Back to Blog

New Zealand health services

The number of people in New Zealand living with dementia is growing but the services to care for those people aren't.   The sector estimates that around 30,000 people are already missing out on essential help. "I realise that at some point, I'll be in a two-room retirement thing, but I hope it doesn't happen for quite some time," Garrick said. Until then, his wife Adrienne Henderson is his primary care, except for one respite day each week, funded by the Ministry of Health. L...

Māori Health Authority cash injection

The Māori Health Authority has committed more than $71.6 million to what it says is its largest investment in improving Māori health outcomes yet. An eyewatering $29.3m will go toward maternity and early childhood health, those with cancer, chronic health conditions or suffering from mental distress under the organisation’s interim Health Plan (Te Pae Tata), which aims to tackle the most quickly reversible poor health outcomes. Some $13m will go to Māori primary and community providers to a...

Social worker falsified forms for food parcels meant for hungry families,

A social worker who used other people’s names to sign up for food parcels and supermarket vouchers meant for struggling families has been censured for her conduct and ordered to pay $20,000. Jacqui Wastney was working for VisionWest in Christchurch at the time, which co-ordinated food parcels from supplier 0800 Hungry to give to people in need. Over the course of a year Wastney signed people up for the service but they never actually received their boxes. Prosecuting lawyers alleged she was ke...

Educators call Luxon 'misinformed'

Auckland school principals say Christopher Luxon is “misinformed” after he blamed low school attendance rates on parents and poor school leadership. “Only 40% of our kids here in New Zealand go to school and no-one seems to care about it,” the National Party leader said. Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti said Luxon’s understanding of attendance was “completely wrong”. Tinetti said if a child self-isolated during Covid then they were “automatically ...

International Space Station

The International Space Station has provided an unusual view of New Zealand as it travelled in low Earth orbit above the country today. The video, posted to Twitter from the account @ISSAboveYou, shows a bird’s-eye-view of New Zealand, tracking from the bottom of the South Island and then across to and up the North Island.Link to video and article: International Space Station records ‘unusual’ view of New Zealand - NZ Herald...

Hundertwasser Art Centre with Wairau Māori Art Gallery and the Whangārei Art Museum

Three attractions at Whangārei Town Basin have won the country's top tourism award for quality and sustainability. A Gold Qualmark has been awarded to the Hundertwasser Art Centre with Wairau Māori Art Gallery (Te Huarewa Toi Wairau Māori) and the Whangārei Art Museum in Whangārei's flourishing fine arts district. The 2023 award is shared by the three separate, unique and distinctive world-class attractions, all located in the vibrant, picturesque Whangārei Town Basin and Marina, Andy Cors...

Whānau of gang member who battled addiction, depression

Mental health challenges and suicide amongst gang whānau has been described as a "hidden contagion". "Gangs may well be some of the most vulnerable people in our community when it comes to mental health compromises and self-harm," said clinical psychologist Dr Armon Tamatea.For those who have been born into gang life at a young age, many have been exposed to a way of life that has led to psychological trauma and mental health challenges. It's a story all too familiar for 24-year-old Bonus Atkin...

Man jailed for trying to hide how he lost $3.1m

A man who blew $3.1 million on bad investments, then tried to hide it all by making false letters, has failed to get his conviction lessened. The Court of Appeal ruled on Monday the punishment dished out to Te Whitinga Mark Huirua​ was just. Huirua​ is serving two years and 11 months’ jail for fraud charges relating to him losing $3.1 million of Ngā Rauru Kītahi funds. He was hired to work for the south Taranaki iwi investment company Te Pataka o Rauru​ in 2016.Link to a...

Kōwhaiwhai artist Ra Gossage

Kōwhaiwhai artist Ra Gossage (Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Manuhiri, Ngāti Ruanui) creates Māori scroll designs to tell the stories that surround her. She lives in Pākiri, about 90 minutes north of central Auckland, with her partner and two of their three children, on a property shared by her extended family. Read this story in te reo Māori and English here. / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki konei. RA GOSSAGE: Pākiri is where my mother’s family comes from. This is ...

Māori in rural New Zealand

An editorial published in the New Zealand Medical Journal has found Māori still have a long road to go for good healthcare. Otago University research associate and author Jason Gurney, who grew up around Te Tai Tokerau in Whananāki ,spoke about his observations in the area. The nearest hospital is an hour away. Locals get around this problem by having a First Response team, made up of an indefatigable group of trained volunteers who respond to 111 calls from anywhere.Link to article: Māo...

Streaming unethical

Streaming in schools in Aotearoa is under justifiable attack. The Tokona Te Raki anti-streaming movement has gathered pace with a number of high-profile secondary schools pledging to cease streaming, and the campaign received teacher union backing. However streaming is also a practice embedded in the practice of primary schools across Aotearoa. For many people teaching in primary schools, ability grouping is a demonstration of an ethical commitment to learners. The Teaching Council of Aotea...

New AUT professor Dr Ella Henry

One of Auckland University of Technology’s newest professors has a key message for Māori: give university a go. AUT business professor Dr Ella Henry (Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Kurī) was made a full professor this week, a step up from her previous role as an associate professor. The Māori academic – with background in business, sociology and Māori Indigenous development – has worn many hats over her career, such as work with the Post-Settlement Governanc...

Frocks on Friday

Frocks on Friday is the brainchild of Gisborne local Jo McLean, with the aim of encouraging wāhine to wear a dress every Friday and get people thinking about mental health. "When you are wearing your frock on Friday people will ask you why are you dressed up,why are you doing this? It's a conversation starter about mental health," she said. McLean created the Facebook group Frocks on Friday where she invited wāhine to wear a frock or something special every Friday from November to December. "I...

Farmers proud to be guardians

In South Canterbury, there are hundreds of Māori drawings on limestone rock - some of which could be up to 1,000 years old. Peter Evans believes it was his grandfather who discovered the ancient drawings on cliffs that overlook his Pareora Gorge sheep and beef farm.His grandfather developed an interest in rock art beyond what was on the family farm and passed his curiosity on to his children. "He and his children in the 1920s went searching the area for rock drawings ... as they knew they were ...

Parents devastated after autistic child kicked out of school

Brody McDonald had been counting the days until he started school. It was the day after his fifth birthday when Brody finally got to take his new school bag with a baby shark bag tag he picked out himself off the hook where it had been waiting for weeks. Wearing his uniform for the first time, Brody's mum Haylee McDonald explained to him this proper "big boy school" as he prepared to enter the school gates.What she couldn't explain to him was how a seemingly perfect start to his schooling was ab...

Ancient Rongoā Māori practices to fight Kauri dieback

Traditional Rongoā Māori health practitioners claim indigenous treatments are curing Kauri trees of dieback and the Government is investing. Work to fight Kauri dieback is happening amidst a broader revival of Rongoā, or traditional Māori medicine.The 1907 Tohunga Act banning Rongoā was repealed in 1962, however, the practices remained fringe. Since 2020, Rongoā has been funded by ACC and there are now 110 fully registered ACC Rongoā Māori practitioners across Aotearoa.  While Rongo...

Māori have always grappled

Ju-jitsu black belt Anaru Grant Jr, of Te Arawa, has introduced te reo Māori and tikanga Māori into his club, Tukaha, in Rotorua. He says he is doing so as the majority of his students are from kohanga reo and wharekura, and this also creates an opportunity for others to learn. This week his club of 150 members is preparing to go to the nationals and showcase not only ju-jitsu talent but also te reo Māori and tikanga. “There are a lot of positive outcomes with the Māori language, with ju-j...

Te Papa launches

A dawn ceremony was held at Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington yesterday to launch two special exhibitions. Photographer Te Rawhitiroa Bosch created He Kaupapa Waka, which features photos taken in 2020 at the 80th anniversary commemorating the launch of the Waka Ngātoki Mata Whaorua in Waitangi. Manu Rere Moana Pacific Voyagers was also launched alongside so visitors can learn about Māori sailing and the skills and knowledge that gave them the ability to make it to Aotearoa. This exhibition inclu...

Whānau Ora:

The chair of Whānau Ora says a court decision to keep a young Māori girl in the care of the Pakeha couple who adopted her,  is a tricky one. Oranga Tamariki placed her with the couple, but later decided it wanted to place her with a Māori woman, to provide for her cultural needs. Stuff reports an appeal made by the girl's mother, supported by Oranga Tamariki, has been dismissed by the High Court. Merepeka Ruakawa-Tait told Mike Hosking the fact the girl has found love and kindness is a p...

Year out from the 2023 election:

It was the 2020 election, set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, that delivered Labour its triumphant majority and the power to govern alone. But the 2023 election may soon undo that as the cost of living crisis is expected to drag on and rising mortgage rates crunch Kiwis' finances.  Labour's been sliding in the polls all year. In the February Newshub Reid-Research poll, Jacinda Ardern's party sat comfortably at 44.3 percent. On Sunday night, it was at 32.3 percent. A...

Moana’s adoptive parents:

The Pākehā couple who are caring for a young Māori girl at the centre of a contentious custody case says “she is a child of our heart” and “the only person who matters”. “While the strain on us as a couple with limited resources has been immense, throughout this process the only person that has mattered to us is Moana - she has been at the centre of all our decisions,” the couple said, in their first public statement since a judge decided she should stay in their care. “In the i...

Some words in te reo

COLUMN: A recent enquiry into the meaning of the Māori word “ko” – particularly when the enquirer advised that he had been told that “ko” means “is” – has prompted reflections on an issue which has been addressed several times in this column but in relation to which some additional clarification, it’s hoped, may not go amiss. In viewing another language from the perspective of one’s own first language it may well seem quite logical to assume that a word in the other lan...

'No winners':

The couple who has spent four years looking after a young girl at the centre of a legal battle around culture say there are no winners in the case that has ended with them remaining her carers. They say the focus can now lie where it should – on a 7-year-old for whom everyone wants the best. When Moana was placed in the care of a Hawke’s Bay couple (the “Smiths”) in September 2018 her teeth were rotten, she had an untreated club foot and showed all the symptoms of a traumatised child.Lin...

Mental health advocate on whether keeping kids home from school

A new report out this week revealed our dire school attendance rates with poor mental health being one of the reasons behind it.Parents have been keeping their kids at home, but is that doing more harm than good? Mental Health Advocate Tai Tupou is on the frontline in schools, helping kids to find their own voice, and he's joined AM on Friday morning.Link to interview: Mental health advocate on whether keeping kids home from school is doing more harm than good (msn.com)...

Kōhanga Reo celebrates 40th anniversary,

The Kōhanga Reo movement has celebrated its 40th anniversary in Hamilton.  The Government has had a long-held goal of getting 30 percent of Māori children to cross over from mainstream education to Māori immersion schools where they perform better - but there's been a hold-up. Kōhanga Reo, the breeding ground for Te Reo Māori and tikanga, is a pioneering grass-roots movement recognised worldwide for its language revitalisation.One kuia is a part of the very first marae-based Kōhanga R...