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Waste firm promises iwi $10m

A contentious proposal to build a “mega” 26 million cubic metre landfill north of Auckland has made a significant step forward, securing the support of local mana whenua Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust.In a memorandum released to Stuff, Waste Management has agreed to pay $10 million if the landfill should “threaten the integrity” of the nearby Hoteo River.The river feeds into the Kaipara Harbour, and the possible poisoning of waterways should the landfill leak was a major concern discus...

From homeless to Eco Warrior, our first Māori Environment Commissioner

Aotearoa’s first Māori Environment Commissioner. Eco-Warrior. Lawyer. Wāhine Toa Journalist. Broadcaster. Television Presenter. Teacher. Global Goodwill Ambassador.Kiri Danielle’s CV reads like a wish list of Māori excellence. But behind her pageant-worthy smile lie memories that still bring her to tears.Danielle shared her heartbreaking past in an emotional and honest Facebook post to her 20,000 followers.“In 2016, in my personal life, everything collapsed.”Link to article: From...

Local Focus: Fun for Rotorua’s Eastern families

Every Tuesday and Thursday for the next 10 weeks East Side Fun Days are being held to strengthen communities and create opportunities for Rotorua whānau.The events, led by Healthy Families Rotorua, are to help entice whānau to use community areas.Mariana Vercoe from Healthy Families Rotorua is passionate about the project and the impacts it will have on the East.“Our first point is generally getting people moving for physical health benefits. But we’ve noticed it’s a real way of getting ...

Housing provider Kāinga Ora

Housing provider Kāinga Ora is planning to buy 18 new homes in Richmond, with more on the way.Five properties on Bateup Rd are currently under construction, expected to be finished later this month, with Kāinga Ora taking ownership upon completion, said Julia Campbell, regional director Nelson, Marlborough and West Coast.The homes, built by Ewi Developments, will be modern and comfortable, and will fit in well in the neighbourhood, Campbell said.They’ll also help to address some of the incre...

Information gleaned in NZ government contractor hack

Information gleaned in a Russian or Eastern European cyberattack, which hit organisations working for Te Whatu Ora Health NZ and the Ministry of Justice, has been released on the dark web.Some private companies were also targeted in the attacks. The exact nature of information placed on the dark web is not yet known.In response to questions, Ministry of Justice – Te Tāhū o te Ture acting chief operating officer Jacquelyn Shannon on Tuesday evening confirmed a "development with the recent cyb...

Māoridom reflects on Jacinda Ardern's premiership

Jacinda Ardern-led governments advanced Māori health reforms, widened Māori representation in governance, and introduced the Matariki public holiday and the teaching of this country's history in schools.Several Māori leaders across the motu reflected positively on those achievements when Ardern announced her resignation on Thursday afternoon.But there was also frustration among some sectors of Māoridom at the pace of reform, criticism of Crown overreach into Māori affairs, and ongoing inequ...

Call for later start

Researchers are seeking the views of teenagers, whānau and schools as they put forward an argument that senior secondary students should start school later.An editorial article published in the New Zealand Medical Journal today, titled Sleep-in to stay well: addressing school start times for the health and wellbeing of teens in Aotearoa, argues a start time of 9.45am is a "public health imperative"."Teen sleep is really problematic… they have really poor sleep, very sleep-deprived because the...

Rāhui placed over 'dangerous' beach

A rāhui has been placed over the “dangerous” beach where a mass rescue of a family of seven unfolded on Wednesday.But a 15-year-old boy still remains unaccounted for, police said in an updated statement.It comes after a second day of search efforts for the missing teenager.A number of people, services and resources had been involved in the search, accompanied by a fixed wing aircraft, Acting Senior Sergeant for Whangamatā Police, Will Hamilton said. They were not successful.Link to video a...

Risk of debilitating illness from long Covid could grow -

A prominent epidemiologist says the risk of chronic and debilitating illness from long Covid could grow as more people are re-infected.The latest figures, released by the Ministry of Health on Monday, showed the rolling average of new daily cases dropping slightly to 2738.While widespread vaccine coverage has helped keep New Zealand's mortality rate low, compared to nations which suffered waves of infection earlier in the pandemic, not everyone completely recovers from the acute stage of the inf...

Review proposes cuts to daily pāua catch

Concerns Taranaki Māori have for the wellbeing of kaimoana, which saw a two-year legal ban introduced to protect a stretch of the region’s coastline, are being felt elsewhere in New Zealand prompting a review that may see daily pāua catch limits slashed.Read this story in te reo Māori and English here. / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki konei.In December, the Government banned collection of kaimoana along the 70km-stretch between the Herekawe Stream in New Plymouth to ...

'Kāinga Ora need a kick in the butt':

A Palmerston North woman is taking Kāinga Ora to the Disputes Tribunal to recoup costs from dealing with a disruptive neighbour.A woman, who did not want to be identified for safety reasons, has lived next door to a Kāinga Ora property in Westbrook for almost two years and made multiple complaints about the previous tenants’ bad behaviour.She was threatened, had her windows smashed, and there were police call-outs to the house. She started asking for something to be done in October 2021 and ...

The age of the grandparent

The most saccharine song of 1980 was There’s No One Quite Like Grandma, performed by the St Winifred’s School choir from Stockport, England. It shot to the top of the British charts as kids everywhere gave it to granny for Christmas. “Grandma, we love you,” they sang. “Grandma, we do. Though you may be far away, we think of you.”Today, as the once-cherubic choristers start to become grandmas and grandpas themselves, grandparenting has changed dramatically.Two big demographic trends a...

Book a hāngī :

For centuries, Te Pane o Mataoho (Māngere Maunga) has been home to many whānau and hapori (community) who have lived, worked and played on this wāhi taonga (treasured place).Now, a new whānau ātea - family recreation space - at the mountain has opened featuring a bookable community hāngī pit.The hāngī pit is just one of many elements of the ātea at the foot of the maunga, as well as a māra hūpara (Māori playground), basketball court and skate space.Link to article: Book a hāng...

Six60 tune transformed

One of Six60's biggest hits, The Greatest, has been translated into te reo Māori to create the official Te Matatini theme song for 2023.Its lead singer Matiu Walters said the song was the perfect expression of what it meant to perform kapa haka at the highest level."Once it's gone through that filter and translated, it makes a lot of sense, what kapa haka stands for, the process of working and striving and putting yourself in a position to win but also to fail.Link to video and article: Si...

Billionaire Jeff Bezos names superyacht Koru,

Māori cultural experts have come out in support of billionaire Jeff Bezos, who has given his $500 million luxury yacht a Māori name.Yesterday the Herald revealed the Amazon founder, according to AIS on Vesselfinder, had named his boat Koru - meaning new beginnings and continuity.Hundreds of Herald readers also took to our Facebook page, with the majority of Māori and Pākehā also very supportive.The massive yacht is being moved from the primary facilities in Alblasserdam to Rotterdam through...

Pākehā mum praises Māori wardens

A Pākehā mother is praising the selfless aroha of two Māori Wardens who helped calm her son, who is autistic and has Down syndrome, during a public meltdown on an Auckland city street.Heather Ricketts said “the experience of kindness, patience and their ability to connect and see what we needed”, despite the wardens not knowing them, was an emotional experience.In a letter to the NZ Herald editor she wrote: “In a society where compassion is not a value we encourage, it was so nice to ha...

Renovated Auckland theatre

An award-winning play is set to premiere at a renovated theatre designed to showcase Māori talent.Te Pou Theatre, located at the Corban Estate Arts Centre in west Auckland, reopens its doors on March 3 after a $3 million refurbishment.Hemo is Home, the runner-up at the New Zealand Adam Playwriting Awards in 2022, will be the first production staged at the new-look theatre and its biggest show yet.The play was written by actor Tainui Tukiwaho and his five tamariki during the Covid-19 lockdown in...

Third generation of Bennett family becomes organist

There has been a Bennett behind the organ at St Faith’s Anglican Church in Rotorua for more than 80 years of its history.The first was New Zealand’s first Māori bishop, Frederick Augustus Bennett. Bishop Bennett, who arrived in Rotorua in 1905, oversaw the construction of St Faith’s and played organ during church services.His son, Selwyn Bennett, now 90, pressed down on the organ’s keys and pedals every Sunday and at funerals and weddings for 70 years.So when high school student Pererik...

Leading kauri dieback scientists back indigenous knowledge

Leading kauri dieback scientists are backing the use of mātauranga Māori, or indigenous knowledge, in the battle to restore our kaurilands.They say it's been a long journey to get to this point due to resistance and institutional racism from academia and western science. However, the work by rongoā Māori practitioners with the ancient kauri trees suggests a multidisciplinary approach is the best way forward.The future's looking brighter for one new generation of kauri trees. Rongoā Mā...

Māori, Pasifika recognised

Māori and Pacific rangatahi are being encouraged to enter the financial sector, with scholarships and a mentorship programme being provided by a major bank to help them get a foot onto the corporate ladder.ASB has supplied five $2,000 scholarships, alongside a mentoring programme to ensure young Māori and Pacific are recognised within the corporate world.ASB Kaupapa Māori Executive Manager Krissi Holtz says it is an important step in the right direction.Link to video and article: Māori,...

Wāhine-led landscaping company

Milaan Hart, of Ngāti Kahungunu, co-owner of wāhine-led landscaping company Ladies who Lawn, aspires to challenge what employing a landscaping garden company traditionally looks like.From hardscaping and using heavy machinery, right down to providing maintenance, the Auckland-based business opens a door for women into a male-dominated industry through its community-engaged workplace.Hart says education, above-living wage incomes and free childcare are all part of the deal when it comes to supp...

New Year Honour

A couple partly responsible for te reo Māori’s strength in Aotearoa today have been honoured as Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit.Tāwhirimātea (Ngāi Tūhoe, Te Whakatōhea, Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Maniapoto) and Kaa Williams (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Manawa, Ngāti Maniapoto) are still the backbone of the institute they’ve been running for 22 years – Te Wānanga Takiura o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori o Aotearoa.For the whole of their lives, they have been at the front lines of the fight...

Māori Land Court backs trust decision

The Māori Land Court has found trustees who plan to demolish a homestead at the heart of a rift within a South Taranaki whānau properly followed tikanga and its legal duties in making the controversial decision.The Pihama property, which is owned by Te Hanataua Trust, is a five-bedroom, two-level villa, which has a wharepuni, or sleeping house located inside.The interior room has a ceiling and walls lined with reeds, and was used in the recent past as a venue for whānau gatherings and hui.The...

Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson shares Tāme Iti's 2015

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has praised a 2015 talk by Ngai Tūhoe artist and activist Tāme Iti calling it a “beautiful perspective” on the theme of “mana”.The Rock shared a clip of Iti’s Ted X Auckland talk with his 357 million Instagram followers on Saturday.“You often hear me speak of mana and the power of our mana,” Johnson wrote in a caption to the clip.“Give a listen to @tame_iti of New Zealand here and his beautiful perspective on what mana is... In mana we are all equa...

B.C. Association of Social Workers

The B.C. Association of Social Workers is calling for the province to make registering with the regulatory college mandatory for all social workers in the province.Right now it is voluntary for many, including those who are employed by the provincial Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) or the federal government.“It’s a public safety issue,” said Michael Crawford, the president of the B.C. Association of Social Workers.“When people are seeking help and they sit down in fron...