I’ve been to Edinburgh, but I don’t remember that much about it. It wasn’t that memorable. Grey clouds, and rain. I stayed in quite a nice hotel, small, and a bit classy. I had a nice first floor room that overlooked a rather elegant street. None of this was planned. The hotel just happened to […]
Lexie ‘Online’
It has to be said that I love the Internet. I have no idea how we functioned without it because it’s like GPS. With my diabolical sense of direction, I have no idea how I got anywhere before GPS but it seems I did because the facts speak for themselves, and it’s all there in […]
Consume. Be silent. Die.
The more I engage with people the more I realise how important education is, education that includes acquiring the skills of inquiry, critical thinking, analysis, hermeneutics, and reflection. Having acquired these skills – and experimented with them – we can begin to question perceived realities and begin to address the sources of the flood of […]
Waitangi Day 2024
We always commemorate actual Waitangi Day in special ways because, in Aotearoa, and in our world, every day is Waitangi Day. This year (2024) we again celebrated Waitangi Day ‘out west’ at Parr’s Park at Waitangi@Waititi, a fantastic event organised by Te Whānau o Waipareira Trust and with a cast of thousands. We took 35,000+ […]
Gang Insignia and Performative Politics
A dear friend wrote the following: “With their permission (of course), I’d love to see this design go viral and so widely worn it shows how ridiculous this law is. Picking on a 12 year old! Be so good to see all ages, sizes, ethnic groups politicizing their active wear in protest… A sweatshirt in […]
When I was a kid, New Year’s Eve was a bit of a thing.
Facebook 31 December 2021 When I was a kid, New Year’s Eve was a bit of a thing. I didn’t know then but where we lived was the wrong side of the tracks and brutally working class. It was post-war, the dawning of the 1950s, and everyone on our street lived in a state house. […]
Pride and the Police
Written for ‘The Spinoff‘: Trans academic Lexie Matheson on her community’s complex relationship with the police. It seems cop cars seem have always played a part in my life, and, since my coming out, even more so. As a young, middle class, white male professional, I seemed to be treated quite well – even though […]
The Boys and the Biff ~ NZ Police & ‘Serving the Crown’
This was written first in 2007 after the final aborted trial, aborted because, for the second time the arresting officer Sachin Nair failed to appear. In fact, he’d failed to do anything which included ensuring a police prosecutor was appointed to present the NZ Police case. It was a shambles and I reprint this blog […]
Moe Miti ~ a theatre review
I will taste the bitter separation and oil my skin with it. I will listen for all that is old and with my ear pressed to the dirt, hear those who sing my name on the wind. In September 1966, Paul Simon released the iconic album ‘Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme’ and buried in the […]
Dirty Work: Ode to Joy ~ a theatre review
Maybe this explains why I’m up at 3.30am writing this – because it’s a job. It’s not just a job of course, not many people who are driven to engage in the performing arts in Aotearoa do it simply because it’s a job. Or for the money. Ask us why we are consumed by the […]
dykiegirl 