Tag Archives: Guardian (The)

Poet Nina Powles Wins New UK Prize

Poet Nina Powles Wins New UK Prize

Wellington-born Nina Powles is one of the three recipients of the inaugural Women Poets’ prize, which aims to celebrate the empowerment of women and reward “creatively ambitious practitioners who are making or are capable…

Kieran Read Suggests Retirement Plans

Kieran Read Suggests Retirement Plans

All Blacks captain Kieran Read, 33, has said he is likely to quit international rugby after next year’s World Cup in Japan, his third Webb Ellis campaign, and take a contract overseas. “So for me…

Steve Hansen Suggests 16-Week Off-Seasons

Steve Hansen Suggests 16-Week Off-Seasons

“Steve Hansen has called for a mandatory 16-week off-season, days after an 11-month campaign was announced in England. The New Zealand head coach said England were still counting the cost of having 15 players…

Writing Saved Author Janet Frame

Writing Saved Author Janet Frame

Spanning unusual cruelty and extraordinary kindness, authors from New Zealander Janet Frame to Briton Pat Barker explore an unsettling branch of medicine. The Guardian looks at the top ten books about psychiatry and includes Frame’s…

New Zealand Enters the Craft Beer Game

New Zealand Enters the Craft Beer Game

New Zealand’s “Ministry of Primary Industries wants to develop ‘a super-premium hops’ and craft beer in an attempt to emulate New Zealand’s success with wines such as sauvignon blanc and pinot noir,” writes Eleanor…

New Zealand Bird of the Year

New Zealand Bird of the Year

The Kererū – “a native green and bronze wood pigeon with a taste for fermented fruit has been named the 2019 bird of the year in New Zealand” in a poll organised by Forest…

London’s Oceania Exhibition Gets More Rave Reviews

London’s Oceania Exhibition Gets More Rave Reviews

The new Oceania exhibition has just opened at London’s Royal Academy of Arts. The Guardian’s art reviewer Jonathan Jones was there, deeming the show “dazzling … like having the ocean…

Oceans Apart Doco a Tribute to Māori Determination

Oceans Apart Doco a Tribute to Māori Determination

British art historian James Fox presents Oceans Apart: Art and the Pacific, an “engaging” BBC documentary exploring Māori culture. It is reviewed in The Guardian by Emine Saner. In Oceans Apart, Fox examines artworks that…

Auckland: The Economics of Shared Streets

Auckland: The Economics of Shared Streets

“The obsession with self-driving cars and dockless cycles means pedestrians are often overlooked. But if we fail to accommodate those on foot, we ignore an essential part of what makes a city great,” writes…

Video of One Honky-Tonky Wonky Donkey Goes Viral

Video of One Honky-Tonky Wonky Donkey Goes Viral

A Scottish grandmother’s reading of New Zealander Craig Smith’s 2009 children’s picture book The Wonky Donkey to her grandson in a home video has seen demand for it skyrocket around the…

Harry Potter Musical Casts Gareth Reeves in Lead

Harry Potter Musical Casts Gareth Reeves in Lead

Playing the boy who lived – well, the man who lived, given that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child takes place 19 years after the Battle of Hogwarts – is Gareth Reeves (pictured right),…

NZ Lamb Has Lower Carbon Footprint than UK’s

NZ Lamb Has Lower Carbon Footprint than UK’s

From cod to clingfilm to New Zealand lamb, the advice UK consumers have been given can often be confusing, according to The Guardian’s Tony Naylor. If you’re serious about eating green, the publication offers some straightforward…

Gibbs Sculpture Park #1 Guardian Favourite

Gibbs Sculpture Park #1 Guardian Favourite

“We didn’t think anything manmade could compete with the grandeur of New Zealand’s natural beauty. Then we went to Gibbs Farm Sculpture Park, near Auckland,” Guardian…

Adapting Ruth Park’s Novels for the Stage

Adapting Ruth Park’s Novels for the Stage

New Zealand-born author Ruth Park’s novel, The Harp in the South caused an uproar in 1948 for its portrayal of working-class life. Now, the Sydney Theatre Company has turned it into an epic stage…

How to Breakfast like an Antipodean

How to Breakfast like an Antipodean

New Zealand and Australian cooks are creating sunny, generous and unexpected takes on a classic meal, inspiring food-lovers far and wide. The Guardian’s Mina Holland investigates what makes a real Antipodean breakfast, and where…

Wes Anderson-Like Cool in New Zealand

Wes Anderson-Like Cool in New Zealand

“An Instagram account dedicated to photos of locations that bear an uncanny resemblance to a stylised Wes Anderson film set – think balanced symmetry, pastel facades and cinematic setups – has contributions from all…

David Farrier Flies into the City of the Dead

David Farrier Flies into the City of the Dead

“The capital city of Turkmenistan  is blisteringly dry and hot, dumped in the middle of the desert. It also holds the record for the highest density of buildings made from white marble, which bounce…

NZ Announces Plan to Ban Single-Use Plastic Bags

NZ Announces Plan to Ban Single-Use Plastic Bags

New Zealand has become the latest country to ban single-use plastic bags in an effort to tackle plastic pollution, Time magazine reports. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced plans to…

Jacinda Ardern Reflects on Life After Giving Birth

Jacinda Ardern Reflects on Life After Giving Birth

From the outside it appears to be business as usual for New Zealand’s prime minister. But eight weeks ago Jacinda Ardern became only the second leader in the world to give birth while in office,…

Paid Leave a Rare Moment of Empowerment

Paid Leave a Rare Moment of Empowerment

A woman who lived through an abusive relationship writes anonymously for The Guardian, and says New Zealand’s latest domestic violence legislation is a relief from shame and fear. “The years of control, manipulation, blame, gaslighting,…

Portia Woodman Makes Top 10 Most Influential

Portia Woodman Makes Top 10 Most Influential

Black Ferns winger Portia Woodman, 27, has made the top 10 on a list of rugby union’s most influential people, ahead of any of her male All Blacks counterparts and two spots below All…

New Law Grants Abused Women Paid Leave

New Law Grants Abused Women Paid Leave

Around the world, 1 in 3 women have been physically or sexually abused by their partner, according to the World Health Organization. Forty per cent of all women murdered each year are killed by…

Google and Disney Join Rush to Te Reo

Google and Disney Join Rush to Te Reo

Te Reo is undergoing a revival – lessons are packed, songs are top of the pops, and even the prime minister wants to be part of it. Māori language teachers from Auckland to Dunedin…

Perpetual Guardian’s Four-Day Week a Hit

Perpetual Guardian’s Four-Day Week a Hit

Auckland company Perpetual Guardian has declared their landmark trial of a four-day working week an “unmitigated success”, with 78 per cent of employees feeling they were able to successfully manage their work-life balance, an increase…

Author Eleanor Catton on the Books That Changed Her

Author Eleanor Catton on the Books That Changed Her

New Zealand Booker Prize-winning novelist Eleanor Catton recently spoke with The Guardian on the crackpot astrological study she’d like to write, and the book she finds “dishonest, pious and vengeful”, for the newspaper’s regular…

Time May Be Running Out for Tāne Mahuta

Time May Be Running Out for Tāne Mahuta

New Zealand’s oldest and most sacred tree, Tāne Mahuta (Lord of the Forest), stands 60m from death, as a fungal disease known as kauri dieback spreads unabated across the country. Despite stringent efforts by…

Media Boss Sam Chisholm Nine Network’s Starmaker

Media Boss Sam Chisholm Nine Network’s Starmaker

New Zealand-born media heavyweight Sam Chisholm has died in Sydney. He was 78. During his four-decade career, Chisholm was head of Australia’s Nine Network and chief executive at Britain’s Sky Television. He was appointed chief…

Frolicking Right Whale Charms Wellingtonians

Frolicking Right Whale Charms Wellingtonians

A huge southern right whale frolicking in Wellington harbour brought the capital’s waterfront to a standstill last week as locals skipped work to catch a glimpse of the animal. Southern right whales used to be…

NZ Most Perilous Place for Seabirds

NZ Most Perilous Place for Seabirds

“Seabirds are more at risk of dying due to plastic in New Zealand than anywhere else in the world, new research presented to parliament has shown.” Eleanor Ainge Roy reports for

Kayaker Paddles from Australia to New Zealand

Kayaker Paddles from Australia to New Zealand

“Scott Donaldson has arrived in New Plymouth after spending two months at sea, covering 2000km,” as reported in The Guardian. “The 48-year-old has become the first person to kayak the…

Jacinda Ardern What the Global Left Needs Now

Jacinda Ardern What the Global Left Needs Now

The future of the left is bright if it looks like Jacinda Ardern and American political activist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, according to Guardian Australian columnist Van Badham. As a political communication, Ardern’s recent handheld Facebook Live…

Jane Campion’s the Piano Still Hits All The Right Notes

Jane Campion’s the Piano Still Hits All The Right Notes

“Rereleased after 25 years, this literary work about a mute woman in 19th-century New Zealand remains full of extraordinary images and enigmas,” writes Peter Bradshaw in a review in The…

Winston Peters’ 40-Year Political Rise

Winston Peters’ 40-Year Political Rise

The ascension of power will be a curious one for Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters who, at times through his career, has looked like he could take the role with ease and at others…

Q&A with Instapoet Star Hera Lindsay Bird

Q&A with Instapoet Star Hera Lindsay Bird

Acclaimed by the poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, as “the most arresting and original new young poet”, New Zealander Hera Lindsay Bird, 31, is one of the stars of the new generation of “Instapoets”…

NZ Female Cricketers Make World’s Best List

NZ Female Cricketers Make World’s Best List

A Guardian newspaper panel of 15 experts compiled a list of the globe’s top 20 greatest female players, which includes Dunedin-born Suzie Bates (pictured), 30, Christchurch-born Amy Satterthwaite, 31, and Sophie Devine, 28, from…

NZ Radio Station That Wants Listeners to Switch Off

NZ Radio Station That Wants Listeners to Switch Off

“John Watson is the first to admit that his DJ skills put people to sleep. Luckily for him, that is the point,” writes Charles Anderson in an article for The…

Will New Zealand’s Mount Taranaki ‘Living Person’ Status Bring Respect?

Will New Zealand’s Mount Taranaki ‘Living Person’ Status Bring Respect?

“Recognition is something Māori communities have been campaigning for over 150 years. In 2013, they achieved a landmark ruling when the Te Urewera national park on the North Island was granted ‘all the rights,…

New Zealand Rallies to Save its Iconic Bird

New Zealand Rallies to Save its Iconic Bird

There are 68,000 kiwi left in New Zealand, and they are declining at the rate of 2 per cent per year. A century ago, there were millions. Outside the predator-free zones, kiwi chicks and…

Mothers-to-be on Birth of a New Kind of PM

Mothers-to-be on Birth of a New Kind of PM

In a Guardian article, New Zealand women with babies due this month discuss what it means to have a pregnant prime minister, and how they will balance parenthood, work and a severe lack of sleep. In…

Scientists to Lead DNA Hunt for Loch Ness Monster

Scientists to Lead DNA Hunt for Loch Ness Monster

An examination of Loch Ness using DNA sampling techniques will try to establish exactly what lives in the UK’s largest freshwater body – it may also discover whether there is any scientific basis to…

Jane Campion Rewatches Her Own Classic

Jane Campion Rewatches Her Own Classic

One of the world’s most unconventional filmmakers, New Zealander Jane Campion talks with The Guardian about the end of the patriarchy, doing away with decorum, and how losing her baby son changed her forever. Twenty-five…

Thomasin McKenzie Steals the Film in Leave No Trace

Thomasin McKenzie Steals the Film in Leave No Trace

Debra Granik’s third feature, Leave No Trace, which stretches the theme of life on the margins to breaking point, is already being talked of as one of the year’s best releases, according to The…

Leave No Trace with Thomasin McKenzie Cannes Hit

Leave No Trace with Thomasin McKenzie Cannes Hit

“Debra Granik is the exceptional film-maker who directed Winter’s Bone in 2010, launching the career of Jennifer Lawrence, and now she returns with this deeply intelligent, complex, finely tuned and observed movie, [starring New…

Autoportrait Wins Deutsche Börse Photography Prize

Autoportrait Wins Deutsche Börse Photography Prize

The 2018 Deutsche Börse photography prize has been awarded to the New Zealander Luke Willis Thompson, 30, for Autoportrait, a film installation about the partner of Philando Castile, who was shot dead by police…

Scientist Richard Dawkins Considers Move to NZ

Scientist Richard Dawkins Considers Move to NZ

The British scientist Richard Dawkins has told current affairs programme The Project he would like to move to New Zealand as a refuge from the “madness” of a post-Trump, post-Brexit northern hemisphere. “I thought about…

Exhibition of Colliding Worlds on in London

Exhibition of Colliding Worlds on in London

Work by ill-fated illustrators aboard Captain James Cook’s first journey to the Pacific sit alongside revelatory images by a Polynesian high priest in a haunting exhibition on now at the British Library in London. “The…

World’s Longest Emperor Penguin Dive Recorded

World’s Longest Emperor Penguin Dive Recorded

Scientists in Antarctica have recorded the world’s longest penguin dive, an astounding 32.2 minutes under the water, a full five minutes longer than the previous record. Emperor penguins, which live only in Antarctica, are the…

Ardern Joins Khan, Trudeau and Young Fans in London

Ardern Joins Khan, Trudeau and Young Fans in London

In this Guardian ‘photo highlight’ of the day, the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau takes a selfie with the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, at City Hall during the…

New Zealand Bans All New Offshore Oil Exploration

New Zealand Bans All New Offshore Oil Exploration

“The New Zealand government will grant no new offshore oil exploration permits in a move that is being hailed by conservation and environmental groups as a historic victory in the battle against climate change,”…

Keith Murdoch a Giant Who Never Made It Home

Keith Murdoch a Giant Who Never Made It Home

Keith Murdoch, who has died in Australia, aged 74, played just three Tests for the All Blacks, but his name was etched in New Zealand rugby folklore after he became a recluse in the…

Ngaio Marsh’s Inspector Alleyn Continues to Impress

Ngaio Marsh’s Inspector Alleyn Continues to Impress

Dame Ngaio Marsh’s skilfully completed “continuation novel”, set in a New Zealand hospital, is an exquisite reminder of the brilliance of Marsh’s London detective Inspector Alleyn, Sophie Hannah writes in a review of the…

Jacinda Ardern on Life as a Leader

Jacinda Ardern on Life as a Leader

In a Guardian interview, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reveals how her life has changed and her ambition for a can-do country. This time last year Ardern was known as a young opposition MP…

Getting More Done in a Four-Day Week

Getting More Done in a Four-Day Week

On the first long weekend of her employer’s experiment with a four-day working week, Kirsten Taylor freaked out a little bit. Like a housework hurricane, she got through mounds of clothes-washing, weeded the garden,…

How Flight of the Conchords Took Off

How Flight of the Conchords Took Off

Few comedians ever play London’s O2 Arena and fewer still manage three nights in a row. Those who do tend to have some things in common: a relatable observational style, limited creative ambition and…

Helen Clark Film Reveals a Shadowy World at the UN

Helen Clark Film Reveals a Shadowy World at the UN

Filmmaker Gaylene Preston’s documentary My Year With Helen playing in Australia this month provides a happy and timely reminder that before there was Jacinda Ardern, there was Helen Clark. The extraordinary post-parliamentary career of former…

On the Rodeo Trail in New Zealand

On the Rodeo Trail in New Zealand

Animal activists are calling for rodeos to be banned in New Zealand, but cowboys say bull riding is their calling. Eleanor Ainge Roy and Paul Roy report on the controversial sport in a photo…