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Melatonin –

The number of Kiwi kids prescribed melatonin for sleep struggles has more than doubled in four years. Nikki Macdonald investigates whether the darkness hormone is a miracle drug, or a poor substitute for scarce sleep support services.From day one, baby bedtime was “full-on war” for Maria Sanchez.Mattias would sleep for 45 minutes to an hour, tops. As he got older, he’d climb out of his cot and try to play. Ignore him and there’d be a meltdown.She and husband Mac Fuiava Pouniu took turns ...

Air NZ admits breach of tikanga

Air New Zealand has apologised and promised to change its procedures after it took the 11th-hour intervention of its chief executive before it allowed a grieving woman to take home her mother’s remains to their marae.Read this story in te reo Māori and English here. / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki konei.Air NZ’s cargo operations crew had insisted that only a funeral director could uplift the late Maureen Delamere, despite the concerns of her daughter, Anahera Delame...

One of the biggest online markets for stolen information has been shut down.

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Socially Awkward:

In our regular Your Weekend column series, Socially Awkward, our etiquette experts answer your questions on how to behave when things get awkward at home, work and elsewhere.This week, it’s Stuff Kaihautū Reo Māori, Taurapa.Q: I’ve been at events recently where people do mihi to open proceedings and it’s clear that they’ve got minimal command of the language. Is it better to attempt te reo Māori knowing I am mangling it, or to wait until I can pronounce it correctly?A: There are a cou...

TEEN PERFORMS POWERFUL HAKA TO HONOR MOM

“My mum graduating her bachelor in social work & my little brother getting up to Tautoko the best way we know how,” Shay’s video reads. She adds in the caption, “Very proud of you mum 4 very long and hard years finally paid off!!”Link: Teen performs powerful haka to honor mom on her graduation day in emotional TikTok: 'Instant tears' (intheknow.com)...

Māori Muslim whānau

Arif Kahurangi Hussain (Te Roroa) along with his brothers in faith, Tuhoi and Philip, are among the thousands of Muslims in New Zealand participating in Ramadan this year. Although they come from Māori families, they have embraced the teachings of Islam, which is the fastest-growing religion in the country. According to statistics, there are approximately 50,000 Muslims in New Zealand, including 1400 Māori. Hussain, who started practising Islam nine months ago, has found ac...

‘Shocked’ by the loss:

CNN — Every year scientists in New Zealand fly over some of the country’s most iconic glaciers – ancient ice “rivers” that descend from the Southern Alps, a spine of mountains that extend along the South Island. And almost every year, they find them shrinking.This year was no different.At the end of March, the team of scientists spent eight hours flying over the peaks, taking thousands of photographs of glaciers for the annual snowline survey. Andrew Mackintosh, a professor a...

Backflip by iwi

Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust has chosen to support Waste Management New Zealand’s resource consent application for a 26 million cubic metre “mega dump” in Dome Valley, north of Auckland.It’s a change of heart that has sent shockwaves through opponents of the landfill.A joint memorandum between Waste Management and the Manuhiri Kaitiaki Charitable Trust - a subsidiary of the Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust - was filed in the Environment Court earlier this year.The court has been sitt...

History book launches in time

A journal to help support Māori history being taught in schools has been launched.Te Pouhere Kōrero 10, written by a collective of established Māori historians of the same name, follows the reset of the history curriculum, which is now officially implemented across all New Zealand schools for years one through to 10.The group was first established in November 1992 during an inaugural hui at Rongopai Marae Waituhi, near Gisborne, with its focus on Māori and Indigenous history.“The grou...

Auckland City Mission's online GP service

Auckland City Mission Calder Health Centre nurse Anna in April 2020.  Photo / FacebookWhānau visiting Auckland City Mission's health centre will now have access to an online GP service.A new collaboration with ProCare and Southern Cross Health Insurance means the health centre can now triage cases onsite.Alongside the centre's nursing team, CareHQ's online GPs remotely engage with patients to deliver a "whānau-centric approach", ProCare said Thursday.Many of the c...

Why Māori renaming

Opinion: In Aotearoa the long shadow of colonial overlay is reflected in the endurance of names with little bearing to the land, its stories or people, writes Robin KearnsNgā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa New Zealand Geographic Board (Pou Taunaha) has made decisions that were confirmed by the Minister for Land Information on seven names for new central and south Auckland railway stations. Notably Pou Taunaha officially altered Britomart Station to Waitematā Railway Station. Unsurprisingly, there have...

Privilege in Perpetuity

'The idea of Māori privilege continues to be deployed in order to constrain Māori aspirations and maintain the power imbalance that colonisation achieved in the nineteenth century.'The ‘idea of Māori privilege’, as Peter Meihana describes it, is deeply embedded in New Zealand culture. Many New Zealanders hold firm to the belief that Māori have been treated better than other indigenous peoples, and that they receive benefits that other New Zealanders do not. Some argue that the supposed p...

Te Whatu Ora: Survey reveals bullying,

The results of the first survey of staff at Te Whatu Ora since its establishment last year reveal only just over half believe the merger will improve the health needs of the community. The survey was conducted in late November to mid December last year and completed by 28 thousand staff - 29 per cent of the organisation. Te Whatu Ora has refused to release the survey, citing staff privacy and the need to protect future surveys. The results are consistent across the country, and reveal a lack of ...

Te Ao Māori News reporter Muriwai Hei's

“Growing up, one thing that my parents always taught me is to be who you are, not who the world wants you to be.Read this story in te reo Māori and English here. / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki konei.“I didn’t want to be a kiwifruit picker, I didn’t want to work on the mussel boats or anything, I wanted to be a reporter – and here I am today.”At just 21 years of age, Te Ao Māori News reporter Muriwai Hei – full name Muriwai Te Miringa Te Marama Hei – sp...

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...