It’s been a wild ride, but we’ve finally made it to Issue 24: our final issue as editors. In this issue, we’re reminiscing on our childhoods, teens, and our years at Salient. It’s time to soak in the sappiest soppiest of nostalgia. We all seem to be going back in time and searching for the things that gave us childhood comfort. We’re building our dream homes, and making them up to the Healthy Homes Standards, in The Sims.

Elections are exhausting in any old year. But in 2023, when we’ve got skyrocketing rental prices, a rapidly closing window to lower emissions and prevent climate catastrophe, rising discrimination towards our trans whānau, and at the end of it all, a choice between two cis white men named Chris for the country’s next Prime Minister, it’s especially fucking draining.

In the heart of the vast Pacific Ocean lies a realm of unparalleled natural beauty, vibrant cultures, and the essence of life itself—Pacific Island life. Like the birth of a world, at the genesis of our unique and enchanting way of life is a captivating story that weaves together ancient traditions, indigenous wisdom, and inexorable forces of nature.

You might notice the editorial team is looking a bit different this week. Kia ora, I’m Bella, and I’m Salient’s Designer: the secret third member of your favourite editorial team. Maia and Fran have kindly let me take the lead this week! Welcome to the ‘Art’ issue: an exploration of all forms of artistry and manifestations of creativity!

Having the opportunity to be both the editor and designer for Te Ao Mārama i tēnei tau is a wonderful privilege. I have to say that extra work on top of study and mahi has been quite overwhelming. But with the help from our tauira Māori, translators and the Salient team, we have managed to pull everything together just in time. Hence I am super grateful for that; a big mihi to everyone ! Speaking of gratitude, I bet everyone has something that they are grateful for. Right? For me, I appreciate everything that I’ve got in life at the moment.

You might notice something a little different about us in our editorial pic this week, and that’s because Maia and Fran have left the chat. Enter Frank, Mark, and their shared gf Alexa. Frank is a Discord bro sponsored by Monster who posts slightly concerning conspiracy rants on YouTube, Mark is your classic Tinder fish bogan who you should block at first message before he asks you out on a picnic-turned-hunting date, and Alexa, named after Amazon’s home assistant, is a TikTok girlie who makes crazy bank pretending to be an NPC on live. 

Welcome to our ‘Spirituality’ issue, another new one (although we did find one from 2012, and maybe 2020’s Alient counts) from your favourite editor duo—but, like, is it though? 

Fun fact: most students don’t come to university just for the fancy piece of paper. We come here to learn, grow, engage in conversation, meet people, form new ideas, begin our careers, and do what we are passionate about. 

Te Taiao is the environment all around us. It’s the paths that we walk through everyday, the plant matter we interact with, and the entire ecosystem that we are an irrevocably impactful part of.  Te Taiao isn’t confined to national parks and manicured city greenspaces: it’s in our backyards, it’s the gutters next to highways, in the mushrooms growing in our flat bathrooms, in our urban streets and lichen sprinkled fences, curving coastlines, and rural farmland.

Burnout is real babes. We need mental health days!  If the pandemic taught the world anything, it’s that it’s very possible to work and study from home. Lockdowns and online lecturers, for a lot of us, made getting degrees much easier. Society was starting to realise it wouldn’t collapse if someone works from their bedroom, and not from the office, and finally, a 9-5 could be doable.  

I’d like to share with you a memory: It’s late March this year, and I’m standing at the back of a crowd overlooking Civic Square. It’s the counter-protest against a TERF rally to spread transphobic hate in our city. In front of me is a sea of coloured hair and pronouns. I can’t even see the square.

You might be picking this magazine up for the first time, or this might be the 61st issue you’ve flicked through. Whether you’re a new reader of Salient, or a fan since third-year: welcome. This is our love letter to you. Each week, we pour our hearts into producing 40 pages of content just for you. We want you to be informed, enraged, engaged, and ultimately, feel seen. We love seeing cut-up Salient pages  on bedroom walls in the back of IG selfies or TikToks. We smile when we see a group reading their weekly horoscopes together. Salient is a labour of love for you, and for us. 

Armed with free chips coated in mayonnaise, we headed into the gallery at the Michael Fowler Centre, pretending we were the eye of God to watch the Best Foods Comedy Gala. We’ll be real, it was no Met Gala. Instead of red carpet couture, it was a showcase of comedians crossing the plainly lit stage in millennial fashion and skinny jeans. And we were easily the youngest people there. 

Clearly, we look a bit different from the usual editorial suspects. This issue is guest edited by us—Joanna and Cileme. “Diaspora” exclusively focuses on immigrant and refugee stories!

Music is a core part of the Salient office. Whether it’s in our headphones during work cramming mode, or blasted throughout the office in our manic hours, it’s a constant for us. It amps us up when we need an extra boost before print, when we’re sleep deprived and Red Bull fuelled. When Maia and Bella insist on blasting The 1975 or Harry Styles, you can catch Fran knee deep in her musical guilty pleasure of study time lofi jazz. As early 2000s babies, we also love a good VUWSA van roadie sing-along to the Jo Bros, Britney, Nelly Furtado or ABBA.

Connection to gender is not binary. Every being grows and transitions through themselves to find their authenticity. Whatever your identity might be—cis or not—this issue is a chance for you to interrogate gender and allow space for fluidity. 

The Salient “Climate Crisis” issue doesn’t reduce emissions, nor build new public transport routes, nor burn down capitalism. If anything, our beloved print medium kills a big boy chunk of trees (at least we’re self aware right?). 

But our words fill a need just as great—they get us talking about the crisis. 

The “Brain” issue aims to embrace vulnerability, and bring the different ways our brains function out of the shadows and into the light. As well as having focus on mental health, we take a deep dive into neurodivergence.

This issue, an annual feature of Salient’s calendar, aims to break down taboos about sex and help students find new ways to enjoy it.

Kim K may have said no one wants to work anymore, but if she did a freaky Friday with a Wellington student, she would combust.