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Te Urewera hut case

The Tūhoe settlement entity, Te Uru Taumatua, says responding to a High Court injunction to stop the demolition of Te Urewera huts may cost $200,000.On November 9 the High Court at Rotorua ordered an immediate halt to the destruction of 48 huts following an application by Wharenui Clyde Tuna of Tūhoe, who was concerned about the loss of access to use the huts “as a base for food gathering, recreational and cultural purposes”. He said Te Uru Taumatua failed to consult on its plan.Justice Ma...

2022 in review:

He ao hou, he ao hangarau. This year has seen a strong presence of digital elements infused within our Te Karere stories.Link to videos: 2022 in review: Kaupapa Māori hit big online (1news.co.nz)...

Oranga Tamariki,

longtime Oranga Tamariki employee, who wishes to remain anonymous, explains why she could no longer work for the state child protection agency and says despite being well-funded, the money is not being used where it’s needed most.I have spent more than half of my life working for the government, beginning with the Department of Social Welfare in 1980. I left Oranga Tamariki this year when I found I could no longer have my integrity as a social worker compromised by the organisation.I have exte...

2022 in Review:

TVNZ's Te Karere takes a look at some of the major issues in Te Ao Māori and how they made a significant difference for Māori.Te Aka Whai Ora is bornThis year saw a major shake-up in the country's health system.Twenty District Health Boards were amalgamated into one and the Māori Health Authority, known as Te Aka Whai Ora, was established.Chair Tipa Mahuta said an authority like this has been a goal for Te Ao Māori for a very long time.“Kua pau te kotahi rau tau tātau e whai ake i te hauo...

High Court halts proceedings of 501 deportee case

The High Court has granted a stay in proceedings for a bombshell decision which ruled a 501 deportee should not be subject to specialised bail conditions.Justice Andru Isac decision tonight follows that of Justice Cheryl Gwyn’s on Tuesday.Justice Gwyn ruled that a former drug dealer, known as G, deported from Australia in 2019 should not be subject to special conditions including residing at a particular address, supplying fingerprints and DNA, and attending a rehabilitative assessment or trea...

Locals want longest place name sign removed,

A much-photographed and (somewhat) famous sign celebrating the world’s longest place will be staying put for now after the council that owns it and a local whānau, which wants the sign removed and replaced with a new sign on their own private property, agreed to taihoa on next steps until next year.The sign tells of the story behind the name of a nearby hill: Taumatawhakatangi­hangakoauauotamatea­turipukakapikimaunga­horonukupokaiwhen­uakitanatahu.Peggy Scott, whose whānau owns the priva...

Māori research to benefit from

Whānau are set to benefit from a multimillion-dollar research grant aimed at developing Māori-led wellbeing programmes and tikanga-based play spaces.It will see Otago University’s Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora a Eru Pōmare, a kaupapa Māori health research centre based in Wellington, partner with three Māori community organisations, alongside international indigenous collaborators led by theJohns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health over a five-year period.The group received more than $40 mill...

Māori sites of significance

Relief is in sight for a number of West Coast property owners who found their land had been mistakenly captured in mapping errors for sites of significance to Māori in the proposed Te Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP).The errors are mainly around Paroa Lagoon, affecting parts of Gladstone, and at Cashmere Bay on Lake Brunner.Poutini Ngāi Tahu had asked that those sites only extend to the waterway and foreshore.However a number of private properties had been mistakenly included and the owners advised t...

A lot of these young people are actually hurting too’,

A Hamilton youth organisation manager says more measures need to be put in place to help troubled young people rather than just having an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.There has been a spate of crimes in Waikato and four young people have so far been arrested after three burglaries, a home invasion, a car theft and shots fired at police early on Monday morning.Another six young people are being tracked down in connection to the offences, and the mayor of Waipā has sped up plans to instal...

Horrific child abuse case

Oranga Tamariki’s review of a horrific case of child abuse has found that staff should not have taken information from whānau at face value and should have explored contradictory information in greater depth.The Ministry has, under the Official Information Act, provided its practice analysis summary carried out following a brutal assault by a Hawke’s Bay couple that left a 4-year-old boy fighting for his life in January 2020.The boy’s father, Whare Ramsey, 28, was jailed for three years a...

Māori undercounted and under-resourced

A report released in the New Zealand Medical Journal confirms what Māori health providers and social services organisations have long been saying: Māori were undercounted by the Ministry of Health, thereby under-resourced in the health sector - and justifies their decision to take and beat the ministry in court.The NZMJ report outlines that Māori who had not been to a GP were not included in vaccination targets.“We need better leadership, co-ordination and accountability to improve ethnicit...

Rotorua teen to become

Koan Hemana of Rotorua Boys' High School will study at Harvard College in Boston, US, with the hope of eventually getting into its prestigious post-grad medical school.The dire shortage of Māori medical practitioners was what drove him to be of service to his local community, he said."I'm very passionate about Māori health inequities. We dominate the wrong side of health in this country, suffering more from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, suicide and things like that. I've witnessed that wit...

A teen girl reveals

An Auckland teenager says inadequate mental health help in New Zealand has robbed her of years of her life. Bridgette, now sixteen, was a happy but shy child. She had a close group of friends and enjoyed socialising.But by the time she was 11, she was struggling with severe anxiety and was referred to the Kari Centre for help.Things went from bad to worse when she developed anorexia and was transferred to Starship Children's Hospital after she lost 26 percent of her body weight in just four...

Youth crime:

"I'm hoping to get out and change my life" were the words of then 17-year-old Nanaia Bishop, who TVNZ Chief Correspondent John Campbell has met again four years on - a young offender who managed to break the cycle.The probability a serious youth offender has offended before is frighteningly high, and they're statistically likely to offend again.When John met Nanaia, who was in youth prison for aggravated robberies and stealing cars, four years ago she told him she wanted something more: "I'm hop...

Zoe Hawke: Is the new order of health

E Tipu E Rea Whānau Services has a focus on rangatahi with pēpi or who are hapū (pregnant).We celebrated the announcement of health reforms more than six months ago with high hopes for the Māori Health Authority, Te Aka Whai Ora, and we still remain very supportive of the move.But due to the nature of our mahi - we work in the health and social services sector and with whānau who must navigate these systems - we don’t believe the changes in the health sector are the full and complete answ...

Unjustified dismissal:

An Oranga Tamariki residential youth worker who was fired for being “intimidating and aggressive” towards a young person will now return to his role with his “head held high” and more than $100,000 in his back pocket. Stephen Baillie was sacked from his job at youth justice residence Te Puna Wai ō Tuhinapo in Christchurch in September last year following an incident with a boy at the centre. The youth laid a formal complaint about Baillie’s conduct which Oranga Tamariki investigated. ...

Hastings MP, mayor expressed 'strong concern'

The local Labour MP and the mayor in Hastings have expressed their "strong concern" to the police minister over the location of a new kind of remand facility proposed by iwi and police. Its supporters say it will be transformational for Māori, while local authorities believe it will destroy prime land for desperately needed houses. The idea is to transform a fruitpackers lodge into accommodation, where providers can give live-in support to those who have been arrested or charged by police. In J...

Māori students stood down at rate

Māori students are stood down from school as a punishment for bad behaviour almost twice as much as Pākeha students. Official figures show the rate for Māori is almost 5 per cent, compared with 2.5 percent for Pākeha. Some experts say the only way to bring that down is for an education system that’s based on Te Tiriti o Waitangi.A stand-down allows a school to send someone home for up to five days for a total of 10 days in a year. Some of the reasons include physical or verbal attacks on s...

EIT | Te Pūkenga recognises success

The achievements of Māori and Pasifika EIT | Te Pūkenga trade training students were celebrated at a special prize-giving held recently. He Pō Whakanui, held at Te Ūranga Waka Marae on the Hawke’s Bay campus in Taradale on Wednesday, December 7, acknowledged all students involved in Te Ara o Tākitimu – the Māori and Pacific Trade Training initiative delivered by EIT | Te Pūkenga in partnership with Ngāti Kahungunu and industry partners. Special awards were also presented to a number ...

MUSIC Six60 and Sony Music NZ launch Massive Records,

Six60's guitarist Ji Fraser says the band's new record label is all part of their "giving back" mantra. Massive Records was launched by the 'Don't Give Up' hitmakers in partnership with Sony Music New Zealand with the intention of working to sign up local artists to a growing roster. The label already has three acts signed - one of whom will be familiar to Aotearoa music fans after their song hit number one in the New Zealand charts and became a mainstay on the radio.Coterie's 'Cool It Down' has...

Families of Māori Battalion soldiers

The whānau of 24 Māori Battalion soldiers who fought in World War II have received their unclaimed service medals at a ceremony in Upper Hutt. New Zealand government policy after World War II was that former service personnel would have to apply for their medals, which would then be sent to them through the post. This was to avoid the problems experienced after World War I, when about 10 per cent of medals posted to ex-service personnel or their families were returned because of out-of-date ad...

East Coast iwi celebrates roaring success

An East Coast iwi has good reason to celebrate as some very successful and young descendants returned home. Between the three of them, they have won an Emmy, a Rugby World Cup and a Silver Scroll. They were proudly welcomed home by whānau at the Ōtuwhare Marae in Ōmaio, a remote spot on the East Coast.The three Apanui stars Tweedie Waititi, Ruahei Demant and Rob Ruha were met with a special welcome as they returned to their marae of Ōtuwhare with special taonga in tow.Link to video and artic...

Couple awarded $30,000 in damages over Oranga Tamariki’s

A couple has been awarded $30,000 in damages in a long-running battle with Oranga Tamariki over their treatment following the removal of four young brothers in their care. The Court of Appeal, in a written decision, awarded Mr Y $20,000 and Mrs X $10,000 in damages for breaches of their rights to natural justice under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. In 2012, the boys were placed in the care of the couple who, the court said, were motivated by the best of intentions, but appeared to have litt...

University of Auckland to apply mātauranga Māori

Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland has hired two Māori leaders to apply mātauranga Māori to the design and delivery of its services and projects. Tama Davis (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Haua and Ngāti Tuwharetoa) and Bernie O’Donnell (Te Atiawa, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngā Ruahinerangi, Ngāti Ruanui and Ngāi Tahu) will share the new Poutaki Mātauranga Māori role. They have been appointed by UniServices, which is the research application and commercialisation company at the university. The ...

Housing intensification:

Changing a suburban landscape from transient social housing on quarter-acre sections to high-density terraced housing was never going to be straightforward, but Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei’s cautious approach to its Oneoneroa development in Belmont, Auckland is paying off. The stigma associated with intensive housing when it was first mooted, which the company has described as “huge”, has all but vanished. And that’s down to the efforts of the iwi and architects, who have gone to great pains...