Editorial: Mason breaks up with Massive

We were on the hunt for a man for the food issue cover. A specific type of man. A man with the particular look of Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) from the Bear. We couldn’t find anyone, so we called Mason Tangatatai.  

Mason was Massive’s editor in 2022. He had the privilege of being my boss when I first started at Massive.  

Mason is just about to move to the UK, ready to finally escape student media. But oh no. Student media will never let you go. We had to bring Mason back one last time and put him front and centre fingering a cake. You can see on his face he was not pleased about this, shouting at the end of the photoshoot, “THIS IS THE LAST STRAW! I’M BREAKING UP WITH MASSIVE.” He got so mad he smashed my face into our beautiful cake.

This is a hard breakup. There’s history there. Mason was the first editor to translate the entire magazine into Te Reo for the Te wiki o Te Reo issue. His Massive had a beautiful mix of hilarious and informative articles. He incorporated Te Reo and sign language into every issue. He wrote about student issues so precisely and genuinely. And finally, he ATE this cover.

He was okay I guess… 

Love, Sammy