In case you missed something, here are our most read stories for the month.
1 - THE PENCILSWORD: INEQUALITY TOWER
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How do we fix New Zealand's inequality problem, Toby Morris asks. Maybe by acknowledging it first.
2 - BEING YOUNG AND MUSLIM IN NEW ZEALAND
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For young Muslims in New Zealand, dealing with negative perceptions of their religion can be challenging. Our reporter Mava Moayyed asked Kiwi Muslims to share their stories about struggling to fit in.
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In an amazing twist, things got so bad on The Bachelor NZ that girls began eliminating themselves. With Arthur himself seemingly giving up, Wireless contributor Natasha Hoyland asks herself why she still watches the show.
4 - AN UNWILLING AMBASSADOR IN THE WAR ON TERROR
Mohamed Hassan Photo: Mava Moayyed/The Wireless
"As Muslims, it’s hard not to feel like we’re treated differently, like the word “terrorist” isn’t hanging over our heads like a bounty wherever we go," says Mohamed Hassan. He tells of how it's hard for the Muslim community to feel like it's more than just tolerated.
5 - GLASSONS LACKING IN ETHICAL CLOTHING PRACTICES
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This month, New Zealand women's clothing label Glassons were criticised for their poor ethical clothing practices. The Australian Fashion Report 2015 assesses and measures a company's efforts to guard against the use of child and forced labour in its supply chain. Glassons scored an unimpressive D-minus in the report. Story by Mava Moayyed.
6 - NICE GIRLS DON'T HAVE NOSE RINGS
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In this story from The Watercooler, Jess Holly Bates explains that girls with nose rings don't write thank you notes. It's a story of how she got her septum pierced. Or a cautionary tale on grammar school education. Or a treatise on cleaning your chicken bones. Or just a thing that she happened into, on the other side of the world.
Coming together as a result of some of Wellington’s key venues closing down last year, Wellington’s Eyegum Music Collective are self-described as “a bunch of musicians, artists, fans and a lawyer who've got together with the aim of putting on awesome events.” The result is a community vibe that is re-shaping the Wellington music scene. Gussie Larkin and Ezra Simons talked to the creators and volunteers behind the collective to find out more.
8 - A RAPE JOKE WALKS INTO A COMEDY FESTIVAL
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As she puts it, Adrienne Truscott’s first full-length show, which she is playing at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, is a "boozy walk through some of the things that we might lazily think about when we think about rape in our culture." If it all sounds pretty serious, that’s because it is. She talks to Charlotte Graham about how it frustrates her that women in comedy are defined by the issues they speak about, when men aren’t.
Other than sport, there’s not a lot to do in Southbridge. The tiny community of fewer than a thousand people is close to an hour’s drive from Christchurch, near Lake Ellesmere, neither on the way to anything, or home to any major landmarks. This is rugby country though so Megan Whelan and Julian Vares headed along to Southbridge’s first game of the season to see how important the local club is to a small community. For more, read Megan's piece that takes a closer look at who wins out of New Zealand's obsession with sport.
10 - HAPPY HUNTING GROUND
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Hunting has long been a contentious sport and this month, English actor and comedian Ricky Gervais, propelled the issue into the limelight after he slammed trophy hunters on Twitter. Our reporter Mava Moayyed spoke to some Kiwi trophy hunters who tell us why they shoot to kill.
