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.
Read MoreElections 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.
Read MoreIn 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.
Read MoreYou 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!
Read MoreHaving 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.
Read MoreYou 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.
Read MoreWelcome 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.
Read MoreBurnout 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.
Read MoreI’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.
Read MoreYou 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.
Read MoreClearly, 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!
Read MoreI am as unathletic as they come, but in honour of this week’s Sports Issue, I present to you some of the many ways I’ve attempted to engage with sports over the years.
Read MoreMy name is Areta Pakinga and I hail from the lands of Te Arawa, where our people are known as Te Arawa Mangai Nui (Te Arawa of loud voice).
Read MoreNic Smith is “excited, hopeful, and inspired” to be the new Vice Chancellor of VUW.
Read MoreNew Zealanders are not using enough condoms. This is a shame, because condoms are an excellent, all-rounder bit of sex technology. Those who can use condoms during sex should reach for them like a blanket on a cold night.
Read MoreIt’s always difficult for me to find the words to describe how I feel about March 15th. I’m overcome with a mixture of emotions—grief, anger, hope, caution. In the past, my voice has seemed irrelevant; whenever I talked about my faith, it was only to defend it, and compose myself in a way that legitimised my place in society.
Read MoreAs a kid you could pull a sicky.
Pulling a sicky could go a number of different ways. You get sent straight to school and told off for fibbing. Your mum looks you right in your lying little face but gives you the day off if you stay in bed all day. You might get to park up on the couch with Jeremy Kyle if you’re lucky.
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