Here are Re: News' greatest hits of 2024
Re: News journalist Janhavi Gosavi recaps the whirlwind that was 2024 and catches you up on the greatest hits you didn’t see in your Spotify Wrapped.
*deep breaths*
2024 has been A LOT for news, politics, journalism and for the Re: team.
Let’s recap.
This year one of the largest hīkoi in New Zealand’s history took place as a response to the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, the Māori King passed away and a new monarch was crowned, and the Government apologised for abuse in state care.
Meanwhile overseas, the Olympics took place in Paris, Donald Trump became the first convicted felon to be elected president of the United States (his second time), and more than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.
We’ve done our best to make sure you’re getting the news you care about.
Zoe Madden-Smith interviewing on Great Barrier Island (left) and Liam van Eeden filming the Manu World Champs in Auckland (right).
The media industry has been facing plenty of struggles and Re: News has been no different. Last month, TVNZ experienced another round of restructures and sadly myself and Re: News Editor Mandy Te will be saying goodbye.
Thankfully, it’s not all doom and gloom.
Earlier this year, Re: News once again won the Voyager Media Award for ‘Best news, current affairs or specialist publication’ and we celebrated big time.
Liam van Eeden (top left), Zoe Madden-Smith (bottom left), Baz Macdonald and Janhavi Gosavi (bottom centre), Te Ahipourewa Forbes (bottom right), and the Re: team at the 2024 Voyager Media Awards (top right).
To make sure you don’t miss us too much over the holiday break, we have compiled some of our favourite stories from the year for you to sink into.
Running an off-grid bakery on Great Barrier Island
Zoe Madden-Smith took a trip to Great Barrier Island and worked on three amazing stories with the local community there. Check out this video of Adrienne Bowler, a young woman who relies on solar panels, rainwater tanks and expensive shipping to run her off-grid bakery.
Watch New Zealand's youngest MP in 170 years deliver her maiden speech
This video did insane numbers on our channels, and for good reason. Te Ahipourewa Forbes and Baz Macdonald followed Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke as she prepared to deliver her maiden speech. She talks about whānau, what it’s like being in Parliament, and being authentically unapologetically Māori.
Meet the knights of rural NZ: The Levin Medieval Fair
Baz and I headed up to the Levin Medieval Fair in February where we met knights, fair maidens and a purple dragon. Medieval reenactments are a niche but thriving subculture in Aotearoa and I had a blast learning about how much effort they put into their ye olden day outfits.
Life as a funeral director: ‘Serving my iwi by doing this mahi’
Mandy Te looked into all of the changes the funeral industry has gone through in recent years and sat down with two funeral directors at a Whakatāne funeral home to ask them where they see the future of the industry going.
We both survived abuse in state care, 45 years apart
Around a quarter of a million children, young people and vulnerable adults were abused in care in New Zealand from 1950 to 2019. Anna Harcourt told the deeply personal stories of two of those people, teenager Ihorangi Reweti-Peters and 64-year-old Hohepa Taiaroa.
Following the biggest hīkoi to Waitangi in a generation
Every year a hīkoi travels 230 km from the tip of the North Island down to Waitangi. Baz Macdonald and Te Ahipourewa Forbes followed this year’s hīkoi in the final few days of their journey, for what turned out to be the largest hīkoi in a generation.
Vapes are prescription-only in Australia. Should NZ do the same?
In this episode of our Re: Investigates series, Zoe Madden-Smith looks into whether non-prescription vapes should be banned in Aotearoa. There’s no simple answer on how to control youth vaping in New Zealand so Zoe looks to Australia to see if their approach works.
Why do I keep f**king up the bro handshake?
Liam van Eeden took an extremely silly and educational look into the origins of the bro handshake and shared his own journey of constantly fucking it up.
Paying tribute to one of Auckland's first Asian supermarkets, Lim Chhour
Vivien Beduya shot this vibrant photo essay about the story behind Lim Chhour, an Asian supermarket on Karangahape Road.
Breast cancer doesn't discriminate, I found out I had it at 27
Steph Ockhuysen did a powerful profile of Jaydene Dixon-Komene, a fit and healthy woman who found out she had breast cancer at 27, and the piece talks about the benefits of early detection and how she shared the news to her kids.
Exploring the Stop Co-Governance movement | TVNZ+
In this episode of our Re: Investigates series, Baz Macdonald does a deep dive into the Stop Co-Governance movement. The full video is available on TVNZ+ for a limited time so make sure you’ve got a TVNZ+ account so you can watch our videos there!
Re: News has a lot of good shit coming out next year, starting off with our video series The Regions which explores the lives of regional rangatahi – keep your eyes peeled for it!
I’ll wrap this up on a sappy note.
Being a multimedia journalist at Re: News has been a hugeee dream of mine and I’ve loved every minute of it.
From writing about dental dams to explaining why unpaid placements suck, it’s been awesome getting to tell stories for young people across Aotearoa.
It’s also been amazing to see how much our audience cares about what we do, and how fiercely you support our mahi.
From the team at Re: News, thank you for sticking with us!
We’ll see you in 2025.
Re: News recommendations
These are not paid recommendations - they’re just things we like 💗
Hot Frosty on Netflix: This Christmas rom-com is by far one of the best to come out this year (though it didn't have much competition!). Hot Frosty is somewhat strange when you think about it realistically - but that's not what you're supposed to do when it comes to Christmas rom-coms. This magical film is about a widow called Kathy, played by THE Lacey Chabert, who brings a snowman to life. The snowman-turned-human is called Jack - he picks up skills by watching TV and becomes a popular member of the community. A fun and easy watch. - Mandy Te, Re: News Editor
Visit the West Coast: Before this year, I embarrassingly didn’t know anything about the West Coast, or even where it was. I travelled there with my bestie Baz to film part of The Regions and I’m now a convert! The West Coast is one of the most beautiful parts of Aotearoa, just remember to bring insect repellent for the pesky sandflies. - Janhavi Gosavi, Re: journalist
Culinary Class Wars on Netflix: Think Physical 100 but instead, you put Korea's top 100 chefs in one room to compete for the number #1 spot. Fine dining and Michelin star chefs go against cooks from humble backgrounds and you find yourself rooting for so many different chefs along the way. Not that I've watched too many cooking competition shows, but I'd say this is one of the best. The unique (and cut-throat) challenges is what makes it top-notch, in my opinion! - Vivien Beduya, Re: journalist