News of New Zealanders via Global Media

People together: NZ re-imagined

People together: NZ re-imagined

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…

Ballet Bebe

Ballet Bebe

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…

Tom cruises off

Tom cruises off

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…

Capturing the uncanny

Capturing the uncanny

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…

The art of myth-making

The art of myth-making

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…

Whale Raves: Part 2

Whale Raves: Part 2

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…

Rats Have Rights Too

Rats Have Rights Too

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…

Sylvester a “Singular Sensation”

Sylvester a “Singular Sensation”

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…

Educational Skin Flick

Educational Skin Flick

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.

“Sex is cheap, but domination isn’t”

“Sex is cheap, but domination isn’t”

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,…

Attack of the Warm Fuzzies

Attack of the Warm Fuzzies

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…

Sweating in the Name of

Sweating in the Name of

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…

Big Win for Dark Horse

Big Win for Dark Horse

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”…

Third Culture Kiwi Guides Lodestar

Third Culture Kiwi Guides Lodestar

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…

NZ Firm on Pacific Principles

NZ Firm on Pacific Principles

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…

For Him

For Him

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…

Whale riding on east (and west) coast

Whale riding on east (and west) coast

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…

Celebrating Kiwi-ness

Celebrating Kiwi-ness

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…

D’Acclaimed funny-man

D’Acclaimed funny-man

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…

Breaking Waves

Breaking Waves

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…

Peter Robinson: “Migrateur”

Peter Robinson: “Migrateur”

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…

Tastefully turning heads

Tastefully turning heads

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…

Kiwi Homme

Kiwi Homme

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…

Variation the key to “Briwi’s” success

Variation the key to “Briwi’s” success

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…

Deluxe Drop

Deluxe Drop

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…

Little Brother

Little Brother

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…

Frankly Fascinating

Frankly Fascinating

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…

Possum Bourne Mourned

Possum Bourne Mourned

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…

Singing London

Singing London

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…

Boyd baffles in London

Boyd baffles in London

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…

FAQ: “Why (oh God, why)?”

FAQ: “Why (oh God, why)?”

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….

Rock’n’roll Road Trip

Rock’n’roll Road Trip

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…

Street Eyes

Street Eyes

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…

Te Maori ki Te Ao – Paratene on Patriarchy

Te Maori ki Te Ao – Paratene on Patriarchy

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…

Pavlova Paradise?

Pavlova Paradise?

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…

Whistle-stop NZ

Whistle-stop NZ

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…”

X-factor

X-factor

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…

Life on the (Geological) Edge

Life on the (Geological) Edge

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…

Two-ton Fleming Squashes Records

Two-ton Fleming Squashes Records

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…

Karen at the Cutting-edge

Karen at the Cutting-edge

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…

In His Father’s Image, The Shadow of a Mountain

In His Father’s Image, The Shadow of a Mountain

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…

Battle of the Bulge

Battle of the Bulge

Auckland University is at the forefront of new medical research linking malnutrition at the time of conception to instances of premature birth. Pediatrician Dr. Frank Bloomfield has conducted a study using sheep which ” suggest that…

Zambesi Deals in Dark Delights

Zambesi Deals in Dark Delights

NZ fashion house Zambesi lived up to its reputation for thoughtful sewing of the seams with an inspiring show at Sydney Fashion Week, netting a lucrative distribution deal with Canada’s largest department store chain…

A winter’s ale: Montieths

A winter’s ale: Montieths

“This dark, brooding, Kiwi ale with its deep nutty, malty flavours is the perfect thing – served just chilled, of course, rather than cold – for old fashioned roast…

Ed MTV: Frontrunning Len Lye Revisited

Ed MTV: Frontrunning Len Lye Revisited

Aussie indie music treasure, ex-punk and co-founder of the Saints, Ed Kuepper, has written music for six short films made by legendary NZ conceptual artist Len Lye over 50 years ago. Lye was setting…

The D4: Up Close and Personal

The D4: Up Close and Personal

They say the essence of rock and roll is live performance. It’s a mantra for kiwi rockers D4, who are currently touring the US. Boston Daily Globe: “A knockout band from New Zealand, much…

Nearest Neighbours Worlds Apart?

Nearest Neighbours Worlds Apart?

Gerard Henderson makes a pre-ANZAC Day assessment of current Aussie-Kiwi relations. “The Australia-NZ commercial relationship has never been healthier … However, the trans-Tasman economic co-operation has been accompanied by an increasing disagreement on security issues. The NZ…

The Quiet Life

The Quiet Life

Observer recommends Paua Cottage in Russell to Britons seeking a seaside escape. “Wake up in wondrous solitude to the sun rising from the Pacific Ocean at Paua Cottage … At the foot of a cliff sits…

Samurais & Surfers: The World Comes to Taranaki

Samurais & Surfers: The World Comes to Taranaki

The inaugural Foster’s World Masters Surf Titles were held in Taranaki over Easter weekend, attracting over 450 local and international competitors. The International Surfing Association-sanctioned event was open to any rider over 35. Says organiser Wayne Arthur; “What’s…

Byow! Cartoonist With Cut Through Remembered

Byow! Cartoonist With Cut Through Remembered

John Kent, well-known political cartoonist, lecturer and illustrator, died on April 13 aged 65. Born in Oamaru, Kent’s work was a familiar feature in Private Eye,  Guardian, Daily Mail, The Sun and, finally, The…

Conchords Take Flight in Melbourne

Conchords Take Flight in Melbourne

Kiwi act Flight of the Conchords was voted Best Newcomer at the 17th Annual Melbourne International Comedy Festival, following on from similar accolades at Edinburgh last year. The two-man performance – made up of…

“The Nick Cave of New Zealand literature”

“The Nick Cave of New Zealand literature”

Chad Taylor’s growing international reputation continues to buzz, this time in The Australian. In Electric drug-addled number crunchers negotiate the power cuts of Auckland’s sweltering summer of 1998, “This is a rare and…

Evolutionary Edge

Evolutionary Edge

Soil-analysis undertaken in a NZ cave has uncovered a rich and previously unknown evolutionary heritage. A team of scientists have found DNA traces of an extinct animal and from plants alive 3,000 years before the first human…

Lest We Forget in Troubled Times

Lest We Forget in Troubled Times

Due to the current world climate, ANZAC services in Australian and NZ this year carried particular emotional resonance CNN remembers an event “marked by both countries as a tragic turning point in their national development.” The Age: “In…

Free GE or GE-free?

Free GE or GE-free?

The GE debate steps up a notch as the government prepares to lift its current moratorium on modified organisms. A commissioned financial projection of the pros and cons of going GE (by Business and Economic Research Ltd)…

Napier Goes Ga-ga for Gingko

Napier Goes Ga-ga for Gingko

Ron Massey, of Napier Council, thinks the city’s onto an export winner after its successful growing of high-grade gingko trees. The Chinese herb is currently the trendiest pill to pop, supposedly offering dramatically increased energy and cognitive…