North & South

North & South is New Zealand’s premier monthly current affairs and lifestyle magazine, specialising in long-form investigative journalism, delivered by award-winning writers and photographers. North & South also showcases New Zealand ingenuity and creativity, explores the country and profiles its people. It is a touchstone of New Zealand life. Digital issues are published one week after print.

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North & South

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South Side Road

SLEEPING DOGS • From Man Alone to Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Kiwi culture has long romanticized the bush-dwelling loner. Now Tom Philips drags his children into a dangerous reality challenging our national narrative of rugged individualism.

CANUTE ECONOMICS • Economist Geoff Bertram on why the turning tides of price increases doesn’t mean government can claim credit for cutting inflation.

TOP COP • Writer John Sinclair talks to the Chief Police Commissioner Andrew Coster on the eve of his departure for the shores of social reform.

Farming Futures • Cultivating Tomorrow’s Leaders with Innovative Master of Environment and Agriculture.

Bi-HEMISPHERE Kiwis • More New Zealanders than ever are living “bi-hemispherically”, splitting their lives between here and abroad. What’s the appeal? More importantly, how do they manage to pull it off?

A VISITOR FROM UZBEKISTAN • Retired salesman Gary Stevens on making his bi-hemispheric lifestyle work for six years and counting.

The DISAPPEARED • Solitary confinement destroys people, but New Zealand continues to inflict it on our most vulnerable and damaged people, including children, as a matter of course. Aaron Smale reports on the practice that won’t go away and the people that are psychologically annihilated and physically disappeared in state institutions.

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BRAIN DRAIN • New Zealand’s borders opened more than two years ago, yet 2024 has seen record numbers of young professionals leaving for greener pastures. Why now, and should we be worried?

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Out of the WOODWORK • Aotearoa introduces its first ever Design Laureate Award, funded by the Crane Foundation. And the winner is…designer and sculptor Carin Wilson Kahui Whetu Ngā Aho (Mataatua, Ngati Awa, Tuhourangi).

The family album • Interdisciplinary artist Stella Brennan remixes archival objects into anti-nostalgic meditations on progress and history. Thread Between Darkness & Light is Brennan’s most personal artwork, and one of her most beautiful.

BURNING BRIGHT • Philip Clairmont was considered one of New Zealand’s best painters before his tragically early death in 1984. David Herkt examines his life and some of the many mysteries of his end.

The French connection • Dunedin-born psychoanalyst Joyce McDougall made her mark in “Gay Paree”.

Songs of praise • A brief review of praise poetry reveals the most sincere tributes can make for dire reading.

BOOKS

Chasing skirt and the White House, a 1988 time capsule

Shedding light on Auckland • Since settling in Sydney in the late 70s, Japanese-born photographer MikiNobu Komatsu has been a repeat visitor to Aotearoa, a consequence, he says, of this country’s rich light. His new photo book, Classic Aotearoa, collects four decades of architectural images.

Auckland’s rise • As New Zealand’s largest metropolis braces for unprecedented growth, the race is on to transform the city and its infrastructure...