Te Oraka held a “night market” for students last Thursday. It was a chilled, incredibly wholesome night featuring student-run stalls, live acoustic music, thrift shopping and (most importantly) hot choccies.
Te Oraka is a student-run sustainability hub, thrift shop, “repair cafe” and workshop space, located at the junction of Albany St and Anzac Ave. Maddy, one of the tētēkura (student leaders) who organised the market, described Te Oraka as the “room of requirement.”
Coming hot off the success from the previous night market in Sem 1, Maddy was “definitely very stoked with the turnout”. Maddy noted that because there was no outdoor foot traffic, everyone there had “come with the purpose and intention to be here, which is really cool”. The market provided a perfect opportunity to “support student side hustles,” said Maddy, because “[students] don’t have to pay to have a stall [and we] don’t take a cut of their profit.” As well as helping to support local student biz, the market is a “cool place to come and meet like minded people”. Nika , for one, told Critic Te Ārohi that the market made for a good “study break”.
With a huge range of thrifted items up for grabs, Te Oraka hopes to offer a viable alternative to the expenny and unethical fast fashion that usually dominates our lives. According to Maddy, thrift shopping “gives clothes a new life”, and encourages students to be more sustainable. “We all probably have too much. It’s about being a bit more conscious about the stuff we’re buying.” All of the proceeds from the clothing sales “go straight back into the space to make it better”, said Maddy, adding, “we try to run a circular economy.” Outside of the night market, the sustainability office runs Drop for Good, an annual event to encourage people to get rid of stuff they don’t need at the end of the year so it may be passed onto future students in need.
The event was mostly a success – but in the interests of journalistic integrity, Critic Te Ārohi is obliged to report on one, glaring shortfall: the hot choccies promised to all night market attendees ran out halfway through the night. Approaching Maddy for comment, she exclaimed: “We can't believe it; we ran out!”, before adding that “we were so stoked because we’ve done a bit of a collab with Otis Oat Milk.” Nice flex. She chose to see the positive side of it, though: “Obviously so many people wanted them.”
Anya and Joel were several of the unfortunate stragglers to have missed the fabled hot choccies. The duo took the L in good faith, though, saying the night brought “good vibes nevertheless.” Maddy promised to double the supply of hot choccies next time. Critic Te Ārohi intends to hold Maddy to that promise.
Moving forward, Maddy hopes Te Oraka will continue to “become a super multipurpose conscious and sustainable place for people to use”. You can stay updated and reach out on Instagram (@te_oraka and @sustainability_at_otago).