Goth for Hire

Posted 2:48am Sunday 8th May 2022 by Lotto Ramsay

For such a wonderfully gloomy city, it’s surprising that Dunedin has less of a goth scene and more of a goth single frame. As a goth that crash landed in dunners I felt an immense sense of duty to my newfound home, as well as a burgeoning megalomania. In a sea of Glassons and Dickies, I made Read more...

Top Ten Paintings I’d Like to be Trapped Inside at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery

Posted 1:39pm Monday 16th August 2021 by Asia Martusia King

If you can’t jump into paintings, that’s embarrassing for you. I do it all the time. One day, my hubris will get the better of me and I will be trapped in one forever. If I get to choose which painting that is, it’ll be one of these. I’ve excluded any landscape paintings of Read more...

Breatha’s Fables

Posted 4:11pm Sunday 18th July 2021 by Erin Gourley

Breatha was a storyteller thousands of years ago. Not much is known about their life, aside from the fact that they were the first homo sapien to burn a piece of lounge furniture while intoxicated. All we have left today are their stories, which historians believe were usually told around a burning Read more...

The Critic Te Arohi Census 2021: who are Otago students, really?

Posted 5:19pm Sunday 18th July 2021 by Elliot Weir

Out of interest, curiosity, and an effort to understand our audience and the wider student body, Critic Te Arohi conducted a survey over the mid-semester break, asking 50 questions that covered a wide range of topics from academics to politics to demographics to drugs. 439 people completed the Read more...

“I Can’t Be Fucked Trying to Convert Him”: When Your Family Members Are Conspiracy Theorists

Posted 3:10pm Sunday 9th May 2021 by Denzel Chung

Extensive “research” during lockdown revealed a terrible secret to Carlos’* uncle. “The sun is sending diseases into our atmosphere because it’s losing energy and going out.”  It seems everyone has that uncle or kuia, gong gong or tita: one moment, Read more...

Indoctrinating Myself With Life FM

Posted 9:57pm Saturday 6th March 2021 by Sean Gourley

FM Radio is like your mate’s parents who you didn’t realise are quite Christian until you started talking about strip clubs in front of them: easy to get along with until Jesus enters the picture. For a bit of a project in O Week, I forced myself to listen to our country’s most Read more...

Smile, You’re on Camera

Posted 11:51am Sunday 8th October 2017 by Jean Balchin

Imagine this: it’s early on a Sunday morning, and the sun is streaming in the window. It’s obnoxiously bright, and rouses you from your slumber; entangled up in a bed that isn’t yours. Who is that person snoring beside you? Where on earth are you? And why does your head hurt so Read more...

What is behind New Zealand’s high suicide rate?

Posted 12:02pm Sunday 8th October 2017 by Zahra Shahtahmasebi

Content warning: contains discussion of suicide   Our country has one of the highest suicide rates in the Western world, and the highest youth (15-24 years old) suicide rate in the OECD. The latest suicide statistics, released by the Chief Coroner in late August, showed that the number of Read more...

Ta Moko: The Tattoos of a Culture

Posted 12:17pm Sunday 8th October 2017 by Chelle Fitzgerald

Arriving at the Moana Moko studio, I spied my friend Alan lying peacefully on a bed, as tohunga ta moko (tattooist) Stu McDonald worked steadily on Alan’s ta moko (Māori tattoo). The Moray Place studio was spacious and high-ceilinged, with wooden floors and pleasant roots music playing. I Read more...

Scarfie in a Strange Land

Posted 10:41am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Isaac Yu

Time is a wheel. Being someone of Korean descent who represents New Zealand on the JET Programme (Japanese Exchange and Teaching meant to improve international relations), living in Japan is a surreal experience. On one hand, their ancestors conquered mine and instituted an oppressive police state Read more...