Te Whaea: Our Lady of Aotearoa
By Denis O’Reilly. Late last year I attended the unveiling for the late Hon. Parekura Horomia. Helen Clark gave a panegyric for her deceased acolyte. At the time of the tangihana itself, Helen was…
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Rhys Darby Stands up on Stage in Washington
“New Zealand comic Rhys Darby is perhaps best known to American audiences from the two recent Jumanji films and his show-stealing role on Flight of the Conchords as the eponymous band’s well-meaning but hapless manager Murray Hewitt,” Jibran Khan…
Looking Back at the Wimbledon of Anthony Wilding
Now that the Wimbledon Championships have officially been cancelled because of the outbreak of the coronavirus and COVID-19 disease, Forbes looks at other years the world’s most famous tennis event was disrupted, including the…
Attica’s Ben Shewry Dishes up Simplicity
If a pasta-heavy diet is getting you through isolation, Broadsheet recommends levelling up your dinner (or lunchtime toastie) with this perfect, lump-free bolognese from New Zealander Ben Shewry the chef-owner of Attica, one of…
Artist Zac Langdon-Pole Travels Time and Space
In 2018, Berlin-based New Zealander Zac Langdon-Pole, 32, won the BMW Art Journey prize at Art Basel Hong Kong, an award he used to fund a trip from Europe to his homeland, via several…
Singer Shirley Setia Debuts in Netflix Film Maska
Aucklander Shirley Setia, who has made her acting debut with the Netflix film, Maska, recently spoke with India’s Bollywood Life. The actress, who began her career as a musician, hopes that the film will…
Arts Can Foster Resilience Says Blair French
The crisis and the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic will test New Zealander Blair French’s management strengths as much as his curatorial abilities, Sydney Morning Herald journalist Linda Morris writes. But the chief executive of…
How New Zealand Is Coping under Lockdown
As the COVID-19 crisis continues, Forbes hears from their science contributors across the globe, including New Zealand-based Irish writer, Laurie Winkless who, over Twitter, asked a number of New Zealanders to share their stories…
Allbirds for Health Workers During COVID-19 Crisis
Around the world, there is a shortage of personal protective gear that will keep health workers safe as they care for patients in COVID-19 wards, Elizabeth Segran reports for Fast Company magazine. While companies…
Contemporary HUM: Sharmini Aphrodite on André Hemer Singapore show ‘Images Cast by the Sun’
Online publishing platform Contemporary HUM is excited to announce a new series focusing on New Zealand arts activity in the Asia region. In the first essay of the series, produced in collaboration with our guest…
Country Singer Tami Neilson Pulls Out the Big Guns
The seven women who are “leading the charge” in country music in 2020, according to Kath Devaney reporting for the ABC include New Zealand-based performer, Tami Neilson. “It has been said that women in country…
Ruby Princess and the Great Discontinuity
Denis O’Reilly is a New Zealand community leader and activist. This is his 91st essay for nzedge.com. My time as a bouncer on the door at Ali Baba’s in Cuba St Wellington, circa 1975,…
Designer Kristian Fredrikson a Force of the Stage
Wellington-born stage and costume designer Kristian Fredrikson is celebrated in a new book by renowned Melbourne dance writer, curator and historian Michelle Potter. Fredrikson, who was born in 1940, took art classes at Wellington Polytechnic…
PM Jacinda Ardern Inspires Across Planet
March is National Women’s History Month in the US and Washington state newspaper, the Chinook Observer, salutes several outstanding women, including our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. The Observer’s Robert Brake writes: “I extend kudos to 39-year-old New…
John Platts-Mills QC Stuck to His Principles
A journalist for London’s independent newspaper the Camden New Journal recalls the first public meeting he attended as a 16-year-old in Manchester, a meeting at which Wellington-born John Platts-Mills became his hero. “It was a…
Roaster Rhys Evans-Brown Spreading Good Cheer
The culture of specialty coffee in Oceania is in many ways a world apart from the coffee culture of the United States, Howard Bryman writes for Daily Coffee News. Yet according to New Zealand-born…
Tricky Golf Moves With Tania Tare
Auckland-born Tania Tare is one of the world’s most recognisable trick-shot artists and has amassed over 300,000 followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, Golf Australia reports. In an interview with the sporting publication, Tare…
NPR Excited About Folk Singer Holly Arrowsmith
New Zealander Holly Arrowsmith has made NPR’s Austin 100 list, compiled of musicians who would otherwise be performing at the annual SXSW music festival, now shutdown owing to the coronavirus pandemic. “Arrowsmith writes languid, yearning…
Recognising the Whanganui River’s Legal Voice
In 2017, New Zealand granted legal personhood to the Whanganui River. Since then, other nations have followed suit in an effort to protect the environment. The BBC’s Luana Harumi reports, with the river featured…
Big Future in Tiny Homes Says Bryce Langston
Some call them small homes, while others prefer ‘tiny homes’ or ‘tiny houses’. Whatever the terminology, more and more people are getting their heads around the idea of creating living spaces that depart significantly…
Visiting Emily Winkle’s Cornwall Gem Cherry Trees
“Padstow, on the north Cornwall coast, has long been a food-lover’s haunt. And that’s largely thanks to Rick Stein, who opened The Seafood Restaurant here more than 40 years ago, and has since added…
Escaping COVID-19 Chaos in New York
It started with an ominous email: “We urge New Zealanders currently travelling overseas to consider returning home while commercial options remain available,” the foreign affairs ministry wrote. For citizens of the nation at the…
Yumi Zouma’s Latest Is Album of the Week
Earlier this month, the New Zealand band Yumi Zouma “who splits their time between Wellington, London and New York, unleashed their third full length album Truth Or Consequences, into the world”, Poppy Reid writes…
New Zealand Eases Abortion Restrictions
Lawmakers have voted to liberalise New Zealand’s abortion law and allow unrestricted access during the first half of pregnancy, ending the country’s status as one of the few wealthy nations to limit the grounds…
Corby Lovell Berlin’s Peanut Butter Provider
Auckland-born Corby Lovell is introducing Berliners to the delights of peanut butter, selling his Twisted Nut brand to locals at the famous Saturday market at Kollwitzplatz, in the district of Prenzlauer Berg. “ produces ‘handmade…
Wayve Genius Alex Kendall Makes Forbes 30 Under 30
New Zealander Alex Kendall, 27, who went to the University of Cambridge to pursue a PhD in Computer Vision and Robotics, and today serves as the CTO (and co-founder) of London-based Wayve, an AI…
Earth’s Green Flag Flies for Jeanette Fitzsimons
For the decade Sue Bradford spent in parliament as a Green MP, party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons led by example, bringing a quiet but steely determination to everything she did. Bradford writes about the politician,…
Photographer Amos Chapple Shoots Cold on an iPhone
From December to January, the sun never rises in Murmansk, Russia. Amateur Photographer journalist Peter Dench chats to the New Zealand-born photographer Amos Chapple about his recent reportage, Forty Days Of Darkness, shot on…
Stacey Lee’s Doco Underplayed to Show at TriBeCa
Among the documentaries premiering at this year’s TriBeCa Film Festival in April is New Zealand-born, Los Angeles-based Stacey Lee’s debut feature-length project, Underplayed, about the gender inequality in electronic music, Lily Moayeri reports for…
Charles Ma, City Maker, Leads Thinking in Knight Frank City Wellbeing Index
Auckland-born Charles Ma, 29, is working on an ambitious project to reimagine the way we live with its development of an entire city – Auranga, in southern Auckland at Drury – which will…
A British Kitchen with Margot and Fergus Henderson
Chefs Fergus and New Zealand-born Margot Henderson have forged an identity for modern British cooking, grounded in technique and tradition. But will their legacy survive the divisions of Brexit? Julia Moskin interviews the couple…
Twelve of NZ’s Most Beautiful Places
American broadcaster CNN offers up an “insider’s guide to Aotearoa’s must-see destinations, including some off-the-beaten-track gems”. Starting at the top of the North Island, CNN’s Lucy Corry recommends Cape Reinga where: “You’ll be bearing witness…
Death Metal Band Ulcerate Warp Time in New Track
New Zealand extreme-metal outfit Ulcerate, which formed in Auckland in 2000, “privileges atmosphere over speed in one of its grandest, most unsettling tracks to date,” Rolling Stone magazine correspondent Hank Shteamer writes. “Fifty years on…
Blyth Tait Calls Time on Second Eventing Career
Former Olympic and world champion New Zealander Blyth Tait has retired from eventing for a second time, aged 58, Britain’s Horse & Hound magazine reports. Tait had had his eye on a fifth Olympic Games…
South Island the Reigning Adrenaline Capital
“Of all the world’s adventure destinations, there are few more tantalising or dreamlike than New Zealand, a country that seems at once familiar and otherworldly. With its deep-azure seas, mist-shrouded mountains, dense forests, and…
Taika Waititi Takes on the Chocolate Factory
Academy Award-winning director New Zealander Taika Waititi has signed a deal with Netflix to write, direct and produce two animated series based on the works of the children’s author, Roald Dahl, The Guardian reports. The…
Pioneer Troy Collings Made N Korean Connections
New Zealander Troy Collings, whose tour-guide company specialised in taking young budget travellers to forbidding places like North Korea, has died. He was 33. The cause was a heart attack, his company, Young Pioneer Tours,…
Art is at the Frontline of Cathy Fitzgerald’s Fight
The Hollywood Forest in County Carlow, Ireland is a source of quality timber and an inspiration for an artistic couple and their network of collaborators. “We are discipline-jumpers,” New Zealand-born Cathy Fitzgerald says of…
Kea Show Humanlike Ability to Make Predictions
Whether it’s calculating your risk of catching coronavirus or gauging the chance of rain on your upcoming beach vacation, you use a mix of statistical, physical, and social information to make a decision, Virginia…
Dream Catchers Charts 32 Remarkable New Zealanders Making an Impact in the UK
Dream Catchers is on YouTube! Produced by Hilary Timmins, the full eight episodes celebrating 32 New Zealand innovators and cultural pioneers in the UK has posted online as well as on Air…
Pastry Chef Heather Kaniuk Recommends Auckland’s Top Culinary Spots
Writing for The Financial Times, acclaimed pastry chef Heather Kaniuk recommends the finest fish burgers to sustainable, Māori-inspired dishes in Auckland. Her culinary tour starts at Avondale café Hare and the Turtle for a…
Businesswoman Mavis Mullins Speaks on Pukaha Treaty Reparations with NPR
Mavis Mullins runs a sheep-shearing company that handles over 1,000,000 sheep. She’s also a charming, disarmingly honest straight-shooter. One day her cousin pulled her into a café with a request: Help us fight with…
Simon Denny Exhibits Amazon Cage in San Francisco
A new exhibit at San Francisco’s de Young Museum explores what it means to be human in an AI-saturated world with pieces like New Zealand artist Simon Denny’s work, “Amazon worker cage patent drawing…
Jennifer Ward-Lealand Te Atamira named Kiwibank’s New Zealander of the Year.
The actress was awarded the title by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Other finalists in the running for the award included Peter Beck – the chief executive of RocketLab, and Professor Jane Harding from Auckland University’s…
Yes, They Really Do Say “Sweet As”
“Sweet as what?” Boston Globe correspondent Ron Driscoll asks. “No matter. A New Zealander saying ‘Sweet as’ means it’s all good, or very good, or even cool. You have the correct change? ‘Sweet as.’ You’d…
Why Niki Caro Was Right Choice for Disney Remake
Mulan director New Zealand-born Niki Caro, 53, has a message for those who take issue with the fact that Disney’s latest live-action remake was not helmed by an Asian filmmaker, Christopher Rosen writes for…
Corbin Strong Cycles From Strength to Strength
Southlander Corbin Strong, 19, was laid up in a back brace two years ago, stitches holding together a gaping wound in his leg. He had been training on a back road when a car…
On the Road With Singer-Songwriter Tami Neilson
Born and raised in Canada and currently based out of New Zealand, Tami Neilson has been on the road for three decades. “From the age of 12, I was on tour all across North…
New Zealand 32th in Global Rankings for Children Surviving and Thriving
While New Zealand tops global rankings for natural beauty, an absence of corruption and business competitiveness, it ranked only 32th for “flourishing children” according to a just-published report from the WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commission, “A…
Bridget Elworthy – building a blooming business from an English manor house
New Zealander Bridget Elworthy is one half of the Land Gardeners, an enterprising duo who have built a blooming business in the heart of Oxfordshire. Bridget and her business partner Henrietta Coutauld spoke with…
Mexico E-Prix Won by Jaguar’s Dominant Mitch Evans
Taking a risk paid off for Aucklander Mitch Evans, 25, as the Jaguar driver secured victory in an action-packed Mexico E-Prix with a fearless overtake at the first corner, Aimee Lewis reports for CNN. Before…
From Smart Cities to Fintech, Jannat Maqbool CPA, Hamilton, advances many initiatives
“It’s not every day that you hear about an Australian woman of Punjabi descent with a CPA qualification who has scaled New Zealand’s burgeoning financial technology sector,” writes Adam Courtenay for INTHEBLACK, the…
Garage Project Amongst Top 100 Brewers in the World
Wellington brewery Garage Project has created history after being ranked 59th in the list of the world’s top 100 breweries by a popular American review site, Michael Donaldson writes for Stuff. In RateBeer’s 20th…
Jacinda Ardern Has the World’s Attention
History came fast at Jacinda Ardern. Just a few years ago, in 2017, having been a local Member of Parliament for a matter of months, she became a Hail Mary candidate for Prime Minister,…
Composer Annea Lockwood at Chicago Festival
Chicago’s Frequency Festival has become a crucial showcase for the movement of “new music”, according to Aaron Cohen reporting for Chicago Tribune. New Zealand-born and New York-based composer Annea Lockwood exemplifies the festival’s idiomatic…
Peter Hogg Quietly Shaped Canadian Law
Peter Hogg, a New Zealander who became Canada’s pre-eminent constitutional scholar, was sometimes called the 10th person on that country’s nine-member Supreme Court. Hogg died on 4 February, aged 80. The Globe and Mail’s…
