On Our Cover

You Can’t Say That!

Or Can You?

It’s time for a grown-up conversation about tough issues

By Yvonne van Dongen

View October issue

Features

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Sleeping dogs: Tom Phillips and New Zealand’s wilderness myth

From Man Alone to Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Kiwi culture has long romanticised the bush-dwelling loner. Now Tom Philips drags his children into a dangerous reality challenging our national narrative of rugged individualism. By James Borrowdale

The disappeared

Writer John Sinclair talks to the Chief Police Commissioner Andrew Coster on the eve of his departure for the shores of social reform. By John Sinclair

Canute economics

Economist Geoff Bertram on why the turning tides of price increases doesn’t mean government can claim credit for cutting inflation. By Geoff Bertram

Top cop

Writer John Sinclair talks to the Chief Police Commissioner Andrew Coster on the eve of his departure for the shores of social reform. By John Sinclair

Bluff and Lies

How one man’s fabrications about Māori land claims exposed deep-rooted prejudices and, surprisingly, led to an unexpected journey of healing. By Anna McMartin

Madam President

Too clean for green politics? What a Harris administration could mean for New Zealand and how the Biden White House fused environmental policy with industrial protectionism. By Henry Whyte

Out of sight and out of their minds

Alarming statistics reveal a mental health crisis behind bars. John Sinclair writes about the urgent need for reform and rehabilitation highlighting the struggles of both inmates and staff in a system that has been pushed to its limits. By John Sinclair

The Case of the Poisoned Milk

Experiencing dizziness, dry mouth, delirium or attempted murder? Scott Bainbridge exhumes a historic mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes. By Scott Bainbridge

Culture Etc.

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The family album

Interdisciplinary artist Stella Brennan remixes archival objects into anti-nostalgic meditations on progress and history. Thread Between Darkness & Light is Brennan’s most personal artwork, and one of her most beautiful. By Theo Macdonald.

Olafur Eliasson: Beyond the limits of perception

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki welcomes a retrospective exhibition from one of contemporary art's great ambassadors for climate consciousness and the capacity of art to affect change.

Christine Jeffs: Making A Mistake

Christine Jeffs latest film, A Mistake, is based on author Carl Shuker’s novel in which a surgeon’s split-second decision leads to dire consequences. Shuker talks to Jeffs about directing Hollywood stars and the love of horses that keeps her home. By Carl Shuke

The first XI

Once a thorn in the side of New Zealand sports media, the Alternative Commentary Collective have become Kiwi sports royalty over the last decade (and a year).

Man of Letters

A conversation with painter Julian Hooper. By Theo Macdonald.

Late bloomers and buttocks

Guy Somerset kicks off his new North & South column on reading the backlist with the genius of Barbara Anderson

Perfect pictures

Perfect Pictures By Theo Macdonald Let’s cut to The Chase (Arthur Penn, 1966). For the past five years, the New Zealand International Film Festival has been lost in The Fog (John Carpenter, 1980). Long-term leader Bill Gosden passed away in 2020, 2021’s Auckland leg was rudely cancelled by COVID-19 (We…

Surf’s up

Surf’s up. By Nadia Shaw-Owens

Partner Content

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Appetite for investment

Growing up in the eighties, “a little girl with buck teeth and red pigtails”, Megan Dunn didn’t dream of becoming a Project Manager. She wanted to be Madison, the mermaid played by Daryl Hannah in Splash. By Theo Macdonald.

Smith’s Dream

The late Maurice K Smith spent most of his career practising and teaching architecture in the United States, but also left a vivid impression in the country of his birth. By Lucy Streep.

Virtual Revolution

NORTH & SOUTH + AUT Virtual Revolution AUT puts the latest technology in the hands of today's students AUT has opened its virtual production studio, putting top-end Hollywood production technology in the hands of today’s students. Associate Professor Dafydd Sills-Jones, Head of AUT’s Virtual Creative Precinct, says the virtual production…

Trading concrete for cows: A leap from city life to country bliss

NORTH & SOUTH + FMG Trading concrete for cows: A leap from city life to country bliss When Julia Jones decided to swap city living for the rural idyll of a lifestyle block, she was signing up for more than just fresh air and open space. It was a dream…

Four Corners

Utopia Lab

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Too Many People Are Dying On Our Roads

We need better roads, not better people.

Intensive Dairy Farming Is Killing The Environment

New Zealand should halve its number of cows.

The Criminal Justice System Is Broken

How we could reduce crime by locking up less people.

New Zealand Has A Dental Care Crisis

How do we fix it?

Why We Should Borrow More Money

A case for changing the way we think about national debt.

Bring Back the Glory Days of Rail

Why it's a smart idea to re-invest heavily in our national rail system.

Backstory

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Heaven or a Place on Earth?

What awaits us after death?

The Lost Islands

Historic artefacts washed up by the tides hint at lost lands whose full stories we can only guess at.

Beyond the Badlands

Strange monsters and ominous ghosts can be traced to repressed memories of violent histories, argues one Australian researcher looking at the past through a novel lens.

The Northern Bear

Our relationship with Russia has been characterised by instability — cycling between friend and foe, the nation and its citizens have often become symbols of our own fear and anxieties.

Echoes of History

Most New Zealanders remain unaware of the Surafend massacre by Anzac soldiers in 1918.

Gone Bush

To evade New Zealand’s draft in both world wars, scores of conscientious objectors fled deep into the bush.

Closed Encounters

Covid-19 checkpoints are not the first time some parts of the country have been sealed off from the rest.

As a Matter of Fact

Dismissal by Western scientists of mātauranga Māori and indigenous knowledge as unscientific “myth” often succumbs to its own criticism.

Archive Highlights

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Bert’s Labyrinth

Survivors are finally speaking out — but years earlier, a journalist tried to publish the inside story of the notorious Auckland commune. Then she came too close. By Anke Richter

Issues

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