Zoë Mills

Salient Magazine • 24th July 2022

School Strike For Climate: Reflecting On Pākehā-Centric Activism —

Sophie Handford, often dubbed “Aotearoa’s Greta Thunberg”, was one of the young climate activists who founded the New Zealand branch of SS4C. Leading up to the first series of strikes in 2018, she found herself becoming the face of the movement. I spoke to the Kāpiti-based activist, where she resides as the youngest city councillor, after retiring from School Strike in 2021.

The School Strike movement began in Sweden and gained media attention after thousands of students participated in strikes

Salient Magazine • 22nd May 2022

“I Visited the Anti-Covid Mandate Protests. Here’s What Happened.” —

Since the anti-Covid mandate protests shut down Parliament grounds last February, groups of smaller protests have sprung up across the city to protest everything from vaccines, mandates, to the Prime Minister herself. In April, Unite. NZ, a leading organiser of February’s events, took to the streets for a 14-day series of protests across Wellington city. Each day had a new theme or demand relating to Covid-19—themes ranging from “misinformation,” to “police brutality,” to specific amendments act

The Spinoff • 1st September 2021

How social media is exposing the cracks in our mental health system

For disabled people, an inquiry into abuse is only the first step

Disabled people still have less societal power than the able-bodied, and where there are inequalities of power there is room for abuse.

Tearaway • 12th October 2020

Youth Wings: ACT's Felix Poole

The Spinoff’s Youth Wings series featured a debate in September — our Mavericks sat down with each of the Youth Wings* to understand what their parties are about.

Will you see yourself reflected in the wings or do they look the part but speak like a retired veteran? ZOE MILLS sat down with Young ACT’s Felix Poole to find out.

He enjoys video games.

He lives in a shoddy student flat.

He used to scrape grease out of the fryers at McDonald’s

He is also president of the youth wing of the ACT P

Salient Magazine • 6th March 2022

Student Homelessness — Salient Magazine

Our vision of what homelessness looks like is tainted.

When we think of homelessness, it's easy to imagine a far-away abstract visual of what that looks like: a person living on the street or sleeping in a doorway. But in reality, it’s right on our doorstep: It looks like couch surfing for months on end in between flats, being forced out of a flat due to unlivable conditions, and living in cars or vans. It’s time we address the rapidly growing issue of student homelessness in Wellington.

While

Salient Magazine • 29th May 2022

How K-POP Fans Have Changed the Face of Activism —

K-pop has taken the world by storm; a global phenomenon currently dominating the musical, fashion, and pop cultural spheres. Korean pop music is known for a myriad of girl-groups and boy-bands, catchy hits, complex dance routines, and dedicated fan-bases.

K-pop fans have a reputation for being one of the most loyal and extreme fan bases on the planet. Extreme fans are commonly known as ‘stans.’ Regular fans may engage with artists and bands in a casual way, such as listening to their music, goi

NZ Herald • 19th May 2021

Zoe Mills: The Sudanese influencer and the blue circles

A protester flashes the victory sign in front of burning tires and debris on road 60, near Khartoum's army headquarters, in Sudan. File photo / AP

A protester flashes the victory sign in front of burning tires and debris on road 60, near Khartoum's army headquarters, in Sudan. File photo / AP

If you use any form of social media, it's likely your feed has recently been flooded with blue circles.

The social media movement #IAmTheSudanRevolution encourages people to change their profile pictures

Tearaway • 17th August 2020

ROONIE: NZ's next big thing

If there’s a name that you are bound to hear on the radio any time soon, that name is ROONIE – or more specifically, Michaela Pointon.

The 19-year-old has recently re-established herself on the NZ music scene as pop artist ROONIE – complete with her debut release My Heart, a vibrant track that matches her bright personality to a tee. I sat down with ROONIE to chat music, inspiration and her goals for the future.

The past year has been one of significant change and growth — in particular, the s

Tearaway • 22nd June 2020

Why New Zealand's response to Black Lives Matter is crucial

Over the past couple of days, I’ve seen floods of social media posts commenting on the Black Lives Matter movement in the USA from fellow kiwis. While most responses have been positive, there is one opinion in particular that I believe is an incredibly dangerous attitude to have during this time – “I’m so glad that we live in New Zealand – we have no racism!”.

During this period of building momentum for the BLM movement, it is a crucial opportunity to recognise the prejudice that our very own j

Tearaway • 12th March 2020

In Review: George After James & Nick Dow, “Wait For You” EP Release Show

Artist: George After James & Nick Dow

Date: 3rd February 2020

Location: The Upper Room Basement

Rating: 5/5

Review by: Zoe Mills

“I think my music is pretty wholesome” James chuckles, as he tells me just minutes before his EP “Wait For You” release show was set to start. “Its real. We all go through stuff like pain and loss… we all feel them, but there’s hope in there”.

In the age of picture-perfect popstars, it has become much harder to find genuine and sincere musicians amongst the c

The Spinoff • 12th September 2019

Voices of Hong Kong NZ: Immigrants' messages for the protestors back home

While the protests continue in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong diaspora looks on with fear, anger, solidarity and hope. Zoe Mills asked Hong Kong New Zealanders what they wanted to say to those back home, as they fight on to protect their civil liberties.

Since June, a wave of political unrest has rocked Hong Kong. Provoked by a bill which would allow extradition of legal suspects to mainland China, the demonstrations, mass mobilisations and other forms of civil disobedience are now a regular occurren

Newsroom • 24th May 2019

Climate strikers send a clear message

Auckland school student Zoe Mills reports from the scene of today's climate change strike - one of thousands across the world

If there’s one word to summarise the school strike for climate change in Auckland, it would be - ironically - fiery.

Today, thousands of students participated in the worldwide school strike for climate change led by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. More than 1660 cities and towns registered to participate in the strike in 119 countries.

The worldwide ‘lie-i