Skilled Students Snag Blues and Golds

Posted 4:05pm Monday 13th October 2025 by Gryffin Blockley

The annual Blues and Golds awards were held last Thursday to celebrate cultural and sporting achievements of Otago tauira. The yearly ceremony is a collaboration between the University and OUSA, proving just how well some students are able to lock in. In total, 56 individuals or clubs got an award. Read more...

POLSA Debate Team Says Scarfie Culture is Out

Posted 12:17am Monday 29th September 2025 by Nina Brown

Should Scarfie culture be officially recognised as intangible cultural heritage? Three Greens politicians, Mickey Treadwell, Francisco Hernandez and Rosie Finnie, think yes. But in a debate hosted by the Otago Politics Students Association (POLSA) at the Business School on Friday September 19, three Read more...

The Dummy's Guide to Travelling to Hawai’i

Posted 11:56am Sunday 8th October 2023 by Skyla from Ngāti Hine

Welcome to the Dummy's Guide to Travelling to Hawai’i, where we'll show you how to turn a dream vacation into a nightmare of confusion, frustration, and inefficiency. Who needs simplicity and relaxation when you can make everything needlessly complex? It's time to discuss the Read more...

The Return of the Olympics of Māoridom

Posted 2:23pm Sunday 5th March 2023 by Skyla from Ngāti Hine

Te Matatini has returned after a four-year hiatus, with a fiery comeback in Tāmaki Makaurau. Known as the ‘Olympics of Māoridom’, or even the ‘Broadway of the Pacific’, 45 groups across 13 regions gathered to celebrate the competition’s great return after the Read more...

Avatar 2 Sucked, Actually

Posted 2:53pm Sunday 5th March 2023 by Skyla o Ngāti Hine

Avatar: The Way of Water recently ranked as the sixth-highest grossing film in all of cinematic history. Like thousands of other Kiwis around New Zealand, you may have found yourself in your local Hoyts this summer enjoying a box of popcorn and the long-awaited sequel. It’s also likely that Read more...

Torn Between Two Worlds:

Posted 6:23pm Sunday 11th September 2022 by Annabelle Parata Vaughan

Navigating one’s identity at university can be a tricky task for many. You’re away from friends, family and the familiarity that comes with home. You’re finally off in the big wide world, free to experiment and figure out who you really are. But for Māori students, the Read more...

Tā Moko Now, Tā Moko Forever

Posted 6:10pm Sunday 11th September 2022 by A kōrero with Kiritea Smith (Ngāi te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Tainui), Te Ariki Mana-Wagner and Sky (Ngāti Hin

Every tā moko tells a story. Every line has a meaning, connecting the body to the tūpuna that came before it. But after the arrival of Pākehā settlers, and after the repression of Māori culture, tā moko saw a decline alongside te reo Māori. Some of the artistic Read more...

Infringing on the Fringe Festival

Posted 2:01pm Saturday 9th April 2022 by Ruby Werry

The Dunedin Fringe Festival, as the website states, aims to “bring experimental contemporary art to a wider audience and to support the work of emerging artists”. The line-up saw big names in comedy like 7 Day’s Ben Hurley and Billy T nominee Jack Ansett come to entertain the Read more...

Local Produce: Oscar Thomas

Posted 6:39pm Friday 1st April 2022 by Ruby Werry

Oscar Thomas is a 21-year-old wildlife photographer and author, studying Zoology and Ecology here at Otago University. Oscar is a Blake Ambassador, and a recipient of Otago’s True Young Explorers Scholarship. His book, “A Naturalist's Guide to the Birds of New Zealand'' was Read more...

This World is on Fire:

Posted 5:48pm Sunday 27th March 2022 by Sean Gourley

In a world that seems to be sliding further and further into the shit every day, Critic checked in with students to see what terrified them most about their future existence on this fuck-up of a planet. Most of the questioning was conducted on St Paddy’s to ensure that participants spoke from Read more...