#NZ stories

[annafromuni]

The Aotearoa New Zealand Readathon Part Two

Aotearoa NZ Readathon is still alive and kicking and with ten days left in February, I have a few more books to add to my list. Above, we have Cousins by Patricia Grace but I’ll actually be reading her new short story collection Bird Child and other stories which I am very excited to get my hands on. I seem to have several short story collections on my library requests list which will be a nice…

[turnaboutstar]

autistic people when there's collectable things with tv shows with multiple generations of them:

[ignitesthestxrs]

there's something about the way people talk about john gaius (incl the way the author writes him) that is like. so absent of any connection to te ao māori that it's really discomforting. like even in posts that acknowledge him as not being white, they still talk about him like a white, american leftist guy in a way that makes it clear people just AREN'T perceiving him as a māori man from aotearoa.

and it's just really serves to hammer home how powerful and pervasive whiteness and american hegemony is. because TLT is probably the single most Kiwi series in years to explode on the global stage, and all the things i find fraught about it as a pākehā woman reading a series by a pākehā author are illegible to a greater fandom of americans discoursing about whether or not memes are a valid way of portraying queer love.

idk the part of my brain that lights up every time i see a capital Z printed somewhere because of the New Zealand Mentioned??? instinct will always be proud of these books and muir. but i find myself caught in this midpoint of excitement and validation over my culture finding a place on the global stage, frustration at how kiwi humour and means of conveying emotion is misinterpreted or declared facile by an international audience, frustrated also by how that international audience runs the characters in this book through a filter of american whiteness before it bothers to interpret them, and ESPECIALLY frustrated by how muir has done a pretty middling job of portraying te ao māori and the māoriness of her characters, but tht conversation doesn't circulate in the same way* because a big part of the audience doesn't even realise the conversation is there to be had.

which is not to say that muir has done a huge glaring racism that non-kiwis haven't noticed or anything, but rather that there are very definitely things that she has done well, things that she has done poorly, things that she didn't think about in the first book that she has tacked on or expanded upon in the later books, that are all worthy of discussion and critique that can't happen when the popular posts that float past my dash are about how this indigenous man is 'guy who won't shut up about having gone to oxford'

*to be clear here, i'm not saying these conversations have never happened, just that in terms of like, ambient posts that float round my very dykey dash, the discussions and meta that circulate on this the lesbian social media, are overwhelmingly stripped of any connection to aotearoa in general, let alone te ao māori in specific. and because of the nature of american internet hegemony this just,,,isn't noticed, because how does a fish know it's in the ocean u know? i have seen discussions along these lines come up, and it's there if i specifically go looking for it, but it's not present in the bulk of tlt content that has its own circulatory life and i jut find that grim and a part of why the fandom is difficult to engage with.

[crabussy]

one of my favourite memories ever is going swimming in my undies in the dead of winter beneath a waterfall in the middle of a forest (I couldn't feel my legs at ALL) and having a small longfin eel tentatively swim up to me. upon me sticking my hand out for her to explore, she rubbed her head up against my hand and let me pet her like some kind of slippery long cat. wet wriggly beast I miss you so much.. we were best friends for one fleeting moment... I hope you find a cave so deep and comfortable that all the other eels are seething with envy

[mikeywayarchive]

Instagram story by mikeyway

[Sep 13, 2024]

[fruityindividual]

hunt for the wilderpeople is perhaps the greatest film of all time

[annafromuni]

Ineke Meredith's On Call - Gut-Wrenching, Heartbreaking and Inspirational

I knew as soon as I saw On Call I needed to pick it up. I love Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt and Ineke Meredith’s On Call is New Zealand’s version. I also can’t help but be interested in the memoirs of medical professionals because of how much strength, love and care they have for their jobs and patients. One thing I wasn’t prepared for though was the deep-seated anger I felt as a result of…

[neechees]

[image description: 6 gifs stacked vertically. The gifs depict a Māori leader, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, and Governor George Grey, engaging in a tense conversation. The first gif features Grey in a gray and Black suit with a top hat, with two soldiers behind him, in a green forest, the text reads, “What will you eat?”. The second gif features Te Wherowhero opposite to him, wearing a brown top hat, a traditional cloak along with a red blanket, holding a taiaha, and with moko on his face, another warrior behind him: the text reads, “we will eat mamaku, para. We will be sustained by the fruits of our forest”. The third gif shows the camera move back to Grey, with a smug expression, the text reads, “and when that food is gone, what will you eat then?”. The fourth gif depicts Te Wherowhero again, looking away briefly before turning to Grey with an intense expression, and motioning to him with his staff, with the text that says “you!”. The fifth gif is back to Grey, the smug expression gone from his face and replaced with horror as his eyebrows furrow. The last gif is of Te Wherowhero again, both he and his warriors with a fierce expression and widened eyes, Te Wherowhero motions with his staff again more forefully, the text reading “I will eat you!”. End image description.]

[onabatlle-2]

onita, via her ig story, 16/8/23

[mikeywayarchive]

Instagram story by mikeyway

[Mar 16, 2023]

[thatneoncrisis]

yr point about trans portrayals of griddlehark is right on the money but nobody who needs to hear it is going to care because everyone is going to be insulted and defensive instead which i mean, fair, because you did just write thousands of words and an authors note specifically to insult art that they put hours of their lives in. i dont even disagree w you i hate modern AUs lmfao but i do think people are fair to feel upset over how you did it

im trying to state this as plainly as possible. i think theyre completely justified feeling that way, because writing IS a very personal medium people are doing for free. i dont want people not to be mad if they feel that way. ive basically come to the conclusion it was less a proper satire and more of a vent concerning a large umbrella of content with a hundred different reasons for why it exists that way, all crammed into a five chapter story still semi adhering to canon. fandom is a personal thing- i cannot stop anyone from writing that specific genre of fluff, they cant stop me from doing this though ill probably never do it again for a bunch of reasons. i implore them to keep writing shit that makes me mad for petty, arbitrary reasons. one of the main reasons i even considered doing this is because im so heavily involved in the fandom space and put a lot of work and time into it as well.

but im also a fucking nutjob who likes poking the bear. like i said in the notes i just kind of liked lying, i liked the process of researching and executing it. i liked having a fake guy react to an uncanny distinctly different version of themselves. i liked my friend doing yuri fanart every week. thats also something i want to touch on in the last full chapter next week, like the POINT of these works existing, to bring comfort

basically if you read any part of this come away knowing that you can write a hundred fics like this played straight for free and i literally cannot stop you if i wanted. which i dont. we will just never agree about most things. keep making shit i, personally, do not like, to spite me. have those bitches open mouth kissing on their honeymoon in france

[annafromuni]

Charlotte Lobb's Hannah and Huia - A Novel of Utter Heartache

A book hasn’t made as much of an impact on me as this in such a long time. I mean it with my whole heart and soul when I say Charlotte Lobb’s Hannah and Huia is something words cannot describe. It is a story of such deep emotional investment and love, such endless love that it maims and paralyzes and makes one a shell of who they once were. It crushes you, it makes you want to go back and pick a…

[onabatlle-2]

i can’t wait to see these two play for barca, via their ig stories, 4/8/23

[mikeywayarchive]

instagram story by mikeyway

[Feb 27, 2023]

[javelinbk]

The Beatles in Australia/NZ part three (part 1, part 2, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9)

On the flight to Adelaide, George and John talk to Bob about their love/hate relationship with fish-eye lenses, and not wearing trousers to greet fans

Bob: Now, Ringo will now be here on Monday, I… John: Yeah, that's what I read, I thought he was coming Sunday Bob: I see he's well and happy as he came out of hospital, you'll be pleased at that news John: Yeah, that's good Bob: That's a close picture he's taking, isn't it? John: Fish-eye, it'll distort your face Bob: Ah, this is one of these fish-eye cameras… George is sitting beside John and he's taking a picture of me from about six inches away George: Well this lens is a funny one called a fish-eye, and actually we hate having our pictures taken with them… John: Cause they're awful George: … cause when they come out, you know it's just all distorted… you look like a dustbin or something, so I'm doing one of you to get my own back Bob: George… George is the boy who appeared in underpants yesterday George: Actually it wasn't, it was a towel I had wrapped around me, but erm… you know, we were watching on tv and they were saying 'I wonder why they're not coming out to wave' and we… there was no way we could tell them that we didn't have any dry trousers… John: None of us had any clothes… George: So anyway, in the end we went… they, Paul and John got a pair of trousers from somewhere and I went with a towel around me, just to wave - you know, otherwise I think they might have thought we were trying to be funny Bob: George, you look out the window, flying to Adelaide, you see sunshine, now that's a pleasant thing to see after Sydney George: Yeah, it's a bit of a change after all the rain John: Ah, well thank you Bob, cheerio George: See you, Bob John: Keep plugging the records, buy me book! Correct?

Bob Rogers interviews John Lennon and George Harrison on their flight from Sydney to Adelaide, 12th June 1964