Back to Blog

Zealandia:

Scientists have reconstructed the 100-million-year story of the lost continent that Aotearoa sits upon, in a series of maps charting the formation of Te Riu-a-Māui/Zealandia.Being nearly completely underwater – New Zealand represents the largest portion of it above sea level – what is the world’s youngest, smallest and thinnest continent is largely invisible to us.But, if we drained the oceans, we could see it unfurling some 4.9 million sq km across the South Pacific.Link to article: ...

Māori traditional construction techniques ‘conclusively proven’

Endangered Māori construction techniques have been “conclusively proven” to be capable of withstanding major earthquakes, Professor Anthony Hoete (Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Ranana) says, after his team successfully tested a full-scale timber structure in Ōpōtiki this weekend.This knowledge will now be used to rebuild a historic Bay of Plenty wharenui, Tānewhirinaki.Professor Hoete, an architect and researcher, along with a team from the University of Auckland, used endangered construction knowl...

St Peter's school carves piece off farm

St Peter’s School is embarking on a residential subdivision venture to ensure the long-term financial independence of the school.The private Cambridge school has entered a partnership with local developers 3Ms to transform 32 hectares of the school’s 170 hectare farmland into a residential subdivision over the next four years.In a dawn ceremony on Monday morning, the subdivision was named Arikirua by mana whenua - Ngāti Koroki Kahukura and Ngāti Hauā.The name comes from a nearby Pā site ...

Retirees are "suffering in silence"

Around 40% of retired New Zealanders have to get by on their pension alone – a maximum of $496.37 a week for a single person living alone.Unlike previous generations, many don't own their own homes. To balance the budget in a cost-of-living crisis, something inevitably must give.Age Concern chief executive Karen Billings-Jensen told Breakfast while last night’s Sunday story on retirees struggling to make ends meet “would have been quite shocking for a lot of people".She said "it is the rea...

David Tipene-Leach:

David Tipene-Leach’s 40-odd years as a doctor has covered a period of significant progress. There’s still the need for more Māori and Pacific doctors, nurses and other health workers. There’s still a shortage in New Zealand’s health system of professionals who are helping fix the ills for many of their Māori and Pacific patients. And there’s still a blindness among privileged New Zealanders of the inequities in our society.But all along — as a GP, hospital house surgeon, researcher...

What if we think about native forests

David Hall is the Climate Policy Director at Toha.OPINION: After Cyclone Gabrielle, forestry experts are calling for permanent native forest to be restored to the upper catchments of the East Coast.This would transform local biodiversity. But the reduction of climate-related risks is the leading rationale.Forest canopy and tree roots protect the region’s soft soils from wind and rain, which reduces erosion and sedimentation.Flood risk is also reduced because trees capture and divert rain water...

Teens crawl into laundromat machines

When Sam Sheikh opened Double Bubble Laundromat in the Hamilton suburb of Dinsdale, it didn’t occur to him that the overwhelming scent inside wouldn’t be laundered clothes, but deodorant.The fragrance isn’t as a result of perspiring customers, but a group of young people who are using Sheikh’s shop as a space to hang out and huff deodorant.The group of about a dozen young people have been loitering in his business for the last month, Sheikh says. Often getting so high off deodorant that ...

Architectural experiment tests seismic merits

Technology from the 17th century used in making waka for sailing the Pacific is now being trialled in our disaster preparedness.Seismic testing is being conducted in the Bay of Plenty this weekend to test the merits of the ancient Māori building technique of mīmiro.It might not look quite like Grand Designs but if successful, this architectural experiment at the foothill of Te Urewera could revolutionise the way we build and earthquake-proof marae using ancestral knowledge.Link to video and ar...

Māori worker injuries in workplaces

Today Te Roopu Marutau o Aotearoa held the first Māori health and safety conference in Kirikiriroa, with the aim of promoting a “by Māori for Māori” approach to achieve equitable outcomes for Māori workers.According to WorkSafe, there are 103 work-related injury claims for every 1000 Māori fulltime workers. That’s compared to 83 claims for every 1000 Pākehā workers.Te Roopu Marutau o Aotearoa (the Māori Health and Safety Association) chairman Wayne Kohi acknowledges the poor statis...

Kids still 'trickling' into school

South Auckland schools are experiencing an influx of enrolments as new students keep walking through their doors months into the year, educators say.Despite the sharp growth, principals are still concerned for the thousands of pupils who disappeared from the education system during Covid-19.Grant McMillan, the principal at James Cook High School in Manurewa, said many students enrolling in his school hadn’t been in education for about a year.“We’re seeing a slow returning to schooling afte...

Salvation Army

The Salvation Army is making strategic tactical decisions to Māori who make up 40 per cent of its client database.The Salvation Army has asked Anglican Bishop Te Kitohi Pikaahu to chair a revamped Māori Ministry Rūnanga which will provide overall strategic guidance to the organisation, which receives government funding to manage a range of social services.Link to article: Salvation Army moves to incorporate Māori to help set new strategic guidance - NZ Herald...

Could changes to proposed law

Traditional healers fear echoes of a tool of colonisation, but the Government says it’s listening to concerns as a “messy” law-change makes its way through Parliament. Eugene Bingham reports.Even before the floodwaters had receded, even before the roads around her Hawke’s Bay home were safe to drive on again, Dr Charlotte Mildon started getting calls for help.“The marae down the road was asking me to come, and I said ‘as soon as I can, I will’,” says Mildon, recalling the immedia...

The Great Exodus:

Sarah Arnold still remembers the day her partner said the three magic words.For years, the Kāpiti couple had been living week-to-week, struggling to find time to spend together with their daughter, until one day Huia came home from work having been told a long awaited pay rise would be 50c an hour.“He walked in the door and all he said was, ‘book the tickets’.”Link to video and article: The Great Exodus: As Kiwis leave for a better life, Australia looks luckier than ever | Stuff.co...

First Union organiser Edith Tamaki

A union organiser dismissed for sending a scathing email alleging Māori members were treated as “excrement” has failed to get her job back, for now.Edith Tamaki was sacked from First Union in December last year for serious misconduct after the October 17 email that went to all organisers and managers.The email was headed “Behaviour of Paid Union Officials” and written in Tamaki’s capacity as the Āhipa Māori - an elected position established to support the work of the union’s rūna...

Kura reo tailors to

The first ever kura reo in Australia kicked off on Friday in Te Urupū - Perth.The kura reo was set up by Waikato based consulting agency TupuOra Education and Development.TupuOra Resource and Cultural Development manager Tiare Teinakore said one year ago they set up an online kura reo aimed at Te Reo speakers in Australia."Mai i taua Kura Reo ā ipurangi i tino rongo mātau i tō rātau matemate-ā-one mo te kāinga, ki to tātau reo me ā tātau tikinga. Kua roa mātau o Tupu Ora e pirangi ana...

He's lost 65kg,

Darren ‘D’ Waiwai wears his old singlet to the gym everyday so he can see how far he’s come.The Masterton father of four has lost 65kg in the last year. Now, his old clothes hang off him like a tent.Going to the gym has helped Waiwai work through family trauma, and it’s been a lifesaver for his son who he’s working alongside after a period of poor mental health.Link to article: He's lost 65kg, but for Darren Waiwai exercise was about silencing the taniwha | Stuff.co.nz...

First police station with all external signage

A new police base in the small Bay of Plenty town of Tāneatua has opened after a fire destroyed the town's station in 2018.Officially opened by Commissioner Andrew Coster following a blessing by local kaumatua, police say the base was a collaborative project with Ngāi Tūhoe and other key community partners."This whare is a touchstone for positive change - it's a place that encourages engagement with the entire community and the spirit of mahi tahi (working together), Coster said."It's wairua ...

Rotorua youth encouraged to give

Rotorua’s youth are encouraged to enter the 76th Annual Speech and Drama Competition being held on June 24 to 25, with returning competitors recommending the experience for many reasons.The competition is held annually for school-aged children, and provides experience in and exposure to the performing arts and public speaking.This will be the 76th competition since 1946, and categories include poetry recitals, impromptu performances, group dramas in costume, prepared readings, reading at sight...

Māori, Pasifika podcast

Mandatenz is a Māori and Pasifika-led podcast tapping into the world of men's mental health. The main goal for the organisers is to allow a safe space for men to open up, and share experiences that may be considered too taboo for many. They hope to create a new generation of men more resilient than the last.The podcast was set up as a free place to share thoughts, experiences, and hardships, creating a safe space for men, co-host Jaemen Busby of Te Rarawa saysLink to video and article:&nbs...

Feeling comfortable 'in my own skin'

A young woman who found herself depressed, suffering from an eating disorder and drinking at the age of 16 just to cope says without the help of a Christchurch youth service she would “probably be a wreck”.As a teenager looking for help online, Camelia Anderson-Setyowati​ said she “wanted to cry” seeing how expensive mental healthcare could be.“I had pretty nasty mental health issues at the time,” she said.Link to article: Feeling comfortable 'in my own skin' thanks to free yo...

Matawhaorua programme launched

The Government is rolling out new programmes in areas that have seen spikes in youth offending to help steer rangatahi into training and employment, Associate Social Development and Employment Minister Willie Jackson says.Whakawātea Te Ara Poutama involves 15 work-readiness and employment training programmes in areas with the biggest increases in youth crime and ram raids: south and west Auckland, Northland, Bay of Plenty and Waikato, and it seems it couldn’t have come soon enough.According t...

Christchurch's 298 Youth Health

An esteemed health specialist believes the government needs a wake-up call around investment in health care for young people, or face further "funding crises".Dame Sue Bagshaw's longstanding youth health centre 298 Youth Health in central Christchurch is being rebranded Te Tahi Youth.The facility, founded by Bagshaw back in 1995, is the only spot in the city where 10-24 year olds can access free medical, sexual, mental health, wellbeing and employment services.The youth health doctor is also ste...

Is New Zealand really post-dominion?

A prominent law historian has questioned just how much "baggage" the soon-to-be-former name of Wellington's biggest newspaper, The Dominion Post, really carries.Owner Stuff announced last week the paper would soon be known simply as The Post - because - in editor Caitlin Cherry's words, New Zealand was "under no one's dominion"."New Zealand's status as a dominion ended in 1945 when we joined the United Nations," Cherry - who only took on the job in February - said. "It's time for the word to go....

South Auckland’s poor census turnout

South Auckland's poor 2018 census turnout could have cost the region $130 million in health funding.And, according to an expert, that cash could have helped tackle the area's battles with diabetes and obesity.Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand said the defunct Counties Manukau District Health Board lost $130m in health funding in its last four years due to the low turnout in the area during the 2018 census.Link to article: South Auckland’s poor census turnout could cost it $130m in health fu...

East Coast group takes pine forestry

The damage caused by pine forestry has been raised at the UN by an NZ group that says the industry is responsible for multiple Indigenous rights violationsAn East Coast group that has petitioned the government on land use has now taken its concerns to the United Nations. Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti representative Renee Raroa gave a presentation at a forum on indigenous issues at a meeting of the United Nations in New York. Speaking at the 22nd Session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Is...