Education | Gulf News
18 May 2003
Arab students are increasingly choosing NZ as an education destination, according to a Gulf News report. Education Minister Trevor Mallard cited the schooling system’s pioneering nature and relative affordability, as well as the country’s reputation as a…
Sport General | Age (The)
18 May 2003
NZ athletes made a strong showing at the track World Cup held in Sydney last month – boding well for the coming world championships. Cycling star Sarah Ulmer won the women’s 3,000m individual pursuit, and the men’s…
Politics and Economics | Newsday.com
16 May 2003
“Just how a conservative and largely white electorate came to support an outspoken transgendered woman – of Maori (that is, indigenous non-white) descent, no less – is the story behind the remarkably engaging documentary Georgie Girl.” Annie…
Watersports | New Zealand Herald | Star (The)
16 May 2003
The government has committed $2.5 million to the construction of a memorial museum in the late Sir Peter Blake’s honour on the Auckland waterfront. Sports Minister Trevor Mallard: “The exhibition will ensure a…
Wine | Hoovers
16 May 2003
NZ brand, Blumenfeld, was judged Best International Olive Oil at the LA County Fair Wines of the World Competition – the longest-running, largest and most respected event of its kind in the US. Blumenfeld NZ Classic Blends…
Writers | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
16 May 2003
The latest offering from award-winning British author, Rose Tremain, finds its inspiration in mid-19th century NZ and thwarted edge expectations: “We will not cling to familiar ways. We will imagine ourselves reborn over there….
Rugby | Age (The)
16 May 2003
A signed photograph of the 1905-6 All Black “Originals” has been sold at auction for $41,000. The photo had been kept in Aucklander David Wright’s family since 1906, when it was presented to his grandfather Charles Victor…
Science/Tech | New Scientist
15 May 2003
New Scientist profiles the work of Canterbury University psychologist Bruce Ellis, who has recently published a study on the effects of absentee fathers on teenage girls. Ellis has monitored 700 girls from pre-school to high-school, in an…
Science/Tech | Nature | Wired
14 May 2003
NZer David J. Stevenson – a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology – has a project up his sleeve straight out of science fiction, but grounded in the search for science fact. Stevenson’s proposal – outlined…
Film & TV | Yahoo! News
14 May 2003
As the voice of Star Wars: Episode II character Tuan We, NZ actress Rena Owen has added a strange new dimension to her working life. Now based in LA, the Once Were Warriors star…
Sport General | Australian (The)
13 May 2003
NZ’s oldest Olympic athlete, javelin thrower Stan Lay, has died aged 96. Lay finished in seventh place at the 1924 Athens Olympics, and two years later won gold at the Empire Games in Canada. He was…
Writers | Times of India
13 May 2003
Young urban women in NZ and Australia are the target market for a recently re-vamped Mills & Boon series. Publisher Harlequin hopes to snare Sex & The City fans rather than those of…
General | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
12 May 2003
Kiwis are coming home to roost according to latest Australian immigration statistics that reveal a dramatic brain-drain reversal: NZers are returning home from Australia at a greater rate than they are arriving. The SMH…
Theatre | Cincinnati Post
12 May 2003
NZer Malcolm Burn was the guest choreographer for Ballet Tech Ohio’s production of Frederic Franklin’s Coppelia. Currently associate artistic director of the Richmond Ballet, Burns’ 25-year career includes stints as a principal dancer for…
Writers | Guardian (The)
12 May 2003
Keri Hulme’s the bone people featured in a Guardian poll of the Top 50 novels by women writers. The NZ Booker Prize winner sits alongside Alice Walker’s The Color Purple in the list of…
Writers
11 May 2003
CBC critic, Eleanor Watchel, travelled through NZ to interview some of NZ’s literary animals in their natural habitats. The Writers & Company radio special celebrated a literary landscape that included authors Patricia Grace, Bill…
Theatre | Victoria Times
9 May 2003
NZ ballet export Bebe Eversfield profiled in the Victoria Times. Now 78, Eversfield won a government scholarship to study at London’s prestigious Sadler’s Wells Company (now the Royal Ballet) and made her Albert Hall…
Film & TV | Age (The)
8 May 2003
Whale Rider director Niki Caro speaks to The Age about the intricate cultural process involved in a “white woman” making a Maori film. Despite early resistance to her involvement, and her subsequent self-doubt, Caro…
Visual Arts | The Edmonton Journal
8 May 2003
Works by Wellington based artist Pippa Sanderson are currently on show at Edmonton’s Harcourt House Gallery. Her exhibition, The (Un)heimlich Manoeuvre, references Victorian Spiritualism, haunted houses, and Gothic cinematic aesthetics. Shot on film well…
Film & TV | Hoovers
8 May 2003
Actor Tom Cruise has bid farewell to Taranaki, the place he called home for the past 4 months. The Hollywood A-lister was on location filming The Last Samurai; an epic-scale production which has proved…
Nature | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
7 May 2003
Native rats (kiore) on Little Barrier Island were saved from a scheduled DOC extermination by local tribe Ngatiwai, who claimed them as taonga. The rats, now almost extinct on mainland NZ, pose a threat to tuatara…
Fashion | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
7 May 2003
Touted as “the black sheep of the fashion flock,” designer Kate Sylvester impressed at Sydney Fashion Week without sacrificing her individual edge. SMH: “Citing New York-based installation artist Vanessa Beecroft as an inspiration, Sylvester…
Film & TV | Age (The) | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
7 May 2003
Whale Rider‘s Australian release has unleashed a second wave of glowing tributes. The Age: ” sharply observed, warm portrayal of a community … of an indigenous people moving between certainties and uncertainties.” Sydney…
Fashion | Canberra Times (The)
6 May 2003
Kiwi designers are ahead of the pack in prefiguring the global “mood of softness and warmth” hitting catwalks around the globe. According to the Canberra Times, the “feast of beautiful, well-crafted and intellectual winter…
Writers | Age (The)
6 May 2003
Former NZ university lecturer and academic, Jody Hanson, interviewed in The Age on her newfound role as a dominatrix and writer in Melbourne. Known on the dungeon circuit as Mistress J, Hanson conducts seminars,…
Te Ao Maori | Star Bulletin
6 May 2003
Ta moko features in a Pacific Islanders in Communications documentary for PBS currently screening around the world. Skin Stories explores the art of tattooing, and its cultural significance, in Samoan, Hawaiian and Maori tradition.
General | Belfast Telegraph
5 May 2003
Ex-pat Kiwi Richard Stevens likes to do more than his bit for charity. The Belfast resident hopes to raise £2,000 for the Save the Rhinos fund by running both the Belfast and London marathons…
Sport General | Age (The)
4 May 2003
NZ trainer Katrina Alexander shocked bookmakers and delighted racing fans when her “lightly raced” mare Honor Babe won the $800,000 Sydney Cup. The Matamata-based mother of two – who describes herself as “falling into racing by accident”…
Wine | Scotsman (The)
3 May 2003
Winemaker Kim Crawford’s “Pansy” has been released in the UK following its overwhelming success on the NZ gay market. The cabernet blend was commissioned by the owner of Auckland gay bar, SPQR, who had witnessed the popularity…
Politics and Economics | Guardian (The)
3 May 2003
Drawing on NZ’s historical role in the setting up of the UN charter and as an advocate of multilateralism, Helen Clark (described as “one of Tony Blair’s closest foreign political allies”) told the Guardian that the…
Science/Tech | Guardian (The)
3 May 2003
New Zealander Tim Radford (the “doyen” of UK science editors) is the Guardian‘s science editor and recently introduced their new weekly science supplement, Life. Radford has been the paper’s general science editor since 1988, as well as…
Theatre | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
2 May 2003
Kiwi comedian Tarun Mohanbhai has taken his acclaimed one-man show – D’Arranged Marriage – across the Tasman, with high-profile stints at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Sydney Opera House. Mohanbhai made his name…
Film & TV | New York Times (The)
2 May 2003
NYTimes’ critic Elvis Mitchell praises Niki Caro’s Whale Rider as having the “inspired resonance of found art wickedly absorbing”, and the quiet charisma of actress Keisha Castle-Hughes.The film along with fellow NZ…
Film & TV | Age (The)
2 May 2003
Countless international critics have praised the universal themes explored in Niki Caro’s Whale Rider; what a reviewer for the Age finds most impressive is its quintessential Kiwi-ness. “Whale Rider sounds like it could be…
Sport General | Australian (The)
2 May 2003
The Auckland-based team set to compete in Australia’s National Basketball League has been christened the New Zealand Breakers, after consultations with players and public. According to Tall Blacks star Pero Cameron – who has been lured…
Visual Arts | ArtForum
1 May 2003
Artist Peter Robinson, exhibiting in Berlin, described in ArtForum as ” the profile of the artist as a global player … a migrateur in the emphatic sense.” Aware of his edge exoticism but fused…
Wine | Hoovers
1 May 2003
Christchurch brewer Dux de Lux was awarded the grand champion trophy at this year’s Australian international beer awards. The brand’s Nor’wester Pale Ale was judged best brew out of a record field of 590 beers from 22…
Music | Philippine Star
1 May 2003
NZ born popster Daniel Bedingfield profiled in the Philippine Star. “You know how an artist will go to great lengths to maintain his style and keep some elements of his first hit in all…
Taste | Coast Magazine
1 May 2003
Turner NZ restaurant – serving up an all-Kiwi array of food and wine – stands out in the sea of Italian, Asian and American cuisines on offer in Southern California. Says an enthusiastic reviewer…
Fashion | Model Watch
1 May 2003
Following Hunter and Bax Henry Hargreaves is the latest Kiwi clothes hanger to attract the lens’ attention on the international fashion circuit. The New York based model has campaigns for Lacoste, Prada, Kenzo and…
Politics and Economics | Foreign Policy
1 May 2003
New Zealand ranks near the top in an international index ‘Ranking the Rich’, published by Foreign Policy and the Centre for Global Development, gauging how rich nations help out poorer nations. NZ toppped the list with The…
Politics and Economics | Foreign Affairs
1 May 2003
Mike Moore’s A World Without Walls hailed as a fascinating, candid and paradoxical account of ideals versus bureaucracies in Foreign Affairs magazine. “When all is said and done, believes democratically elected governments and markets will respond…
Music | Ferrier Awards
30 April 2003
Victoria University graduate Wendy Dawn Thompson has won the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Competition for singing, earning nearly $30,000, a website and a recital at London’s Wigmore Hall. She is currently studying at the Royal…
Obituaries | Age (The)
30 April 2003
Rally champion Peter “Possum” Bourne, who died April 30th (aged 47), has been praised as “a humble man with rare ability, a relentless competitor who inspired a new generation of drivers.” “The most successful rally driver in…
Fashion | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
29 April 2003
Pavement regular, fashion and portrait photographer Derek Henderson, is showing at Sydney’s 2010 gallery. The images in the collection, entitled with sweet melancholy, I Don’t Feel Alone, are described as, “contemporary landscapes and cultural…
Music | Boston Globe | Houston Chronicle | Indy Star
29 April 2003
The Datsuns continue their successful courtship of the US music scene, earning rave reviews across the country. Boston Globe: “It’s a high-energy assault with mammoth guitar riffs, strutting bass and raw vocals that cartwheel…
Film & TV | Guardian (The)
29 April 2003
The Guardian art critic admits defeat in his attempts to explain Boyd Webb’s short film – Horse and Dog – currently on show at London’s Estorick Collection. Adrian Searle: “Immune to Webb’s enigmas and…
Film & TV | Scotsman (The)
29 April 2003
NZer Simon Jansen profiled as online icon of the week in The Scotsman‘s “lazy guide to net culture.” Jansen is a master of asciimation; making moving pictures out of letters, numerals and punctuation marks….
Te Ao Maori | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
28 April 2003
In an interview with SMH, Whale Rider star Rawiri Paratene discusses patriarchy – both within and outside of Maoridom – and the universal appeal behind the heart and award-winning film. “I think Maori stories well told can…
New Zealand | Times of India
27 April 2003
Times of India lists NZ as its readers’ third most popular summer holiday destination. “The ice age carved the exquisite fretwork of Fiordland and the Marlborough Sounds, huge tectonic forces pushed up the Southern Alps and volcanism…
New Zealand | Lonely Planet | Observer (The)
27 April 2003
Lonely Planet experts offer Brits-in-need a two week itinerary of NZ. Reader response: “A two week(!) trip to NZ? We’re UK bird-watchers who have just spent three months there. It’s far too short a time…”
General | Guardian (The) | Observer (The)
27 April 2003
Observer offers a how-to guide to buying property in NZ in its assessment of the global property market’s latest hot spot. According to their sources, “screen gods and goddesses are buying up idyllic island…
Film & TV | New York Daily News
27 April 2003
Anna Paquin featured in New York Daily News, one of numerous high-profile interviews given during her hectic promotional tour for X-Men 2. Currently finishing an English major at Columbia between films, Paquin’s next plan…
Fashion | MTV
26 April 2003
Work by leading NZ fashion designer Karen Walker is currently on show at Seattle’s Bellevue Art Museum. Walker is featured alongside fellow rule-breakers John Galliano, Issey Miyake and Alexander McQueen in Fashion: The Greatest…
Cricket | Star (The)
26 April 2003
A testament to leading by example, Black Caps captain Stephen Fleming hit a career-best 274 not out in the first Test against Sri Lanka. Fleming’s total is the second highest test score ever made by a…
Film & TV | National Geographic | Straits Times
26 April 2003
Peter Hillary interviewed about his own Everest experience and his part in the filming of National Geographic‘s documentary, Surviving Everest. “Our challenge was not just to climb, but to make the film about the…