News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Ans Westra’s Photos Captured a Changing Nation

Ans Westra’s Photos Captured a Changing Nation

Ans Westra, a Dutch-born photographer who created the most comprehensive record of New Zealand’s social history, comprising more than 300,000 powerful images, died on 26 February at her home outside Wellington. She was 86….

Trailblazing Georgina Beyer Dedicated to Community

Trailblazing Georgina Beyer Dedicated to Community

Georgina Beyer, a former actor, drag performer, sex worker and radio host who pulled off a surprise victory as a Labour MP and later played a pivotal role in decriminalising prostitution, has died in…

Should New Zealand Cats Be Kept Indoors?

Should New Zealand Cats Be Kept Indoors?

New Zealand’s remarkable birdlife evolved on a land without apex predators. Introduced cats have decimated their numbers. New Zealanders may have to change the way they keep cats, Stephen Dowling reports for the BBC. New…

Former All Black Campbell Johnstone Speaks Out

Former All Black Campbell Johnstone Speaks Out

In January, former All Black Campbell Johnstone, 43, made headlines around the world by speaking publicly about his sexuality for the first time. It was a watershed moment for the game and a deeply…

Stuart Twemlow’s Ground-Breaking Contributions to Psychiatry

Stuart Twemlow’s Ground-Breaking Contributions to Psychiatry

Whanganui-born psychiatrist Dr Stuart Twemlow (Ngāti Patupo, Ngāti Te Wehi) wrote over 200 publications on a wide variety of fields including school violence, workplace harassment, terrorism and cult dynamics. Twemlow lectured internationally on the…

Without Frank Worsley the Endurance Story Would Likely Have Been Very Different

Without Frank Worsley the Endurance Story Would Likely Have Been Very Different

Ernest Shackleton gets credit for rescuing his doomed Antarctica voyage – but it’s his navigator New Zealander Frank Worsley’s leadership that saved their lives, Daniella McCahey and The Conversation editors write in an article…

Time to Rethink the Ideal of the Indigenous

Time to Rethink the Ideal of the Indigenous

“Many groups who identify as Indigenous don’t claim to be first peoples; many who did come first don’t claim to be Indigenous. Can the concept escape its colonial past?” Manvir Singh asks in an…

How Quake Survivors Must Deal with Lasting Trauma

How Quake Survivors Must Deal with Lasting Trauma

Research has confirmed that natural hazards such as the magnitude 7.8 temblor in Turkey-Syria lead to acute trauma and an increased risk for chronic conditions such as anxiety and depression in survivors. Psychiatrist and…

Tihei mauri ora! Tihei Aotearoa

Tihei mauri ora! Tihei Aotearoa

( Waiohiki Flood Recovery-Givealittle ) I began this kōrero at Waipatu, Heretaunga, in Hastings, in the early morning hours of Saturday, February 18, 2023. The sun had not yet risen, but it will….

Water Carved Our Landscape Now it Risks Lives

Water Carved Our Landscape Now it Risks Lives

New Zealand’s Hawke’s Bay is known for its fine wine, but many of the region’s vineyards are now under water, along with homes and roads in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, Hilary Whiteman reports…

Fashion Journalist Hilary Alexander Ever the Pro

Fashion Journalist Hilary Alexander Ever the Pro

Napier-born Hilary Alexander, one of the original Fleet Street fashion journalists and former fashion director of The Daily Telegraph, who has died age 77, was a prolific reporter and writer who epitomised the fashion-loving,…

US TV Presenter Visits Our Shrinking Glaciers

US TV Presenter Visits Our Shrinking Glaciers

New Zealand is full of stunning, natural beauty and home to nearly 3000 glaciers, which are huge tourist destinations. But the glaciers are quickly vanishing due to rising temperatures, ABC News reports. Good Morning…

Glen Johnson on Jacinda Ardern’s Resignation: Le Monde Diplomatique

Glen Johnson on Jacinda Ardern’s Resignation: Le Monde Diplomatique

New Zealand journalist Glen Johnson, who is currently in Ukraine, writes on the resignation of Jacinda Ardern, the international acclaim she received for her handling of Covid, and the years of threats, vitriol and…

Two Prehistoric Penguins Added to Our Aviary

Two Prehistoric Penguins Added to Our Aviary

New Zealand has been a haven for earthbound birds for aeons. The absence of terrestrial predators allowed flightless parrots, kiwis and moas to thrive. Now researchers are adding two prehistoric penguins to this grounded…

Botanical Artist Bryan Poole World-Renowned

Botanical Artist Bryan Poole World-Renowned

“ Bryan Poole, who has died aged 69, was one of the most talented botanical artists working in Britain; he helped to raise the status of a branch of art which has too…

RIP Pioneering Neuroscientist Matthew During

RIP Pioneering Neuroscientist Matthew During

New Zealand-born Matthew During was a pioneering neuroscientist who devoted his life to developing gene therapy for human applications. During, who died in Darien, Connecticut on January 26th, 2023, aged 66. He made…

Dissecting the Rhetoric of Jacinda Ardern

Dissecting the Rhetoric of Jacinda Ardern

“There used to be a website devoted to pointing out examples of world maps that didn’t bother to include New Zealand. If we did make it, we were tucked into the lower right corner,…

Jacinda Ardern Gives the World a Lesson in Humility

Jacinda Ardern Gives the World a Lesson in Humility

“Jacinda Ardern and young female leaders – including Finland’s PM Sanna Marin and Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen – who have emerged in the last decade stand as a counterpoint to the loud, attention-seeking and narcissistic…

Chris Hipkins New Zealand’s Next Prime Minister

Chris Hipkins New Zealand’s Next Prime Minister

Chris Hipkins will become New Zealand’s next prime minister after MPs of the ruling Labour party made the 44-year-old their unanimous choice to replace outgoing leader Jacinda Ardern, Nic Fildes and Peter Wells report…

New Zealand’s Leader Jacinda Ardern Steps Down

New Zealand’s Leader Jacinda Ardern Steps Down

Jacinda Ardern, who became a global liberal icon as New Zealand’s prime minister but faced deepening political challenges with an election looming at home, has said in a surprise announcement that she would step…

Crypto Ponzi Scheme Avenger Danny de Kek Speaks Up

Crypto Ponzi Scheme Avenger Danny de Kek Speaks Up

From his home in New Zealand, the YouTuber Danny de Hek assails what he calls a dangerous and deceptive scheme, one rant at a time. David Segal interviews de Hek for The New York…

Life on Scott Base Shared via TikTok

Life on Scott Base Shared via TikTok

As part of the Guardian series ‘Life on the edge’, Scott Base redevelopment manager Matthew Jordan talks to Eva Corlett about what it’s like to live inside New Zealand’s Antarctica headquarters. “My work is supporting…

Sealark Exploration Scouring the Pacific

Sealark Exploration Scouring the Pacific

“The nature of [World War Two], scattered as it was across thousands of miles of sea and sand, meant that many people, ships, and aircraft disappeared without a trace,” BC Cook writes for Marianas…

New Zealand Part of Growing Wellbeing Network

New Zealand Part of Growing Wellbeing Network

For a small but growing network of countries, the world’s go-to metric of economic health is no longer fit for purpose, Sam Meredith reports for CNBC. Mostly led by women, Finland, Iceland, Scotland, Wales…

NZ Bans Cigarette Sales for Those Born After 2009

NZ Bans Cigarette Sales for Those Born After 2009

New Zealand has adopted a steadily rising tobacco-purchase age and mandated the near-elimination of nicotine from all cigarettes sold in the country, pushing forward on a plan to create a smoke-free nation as other…

Pioneering Physicist Mark Warner a Selfless Mentor

Pioneering Physicist Mark Warner a Selfless Mentor

We are all familiar with elastic bands and other soft, rubbery materials, but familiarity should not diminish our surprise at their properties. What other solids can be stretched many times their original length without…

Hamish Kilgour a Freewheeling Musician With Worldly Reach

Hamish Kilgour a Freewheeling Musician With Worldly Reach

Hamish Kilgour, a founding member of the New Zealand band the Clean, who was celebrated among fans of underground music for his propulsive drumming and his countercultural approach to life, has died in Christchurch,…

Auckland Couple with New Baby Looks Ahead

Auckland Couple with New Baby Looks Ahead

Tuesday 15 November 2022 marked the day that the global population reached 8 billion, according to the United Nations. The impact of this is far-reaching, putting additional pressure on already stretched resources and challenging…

New Zealand First to Try Taxing Cows’ Gas Emissions

New Zealand First to Try Taxing Cows’ Gas Emissions

In a nation with seven times more livestock than people, taxing farmers for herds’ greenhouse gas emissions is a controversial proposal, Hicks Wogan reports for National Geographic. In October, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern unveiled a…

Four Day Week’s Charlotte Lockhart Speaks to CNN

Four Day Week’s Charlotte Lockhart Speaks to CNN

In a recent CNN Audio podcast from the series, Downside Up, New Zealander Charlotte Lockhart, founder of the non-profit 4 Day Week Global, joins Americans Anne Helen Petersen, author of Out of Office…

Running Legend Sir Murray Halberg Our Olympic Hero

Running Legend Sir Murray Halberg Our Olympic Hero

Sir Murray Halberg, New Zealand Olympic 5000m champion in 1960, two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist and multiple world record-breaker, has died aged 89, Jason Henderson writes in an obituary for Athletics Weekly. Halberg achieved greatness…

Antipodes’ Penguins Lay Eggs Doomed to Die

Antipodes’ Penguins Lay Eggs Doomed to Die

In 1998, a team of researchers made the three-and-a-half day trek to the isolated Antipodes Islands in the South Pacific to study one of its few residents: the enigmatic and endangered erect-crested penguin. “These…

Supreme Court Rules Voting Age of 18 is Discriminatory

Supreme Court Rules Voting Age of 18 is Discriminatory

New Zealand’s Supreme Court has ruled that the country’s current voting age of 18 is discriminatory, meaning parliament must discuss whether it should be lowered, Alys Davies reports for the BBC. The case was brought…

NIWA Scientists Say Tonga Eruption Record Size

NIWA Scientists Say Tonga Eruption Record Size

A team of oceanographers, scientists and marine geologists headed by the New Zealand National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) investigating an underwater volcano that erupted on 15 January 2022 in the Tongan…

Cultural Champ Ken Gorbey Relishes Ninth Decade

Cultural Champ Ken Gorbey Relishes Ninth Decade

Arts alumnus Ken Gorbey tells Megan Fowlie, reporting for Auckland University’s Ingenio magazine, that he is treating his ninth decade as he would a museum exhibition: he’s determined to make it an engaging experience. The…

The Night Aotearoa Won More than a Rugby Match

The Night Aotearoa Won More than a Rugby Match

“The Women’s Rugby World Cup was a milestone for seeing Māori culture and worldview deeply embedded in Aotearoa’s national identity,” Tāmaki Makaurau- Auckland-based photojournalist and writer Cornell Tukiri (Ngaati Hikairo, Ngaati Whaawhaakia, Kāi Tahu)…

Female Lawmakers Outnumber Male in Parliament

Female Lawmakers Outnumber Male in Parliament

For the first time in New Zealand’s history, a majority of its lawmakers are women, Nick Perry writes for Associated Press in a story published by the Los Angeles Times. Soraya Peke-Mason from the liberal…

Diary of Polar Explorer Clarence Hare Published

Diary of Polar Explorer Clarence Hare Published

Early explorer New Zealander Clarence Hare, who survived being lost in Antarctica long before retiring to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, has had his famous diary published for the first time, 55 years after his death,…

Code of Adobe Engineer Alan McLachlan Lives On

Code of Adobe Engineer Alan McLachlan Lives On

It’s likely Auckland-born Alan McLachlan’s code is running on your computer right now, Lizzy Lawrence writes for tech news site, Protocol. McLachlan, an engineer who helped create the PDF, has died in San Francisco….

Researchers Marvel at Godwit’s Migratory Flight

Researchers Marvel at Godwit’s Migratory Flight

Tens of thousands of bar-tailed godwits are taking advantage of favourable winds in September and October for their annual migration from the mud flats and muskeg of southern Alaska, south across the vast expanse…

Can Our Planning Reforms Show Sydney the Way?

Can Our Planning Reforms Show Sydney the Way?

New Zealand has given us Crowded House, Russell Crowe and pavlova – could it now deliver us an elegant solution to the housing affordability crisis, Australian journalist Michael Koziol asks in a story for…

Descendants of Moriori Call for More Recognition

Descendants of Moriori Call for More Recognition

“Of all the peoples in the world who suffered during the course of the spread of English across the globe over the last 400 years, one of the groups that suffered the most were…

PM Jacinda Ardern Recalls Queen’s Good Advice

PM Jacinda Ardern Recalls Queen’s Good Advice

In a September interview with the BBC, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the Queen told her she had to “just get on with it” when asked for advice about being both a leader and…

New Zealand Sees Greatest Jump in Wealth in World

New Zealand Sees Greatest Jump in Wealth in World

New Zealand experienced the greatest increase in adult wealth in the world in 2021, according to a new report by investment bank, Credit Suisse. Brady Knox, writing for the Washington Examiner, says the bank…

Even in Liberal-Leaning NZ Anglican Church Divided

Even in Liberal-Leaning NZ Anglican Church Divided

Divisions over the acceptance of homosexuality have raised doubts about whether the Anglican Church can remain united, a conflict that has played out both on a global level and inside even liberal-leaning countries like…

New Zealand Mourns Death of Queen Elizabeth II

New Zealand Mourns Death of Queen Elizabeth II

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has remembered Queen Elizabeth II as “extraordinary” in remarks echoed by leaders across the political spectrum as the country marked its first day of mourning for the monarch’s death, Charlotte…

Jacinda Ardern Implores Nuclear Weapons States

Jacinda Ardern Implores Nuclear Weapons States

“Our world is at greater risk of nuclear catastrophe than at any time since the height of the cold war. Growing superpower tensions and two decades of stalled progress on arms control have pushed…

How the World’s Most Spongy City Tackles Floods

How the World’s Most Spongy City Tackles Floods

Auckland was recently named the most spongy global city in a report by multinational architecture and design firm Arup, thanks to its geography, soil type, and urban design – but experts warn it may…

Margaret Urlich a True and Rare Talent

Margaret Urlich a True and Rare Talent

Auckland-born Margaret Urlich, an Aria award-winning singer and one of New Zealand’s most successful musicians, has died at her home in New South Wales’ Southern Highlands, aged 57. Michael Sun of The Guardian looks…

Melissa Lee Highlights Parliament’s Diversity

Melissa Lee Highlights Parliament’s Diversity

Melissa Lee, the first and only Korean-born member of the New Zealand Parliament, is a go-to person for Korean nationals living in New Zealand, Kwon Mee-yoo writes for The Korea Times. First elected in 2008…

Endangered Kākāpō Gets Big Population Boost

Endangered Kākāpō Gets Big Population Boost

The population of New Zealand’s endangered flightless kākāpō has increased by 25 per cent in the past year, bringing it up to 252 birds, the highest number since the 1970s, the ABC News reports. “There…

Support for Aotearoa Name Change Gathers Momentum

Support for Aotearoa Name Change Gathers Momentum

As the people of New Zealand confront their nation’s troubled past with colonisation and denying rights to Māori, a name change is being considered as a part of its own reckoning, NPR correspondents report. A…

Natural History Museum Returns Moriori Remains

Natural History Museum Returns Moriori Remains

London’s Natural History Museum has returned 111 Kōimi T’chakat Moriori (Moriori skeletal remains) to New Zealand, as part of the largest single repatriation of such remains to date. The remains of the indigenous people of…

New Zealand Designating Two US Groups as Terrorists May Have Global Impact

New Zealand Designating Two US Groups as Terrorists May Have Global Impact

“New Zealand recently designated two US far-right groups, the Proud Boys and the Base, as terrorist organisations. This puts them in the same category as groups such as the Islamic State and makes it…

NZ Inflation Research Discussed in NY Times

NZ Inflation Research Discussed in NY Times

“What’s worse, higher inflation or higher unemployment?” Peter Coy asks in The New York Times. “The answer is actually pretty straightforward: Higher unemployment is worse than higher inflation if you go by the feelings…

New Zealand’s Borders Open for Business

New Zealand’s Borders Open for Business

After more than two years, New Zealand is fully reopening its borders and welcoming back all international travellers, Charmaine Jacob reports in a CNBC story. The country is reopening on 31 July, some three…