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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Nanny Dearest

Nanny Dearest: A Childhood Nightmare 8th May 2025 Belinda Robinson, the daughter of famous Aotearoa playwright - and founder of Pōneke’s Downstage Theatre - Bruce Mason and renowned obstetrician Diana Mason, speaks publicly about the childhood abuse inflicted by Lili, their opiate-addicted nanny. Warning: This extract contains themes around abuse and…

Catherine Chidgey

Catherine Chidgey in conversation with North & South 8th May 2025 Internationally lauded and best-selling Aotearoa author, Catherine Chidgey, has published her ninth novel, The Book of Guilt. Set in Britain in 1979, it’s a dystopian and sinister story about 13-year-old triplets - Vincent, Lawrence and William - who live…

First in Folk

First in Folk 8th May 2025 Nadia Reid is something to behold, live, and her fourth album, Enter Now Brightness is a thing of exquisite beauty and according to The Guardian: "remarkably peaceful and restorative". Reid is now based with her family in the UK but will be touring in…

Straight from the heart

Shayne Carter: songwriter, rock star, author, football fan, chess player, average driver. Photo: STEPHEN PERRY FOR METRO/SUPPLIED Straight from the heart May 1, 2025 From snotty punk to senior statesman of New Zealand music, Shayne Carter’s career has been wild and acclaimed. But his memoir reveals the drama and trauma…

Scandal, weed and witchcraft

Anna Hoffman in 1960. Scandal, weed and witchcraft May 1, 2025 As a child she played the violin; as a woman, chess with a Mongrel Mob president. Scott Bainbridge on the life and curious times of Anna Hoffman, the Maharanee of Marijuana. By: Scott BainbridgeShe was the antithesis ‘it’ girl…

Culture Compass

Oliver Stretton-Pow, Hard Graft Mark II, 2025 Culture Compass May 1, 2025 Around ngā mōtu there is art, film, comedy and literature - here’s our guide to lightning the weight of the times.In heavy times like these, one could be fooled into thinking that going to a show or exhibition…

Politicians want to choose who treats you

Politicians want to choose who treats you April 24, 2025 On May 1, around 5500 senior doctors will go on strike over pay rates and workforce shortages. Dr Renee Liang writes about the place where politicians and health experts collide.Last week, I attended the launch of Health Coalition Aotearoa’s Level…

How to make an artform of escaping

How to make an artform of escaping April 24, 2025 As the season shifts, from Autumn too quickly to winter, there’s a place to hide, right in the middle of Auckland city. It may have just turned one year old, it’s discreet yet bold and it already feels like it…

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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