Anne Young Improving the Welfare of Horses
It’s 6pm on a freezing winter’s night, the wind is howling and the rain beating down. In the darkness, New Zealander Anne Young, the president and founder of Victoria’s Horse Shepherd Equine Sanctuary,…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Pioneer Croatian Settlers in New Zealand
Historian and author Kaye Dragicevich has been extensively researching the Far North of New Zealand, the area where a large number of pioneering families came from Croatia in search of a better life over…
Moe mai rā Nancy Brunning
One of New Zealand’s best loved actresses Nancy Brunning, made famous as Nurse Jaki on Shortland Street, has died in Wellington, aged 48, Daily Mail Australia reports. Brunning, a talented playwright, acting coach and director,…
New Zealand’s Bird of the Year is the Hoiho
The endangered hoiho (yellow-eyed penguin) won New Zealand’s coveted Bird of the Year competition after two weeks of intense campaigning, the BBC reports. The hoiho saw off many avian rivals to become the first…
New Zealand Passes Zero Carbon Law
New Zealand has passed a law to reduce its emissions in a bid to become mostly carbon neutral by 2050, Britain’s Independent newspaper reports. The zero-carbon bill aims to tackle climate change by setting a…
Artist Scott Conrad Kelly Gets Some Rich Insights
London-based artist Scott Conrad Kelly, 29, first started documenting the kind of scribbles people left on the walls of public bathrooms in London in 2016, Raj Aditya Chaudhuri writes for Condé Nast Traveller. “I like…
Happy Sad Grant Trebilco Opens Up in New Film
New Zealand-born Grant Trebilco, who lives in Bondi, is one of the five subjects of Melbourne director Genevieve Bailey’s feature film Happy Sad Man, which investigates how men, who represent 75 per cent of…
Activist Richard McLachlan Talks Tough on Climate
Since June, activist New Zealander Richard McLachlan, 68, regularly gives talks on the New York subway, warning riders “we are sleepwalking into a catastrophe”. McLachlan is a member of Extinction Rebellion, an environmental action…
New Zealand the Small Country that Keeps on Top
For a country with a population under five million, its prowess on the sporting stage has always appeared to be disproportionate, James Master writes for CNN. Olympic champions in rowing, sailing, canoeing, home of…
New Zealander Subject of UK Mental Health Exhibit
The Museum of Lost and Found Potential launches in London this week, marking World Mental Health Day with an exhibition that hopes to encourage empathy, action and even anger by showing what mental illness…
Chit-Chat Flows Easily in NZ but Does It in Europe?
“In New Zealand, small talk flows so easily, a ceaseless background banter you become inured to and engage in unthinkingly. And it often goes so much deeper than exchanging shallow pleasantries,” Guardian journalist Eleanor…
Barbara Wheeler, The First New Zealander to Become a Longwood Gardens Fellow
Dunedin horticulturist Barbara Wheeler is the first New Zealander to receive a fellowship from Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, one of the premier horticultural gardens in the United States. The 13-month residency aims…
Anniversary of Cook’s Arrival Marked with Debate
The British government have expressed “regret” that explorers killed some of the first Māori they met 250 years ago but stopped short of issuing a full apology. British High Commissioner Laura Clarke met Māori tribal…
Tributes Flow for Randwick Legend Jeff Sayle
Former Wallabies flanker and “Randwick legend”, New Zealand-born Jeff Sayle has died in Sydney aged 77. The Sydney Morning Herald reports. Sayle was an icon of Sydney’s eastern beaches, a beloved member of Coogee Surf…
Why Ihumātao Truly is a Piece of New Zealand’s Soul
“In a city that has destroyed or forgotten most of its past, fragments of Auckland’s deep histories still survive at Ihumātao,” history curator at the Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira Lucy Mackintosh…
Helen Clark Lays Out Her Reasons for Legalising It
In an opinion piece for the UK’s Guardian newspaper, former prime minister and member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy Helen Clark explains why a ‘yes’ in next year’s referendum is a vote…
Tourists Banned from Swimming with Dolphins
Tourists have been banned from swimming with bottlenose dolphins in New Zealand in a bid to protect them from “being loved into extinction”. Chiaro Giordano reports for UK newspaper, The Independent. The population of bottlenose…
Auckland Teen Snapped Up By Stanford University
One of New Zealand’s smartest teenagers is headed to the prestigious US university Stanford, in California. After Yang Fan Yun, 18, won the Prime Minister’s Award for the person who gets the highest marks…
Are Weka Slacking Off in Seed Dispersal?
Humans can be a terrible influence on birds. Crows that live near us end up with high cholesterol, sparrows screech to be heard over oil pumps, and instead of migrating, some storks now just…
Vanishing Act of New Zealand’s Toheroa
People talk about toheroa like they’re a dream, because these days, they are, Naomi Arnold writes for travel site, Atlas Obscura. The big, delicious surf clams were once plentiful on New Zealand shorelines, before…
Haere Ra Petera. Open Letter to Mr Craig Little, Mayor of Wairoa, and his Hawke’s Bay fellows.
Dear Matua Craig, Late last evening I stood at the hospital bedside of my young Hawke’s Bay Black Power brother Petera Smith. He was in a coma and on life support. I whispered my nickname…
Clues for Brexit Future May Be Found Here
There may be insights for the UK on leaving the European Union without a deal from a long time ago on the other side of the world, Bloomberg economic writer Eddie Spence says. Britain would…
Young Māori Women Stand up for Their Land
Five years ago, law graduate Pania Newton and her cousins got together around a kitchen table and agreed to do everything in their power to prevent a housing development at Ihumātao, the south Auckland…
Human-Sized Penguin Lived in New Zealand
The BBC reports on the findings of the remains of a giant penguin the size of a human that were discovered in Waipara, North Canterbury by amateur palaeontologist Leigh Love in 2018. The fossilised leg…
Study Provides Alarming Biodiversity Figures
“When humans arrived in New Zealand some 700 years ago, they discovered a plethora of unusual birds that could be found nowhere else in the world, having evolved in isolation on the island ……
Fossils of Largest Ever Parrot Found in Otago
The fossils of an enormous parrot, estimated to have weighed about 7kg, have been found near Saint Bathans in Central Otago. The Guardian reports on the discovery. Palaeontologists have named the new species Heracles inexpectatus…
Herbs And Freedom Songs For The New Revolution
I’ve just returned from a full-on weekend in Auckland. I originally come from Timaru. My father used to say, on learning that I’d been in that city, “Did you call in on your aunt…
All Black Brian Lochore One of Our Greatest Players
Former New Zealand captain and World Cup-winning coach Sir Brian Lochore has died aged 78, the BBC reports. An All Blacks player between 1964 and 1971, he made 68 appearances and captained his country on…
England’s Ben Stokes Nominated for NZer of the Year
Christchurch-born Ben Stokes, 28, is already receiving award nominations for his match-winning role in England’s Cricket World Cup win – but not from who you would expect, BBC Sport reports. Despite breaking New Zealand’s heart…
Little Blue Penguins Stake Out Local Sushi Joint
When the police call saying there’s been an arrest at your business, it’s usually cause for concern, CNN correspondent Isabela Espadas Barros Leal writes. The owners of the Sushi Bi restaurant in Wellington, however,…
Calcutta Celebrates Hillary@100: “Tales Of Man On Mission”
A celebration of the life and work of Sir Edmund Hillary in Calcutta on Saturday “remembered him with stories and anecdotes of not only as the mountaineer who became the first to climb Mount…
New Zealanders Turn over Their Guns
The first of more than 250 planned gun collections across New Zealand has been held in Christchurch. The buyback scheme was introduced after March mosque attacks in which 51 Muslim worshippers were killed, Deutsche…
New Zealand Ramps up Plans to Purge All Pests
There are strains on New Zealand’s environment. In this corner of the South Pacific, waterways are increasingly polluted and, from the suburbs to the alpine peaks, an untold army of feral pests is running…
Stephen Hall Celebrates Manglish with New Book
New Zealand-born linguist Dr Stephen Hall and his English language specialist wife Dr Lee Su Kim have teamed up to record a very unique number of colloquialisms in their latest book Manglish: Malaysian English…
Treat Auckland Gun Violence as Contagion, Phil.
Mayor Phil Goff is correct that the dislocation of expelled, Australian-raised, criminally minded, New Zealanders, back to Aotearoa has acted as a violent force majeure on already marginalized communities of the poor, particularly in…
Fighting the Darkest Corners of the Web
New Zealand has worked hard to keep the name of the man charged with killing 51 Muslims in Christchurch, out of the news, and to restrict the spread online of the hateful ideology he…
Emma Rigby First New Zealander to Win UK Award
Rotorua woman Emma Rigby, 41, has become the first ever New Zealander to receive the British Citizens Award, which she was presented with at the Palace of Westminster in London last week, Stuff reports. The award…
New Zealand Gave a Home and Hope to Abbas Nazari
Abbas Nazari was stranded on a ship in the Indian Ocean when he first heard the words “New Zealand”, Dunedin-based journalist Eleanor Ainge Roy writes for UK newspaper, The Guardian. Then aged seven, Nazari’s mother,…
“The Maori Model” Hailed As Investment Blueprint For Reconciliation
Bloomberg reports from Wellington on the investment record of South Island Maori tribe Ngai Tahu https://www.ngaitahuholdings.co.nz/, turning a $170 million government compensation payment into a $2 billion asset base with an average annual…
Alan Wendt on Job as PM’s Sign Language Interpreter
Alan Wendt is the first interpreter to be regularly employed by a New Zealand prime minister – and he has had a busy year, according to Dunedin-based journalist Eleanor Ainge Roy, who interviews Wendt…
Edmund Hillary Fellows Encourage Bold and Humble Leaders
“A verdant Burning Man with lots more global utopianism” is how American business columnist and Elon Musk biographer Ashlee Vance describes on Bloomberg.com the experimental New Zealand Global Impact Visa. Helmed by Illinois…
Malcolm Black: We Remember Your Smile (1961-2019)
Malcolm Black ONZM, leader singer of the early 1980s anthemic band Netherworld Dancing Toys from Dunedin, died in Auckland on May 10, 2019, aged 58, of cancer diagnosed 18 months previously. NDT’s signature song…
Pua Magasiva, Actor (1980-2019)
Popular television actor Pua Magasiva died on May 11, 2019 aged 38. Born in Samoa but raised in New Zealand, Magasiva played the Red Ranger in 2003’s Power Rangers Ninja Storm as well…
Quentin Pongia, Kiwi Hardman (1970-2019)
Kiwi rugby league legend Quentin Pongia died on May 18, 2019 aged 48, in Greymouth. “Q” represented the Kiwis 35 times and played for the Raiders, Warriors, Roosters and Dragons in Australia between…
Perfectly Preserved Moa Prints Discovered
Michael Johnston was out taking his boss’s dog for a dip in a nearby river in Ranfurly, when he stumbled across some unusual markings in the waterbed. Jonathan Ore writes about the discovery for a…
Te Papa’s Te Taiao Nature an Urgent Call to Action
Dunedin-based Guardian journalist Eleanor Ainge Roy writes on Te Papa’s biggest development since its inception 21 years ago, the result of the largest ever investment in a museum exhibition in the country. Te Taiao…
Review: Marilyn Waring The Political Years
Marilyn Waring’s forensic record of her Parliamentary career (Marilyn Waring: The Political Years Bridget Williams Books) is a layered work, a primer in the travails of Aotearoa’s parliamentary democracy. It…
Climate Change A Critical Issue – NZ US Ambassador
Climate change is a critical issue for New Zealand and the Pacific island region as a whole given its exposure to extreme weather events, says New Zealand’s ambassador to the United States Rosemary Banks,…
Brand Australia Glances Eye At NZ
A high-level group of Australian business leaders charged with formulating a “unified and strategic representation of Australia’s capabilities” has referenced New Zealand’s international performance and perception. According to AFR Boss Deputy Editor Patrick Durkin in…
Coffin Clubs Take Sting out of Death
Across New Zealand, a country of almost 5 million, five major groups like the one Judith Aitken joined in Hastings have sprung up in recent years for people wanting to build and customise their…
Jacinda Ardern: How To Stop The Next Christchurch Massacre
In a New York Times op-ed, PM Jacinda Ardern calls for the reform of social media, saying that the right to freedom of expression “does not include the freedom to broadcast mass murder.” The full…
Jacinda Ardern Popular In Australia
Jacinda Arden’s “empathy and grace” in the aftermath of the Christchurch shootings has been applauded in a recent New York Times opinion piece by Sisonke Msimang, an author who divides her time between Australia…
World’s First Māori Woman Bishop Elected
The Archbishops of the Anglican Church in New Zealand have elected the world’s first Māori woman Bishop, Radio New Zealand reports. Archdeacon Waitohiariki Quayle has been appointed Bishop of Te Ūpoko o Te Ika. She…
Government Switch for Gabriel Makhlouf
The New Zealand government’s chief economic and financial advisor Gabriel Makhlouf has landed the role of new Central Bank Governor in Ireland. The Irish Independent reports on the appointment. The Central Bank of Ireland will…
New Zealand Has World’s Sexiest Accent
Big 7, a travel website aimed at millennials, conducted a survey among their readers and ranked 50 accents from around the world depending on how sexy they are perceived to be. The New Zealand…
Liddell Says U.S. Government Digital Assets Vital for Unleashing Innovation
The U.S. government has a critical role in working with the private sector to harness emergent technologies such as 5G, quantum computing, AI, advanced manufacturing and synthetic biology, says Chris Liddell, White House Deputy…
