Archive
Everything I Know About Love (Island)
Posted 11:57am Sunday 4th October 2026 by Stella Weston
Last year, my lecturer referred to Love Island as a “lower pleasure”. I went home from that class and watched the latest episode with my flatmates huddled on the couch, waiting for the free hour of power to kick in. I don’t consider that a lower pleasure. However, putting that Read more...
Cheating or Chatting? Exploring AI Chatbot Infidelity In Relationships
Posted 11:53am Sunday 4th October 2026 by Hanna Varrs
I love the Internet. I was practically born and raised on it, and as someone who moved around a fair amount as a kid, I often relied on it to maintain my relationships with friends who lived in different cities. My social life was Instagram group chats with people that I would never meet in person, Read more...
A Degree in Disobedience
Posted 3:42pm Saturday 26th September 2026 by Daniel Gray
It’s been almost one hundred years since students first got fucked off at the University of Otago and decided to protest. Over the decades, Otago students have occupied the Registry building, marched down George Street, and transformed lecture buildings into bases for fiery protests. Students Read more...
Does Football Unite the World?
Posted 11:55am Sunday 20th September 2026 by Jesse Valpy
Widely considered one of the greatest shows on earth, the FIFA World Cup captivates the hearts of billions, promoting a sense of belonging, purpose, and, for many, an escape from daily life. This year, the crazed and colourful month of celebration culminated in a Argentina-Spain final enveloped by Read more...
Not Sold Separately
Posted 12:49pm Sunday 13th September 2026 by Te Āwhina Brundell
When you’re a kid, someone inevitably asks what three things you’d take if you were stranded on a remote island. I never expected to find out, so the question stayed purely hypothetical. Until it wasn’t. Now, the remote island had a name: Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island. But Read more...
Hot on Their Heels
Posted 12:43pm Sunday 13th September 2026 by Jessie-Jade Witeri (Ngāti Whakāue, Te Whakatōhea, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Whanaunga)
Like a pair of hand-me-down shoes, te reo Māori is an inheritance. Well-worn, repaired when it needed mending and kept with its next wearer in mind. The leather may be scuffed and softened by another person’s feet, but when you put them on, they fit. Each generation leaves its mark on Read more...
AI: Amazing Innovation or Annihilation Incoming?
Posted 12:02pm Sunday 6th September 2026 by Stella Weston
I know that students have pretty strong feelings about artificial intelligence. “FUCK AI”. “Just admit you can’t think for yourself, you smooth-brained twat”. “Never, AI should be destroyed [...] AI should be banned, all information about how it can be Read more...
Drawing Out The Inspiration
Posted 12:31pm Sunday 23rd August 2026 by Stella Weston
Art Week is back and better than ever. Walking through the Link-turned-art-gallery, Ōtepoti students’ talent was on clear display. The OUSA-run Art Week competition had five sections: photography, illustration, sculpture, painting, and other, as well as a separate photography and poetry Read more...
WWIII For Dummies
Posted 10:13am Sunday 16th August 2026 by Imogen Perry
Every other day it seems like World War III is about to kick off. Your average morning living in Ōtepoti consists of waking up, sleeping through 8ams, the temperature being cold as fuck, eating month old yogurt and scrolling through the news to see Donald Trump has bombed someone. Again. You Read more...
Heir of Summer’s Flame
Posted 4:23pm Saturday 8th August 2026 by Claudia Rivera
Chapter 1 Trion’s head pounded. Peeling his tongue from the roof of his mouth, he stretched out in his bed. Everything was stiff, and he flinched as memories from last night began to bombard him. Raen’s breath had been hot on his neck. Read more...
The Party Game Rulebook
Posted 11:37am Sunday 2nd August 2026 by Critic Staff
It’s been a long time since we were children. Somewhere between primary, intermediate and eventually high school, we put down our toys and picked up the phones. In high school, parties were all about drinking as much as possible and doing a quick tacky in the upstairs toilet, or clubbing until Read more...
Beyond the Ring
Posted 9:49am Sunday 26th July 2026 by Te Awhirēinga Heperi
I have spent much of my university career just figuring it out. I’ve failed papers, and excelled in others. I’ve created work I am deeply proud of, and work that should never see the light of day. In short, my transcript would tell you that it’s been rough. However, what it Read more...
Critic Te Ārohi’s 25th Annual Fish and Chip Review
Posted 9:28am Saturday 18th July 2026 by Critic Staff
In a world where everything feels pretty fucked – from the political climate to the actual climate– we figured it was time to return to something comforting: fish and chips. For the 25th year running, Critic Te Ārohi has undertaken the sacred duty of eating our way around Read more...
Critic Te Ārohi Census 2026
Posted 3:53pm Saturday 11th July 2026 by Stella Weston
Are you having more or less sex than your peers? Has ket finally taken over as the scarfie drug of choice? How visible is our OUSA president? Critic Te Ārohi has the answers. Welcome to the results of the sixth annual Critic Te Ārohi Census! Census is a nosy and fairly invasive deep dive Read more...
TELL ALL With Dunedin’s Hottest Influencer: Savannah Blewden
Posted 12:31pm Saturday 23rd May 2026 by Stella Weston
Savannah Blewden, (“call me Sav!”), is Dunedin’s hottest influencer right now. On TikTok, her biggest platform, she sports nearly 40k followers and 4.5 million likes. Being online, making videos, and portraying her life so openly and visually is just something she’s Read more...
If In Doubt, Sit Them Out
Posted 11:35am Sunday 10th May 2026 by Gryffin Blockley
TW: Brief mentions of suicide and mental health difficulties For many Kiwis, sports are a cornerstone of our cultural and national identity. Whether it's cheering on the Black Caps on TV, jumping out of your seat in the Zoo when the Highlanders cross the try line or playing with your local Read more...
Where Does All My Data Go?
Posted 1:45pm Sunday 26th April 2026 by Matilda Rumball-Smith
Whether you care where your data goes or not, it’s safe to say our world has become increasingly digitalised. When Critic Te Arōhi asked 623 students if they felt they had a good understanding of how their data is used online, 52% admitted that they had “no idea”. Only 11% Read more...
Critic Te Ārohi Presents… The Cook(ed) book!
Posted 3:47pm Saturday 11th April 2026 by Critic
Welcome to The Cook(ed) Book. This is a collection of recipes built for student kitchens, questionable decision-making, and getting really baked. We have assumed you don't have the perfect equipment, that much time, or even the patience. As such, there is something for every stoner in this book, Read more...
How North D Became the Pot of Gold Under the Rainbow
Posted 12:26pm Sunday 22nd March 2026 by Gryffin Blockley
With special thanks to Professor of Sociology Hugh Campbell. If you live in North Dunedin, chances are you were woken up in the very early hours of March 17th. Some joined enthusiastic flatmates banging down their doors, while many more are rudely awakened by the distant boom of Bluetooth Read more...
FESTIVAL FROM THE INSIDE: TIPS AND STORIES FROM SECURITY GUARDS
Posted 12:32pm Sunday 8th March 2026 by Matilda Rumball-Smith
*To cover any fancy legal footwork against May and Lucy, any resemblance to persons, places, events, are purely coincidental. All stage names and people are fictional. In saying that, May and Lucy’s work performance will probably get them fired anyway. Now that uni is back in Read more...
The Changing Game: 30 Years of The Highlanders
Posted 3:22pm Sunday 22nd February 2026 by Hanna Varrs
Most will remember the first Sunday morning they woke up in their single bed at their first-year hall. For many, it probably felt like coming up for air after holding your breath, with O-Week stretching out in front of you. Endless, scarfie possibility. With so much going on during orientation, many Read more...
Critic’s Oldest Living Editor: Paul Oestreicher
Posted 2:51pm Monday 13th October 2025 by Iris Hehir
Long before he was a peace campaigner, a priest, or a friend of Desmond Tutu, Paul Oestreicher was an enemy alien. His family had fled fascism, seeking refuge in Dunedin – a city that offered safety, but not quite acceptance. In Dunedin, the Oestreicher family were reported by neighbours, Read more...
Local Body Elections Mini-Mag
Posted 11:01am Tuesday 7th October 2025 by OUSA Exec
Brown Brilliance
Posted 10:46pm Saturday 4th October 2025 by Heeni Koero Te Rerenoa (Sky)
It was the issue no one could get their hands on. Copies of the Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori themed issue flew off the stands, and the kōrero reached corners of the motu that a Dunedin-based publication doesn’t usually touch. This year, Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori wasn’t just Read more...
Confessions of a Quiz Addict: Tips, Tricks & Free Chips
Posted 12:34am Monday 29th September 2025 by Aksha John
My name is Aksha, and I’m addicted to quizzing. It all started in high school, with our chaotic, last-minute house quiz competition that I joined on a whim. Not expecting much, I somehow found myself buzzing in faster than anyone else. Each correct answer sent a tiny rush of triumph Read more...
Everything That’s Happened Since 2019
Posted 6:21pm Sunday 21st September 2025 by Giorgia Fletcher and Grace Verryt
CW, TW: Discussions of sexual violence. Sexual harm is prevalent, invasive, and underacknowledged on campus, whether we want to admit it or not. Three weeks into the academic year, Thursdays in Black (TiB) – the Otago branch of a national student-led sexual harm prevention Read more...
OUSA & Te Rōpū Māori Candidate Blurbs
Posted 5:35pm Sunday 21st September 2025 by Critic Staff
Voting is open from Monday, September 22nd at 9am until Thursday the 25th at 4pm for the Otago University Students Association Executive and the Te Rōpū Māori Te Rito. Here are your candidates. OUSA President – Leads the Executive and serves as the primary Read more...
Te Reo o Te Moana
Posted 2:10pm Monday 15th September 2025 by Te Āwhina Pounamu Waikaramihi (Ngāpuhi, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Ngāi Tahu)
Nā Te Āwhina-Pounamu-Waikaramihi (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Hine, Te Hikutū, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tahu, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe) Kiringāua Cassidy (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Takoto, Te Āti Awa, Read more...
From Vegas to the Valley: A Taste of Mita
Posted 2:01pm Monday 15th September 2025 by Jessie-Jade Witeri (Ngāti Whakāue, Te Whakatōhea, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Whanaunga)
Matariki Cribb-Fox (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Rangiwewehi, Ngāti Apa) Shakayla Alapaki-Andrews (Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Mahuta, Pare Hauraki, Ngāti Paoa, Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha, Niue) When people think about Te Reo Māori, they often imagine one neat, Read more...
Broke, Hungry, and Over It: How Aotearoa New Zealand’s Supermarket Duopoly Hurts Students
Posted 6:00pm Sunday 7th September 2025 by Abby Wallace
We’ve all been there: standing in the checkout line, staring at your sad basket of instant noodles, cheap bread, and maybe some reduced to clear mince. When you’re down to your final $25 for the week and faced with the choice between a box or fresh veggies to get you through the weekend, Read more...
What Would Happen If There Was A Zombie Apocalypse (And How to Survive It)
Posted 10:35pm Sunday 24th August 2025 by Hanna Varrs
On March 25, 2020, Aotearoa New Zealand declared a nationwide state of national emergency and moved to Alert Level 4 in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. I remember how surreal it was – like something out of a low-budget movie. It affected everyone. If you’d told anyone before it Read more...
Critic’s Brush With Artistic Genius
Posted 11:51pm Sunday 17th August 2025 by Stella Weston
Art Week has made its mark again this year. The Link (turned art gallery) was even more of a hub of procrastination than usual, displaying a huge range of works of all mediums. Entries to the exhibition were showcased and sold alongside poetry, electronic art, and photography competitions. Critic Read more...
The Art of Dressing for Resistance: What to Wear to a Protest
Posted 9:58pm Sunday 10th August 2025 by Grace Hards
What you wear to a protest isn’t just about looking cool for the ‘gram. In reality, the clothes you wear to a protest are an intersection between fashion choices and politics: whether you’re marching for trans rights, chanting for Palestine, or standing silently in black on a Read more...
Is It Cheating? The Line Between Sleeping Sound and Sleeping Around
Posted 8:41pm Sunday 3rd August 2025 by Matilda Rumball-Smith
When you think of cheating, your mind will probably go to those who are constantly swinging between break-up and make-up sex as they swear they’ll never make that drunken mistake again – but can they please have a fourth chance? The blatant deception and betrayal of finding a grey hoodie Read more...
The Break You Don’t Take Will Break You
Posted 6:02pm Saturday 26th July 2025 by Heeni Koero Te Rerenoa (Sky)
It was the second or third week of uni. I was still riding the high of being the first in my whānau to attend university. With three scholarships under my belt, a double degree ahead of me, and a fresh start away from Whangārei, everyone said I was going to do great things – and Read more...
Fresher Beware
Posted 4:38pm Saturday 19th July 2025 by Hanna Varrs
Disclaimer: Based on true stories. Identifying details have been changed. It’s that time of year. You and a few friends (or randoms from Facebook) band together to form a flat. The hunt begins: endless viewings, frantically handing in applications, long debates about whether a dishwasher is Read more...
Critic Te Ārohi Census 2025
Posted 12:00pm Monday 14th July 2025 by Nina Brown
Disclaimer: AI was used as a data analysis tool in the research for this article. The Critic Te Ārohi census is back for its fifth year. What originally began as thinly veiled nosiness has morphed into an annual data-gathering exercise, tracking the trends of the fine specimen we call the Read more...
John Robinson and Ōtepoti’s Queer History
Posted 5:06pm Sunday 25th May 2025 by Grace Hards
At the top of a steep flight of stairs, tucked into a small cluster of rooms that made up his studio, Ōtepoti artist John Robinson's handcrafted jewellery was carefully displayed. If you looked up, vibrant artwork stretched across the walls all the way to the ceiling – beautiful, Read more...
Flat & Garden: Critic Te Ārohi’s Search for the Best of Student Living
Posted 10:26pm Sunday 18th May 2025 by Critic Staff
It’s an age-old fact: flatting in North D can be rough. But here at Otago, we students get creative. We customise, craft, and conquer — armed with Blu-Tack and blind optimism. Despite what the nation’s landlords think, students can be house-proud (especially if you bless us with Read more...
TURN DOWN FOR WHAT! No seriously, what? I couldn't hear you
Posted 2:51pm Sunday 11th May 2025 by Jonathan McCabe
Whether it’s the smell of the Greggs’ factory, snorting lines through a rolled up $20, or staring at multiple screens for hours on end at the library, students are accustomed to abusing their senses on the regular. Putting your body through the wringer is part of the university Read more...
Locked Out of Locking In
Posted 10:08pm Sunday 4th May 2025 by Stella Weston
North Dunedin is a place like no other. 20,000 students, textbooks in tow, eyes bleary from hours spent poring over readings and lecture recordings – and a bustling black market for Ritalin to fuel it all. From the artificial glow of Central Library during exam season, to the drunken depths of Read more...
Don’t Call It a Balancing Act: Med School and the Myth of ‘Equal Opportunities’
Posted 9:48pm Sunday 4th May 2025 by Heeni Koero Te Rerenoa (Sky)
Far from home and all he’s ever known, Mikaere Porē-Tipene faces the unrelenting demands of medical school while striving to honour his whakapapa. Balancing academic pressure with the expectations of his iwi, Mikaere must decide what success truly means – and who he’s doing it Read more...
Terrain Generation: The Biomes of Ōtepoti
Posted 10:24pm Sunday 27th April 2025 by Molly Smith-Soppet
Here at Critic Te Ārohi, we have reported on 100 years of changing student landscapes, but what about the actual land we stand on? In honour of the release of the great piece of media called A Minecraft Movie, as well as our annual National Geographic issue, we booted up a new world save and Read more...
The National Student Association You Haven’t Heard Of
Posted 11:21pm Sunday 13th April 2025 by Hanna Varrs
Dictionary (you’ll need it): Student Associations: AUSA - Auckland University Students’ Association ATSA - Aotearoa Tertiary Students’ Association AUTSA - Auckland University of Technology Students’ Association LUSA - Lincoln University Read more...
Paying Homage to Critic of Old: 100 Years of Editors
Posted 7:10pm Sunday 6th April 2025 by Nina Brown
Editor’s note: Special thanks to the Hocken Library who house every issue of Critic Te Ārohi extending back to 1925. Without them, Critic’s history, beyond our scuffed website, would not have been preserved. Sit a monkey in front of a typewriter long enough and it’ll churn Read more...
Bodies on the Line
Posted 10:10pm Sunday 23rd March 2025 by Jodie Evans
POV: You just spent the last of your allowance on gig tickets, your fridge is a wasteland, and you’re dangerously close to monetising your toes. But there, casting sultry, cash-flashing bedroom eyes at you from the back of a discarded Critic on your coffee table, is a Zentech ad. A clinical Read more...
Big Red vs the Admin: A Response
Posted 9:17pm Sunday 23rd March 2025 by Andrew Geddis
In Issue 3, Matilda Rumball-Smith provided an interesting, well-written, and thoughtful take on how student life currently feels on Castle St and environs (‘Big Red vs the Administration: Who Controls Castle?’). Reading it prompted a few personal thoughts and observations. These Read more...
The Great Critic Drug Dealer Review
Posted 5:28pm Sunday 16th March 2025 by Critic Staff
Disclaimer: The content in this article is not intended to endorse or encourage the purchase, use, or distribution of illegal substances. All anecdotes are intended for entertainment purposes only. Always make informed and responsible decisions about substance use, and seek professional help if Read more...
Big Red vs the Administration: Who Controls Castle?
Posted 12:11am Monday 10th March 2025 by Matilda Rumball-Smith
Content warning: Contains reference to sexual assault and animal abuse Castle Street has a way of making legends out of flats. Some burn bright, some burn out, and some burn couches. Big Red has done all three. The fifteen-man flat is as notorious as the street it stands on. They are the Breatha Read more...
11 Hours with the Student President
Posted 7:38pm Sunday 2nd March 2025 by Zoe Eckhoff
Liam White. Not a myth or legend per se, but definitely the most important man on campus (aside from Daddy Grant). He’s responsible for managing and looking after the OUSA-baby in all its glory. Whether it’s getting along with everyone or shitting itself, Liam is ultimately the one Read more...
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