News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Antarctica Trip Motivates Lorde on All Levels

Antarctica Trip Motivates Lorde on All Levels

New Zealand-born singer Lorde, 24, has teased fans with more information about a new album while announcing her book, Going South, inspired by her 2019 trip to Antarctica. The Independent’s Isobel Lewis reports. The “Green Light” singer has…

Rebecca Thomas’ Polish Portraits Stand Out

Rebecca Thomas’ Polish Portraits Stand Out

“More Radical Empathy, a project by New Zealand-born photographer Rebecca Thomas, is a poignant and inspiring series of portraits of activists from the global queer community in London, bearing heartfelt slogans of resistance against…

Journalist’s Flock to Hamish McKenzie’s Substack

Journalist’s Flock to Hamish McKenzie’s Substack

“Between the collapse of newspapers, the misfortunes of digital media, and the economic wreckage of the coronavirus pandemic, writing for a living can feel like a cold, dreary, morale-sucking march to the unemployment office….

Haere Rā Midnight Oil Bassist Bones Hillman

Haere Rā Midnight Oil Bassist Bones Hillman

Midnight Oil’s bassist and backing vocalist, New Zealand-born Bones (Wayne) Hillman has died in Milwaukee in the US at the age of 62. His fellow band members said they were “grieving the loss of our…

Lewis Hamilton’s Physio Sidekick is Angela Cullen

Lewis Hamilton’s Physio Sidekick is Angela Cullen

Across a race weekend, New Zealand-born Switzerland-based physiotherapist Angela Cullen is a near-constant presence at the side of her harge Lewis Hamilton – a fact which has even earned her cult status among some…

“Made with Care” showcases New Zealand’s food and beverage on world stage

“Made with Care” showcases New Zealand’s food and beverage on world stage

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) has launched a new campaign to promote New Zealand’s world-leading food and beverage overseas. The campaign comes at a time when borders are closed and as a result,…

New Zealand emerges as global leader and “beacon of light” in era of Covid-19

New Zealand emerges as global leader and “beacon of light” in era of Covid-19

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, New Zealand has emerged as a global leader. However there’s more to this leadership than New Zealand’s efforts in developing a world-renowned best-practice pandemic response, says London-based…

Nanaia Mahuta “blazes new trails” as foreign minister

Nanaia Mahuta “blazes new trails” as foreign minister

Nanaia Mahuta entered New Zealand’s Parliament as the youngest Maori woman to ever gain a seat. More than two decades later, she has become the country’s minister of foreign affairs, another trailblazing first. Ms…

Kākāpō Claims 2020 Bird of the Year Victory

Kākāpō Claims 2020 Bird of the Year Victory

The esteemed kākāpō has soared past its competition to claim victory in New Zealand’s Bird of the Year contest, a tense race marked by attempted voter interference during a divisive month of campaigning, Jennifer Hassan…

Rocket Lab Welcomes Electron Back to Earth

Rocket Lab Welcomes Electron Back to Earth

In a major milestone, the New Zealand-based launch company Rocket Lab has successfully recovered an orbital-class rocket after parachuting it back to Earth from near-space – only the second company in history ever to…

JK Rowling Picks Sophie Mills’ Ickabog Illustration

JK Rowling Picks Sophie Mills’ Ickabog Illustration

Southland Girls’ High School student Sophie Mills, 12, was one of four New Zealanders amongst 32 submissions worldwide to have an illustration included in JK Rowling’s latest book, The Ickabog. About 18,000 entries were…

Kai Ika Model for Reducing Hunger and Food Waste

Kai Ika Model for Reducing Hunger and Food Waste

Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae has been distributing two tons of fish a week – the parts often discarded in commercial and recreational fishing – to families affected by New Zealand’s sputtering economy. Sam Woolford, founder…

The Caker’s Rondel Sisters Take Baking Kits to US

The Caker’s Rondel Sisters Take Baking Kits to US

Boxed cake mixes don’t have the most glamorous reputation, and that’s precisely why Jordan and Anouk Rondel think The Caker stands out. The two sisters have expanded the baking business from their hometown of…

Gender Pay Equity an Experiment for an Entire Society

Gender Pay Equity an Experiment for an Entire Society

“New Zealand is pursuing a century-old idea to close the gender pay gap: not equal pay for equal work, but equal pay for work of equal value,” American journalist Anna Louie Sussman writes in…

Chatham Islands Hot Ticket for Travel-Starved

Chatham Islands Hot Ticket for Travel-Starved

“The coronavirus pandemic has decimated the travel industry,” Lilit Marcus writes for CNN, “But there’s one place on the planet where there are too many tourists right now: the Chatham Islands.” “As New Zealand’s borders…

Benee’s Debut Out Featuring UK Pop Royalty

Benee’s Debut Out Featuring UK Pop Royalty

Grimes and Lily Allen feature on Auckland pop sensation Benee’s debut album, Hey u x, and she’s just played one of the post-Covid era’s first arena shows. The twenty-year-old tells NME’s Caitlin O’Reilly about…

Auckland on World’s Best Covid-era Cities List

Auckland on World’s Best Covid-era Cities List

Auckland is among the top 100 cities in the world to live in or visit during the Covid-19 era, according to a new Resonance Consultancy global ranking. The annual best cities report ranked cities with…

Bill Gosden Lived and Breathed Film

Bill Gosden Lived and Breathed Film

Bill Gosden, who served as director of the New Zealand International Film Festival for nearly 40 years, has died in Wellington. He was 66. Mike Barnes looks back on Gosden’s illustrious career for The Hollywood…

Oamaru Rock Capital of the Universe

Oamaru Rock Capital of the Universe

“It’s the kind of town where the public toilets remain open after dusk without being vandalised, and where the grand width of the rather beautiful main street is a reminder of busier days. And…

Rocky Horror Creator Richard O’Brien Interviewed

Rocky Horror Creator Richard O’Brien Interviewed

New Zealand-raised Richard O’Brien, the creator of the cult Rocky Horror Picture Show is not going quietly into his 70s. O’Brien, who lives with his third wife, Sabrina, just outside of Katikati, talks with…

New Zealand Inc Reaps Benefit of Lockdown Response

New Zealand Inc Reaps Benefit of Lockdown Response

When Covid-19 struck New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern’s government quickly closed the nation’s borders and imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in a bid to eliminate the spread of the virus. Jamie Smyth, a…

Soul Machines’ AI Florence Helps Smokers Quit

Soul Machines’ AI Florence Helps Smokers Quit

With smokers at great risk of Covid-19 complications, Auckland-based Soul Machines, leaders in artificial general intelligence (AGI), and the World Health Organization (WHO) have developed Florence, an embodied AI who offers online counselling for…

Economist Writes on Our “Islands of Liberality”

Economist Writes on Our “Islands of Liberality”

“More notable than the appearance of Ardern’s cabinet is how voters answered one question on their ballot paper: should New Zealand legalise assisted dying for those with a terminal illness?” The Economist asks….

Braindead Reflects Mindset of Early 1990s Youth

Braindead Reflects Mindset of Early 1990s Youth

“The rebellious nature of the mid-to-late 20th-century teenager sought to expose , deviating from the social norms to embrace the very depths of ‘bad taste’. Simultaneously, whilst yet unknown, New-Zealand…

Celebrities Mad for Jessica McCormack’s Jewels

Celebrities Mad for Jessica McCormack’s Jewels

London-based New Zealand-born jewellery designer Jessica McCormack, loved by celebrities and royalty alike, has revealed she “still gets a buzz” when she sees one of her pieces on a famous customer, Monica Greep reports…

Xero’s Steve Vamos Leads Staff Through Pandemic

Xero’s Steve Vamos Leads Staff Through Pandemic

Head of Wellington-based accountancy software group Xero, Steve Vamos, 62, strives to create an environment where staff do ‘great work’. The tech veteran recently spoke to Financial Times correspondent Jonathan Moules over a video call about…

Sixth IndyCar Title for Racing Legend Scott Dixon

Sixth IndyCar Title for Racing Legend Scott Dixon

Each of Scott Dixon’s six NTT IndyCar Series championships have bent to unique arcs, Marshall Pruett reports for American motorsports magazine, Racer. With his latest, earned late October in a thriller on the streets…

Icebreaker Aims to Go Plastic-Free by 2023

Icebreaker Aims to Go Plastic-Free by 2023

Last year, Auckland-based outdoor brand Icebreaker sponsored French ultra-swimmer Ben Lecomte to swim across the Pacific from Hawaii to San Francisco through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. He swam 350 nautical miles over the…

We’re Remote Even Under Normal Circumstances

We’re Remote Even Under Normal Circumstances

What does it feels like to leave New York and “land in a parallel universe of calm politics and good health”? Journalist Natasha Frost arrived in New Zealand last month and investigated for the…

All Blacks Inflict Record Defeat on Wallabies

All Blacks Inflict Record Defeat on Wallabies

“New Zealand served up a Halloween nightmare for an inexperienced Wallabies side by romping to a record 43-5 victory in the Tri-Nations opener and claiming the Bledisloe Cup for an 18th successive year,”…

Whangarei’s Hundertwasser Art Centre Due to Open

Whangarei’s Hundertwasser Art Centre Due to Open

The last gift of Austrian-born artist, painter and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser to his adopted homeland, New Zealand, is being built in Whangarei, three decades after its inception, Malaysia’s The Star Online reports. The Covid-19 pandemic…

Racer Scott McLaughlin Switches Super for Indy

Racer Scott McLaughlin Switches Super for Indy

Team Penske has announced three-time defending Supercars champion, Hamilton-born Scott McLaughlin, 27, will drive Indy cars full-time starting in 2021, Nathan Brown reports for The Indianapolis Star. Roughly 18 months ago, team owner Roger Penske and…

Portland’s Twist on Classic NZ Dessert

Portland’s Twist on Classic NZ Dessert

What happens when it rains? A question especially pertinent for warm-weather businesses, like ice cream shops, many of which say they see a big drop in business during rainy weather, Katherine Chew Hamilton writes…

Comedian Rose Matafeo Shines Bright in Baby Done

Comedian Rose Matafeo Shines Bright in Baby Done

Directed by Curtis Vowell and produced by Taika Waititi, award-winning comic Rose Matafeo “is wonderful in irresistible film about parenthood”, Guardian Australia critic Luke Buckmaster writes in a review of New Zealand comedy/drama, Baby…

Blackpink Light up the Sky on Netflix

Blackpink Light up the Sky on Netflix

Whether you’re just a casual fan or a full time “blink”, everyone can take delight in the fact that South Korean pop sensation Blackpink – an all-girl group, including New Zealand-born Rosé (pictured back,…

New Zealand’s Political Debates Show What Changes When Two Women Lead

New Zealand’s Political Debates Show What Changes When Two Women Lead

“New Zealand’s recent election, which ended up with an electoral landslide for the incumbent Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, says something about women in leadership roles. With the leaders of New Zealand’s two biggest parties…

Billion-Dollar Start-Up Allbirds Launches Apparel

Billion-Dollar Start-Up Allbirds Launches Apparel

Allbirds, the San Francisco brand whose wildly popular £95 wool trainers and low-carbon ethos earned it a valuation of $1.7bn from investors earlier this month, is about to find out. The five-year-old company, co-founded…

Academics Affirm Influence of Katherine Mansfield

Academics Affirm Influence of Katherine Mansfield

Two UK academics from Edge Hill University in Lancashire have taken over editorship of the respected Tinakori: Katherine Mansfield Society Critical Journal, and are hoping to draw further attention to Mansfield’s often overlooked importance…

John Reid a Cricket Player of Uncontested Standing

John Reid a Cricket Player of Uncontested Standing

“ John Reid, who has died aged 92, was in large part responsible for establishing New Zealand as a respected force in world cricket. A superb all-rounder who was the captain and mainstay of…

Berlin Museum Returns Toi Moko to New Zealand

Berlin Museum Returns Toi Moko to New Zealand

With a ceremony and prayers, Berlin’s ethnological museum has marked the official repatriation of two Toi Moko, or tattooed Māori heads, to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, Deutsche Welle…

Morrinsville’s World Famous Takeaway Worker

Morrinsville’s World Famous Takeaway Worker

It’s Friday night in the small town of Morrinsville and a handful of locals are waiting at the Golden Kiwi on the main street for a greasy parcel of fish and chips, Julia Hollingsworth…

Steve Martin Awards Catherine Browness Banjo Prize

Steve Martin Awards Catherine Browness Banjo Prize

Marton-born banjo player Catherine “BB” Browness is one of five recipients of the 2020 Steve Martin Banjo Prize. Browness, who plays with the bluegrass band Mile Twelve, shared in the US$50,000 prize, which…

King of Soul Max Merritt Will Be Greatly Missed

King of Soul Max Merritt Will Be Greatly Missed

Christchurch-born Max Merritt, the ARIA Hall of Fame inductee best known for his soulful songs “Slippin’ Away” and “Hey, Western Union Man”, has died in Los Angeles. He was 79. Merritt made his mark when…

Georgia Fowler Modelling From the Couch

Georgia Fowler Modelling From the Couch

Vogue magazine recently caught up with four Fashion Week regulars, including New Zealand model Georgia Fowler, 28, to see how they handled the shift from real-world runway to virtual. Fowler has been doing fashion week…

Global Media Outlets React to Jacinda Ardern’s Win

Global Media Outlets React to Jacinda Ardern’s Win

Jacinda Ardern will serve a second term as New Zealand prime minister following Labour’s landslide victory in an election on 17 October, which delivered a major shift towards progressive parties, Jamie Smith reports for…

Climate Change Graphics Made Simple by John Lang

Climate Change Graphics Made Simple by John Lang

New Zealander John Lang has just finished an unenviable task: taking a jargon-packed, number-heavy report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and turning it into a graphic the average person might read,…

At Home With Teen Producer Jawsh 685

At Home With Teen Producer Jawsh 685

Created by American Jason Derulo using Aucklander Joshua Stylah’s instrumental “Laxed (Siren Beat)”, the track “Savage Love” has topped the charts in the UK, New Zealand and Australia, surpassed 1.1 billion streams and was…

Security Company Gallagher to Expand in UK and EU

Security Company Gallagher to Expand in UK and EU

Work is underway on the construction of a European HQ for New Zealand-based security giant Gallagher, Rachel Covill reports for UK media site, The Business Desk. Gallagher, a leading manufacturer in security and agricultural…

“Indigenous knowledge central to Aotearoa”: artist Shannon Te Ao discusses new video work in Canada

“Indigenous knowledge central to Aotearoa”: artist Shannon Te Ao discusses new video work in Canada

Despite experiencing setbacks caused by COVID-19, Wellington-based artist Shannon Te Ao is having a busy year, presenting new video work in two Canadian locations during 2020, and marking his first solo museum exhibitions in…

Allbirds Bets on Physical Stores Despite Pandemic

Allbirds Bets on Physical Stores Despite Pandemic

Allbirds, the wool shoe brand that closed a $100m fundraising round this week, is backing bricks-and-mortar stores in spite of the pandemic, according to Financial Times journalist Jonathan Moules. Moules writes that the new…

Len Lye Inspires Belgian Designer Dries Van Noten

Len Lye Inspires Belgian Designer Dries Van Noten

Antwerp designer Dries Van Noten’s Spring/Summer 2021 collection was partly inspired by New Zealand-born filmmaker and artist, Len Lye. Van Noten was struck by the inventiveness of Lye’s oeuvre, UK-based AnOther editor-in-chief Susannah Frankel…

UFC Superstar Israel Adesanya Makes It Look Easy

UFC Superstar Israel Adesanya Makes It Look Easy

UFC 4 video game cover star Nigerian-New Zealander Israel Adesanya, 31, tweets “what EA curse?” after emphatic victory over Paulo Costa on Fight Island, Andrew Whitelaw writes in his South China Morning Post column,…

Dose & Co. Get the Kardashian Approval

Dose & Co. Get the Kardashian Approval

Good American founder Khloé Kardashian has invested in Dose & Co., a New Zealand-based company that sells a variety of collagen products throughout New Zealand and Australia. Kardashian is joining the company as a…

New Zealand Passport Takes Top Spot

New Zealand Passport Takes Top Spot

The Passport Index has named a new most powerful passport in the world, and it’s none other than: New Zealand. Stacey Leasca reports on how our passport allows travel to more countries than…

Supercar Driver Scott McLaughlin Makes History

Supercar Driver Scott McLaughlin Makes History

Christchurch-born Scott McLaughlin, 27, from the Shell V-Power Racing Team has put himself in rare company in the pantheon of Australian touring car racing by taking out the Supercar drivers championship for the third…

Attica’s Ben Shewry Flexes Other Creative Muscles

Attica’s Ben Shewry Flexes Other Creative Muscles

In Melbourne, coronavirus brought with it a challenge the scope and severity of which local restaurateurs have never seen before. With eateries collapsing around him, New Zealand chef and restaurateur Ben Shewry was forced…