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Kapa haka teams take to Polyfest stage

The top Tāmaki Makaurau secondary schools kapa haka teams have taken to the Polyfest stage in Manukau.They're performing to crowds for the first time after years of disruption.Ngā Puna o Waiōrea has taken the title at this year's Polyfest, with second place being Te Kura Kaupapa o Hoani Waititi and third place Kia Aroha College.Link to video and article: Kapa haka teams take to Polyfest stage after years of disruptions | Newshub...

Kiwi kids have strong sense of

Young people have a strong sense of who they are in terms of their ethnic and gender diversity, new research shows.The research, published on Wednesday, is part of ‘Now We Are Twelve’ – the latest work by the longitudinal study Growing Up in New Zealand.It surveyed 4500​ 12-year-olds and their whānau.About a third​ of the young people said they belonged to more than one ethnic group.The majority reported feeling good, happy and proud of their ethnic identity – having a strong sense ...

Hastings teen believes parliamentary opportunities

At just 17, Lena Ormsby from the Ngāpuhi and Tainui iwi has gone from representing rangatahi in the Hastings district to one of eight young leaders representing rangatahi as part of the Parliament’s youth reference group.The Karamu High School head student and former Hastings Youth Council chairwoman said she feels honoured to have been selected to Rito o te Pāremata.Rito is a group of young people that advise the Office of the Clerk and the Parliamentary Service on how to engage with youth ...

Social worker charged with caring too much

A Palmerston North social worker who formed a personal relationship with the brother of a young person in her care is facing charges of professional misconduct and conduct unbecoming of a social worker.Former Oranga Tamariki social worker Kerry Burridge allegedly allowed the older brother to use her cellphone as a contact number for probation services, and visited the man at home after hours and in prison when she was off duty.A five-person panel is hearing evidence for the Social Workers Compla...

More than 60 new homes for Hastings

More than 60 new homes have been proposed across four sites in a Hastings suburb, as part of the latest Kāinga Ora housing project announced for Hawke’s Bay.Hastings Boys’ High School students are getting on the tools and building three of the Kāinga Ora - Homes and Communities (formerly Housing New Zealand) homes, which would add to the public housing stock.The 67 proposed dwellings are in the suburb of Mayfair and are planned to be built at 1034-1042 Sussex St (16 homes), 1015-1023 Susse...

'Too many' Kiwi kids going without basics,

For some children, school is the main place they’re being fed.High school students are getting jobs to help their parents, and older kids are going without food so there’s more for their younger siblings, a leading children’s charity says.New research shows one in five​ young New Zealanders have experienced material hardship by their pre-teen years.On Wednesday, longitudinal study Growing Up in New Zealand released the first tranche of findings from ‘Now We Are Twelve’, which involve...

Book of the Week:

Vincent O'Malley on the persistent fantasy of Pākehā narratives that Māori were lucky  to have been colonisedThe influence of conspiracy theorists peddling misinformation and whipping up hatred against particular segments of the population has been brought into stark relief during the current pandemic. There is no phrase more ominous than "I’ve done my own research", and the extended lockdowns and dodgy social media algorithms sucked many people into a vortex of distortions and outrigh...

'Woeful': Māori patients

Kidney Health New Zealand Tākihi Hauora Aotearoa (KHNZ) is calling on the government to address the "woeful" low number of Māori patients who receive kidney transplants.KHNZ wants Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ and Te Aka Whai Ora/The Māori Health Authority to be more transparent, to integrate tikanga Māori/customs and values, and to address racism Māori patients experience in the healthcare system.It also wants the government to consider establishing a Māori Kidney Transplant Taskforce.It comes a...

Indigenous groups in NZ,

Whisper, launched in September by the company behind the ChatGPT chatbot, was trained on 680,000 hours of audio from the web, including 1381 hours of the te reo Māori.Indigenous tech and culture experts say that, while such technologies can help preserve and revive their languages, harvesting their data without consent risks abuse, distorting of Indigenous culture, and depriving minorities of their rights."Data is like our land and natural resources," Karaitiana Taiuru, a Māori ethicist and an...

Māori academic Tā Pou Temara

Leading Māori academic Sir William Te Rangiua “Pou” Temara was raised by his kaumātua in Ruataahuna and as result has a focus on te reo Māori me ōna tikanga like no other.He says the wisdom passed down to him by his kaumātua has formed the basis for his new book, Te Rautakitahi o Tūhoe ki Ōrākau, which was launched in a replica of Ōrākau Pa in Mamaku.“Everyone in the world knows about what happened in Ōrākau, though the kōrero that people know now was not written by Māori, [a...

Kapa haka excellence on full display at Polyfest

The booming sound of haka soared from the Due Drop Events Centre in Manukau on Monday, day one of the Māori stage of the ASB Polyfest competition.More than 14 kura took to the Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi Māori stage on Monday, with 40 schools scheduled to perform over the three-day competition.Much like Te Matatini, which was held earlier this year, competition at Polyfest was fierce and team fans could be seen rushing to get the best supporter spot in front of the stage.For Kelston Girl...

Dr Shane Reti:

Let’s teach the basics brilliantly.Education has the power to change lives. It allows children to gain the skills and knowledge they need for further education and to go on and lead successful lives.With education being one of the most important building blocks in life, it is a tragedy to me and many others that only 34 per cent of children in Northland are attending school regularly. This is a staggering statistic, no matter how one defines ‘regular’.So, why aren’t our tamariki attendin...

National Māori Housing Conference:

A Māori social services leader says she “shut down” Rotorua homeless hotel Four Canoes after finding conditions she believed were not even good enough for dogs.Lifewise chief executive Haehaetu Barrett told the National Māori Housing Conference in Rotorua today that in her view: “I wouldn’t even put my Rotties in what I found.”Barrett was using the conditions found at the Fenton St hotel, which had been used for two years to house homeless people, as an example of why Māori should b...

Mount Taranaki one step closer to having the legal status of a person

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Mātauranga Māori is no threat to science,

OPINION: Tūpuna Māori (ancestors of Māori) arrived on these lands voyaging from Polynesia between 1200 and 1300AD, and with them arrived the first science of these lands. This equates to around 28 generations between then and now, and many millions of ancestors across those 28 generations.Oral-based knowledge systems are predominant among indigenous nations and Māori are no exception. Oral narratives are passed within a generation and onto the next generations for many reasons including (but...

Memorial stone for Whanganui pioneer Jock McGregor

The memorial stone for John “Jock” McGregor has been moved to accommodate developments at Te Pūwaha - the city’s port redevelopment.McGregor was Whanganui’s first European settler.His descendants gathered in town this week to commemorate his life and watch the stone be moved further up the Whanganui River - under the watchful eye of Cashmore Contracting.Kahurangi Simon, a member of hapū representative group Te Mata Pūau, told guests that McGregor worked alongside Chief Te Peehi Tūroa...

Shift from European languages to

The statistics are clear - New Zealanders have not lost their love of learning languages.Enrolments in te reo Māori and Pasifika language courses are surging, having more than doubled at the tertiary level in the past 10 years.At the same time, traditional languages such as French and German have lost their lustre and enrolments are on a downward spiral.People within the sector say several factors are at play.Link to article: Shift from European languages to te reo Māori, Pasifika under w...

Shipping container homes

A shipping container might not be your dream home but one company is donating them as shelter for a year to Hawke's Bay families in need.It comes as the Government works to house hundreds of those impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle.These aren't simply shipping containers - they signify hope, security and stability. And for people like Eskdale resident Rawinia Gray it's a place to call home once again.Link to video and article: Shipping container homes donated to Hawke's Bay families in need of s...

Marama Davidson right

Marama Davidson shouldn’t have to apologise for telling the truth about the prevalence of white male violence, an academic says.Eileen Joy, a professional teaching fellow and doctoral candidate at the University of Auckland, has come out in support of Davidson, saying that statistics on family violence don’t always paint the full picture. Her PhD thesis looks at child protection in Aotearoa.Davidson, who is the Minister for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, made headlines at a t...

Union furious as hundreds of mainly managerial jobs

Te Pūkenga chief executive Peter Winder says the mega-institute will cut hundreds of jobs and sell some assets.The organisation has taken over all polytechnics and most industry training organisations and has asked the government for $330 million from this year's Budget to pay for its transformation.Winder told Nine to Noon today creating the institute would cost significantly less than original estimates of more than $400m, but would not provide an exact cost.Link to commentary and article:&nb...

How forestry slash can become

Cyclone Gabrielle has had a devastating impact on Aotearoa, bringing major concerns to the fore about climate change and forestry management. The news reports from February will stay long in the memory, particularly the huge volumes of slash that contributed to our worst floods this century. As managing slash becomes an urgent nationwide issue, one company has devised a solution that can turn the problem into a positive.Forestry and timber company OneFortyOne is a business with a plan — to tur...

Rangi Mātāmua named New Zealander of the Year

Mātāmua has been recognised for his continued efforts to push Matauranga Māori to the forefront, to better connect Aotearoa with the whenua and wairua shared by all.The pioneering Māori scholar also led the formation of the country's newest public holiday, Matariki, which was celebrated as a public holiday for the first time last year.Link to videos and article: Watch: Powerful haka as Rangi Mātāmua named New Zealander of the Year (1news.co.nz)...

New NCEA tests poorly designed for Māori, Pacific students

An independent evaluation says it is likely the design of new NCEA maths and writing tests is unfair on Māori and Pacific teenagers.It says the difficulty of the tests appears to be about right, but their design and digital nature could be contributing to lower pass rates for some groups.Meanwhile, just-published results from a September trial of the NCEA tests show improved pass rates for writing and maths, but worse for reading compared to previous trials.More than 21,000 mostly Year 10 stude...

Māori-led solutions

A conference on Māori housing held in Rotorua was attended by over 900 people who are on the front line of dealing with homelessness and providing solutions. By Aaron Smale.Speakers at a conference on Māori housing highlighted how major events like Covid-19 and Cyclone Gabrielle have exposed serious housing issues for Māori communities, but also put forward solutions they have seen work.The biennial conference is being held in Rotorua after first being launched there in 2010. This year’s co...

A third of staff see no future

One in three staff at Te Pūkenga don't believe there is a future for them at the new mega polytech, while the vast majority surveyed would not recommend working there to whānau and friends.The national tertiary provider carried out its fourth employee questionnaire in November 2022, with 50% (4311) of staff responding.The survey was commissioned “as a resource in building our team” and had been shared with several members “as an internal resource”, a Te Pūkenga spokesperson said.The r...