News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Wool-rest Edge Inspired

Wool-rest Edge Inspired

Montreal-born designer Brent Cordner uses NZ wool felt in his debut furniture collection for Keilhauer. The chair and ottoman set is made from entirely natural and biodegradable materials. Cordner’s chairs smoothly reference Frank Gehry’s ‘edge’ chairs from…

Making myths

Making myths

Lower-Hutt author Lloyd Jones gives the Aussies something heavier than Pavlova to think about: “Now and then someone will write a book in the smaller country that demands the bigger country sit up and…

Georgie Girl

Georgie Girl

“Quintessentially NZ story” highlight of Sydney Film Fest. Annie Goldson’s “Georgie Girl” follows the edgy life of Georgina Beyer – the world’s first transsexual MP – from her days as a sex-worker and drug user,…

Do You Remember?

Do You Remember?

Why are our early years a blur? Otago University’s Gabrielle Simcock and Harlene Hayne have found a clue. According to their research, so-called “childhood amnesia” is ultimately informed by language development. After conducting controlled memory experiments, the…

Fish Out of Water

Fish Out of Water

“In my native NZ, a rain-free day is a small miracle, so my sodden soul soars when I feel that dry heat and behold those azure skies.” Desert-worshipping Kiwi Amanda Jones chronicles her Chilean adventure…

From strength to strength

From strength to strength

Boston Globe finds the UV rays result in intense expression in Lower Hutt writer Catherine Chidgey’s latest novel, Strength of the Sun: “a meticulously constructed novel of true imagination.”

Louder Than Words?

Louder Than Words?

Michael C. Corballis, Auckland University psychologist, is “the latest proponent of a controversial idea known among language experts as ‘gestural theory.'” His most provocative idea: the inception of speech was a “cultural invention, like writing” rather than…

Xenites Unite!

Xenites Unite!

7th Xena Fest held at the University of Hawaii-Manoa June 9. Activities included martial arts demonstrations, auctions, and battle-cry contests. See the NZEDGE hot story on Lucy Lawless for the person behind…

God Defend Your Freeland

God Defend Your Freeland

“This is your country and you have the power to change it and uphold all that is good and right. I am saddened to know that many do not vote and still complain about America…” Although…

Salted venison

Salted venison

Sydney’s premier restaurant Salt brings NZ venison to Aussie palates via their latest menu.

Kaiwhekea Katiki-saurus

Kaiwhekea Katiki-saurus

A new species of dinosaur has been discovered on a North Otago beach. The 70 million year old fossil is believed to be a type of plesiosaur – a giant, swimming reptile resembling “a…

Sirs and Dames or Sheilas and Cobbers?

Sirs and Dames or Sheilas and Cobbers?

Four NZers received our country’s highest award via the Queen’s jubilee year honours list. Those admitted to the Order of New Zealand were; ex-Governor General Dame Catherine Tizard, Auckland anthropologist and Maori leader Sir Hugh Kawharu, former…

Wild West Coast designs production

Wild West Coast designs production

Sam Neill films in NZ for the first time since The Piano on South Island’s rugged West Coast. Perfect Strangers, directed and produced by noted NZ documentary maker Gaylene Preston (Bread and Roses), also…

Maximus vs. Hannibal

Maximus vs. Hannibal

NZ-born Russell Crowe has beaten Hollywood heavyweights including Anthony Hopkins, Paul Newman, Tom Hanks, and Robert DeNiro to be voted favourite Best Actor Oscar winner of all time, according to a poll by US…

Scarfies in Shanghai

Scarfies in Shanghai

Five recent NZ films – Once Were Warriors, Scarfies, The Price of Milk, Magik & Rose, and Jubilee – hit Chinese screens June 8 – 22 in China’s first NZ film festival.

Ludic love

Ludic love

Harry Sinclair film Toy Love applauded in Indiewire: “I love how deftly it hides surprisingly dark themes beneath its very sexy and funny depiction of love and lust. It’s a screwball comedy that’s quite…

No Dodo

No Dodo

New Scientist features the Kakapo’s claw-back from the brink of extinction: “What’s green, nocturnal, looks like an owl, smells sweet and fruity, and makes strange noises from growls and “skrarks” to metallic “chings” and deep resonant…

Black and White or Rainbow Nation?

Black and White or Rainbow Nation?

Kathy Marks visits Waitangi and gives an outside perspective on the state of the nation 162 years after the treaty: “New Zealand is truly a bicultural nation, and the sense of two races living…

Counted the Neighbours Yet?

Counted the Neighbours Yet?

Statistics New Zealand is making census data available online free of charge. Formerly $3,300 to $25,000 for special software, now users can simply transfer data and use their own software. The US, UK and…

Windies Wiped Out

Windies Wiped Out

Confirming their 3rd place ranking in the ICC World Test Cricket Championship the Black Caps achieved a remarkable milestone with their first ever test series victory against the West Indies on…

Cheers, Digger

Cheers, Digger

A Kiwi beer has won at the Australian beer awards. Founders Brewery from Nelson won the accolade of Champion Small Brewery for its organic range including Tall Blonde, Red Head and Long Black.

Chop Till You Drop

Chop Till You Drop

NZ axemen Jason Wynyard and David Bolstad came out ahead in the points race at the 8th Annual Ducks Unlimited Great Outdoors Festival in Memphis, Tennessee. Over 72,000 people attended the Festival, with the Stihl Timbersports stage…

Compelling Texture. Big Finish.

Compelling Texture. Big Finish.

If you can’t afford The Ivy’s 60 quid for Sam Neill’s pinot noir, alternatives are Malcolm Gluck’s affordable favourites: Church Road and Villa Maria, while across the Atlantic, Leslie Sirocco’s vote goes to the Lawson’s Dry Hills “palate-perking” pinot…

Advance New Zealand Unfair

Advance New Zealand Unfair

Lead paragraph to Australian Yachting editorial: “What is it with New Zealanders? Not only do they bash us at rugby (both literally and metaphorically) and regularly make off with the Melbourne Cup, they also have the hide,…

Aotearoa Adornment

Aotearoa Adornment

Auckland artist George Nuku’s mother-of-pearl pendants draw inspiration from his Maori cultural heritage and feature on the cover of June’s American Vogue. “Pile on multiple pendants for a modern, urban edge”, Elle’s ‘make it your…

Where is New Zealand again?

Where is New Zealand again?

Doing the Billie’s Kiss PR, Elizabeth Knox pauses and reflects on the exotic settings for her books with a wry comment on her cultural identity: “I know I’m a New Zealand writer, but I’m…

Scene stealing

Scene stealing

The LA Times surveys an “invasion of American films by directors and stars from Down Under. The biggest star now working in American films who began in his native New Zealand is Russell Crowe…

Pacific mix

Pacific mix

Jazz has been described as the “original dance music” and one of the genre’s legendary labels, Verve, has dipped into its vaults and commissioned new mixes for contemporary dancefloors. Kiwi Mark de Clive Lowe…

OE to Go UN

OE to Go UN

Kiwis will have plenty of fellow travellers when they travel to the UK for the two year woring holiday scheme. In the past, 96% of applicants came from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa,…

We’re All Royalists Here?

We’re All Royalists Here?

Miss representation? Put that portrait of the Queen back on the lounge wall: “All New Zealanders are royalists, not like the Aussies,” proclaims the Dame (Kiri te Kanawa). Perhaps this is not surprising coming from someone…

Domination

Domination

“It is apparently not enough that New Zealand have just waltzed away with their third successive World Sevens Series title. So complete was their domination of the Emirates-sponsored London leg of the International Rugby Board’s season-long tournament…

Postcard-spotting?

Postcard-spotting?

Lynn Barber leaves the trains at home and follows the postcard route through godzone, finds it to be “truly paradise” but also close to 100% boring. “To appreciate NZ you need to be all the things…

Best Haul

Best Haul

Ironically for Lynn, NZ was once again voted “Best Long Haul Country” over Australia, Cuba, Japan, Thailand et al by Guardian and Observer readers – they must have got off the bus and visited at…

Some Like It Hot

Some Like It Hot

Volcano enthusiasts were recently treated to a bonanza 500 kilometres north east of New Zealand. They discovered three new hydrothermal fields along the Ring of Fire which marks the boundary between the earth’s Australian and Pacific…

The Native Post

The Native Post

Connected to Congo at 56000 bps, former NZ TV reporter Moana Sinclair has been hired by the UN to coordinate the newly-formed Indigenous Media Network, largely linked via the web. Her experience overcoming obstacles and achieving mainstream success reinforces her…

Young Man and the River

Young Man and the River

Fly-fishing enthusiast Andy Pietrasik raved about his recent trip to the rivers of the South Island. Following his guide up the river in search of fish made him feel like “Ernest Hemingway’s shadow,” so perhaps…

The novel is dead, long live the novel

The novel is dead, long live the novel

Keri Hulme joins a list of postcolonial booker people ratttling the bones of the form: “The years the Booker Prize doesn’t go to an English novel the winning book tends to be an interesting…

Rain

Rain

Christine Jeff’s “sexually potent yet understated” feature debut Rain continues to make splashes as it opens across North America. The Boston Herald reports that Jeffs “easily captures the rhythm of a summer…

Give Me Your Skilled, Your Entrepreneurial

Give Me Your Skilled, Your Entrepreneurial

Immigration issues are foremost in a feature interview with Helen Clark in The Bulletin. Clark contributes to the discussion about immigrants’ contribution to growth, or lack thereof, and muses on NZ’s wider place in the world….

Mount Taranakiyama

Mount Taranakiyama

Taranaki’s eponymous mountain is a suitable double for Mount Fuji, or so thinks Edward Zwick (Glory, Legends of the Fall) who will direct Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai later this year. New Zealand’s…

Photographer and philanthropist

Photographer and philanthropist

Internationally renowned baby photographer, nz-edged Anne Geddes, was honoured at the 38th Annual Childhelp USA Humanitarian Awards in May. As well as marketing a highly successful line of calendars, gift-cards, books and baby-wear,…

On the Edge of Your … Chair

On the Edge of Your … Chair

Following in the Popstars tradition of grand contributions to global pop culture NZ’s gift to the gameshow format has former tennis star John McEnroe signed on with the BBC to front a ten-series run…

Canterbury Crusaders Find Rugby Holy-land

Canterbury Crusaders Find Rugby Holy-land

“New Zealand’s Crusaders put up a persuasive case as world rugby’s champion provincial team with their unbeaten sweep through the Super 12 series” … sealing the tournament with a dominant 31-13 win over the ACT Brumbies. Earlier the…

Bus-class High Flyer

Bus-class High Flyer

Kiwi Ray Webster is Chief Executive of pioneering no-frills airline Easy Jet. Touching down in the market in a big way Webster works by the mantra that, “Airlines are about people, not about airplanes and airports.”…

IT – NZ Untapped

IT – NZ Untapped

Columnist for leading US IT Industry zine InfoWorld raves after visiting NZ, “New Zealand is a marvelous country populated with some of the most talented people in computing. Part of the irrational exuberance [of the dot…

Bug Movie 2002:

Bug Movie 2002:

“What do you get when you cross toxic waste with a bunch of exotic spiders? Eaten.” The Washington Post gives the skinny on Eight Legged Freaks – the feature debut for Kiwi director…

Zespri Patriotism

Zespri Patriotism

In a fascinating 2-part feature the LATimes slices open the Kiwifruit and looks at the history of NZ’s No.1 horticultural product, from poor crop protection: “Even without a patent, the trademark “kiwifruit,” if copyrighted, could have become the…

Possum Fur-y Unfashionable

Possum Fur-y Unfashionable

”I should break your other bloody arm.” At a Prada party Daily Telegraph fashion editor, Hilary Alexander, famously incurs the wrath of a PETA activist Dan Matthews for wearing a possum-fur sling. ”I was…

Model Animal Behaviour

Model Animal Behaviour

An economic model developed by Massey University-based resource economist Dr Robert Alexander and postgraduate researcher Chris Fleming, could improve our understanding of how to help endangered species.  By determining how much money particular how much money particular…

Life and Loves …

Life and Loves …

NZEdged author Fay Weldon traverses a contradictory, but never dull life, in her autobiography Auto de Fay and finds her muse in the edge: “Always! Yes, always! I wanted to see more, it was…

Maori.nz?

Maori.nz?

A decision is close to being made by InternetNZ on the outcome of an application from the New Zealand Maori Internet Society to consider a new Net neighborhood for Maori-related Web sites.

David Low – Century’s Best Cartoonist – On Show

David Low – Century’s Best Cartoonist – On Show

David Low, the New Zealand master satirist “with an outsider’s perspective” and acclaimed as the Twentieth Century’s greatest cartoonist has his work revisited (including his most famous caricature Colonel Blimp) in a major exhibition…

Windbreakers

Windbreakers

NZ’s belching animals: Kiwi scientists have worked out how to reduce greenhouse emissions from cow emissions. “Lowering New Zealand’s methane emissions is necessary if the antipodean country is to meet its targets under the Kyoto Protocol,…

Real-life Charlotte Gray

Real-life Charlotte Gray

“The exploits of Nancy Wake, who fought with the French Resistance, make the plot of the film Charlotte Gray look tame.” A new biography of NZ-born Wake by Peter Fitzsimons celebrates the life of the…

New Zealand: Closer to the Edge

New Zealand: Closer to the Edge

Independent editor at large Janet Street Porter finds she can’t get close enough: “No wonder I’ve been back to New Zealand three times in three years. Sod the 20-something hours in the plane; the end result…

For the People

For the People

Don’t cry for me Argentina. The BBC looks at the progress of KiwiBank: ” New Zealand, more often famed for its sheep population than its financial sector, is attempting to shake-up its banking system with a…