors, particularly across the road we have Auckland Uni who run their big party in Albert Park. “A lot of students will say university is as much about making memories as it is getting a piece of parchment,” he said. The $100,000 allocated for the establishment of a class representative system will hopefully bring AUT up to scratch, considering such a system is presently non-existent at AUT, but exists at other universities around New Zealand.
A proposal created by AUTSA in 2017, noted that it felt it should be providing a structured programme, with one representative in each class the university offers. AUTSA was, by its own admission, underperforming during 2016/17 and said it didn’t have the funding or the resources to take on more representatives. In a memo to staff earlier this year, Watterson said the association had “gone from a place of risk and uncertainty to a place of strength and resilience” and was now ready to implement the class representative system. He said in October this year, AUTSA will be hosting a co-design workshop with students and key academic staff to “throw ideas against the wall and see what sticks”. A delegation will also travel to Victoria University of Wellington to study their student representative system. “We are not sure how the representation will work. “All we know is that we drastically need to push our roots deeper into schools and faculties, have more student representation and have that information filtering up to the highest level,” he said.
The remainder of the new AUTSA funding is around $240,000, which will be spent across other AUTSA services including: Advocacy, Foodie Godmother, sport/recreation, club grants and a new service which will not be announced until July.
"You don’t want to be perceived as being a poor cousin to your competitors, particularly across the road we have Auckland Uni who run their big party in Albert Park." AUTSA General Manager, Will Watterson When Debate asked students on campus whether they were happy with how the levy increase was being spent, some said they did not use student services. Business student Faith I’a told Debate that half the students were not even aware of services. “I don’t really use any student services; I basically just come to class and then skedaddle home. “I think it is kind of unfair to those who don’t use them, I feel like we are paying for them but it isn’t benefiting me as a student.”
“You could walk around for so long here just trying to look for somewhere to sit and just study. Around here it is always full,” she said.
news
One group of students Debate approached for comment were not AUT students, but UoA students, who had come to study in WG building since there was “no space to work” at the UoA campus. Watterson said he felt confident that student money is being well spent at AUT. “University life isn’t just about studying and grades, it’s also about community and growing as a person. “It’s really exciting that we have this funding increase, but it just puts more onus on our students and student representatives to hold us accountable for that money. We don’t want to rest on our laurels, we want students to tell us where we could do better.” Debate understands that AUTSA will receive 21 percent of the student levy increase in 2020. Watterson told Debate the remaining 79 percent will be spread across 11 AUT run services and that the two biggest areas of new spending for AUT will be $250,000 on transport hardship grants and a $200,000 investment for student medical services.
I’a said she would like more money to be spent on creating study spaces.
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news
AUT Stumbles at Badminton Nationals By Nathan Limm An understrength AUT badminton side has placed seventh at the Wellington National Badminton Championships, held in early September. It was a big ask for AUT, whose pool positioned them against some of the stronger university sides. AUT suffered heavy losses to Massey, Otago and Victoria. A tight 2-3 loss against an integrated WELTEC-Whitireia team was also disappointing.
2018, the badminton side was young and had little exposure to national tertiary tournaments. They were also handicapped - with one athlete out injured and the two top female players competing in Australia at an international event. AUT Sport’s Megan Aikenhead, believes the side still has a lot of potential for growth.
The real highlight of the tournament was against a combined Ara and SIT team, who AUT defeated five games to nil.
“We saw this is as a good opportunity to give some new players the chance to represent AUT in badminton. They gained some valuable experience up against some of New Zealand’s top-ranked badminton players from the other universities. This is a great platform to further develop the team next year.”
A standout performance from AUT’s Alim Duezenli saw him claim Player of the Tournament. Captain Nick Jarrold also played well and lead AUT with confidence.
Aikenhead said AUT Sport’s resources are spread quite thinly and mostly channeled into sports which serve a wider pool of students.
However, with no returning players from
As a result, badminton and other smaller
sports are often disadvantaged and teams struggle to compete with the bigger universities. “We are currently very stretched for staffing resources and unfortunately, minority sports like badminton miss out on the full resources they need to give the team the best opportunity for success.” She said more resources would give a greater focus on the management of these sides and attract students to a wider range of competitive sports. “It would also enable sporting opportunities that haven’t been run in a couple of years due to reduced staff resources,” she said. With most of AUT’s badminton side looking set to compete at the nationals again in 2020, they will hopefully go into next year’s tournament wiser and better prepared.
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The Amazon is on fire, and so are we By Katie King-Miaow & Jennifer Pannell
You may have noticed a little thing in the news recently – the Amazon is on fire. One of our biggest terrestrial carbon sinks is being deliberately burned to clear land for agriculture, which could lead to accelerated climate breakdown. If you’re worried about global warming, you’re not alone – and your voice is needed to drive change.
What does the science say? If fossil fuel burning continues to increase, we are likely to see temperature rises of 2.6 – 4.8oC by 2100. Such rapid warming will have catastrophic effects. Lethal temperatures, for at least 20 days a year, would occur for 74 percent of the global population, rendering huge parts of Earth’s equatorial and southern regions uninhabitable. Rainfall is predicted to become more variable and exacerbate droughts in already drought-prone regions. Each 1oC temperature increase will reduce crop yields by up to 7.4 percent, jeopardizing two thirds of the world’s calorific intake. Ocean acidification is highly likely to lead to coral reef extinction and risks collapse of marine ecosystems including commercial fisheries. Tipping points, such as ice melt reducing reflection of solar energy, can rapidly accelerate warming and they are very hard to model. This means that the temperature increase estimates above from the IPCC (the UN body for assessing climate change science) may well be too low.
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"We are told the solutions to global warming are individual, that we need to bike to work, or eat less meat. These are good things to do, but they are not solutions."
The crisis is also a very human one: food and water shortages and rising sea levels could displace 143 million people by 2050, potentially destabilising trade and straining international relations to the point of war. An Australian think tank warns warming of 2oC could displace two billion people and describes greater warming as “beyond our capacity to model” with “a high likelihood of human civilisation coming to an end”. And it’s already happening! Temperatures are now 1oC above pre-industrial levels. War has broken out in Syria, caused by a complex suite of factors including climate change and water shortages. Loss of Arctic ice is exceeding forecasts, oceans have become 30 percent more acidic and sea levels have already risen.
What we can do about it We are told the solutions to global warming are individual, that we need to bike to work, or eat less meat. These are good things to do, but they are not solutions. Whether you buy that yoghurt or not, Fonterra will continue powdering 95 percent of NZ dairy and selling it overseas. While we have been having these conversations and making individual changes, our carbon emissions have continued to rise. What we have done has not worked. Focusing on individual responses distracts from what is needed to
create real change – a unified movement led by people like you and me. In Aotearoa, Labour are proposing that we will be carbon neutral by 2050, but that’s not nearly good enough. To keep climate change at survivable levels, the IPCC estimates we only have 11 years to halve our carbon emissions. We need to begin shifting to a carbon neutral economy immediately. The good news is that we have the technology to do this and governments have historically implemented mass-mobilisations of industry during crises, such as during WW2. The bad news is that there are large, powerful corporations invested in preventing this from happening. Fossil fuel companies hold huge political sway, so people pressure is needed to force governments to act. Collective action has a long history of driving major social change, both here in Aotearoa and worldwide. The suffragette movement here was the first to win equal rights for all women and inspired the world to follow. Protests and worker strikes are responsible for many of our modern civil rights and employment rights and they could be effective against climate change too. After all, it’s the perpetual growth of capitalism that is responsible for the climate crisis. Only 3.5 percent of the population needs to be involved in collective action for it
to work– in Aotearoa, that’s roughly the population of Hamilton. The power of people to create positive change is the philosophy behind the school strikes for climate. Led by Greta Thunberg, the school strikes are a global phenomenon calling for urgent government action on climate change. In May, thousands of school children shut down Queen Street in Auckland. This action is working – a number of regional councils around Aotearoa have already declared a climate emergency, a term coined by the school strikers. As we went to print, the general strike on September 27 occurred. But we must not stop here. We need to continue to support the school strikes and Extinction Rebellion and grow the momentum we have begun. We need to continue to educate ourselves and share what we learn across all channels available. And we must not stop until we reduce our carbon emissions to zero. This is an emergency and we need an emergency mobilisation! To find out more, go to www.schoolstrike4climatenz.com and https://extinctionrebellion.nz
Double-yew Zee (WZ) By Sophia Romanos
Just like new undies It deserved to be showed off Maybe it won’t be as much of a disappointment As the treehouse (cough, cough) Come in for a study, a gender-neutral toilet or a brew Or see the lack of chairs and furniture that are comfortable too Modern and spacious, hard to find a flaw Except there’s still no spaces For the people studying law :// 120 mil and two and a half years later But WSA Still looks like a cheese grater
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10 Things to Make You Forget About Uni By Sophia Romanos
You know in Mamma Mia when Donna sings the ‘Winner Takes It All’ and you’re thinking hurry tf up Meryl Streep and get to your daughter’s bloody wedding, no one likes this song! Yeah, the last few weeks of the semester feel like that. This slow death is only bearable when we have things to look forward to, aside from sleep and drinking our brain cells away with discounted adult-juice. Here’s some top tips to make you forget uni even happened:
yelled at in Studio Production for having your phone out. It’s easier to start from scratch and call yourself by your last name with the letters rearranged.
you’ve wasted thousands of your life’s earnings learning about Immanuel Kant instead of going on a trip to Croatia.
Get drunk off Part Time Rangers Get outta here Day trip to Dargaville or a pub in Waihi - just get out of the five metre radius of campus and breathe some barefoot-Kiwi suburban air.
Critic recently did a small shit on them, so in true rivalry form we, by default, must disagree. Knock the socially acceptable shark piss back and dance like your Grandad needs the restroom.
Nothing reflects real life more than the contents of your Insta bio. Take off the AUT graduation hat emoji and write an inspirational quote from ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’.
Unlink your uni email account Why did you do it in the first place? No one should use the same email for Pornhub subscriptions and filtering through Blackboard announcements from their abcbdgyugfuydfudfudgfjdf jd725367256256@autuni.ac.nz email account. Remove it immediately and get on with your life.
Change your Instagram bio
Eat yourself happy Stress eating? What’s that? Order UberEats or make yourself that chocolate mud cake from Matilda that that boy is forced to eat in front of assembly.
Stop paying student prices Grow up. Nothing screams student more than asking for a student ticket at Event Cinemas to see Secret Life of Pets 2. Pay adult prices and convince everyone you work full time.
Don’t do summer school
Delete all of your friends If you made some, high five and then kick them to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger. Every time you look into their enlarged pupils on a Saturday night out you will remember that time you were
Because why finish your degree early when you could drive around all summer with your hand doing a wave motion out the window to Sticky Fingers?
Avoid all family members (even distantly related) Just avoid anyone you run the risk of engaging in small talk with. With small talk comes the agonising chat about how
Forget your password on Arion so many times it locks you out and you can’t get back in No password, no exam results, no problems.
Food Throwing In Act of Protest: A Hort Shistory By Sophia Romanos
Anger level: 0-4
(Or you’re really angry but you’re saving for vacay)
Anger level: Pathetic
The only thing these are going to squash against is your foot in the carpet
The historically appropriate (yet ridiculously insulting) place to yell boo is when hurling a three week old tomato onto the stage. Considering I only yell boo when I’m ready to order a 12-mixed-box of Krispy Kreme and my friend decides she should go on a diet, I’m feeling like a bit of a saint.
tame culture when it comes to protesting. Student Services fees increased by $114 for 2020 and our article got a disgraceful 22 likes on Facebook...By comparison, the meme I posted of a bean warmer got 108 likes. If the proof was any more obvious, it’d slap you in the face.
Back in ye olde medieval times, it was common to pelt the criminals with rotten vegetables and eggs. In 63AD, the first food-chuck incident was at a Roman Emperor when the people threw turnips to express their anger over food shortages. Whether they picked them back up and ate them has not yet been confirmed.
Ukraine, by complete semi-unrelated comparison to AUT, threw spaghetti on the Russian consulate after they refused to put up with more political manipulation of the media. The expression "to hang noodles over someone's ears" in Ukrainian means, "to pull someone's leg", and since their media coverage was just one big turding joke, the yarn seemed to have escalated from there. Imagine cooking spaghetti
As AUT students, we have a painfully
Anger level:
Cashier when you paywave and they’ve already said, “No paywave”
just to throw it at a consulate. I wish AUT students were passionate enough to- oh, wait. So why do we not hurl our food in disappointed or pure advocation of a cause? For the daylight robbery of $7.99 a kg, I don’t know who in their right mind would waste their precious organic tomatoes when the internet exists. Cyber bullies today are really just stingy tomato throwers. Things to think about hurling tom toms at: • The student lounge • Your flatmate when the essay they wrote for you didn’t get an A• The Debate office (then maybe we’ll get a new one)
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Profile: Qiane Matata-Sipu The activist, journalist and documentary photographer talks to Emily Wilton about running her own business, all the while protesting and fighting for marginalised communities.
Sitting down with Qiane she takes a relaxed sigh as she rests on the sofa inside the media room at Ihumātao. Cozily tucked away out of the wind, she begins to tell me her story. Qiane grew up in a family with strong creativity and equally strong opinions and it’s perhaps this mix of things that led her down her path as a successful journalist and photographer. She’s an activist and though she says her work in activism hasn’t dominated her career, it’s been an undeniably dominant force in her life over the past few years. Qiane was raised in Ihumātao and Mangere, where she attended marae meetings with her grandparents, learned about governance and was taught what could be considered ‘old school’ values. She says it was at an early age that she
began learning about the power of her voice, largely due to the incredible and supportive women around her. She says it was this that paved the way for her journey of using her voice in any way she could; whether it be in print, images, or even just standing on a picket shouting. The strong women she grew up surrounded by were teachers and businesswomen and they taught her to stand up for what she believed in. Qiane has been involved in her neighbourhood her entire life, often advocating for others or for certain causes which include cleaning up local awa. She says her Māori and Pasifika background made her automatically a part of a lot of things. “I've been really lucky because I've had a family who've raised me in an environment where that's just been part and parcel
of our lives, all of my family have been involved in community groups and schools and marae so it just is part of who we are." Growing up she says she had all the local news and gossip around her neighbourhood so it’s unsurprising that storytelling was something that would eventually become a job for her. Her work also didn’t just stop when she discovered the power of her own voice, as she’s since put a heavy focus on encouraging the voices of marginalised women she meets along the way. She appears to have the ability to take on multiple roles and responsibilities at once and her work to ensure safety for the sacred grounds of her home at Ihumātao has captured national attention. She created the group SOUL (Save Our Unique Landscape), which she started in her kitchen one night
many years ago with six others and it has since evolved immensely. It now works with many to ensure a message of protection and unity is broadcasted through the media team. Qiane says the key to her work is always the people she inspires and the people who impact her personally. Having the ability to tell the stories of people in the community is her purpose above all else. "Everything I do is about the people. When you get to meet some really phenomenal people in this world, it not only drives you but also reminds you of what's really important.
"Everything I do is about the people. When you get to meet some really phenomenal people in this world, it not only drives you but also reminds you of what's really important." "If you are able to help people understand different situations and if you're able to use your storytelling skills to help raise awareness or help give people a better understanding of situations/issues then that's really the key," she says. Fans include the likes of the Green Party’s Marama Davidson, who says Qiane has built a movement that celebrates indigenous and young women as well as a strong formation of relationships and networks across those communities. Davidson points out how Qiane has a knack for reaching out to those that don’t have access to platforms and shining a light while creating a
collective movement that "heralds women in a way traditional media would ignore". Qiane’s work on Ihumātao, which won the NZ Geographic People’s Choice Award, stemmed from the idea of documenting the visual changes to Ihumātao, not necessarily the landscape, but the people. It had been part of a larger series taken over 12 years. She says she wanted to document who the people were and the kind of lifestyle they had because it's truly unique, a living breathing papakāinga. In between Qiane's busy schedule and everything that she does, she also runs a separate project on the side called NUKU. NUKU works to shed a light and share the stories of 'kick-ass indigenous wahine', educating them, inspiring them and motivating them. By challenging them, they then take some of that kōrero and apply that to their own lives, changing their own behaviour and influencing their children which, like a domino effect, then affects their wider families and communities and their marae and iwi. Qiane believes that things as simple as a good story can have a great impact and can potentially change the world. She says that for NUKU in particular, women are the drivers of change in society. Qiane wants anything and everything that she does to challenge people’s thinking, disrupt systems, break the status quo, smash stereotypes and change the narratives out there that aren't inclusive of Māori or Pasifika people. She wants to be able to ensure that we are amplifying the voices of those that are the most marginalised, because that's how the narrative can change and create equity. She’s doing a pretty incredible job.
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giveaways
Student life can be tough, which is why we search the city for the snazziest stuff to give away. Like the look of something? Head to our Facebook page (/autsadebate) and fill out the survey pinned to the top of our timeline titled ‘Giveaways - Issue 12’
Freaky
Pizza!
Get your Freaky on at the cutest coffee bar that’s just a 2 min dash from the City Campus. From Doe Donuts to roast chicky mac n cheese, Freaky has the pick-me-up to your day with any menu item and a coffee to give away to one lucky reader. Read the instructions at the left-hand side of the page to find out how to enter.
New York is just a trip to Sal's away! With 100% authentic ingredients and original recipes, Sal’s (@salspizzanz) is proud to serve you New Zealand's ONLY authentic NY Pizza! Sal’s has five pizzas to give away to our lucky Debate readers. Read the instructions at the left-hand side of the page to find out how to enter.
Bluebells
Holey Moley
Movie Night
Need an excuse to celebrate? Debate has a $50 Bluebells voucher to give away. Bluebells is the perfect choice for your next cake occasion, or maybe a cupcake delivery to help you get back in the good books with the other half! Read the instructions at the left-hand side of the page to find out how to enter.
Imagine the craziest round of mini golf you’ve ever played. Now add a bar. Hello, Holey Moley Golf Club! Holey Moley turns traditional putt putt into a multi-sensory labyrinth of unique holes that’ll keep you on your toes. Debate has one $50 voucher to give away. Read the instructions at the left-hand side of the page to find out how to enter.
Take some time out from procrastinating and enjoy a night at the movies on us with two Event Cinemas Vouchers. Read the instructions at the left-hand side of the page to find out how to enter.
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Procrasti-Nation
A guide on how to completely shit the bed with your precious study time By Sophia Romanos If you’re going to procrastinate, make the most of it - no pussyfooting around. I hate that word, pussyfoot. But commit to the big P. Not penis; procrastination...unless of course, penis is your procrastination.
What to eat
Food is fuel. Even if you’ve already eaten 12 times today, food is still fuel so...eat again. If you’re hauled up at the City Campus, walk down Wakefield Street to Freaky. It’s that pink, funky one with a logo that looks like Debate’s cousin. You probably march past it as you stare longingly into the liquor shop next door reminiscing on your weekend. If it’s a Friday, then HOON their Doe Donuts, because hands down, they are the best hefty dough balls I have ever stuffed in my gob. If it’s NOT a Friday, get their phat mac n cheese with roast chicky. They also have $1 off coffees if you show your student ID, so get into it.
What to drink
Water. I will not condone promotions towards wretched blue Vs - no one should put that crap into their bodies unless they’re mixing it with vodka. If you’re going to pull an all-
nighter, then get some decent sleep the night before, you uneducated mungbean.
What to do
Get outside. Go for a stroll. I live by One Tree Hill so I go and stare at the sheepies, make them uncomfortable, get sick of their lack of communication skills and go home to do something more interesting like DOING THE GODDAMN ESSAY. Don’t put off doing the things you usually do like the gym. I find that creates more of a negative atmosphere around the assignment as it’s preventing you from doing the things you enjoy. But what do I know, I study comms.
Who to see
The friends that aren’t doing your course and the same assignment. Whining to the people that are in the same boat makes this huge whine-off whine-a-thon where you get a huge fuck-all done, but if you whine to people that don’t understand wtf you’re on about, they zone out. Once you’ve realised no one is listening to you, you realise how dumb you are and how much you need to just get this assignment out of the way so you don’t ever have to tap into your high-pitched whiny
voice ever again.
Where to go
Not the library. I have crowned the library officially the worst place to study. The silence is worse than realising your lunch has spilled all over the handbooks your tutor unnecessarily printed out for everyone that are filling up your bag. Go to your local cafe and be the prick that pulls out their computer for three hours and only buys one coffee. Seriously, do it. You get a nice ambience and feel like you’re Carrie Bradshaw Sex and the City style getting shit done.
What to watch
The Netflix series Explained is a class A banger. Some of them are shit and some are to be saved for when you have dinner with your friend’s intelligent family that lives on the shore. The series dedicates each episode to a different topical issue that half of us aren’t educated about. The stock market, tattoos and the female orgasm. Get in there and at least learn something while you’re faffing about.
By Pholcidae Huddled We bustle putting posters together We light missionary candles pass them to allies or offer them to wondering eyes But they are no match for the Saints Tall Bright Fae lighthouses in the smog Walking by The smoggy street’s people Stop and question why we have gathered why we’re so swept up in what is only (to them) in newspapers or on phone screens But The Saints They guide them in to understand why Here we’re cheering Cheering loud enough to carry high high up and far far away To the warring city of Saints overseas Our arrows and our anthems sail Because that is all we can do tonight But The light That lighthouse shine Carves a path and plants a seed And now all I want to do, in the candle sea under the saints, is MORE.
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To Protest Is To Be Human By Abigail Johnson | Illustration by Leo Walton
I’ve recently embarked on that obligatory Kiwi rite-ofpassage. Not the yardie – the OE. Having saved up for a hell of a long time, my partner and I managed to score three months off – everything – to travel through Europe and Japan. Europe was the original plan; we nabbed the Japan tickets on the cheap. I always felt I’d be different after I set foot in Europe. As if some secret part of me would unlock and I’d become this new, more connected version of myself. It’s the place I’m from, after all and with the aid of books and movies, it’s a place I’d entirely romanticised. So as I sat on a plane headed for Athens, fat globs of tears dampened my cheeks. It may have been the altitude and the emo in-flight movies. When we landed, my chest ready to burst with anticipation, the strangest thing happened. I recognised the cars, the trees, the sky and the traffic. Life’s a bitch that way, isn’t it? The minute you expect magic and
transformation, all you notice is the mundane and the similar. Protest isn’t like that. In fact, it’s usually the exact opposite. There have been times I’ve shown up to rallies, dragged by a dull sense of duty, only to be instantly swept, almost begrudgingly, into the mana of the gathering. Protest is like that. I won’t accept your halfhearted agreement . By its nature, it demands passion of you. It asks you to bear witness to the injustices of the world and it asks you to implore others to bear witness too. Over the past three months I’ve witnessed the following: An anti-whaling protest in Tokyo, an anti-war protest in Kyoto, a gay rights gathering in Budapest and a massive animal rights march in Berlin. No one was like the other, but they were also, in many ways, the same. They all made my heart beat. They all connected us to their people.
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In Tokyo, middle aged ladies held placards bearing love hearts and whales. They marched politely, guided by police. They smiled and waved when you cheered for them, which we did. In Kyoto, we took anti-nuclear flyers and felt a vague sense of patriotism. It’s been 35 years since former Prime Minister David Lange barred nuclearpowered ships from our ports; 32 years since we became an official nuclear-free zone. We held out hope for our friends in Japan. Anything is possible, we told them with applause.
Travelling (especially when you’re young and, let’s say, not a millionaire) is displacing. The hostels are grungy, the Wi-Fi is patchy and the smells of the cities can put you off your meal. But anti-fascist protest is always welcoming. Anti-fascist protest is home. When people gather in collected purpose, other superficial differences fall away entirely. Protest knocks through cultural barriers. Protest knocks through language.
"We ache and we
cry, we love and we grieve. We don’t
Human beings are inherently spiritual. We ache and we cry, we love and we grieve. We don’t suit a world built for profit. It’s no coincidence, in my mind, that as a late-capitalist society 260 years post-Industrial Revolution, we’re seeing some of the highest rates of anxiety, depression and suicide ever recorded. We weren’t built to exist so individualistically and we certainly weren’t built to accept injustice.
suit a world built for profit."
In Budapest, where gay rights are shaky and politicians are openly homophobic, brave queer folks and their allies discreetly accessorised with the rainbow and trans flag colours. My girlfriend and I quietly added to their numbers. We didn’t understand a word anyone said, but we held hands and we smiled. People smiled back. Language doesn’t matter. In Berlin, we marvelled as thousands of locals protested factory-farming and meat consumption. We danced to the beat of their drums. We considered going vegetarian – settled on Meatless Mondays.
Protest is a human right – but it’s also an immense privilege. To gather in collected purpose is one of the most joy-giving, purposeful things you can do. It’s not the point of protest, but it’s the point of being a human. If you see something, say something. It’s the same in every language.
Why you should get a paid summer internship (and where you can get one)
references for the future. In some cases, if you impress your boss, they may even ask you to stay on longer after your internship. That’s a win-win.
Guess what? Uni is nearly over for another year. This means it’s time to sort out all your summer plans. Whether it be NYE, that Europe trip you’ve been eagerly waiting for or all those music festivals you need to attend. Let’s face it, this all costs $$$ so why not put your skills to use by getting a paid internship over summer?
Money
If you need more convincing, here are the reasons why you should use AUT Internz to get an internship over summer.
Experience Doing an internship helps you get real life experience in an industry you’ve spent the year studying. It also looks great on your CV and helps you get some good
AUT Internz only lists paid internships for AUT students – and to live your best life in summer you’re going to need that extra cash. What’s even better is that the jobs advertised are with some of the most recognisable New Zealand and international brands. Head to jobs.aut. ac.nz and start applying!
Learn A summer internship is your chance to learn new skills on the job and figure out what you like and don’t like. You’ll also be surrounded by people who have years of experience in that area so it’s time to soak
in all the knowledge and advice they drop on you too. The more you learn the more you grow.
Network An internship over summer will help you meet people from all walks of life that you probably won’t encounter at university. It’s your time to make those connections with people that’ll set you up for the future. Most companies are also interested in what students’ and graduates’ perspectives are on the things they’re working on so this is your time to make your mark. Head to jobs.aut.ac.nz now to apply for your paid summer internship or set up your profile to get alerts as soon as new ones are advertised. *Content brought to you by AUT Internz
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opinion
Opinion: If you love something; hold it accountable Debate news editor Dan Brunskill dives into the ethos behind the news section
How do you know when to call people out on their actions?
he would’ve stayed in his job and may have continued his abuse.
If you have been reading the news lately, you will be aware of the allegations of sexual assault committed by a senior Labour Party staffer.
Whilst it may have helped the Labour Party to not have had to face this scandal in the short-term, it would have betrayed them in the long term. Because then Labour would be a party that protects sexual abusers and it would have no reason to change.
One of the victims of these assaults made the decision to go public with her story after the internal Labour process left her feeling “angry, quite fearful and desperate”, and left the attempted rapist in his job supervising young Labour volunteers. This an extreme example, yet you still see die-hard Labour supporters online defending Labour and attacking the victims for going public. It is clear this story has hurt the Labour Party politically, but does that mean the victims should have kept their mouths shut to protect the party they support? I once heard a story about an English journalist who attended a banking conference, where a high-profile banker approached him and asked: “British banks have such a bad reputation in the press, what can we do to fix it?” His response: “If you behave badly, you’ll have a bad reputation. Stop behaving badly.” The banker surely was disappointed in this response, but the truth is that people are motivated by incentives. If they are not held accountable for mistakes and bad behaviour, they have no reason to change. Following pressure from the media, the Labour staffer accused of the sexual assaults resigned from his position. If the victim had not gone public with her story,
Going to the media and holding Labour accountable for its actions helps the party be better. Whenever my siblings and I were badly behaved as children, our mother would hold us to account. As a dedicated Christian woman, she would quote the Bible when passing down our sentence. “Spare the rod, spoil the child,” she would say as we begged her not to confiscate the toy we were fighting over, or ban us from eating dessert that night. I’m sorry to quote the bible (I hate seeming all religious) but you don’t get to choose your upbringing and this was mine. The full Bible proverb reads: “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.” This quote contains a universal truth, failing to hold people to account for their behaviour is to fail to care for them. This has been the ethos behind my news coverage in Debate this year. Once or twice people have asked me why I have written so many stories that are damaging to the reputation of AUT or
AUTSA. People hint at threatening legal action and some have appealed personally to me that I keep certain things secret. Do I want to hurt the university’s reputation? The answer is the opposite. Though I’m a reluctant student, I have come to love AUT over the last three years. It is an excellent institution and comfortably the most forward-thinking university in New Zealand. The purpose of journalism is to strengthen institutions by providing accountability, so that bad behaviour is addressed and not just swept under the rug and tolerated. This is why Debate has worked to shine a light on issues that hurt students. Stories like the business students being charged thousands of dollars for unpaid internships, the SRC affiliating the Pro-Life club without consulting the student body, the ViceChancellor cancelling an event seemingly at the request of the Chinese government, the SRC failing to attend disciplinary hearings and AUT’s sudden and unfair cancellation of the Creative Industries major. I’m proud of these stories, as they force people in positions of power to second guess their decisions. A great way to make choices is to imagine your decision on the front page of a newspaper. Are you proud of the headline? If not, perhaps you should make a different decision. Debate’s news section has existed to be that headline and I hope that whoever takes this role as news editor next year will continue to ask nosy questions and call out the university and the student association when they make bad decisions. Because if you love something, you should hold it accountable; and maybe it’s just Stockholm Syndrome, but I think I love AUT now.
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Album Reviews Ben Mollison takes a look at some the significant releases in 2019 by female solo artists or bands helmed by women
Cate Le Bon - Reward (Wales)
Tiny Ruins - Olympic Girls (NZ)
Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising (US)
Standouts: Daylight Matters, Miami, Home to You, Sad Nudes, Mother’s Mother’s Magazines
Standouts: Olympic Girls, Holograms, How Much, School of Design, Sparklers
Standouts: Andromeda, A Lot’s Gonna Change, Everyday, Movies, Wild Time
Blending and intertwining twanging guitar melodies with synths, horns, and warm, almost conversational vocals, the songs are pleading, insightful and reflective. Le Bon creates accessible hooks but the songs call for closer attention. The singer uses vague references - “where would he go for fun in this town” - but identifiable, metaphorical lines such as, “promises speak in confusion and dice.” While the songs may appear to romantically contemplate the past, Le Bon’s words also sting of loss and heartbreak. Cate Le Bon’s beautiful offering has gained her a Mercury Prize nomination and widespread acclaim by numerous publications.
Hollie Fullbrook’s ever-haunting voice moves serenely through her newest compositions. Breaking out from a previously limited arrangement, Olympic Girls sees core band members Fullbrook, Cass Basil, and Alex Freer being joined by electric guitarist Tom Healy. Healy’s guitar, once limited to a featured role, now permeates, at times sparingly, with rough rawness helping create the album’s mysterious sound. The result is a poised release which optimally and efficiently uses cello, vibraphone and mellotron among other instruments to construct the moodiness of its content. Fullbrook’s songwriting continues to thrive, strengthen and emote.
The project of American musician Natalie Mering, Weyes Blood’s fourth LP is atmospheric and celestial. Her pristine voice is surrounded by waves of sound, rising and falling, reaching epic crescendos or pulling back to soft swells. The thick, layered arrangements, rather than muddying her words or the clarity of her voice, serve to intensify their impact. The harmonies pair perfectly in tone and timing - almost seeming one with Mering’s voice. For her young age of 31, Mering sounds worldly and wise. The songs, often with long run times, don’t feel overdone. Words are allowed room to breathe and instrumentals are integrated with vocal melodies to provide freshness. For a beautiful, ethereal experience of an album, you’ll want to check out this Weyes Blood release.
Big Thief - U.F.O.F. (US) Standouts: Cattails, U.F.O.F., Orange, Century, Betsy Adrianne Lenker is a captivating songwriter. As Pitchfork’s Jillian Mapes once wrote of the band’s first album “[Big Thief] do not reinvent the form and they probably won’t be the band to break it.” However, a seeming consensus among critics is that Lenker’s take and framing of even the most widely written about topics is distinct and captivating. On U.F.O.F. she writes about subjects from childhood to human mortality. Lenker writes so that the past has meaning and the arbitrary is essential. As she sings urgently in ‘Century’ - “we have the same power.” This album is beautiful yet subdued, exulting yet devastating. The band’s loose but tasteful arrangements of these songs furthers the compelling impression they leave.
Which AUT Building Are You? by Sophia Romanos
• Fresh new threads but dead inside • Big ego • Hated by siblings
• No one knows who they are • Needs some beauty sleep • Should probably not be at uni
• Knows where to get good coffee
• “You can never have too many friends!”
• Knows their business
• Life of the party
• Has their nose in your business
• Everyone would be lost without them
• Business
• All round GB
WE • No one understands • Makes people wait around for them but doesn’t let them in
WT • Lazy • Makes you come to them • Smells like food 31
recipe
Protein-packed meatless ‘meatballs’ Deliberately set forest fires are raging in many parts of the world. Trees and plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. The things that provide our very existence are diminishing. Without doubt, deforestation has adverse impacts on ecosystems, biodiversity and food security. With growing demands for meat, more animals will be raised on deforested land. Many of us grow up with meat as a staple in our diets. Changing our consumption habits and preferences cannot happen in an instant. This protein-rich meatless ‘meatball’ recipe is an effort to consume less meat to reduce environmental impact. It is a protest against deforestation for mass scale animal agriculture.
Ingredients
Method
•
1 can chickpeas in brine, drained
1) Preheat oven to 190°C.
•
1 tablespoon olive oil
•
6 white button mushrooms, roughly chopped
•
1 onion, roughly chopped
•
1 cup walnuts
•
1/2 cup oat bran
•
1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
•
Salt and pepper
2) Toast walnuts in preheated oven for 5 minutes and set aside. 3) If your food processor is large enough, blend chickpeas, olive oil, mushrooms, onion and walnuts till well combined. If you’re using a small food processor, start by blending the chickpeas with olive oil, followed by the other components separately. 4) In a large mixing bowl, combine blended ingredients with oat bran, dried mixed herbs, a half teaspoon of salt and a dash of pepper. 5) Shape meatballs and bake for 12 minutes. 6) Serve with your choice of pasta and pasta sauce.
Melissa Koh is a third year BA student double majoring in Culinary Arts and English & New Media. Follow her dining and cooking adventures on Instagram: @melicacy.
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WORDFIND
puzzles
Statement Action Disapproval Challenge Statusquo
Objection Exemption Protest Firmly Declaration
Affirm Proclaim Vow Express Opposition
Response Initiation Found Assert Pledge
Circle all the words in the wordfind, tear this page out and pop it into the box on the side of the red Debate stands. Do it and you could win a motherflippin’ sweet prize!
Name:
Email:
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