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PM hopes schools and pre-schools strike

The prime minister hopes a last minute meeting with teachers will avert next week's schools and preschools strike action.About 50,000 teachers have planned to walk off the job on Thursday but Chris Hipkins said the government was working hard to resolve the dispute.He said he acknowledged the issues raised by the union and wanted more negotiations, to make progress toward an agreement.Kindergarten teachers said this week's planned strike would be the first time they joined their primary and seco...

Truancy is more than

Political parties are falling over themselves to provide solutions to our truancy rates. Aaron Hendry explains why we need to move away from viewing schools as simply educational institutions - and how. Recent data detailing a significant drop in school attendance has highlighted the continued challenge we’re facing just getting our kids to school.In term three last year, under half of our rangatahi enrolled in school, made it to class. That’s 46 percent of young peo...

Rewi Spraggon:

If you were at Te Matatini last week, there’s a good chance you’ll have had some kai from the hāngi master Rewi Spraggon and his team. Rewi prides himself on running the only large scale commercial hāngi operation in the country that produces hāngi food the old way. Not in those new-fangled steamers thanks very much — but in an earth pit, over carefully selected and heated stones.Here he is talking to Dale, after the flooding in Auckland and before the cyclone, about keeping the hāngi ...

PM Chris Hipkins at Polyfest

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Dame Margaret Brimble makes history

Neurological drug discovered by University of Auckland scientist Dame Margaret Brimble wins FDA approval to treat Rett syndrome.A neurological drug discovered by Distinguished Professor Dame Margaret Brimble of the University of Auckland has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (the FDA). The announcement came through from the FDA on 11 March 2023. Trofinetide which will be marketed as Daybue (TM) and will treat Rett syndrome, a condition causing symptoms similar to cer...

Local Focus: ‘Big Brothers Big Sisters’

Link to video: Local Focus: ‘Big Brothers Big Sisters’ changing children’s lives in Hawke’s Bay - NZ Herald...

Under the influence?

For seven years, Medicines New Zealand has promised that drug companies will disclose their gifts and payments to health professionals. Now they finally have. Nikki Macdonald analyses the first data dump, and asks what it means, and what’s missing.At last we have a number: $456,418.95.It’s not a complete number. And it’s probably not a very representative number. But it's a number and that’s progress.Since drug companies were slapped with billion-dollar fines for illegal marketing in the...

Researchers call for Te Ao Haka

New research has revealed the benefit of giving Te Ao Haka mana ōrite (equal status) in the New Zealand curriculum.Ngā whai painga o Te Ao Haka is the latest release from Te Wāhanga – New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER), examining how the new mātauranga Māori qualification can support teachers, students and whānau.As part of the Te Ao Haka qualification, students are encouraged to explore foundational knowledge of haka, and their own creativity within it.It was first est...

Calls to remove rongoā Māori from Therapeutics Bill

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Waking the tūpuna

I imagine there was a point in Rachel Buchanan’s book research when she considered the glittering threads of her story like a spider.There would’ve been something in the epic story of the Motunui epa to catch each of her eight eyes — Rachel has worked as a journalist, archivist, academic, curator, historian and speech-writer, and her whakapapa Māori is Taranaki and Te Ātiawa.First, there are the epa themselves. They are a superb set of sinuous figures carved into tōtara panels, most lik...

Teachers' strike a bitter pill to swallow

Parents appear to have mixed views about the prospect of a one-day mega-strike by 50,000 school and kindergarten teachers closing hundreds of schools next week.Members of the Post Primary Teachers Association and the Educational Institute said the Education Ministry's offer of a $6000 pay rise over two years was not good enough and they would strike on Thursday.They warned teachers were burnt out and needed pay and conditions that would keep them in the job and attract others to the profession.P...

Cyclone Gabrielle: Rotorua to rock as

Six Te Arawa kapa haka made it to Te Matatini this year and five of them made it into the top 12 finalists. Now they have returned home to raise pūtea for whānau affected by Cyclone Gabrielle in Te Tai Rāwhiti and Ngāti Kahungunu on Sunday at Te Kouramāwhitiwit (the Rotorua lakefront).It will be a day for whānau to gather, a chance to connect with Māori culture and a time to give gratitude and assist those that who support and aid the most.Watu Mihinui, of Tuhourangi - Ngāti Wahiao desce...

Māori band hits 1 million streams

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NZ chemist on the brink of history

A New Zealand chemist is on the brink of history, with her breakthrough treatment for Rett Syndrome.Distinguished Professor Dame Margaret Brimble and her team has been working on the drug for 20 years.They expect to hear within days whether their treatment Trofinetide has been granted final approval by the US Food and Drug Administration.Brimble told Mike Hosking it'll be a life changer for babies born with the syndrome.Link to commentary: NZ chemist on the brink of history with breakthroug...

New Zealand Army: NZ Army Band cover '35' by Ka Hao ft. Rob Ruha

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Te Whatu Ora CEO

Te Whatu Ora's Chief Executive has fronted up over a website data botch up.The agency has today apologised after posting the wrong information, falsely recording near-perfect wait time figures for some areas in November and December.The department maintains the underlying data collection is robust and the mistake was made during the publication process.Chief Executive Margie Apa says the error was spotted late yesterday afternoon and she was notified this morning.Link to commentary and article:&...

Kapa haka stars inspire Te Ao Māori with their humanity

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'NZ European'

The question of identity is a central part of the Census, and helps officials know what is needed to achieve fair social outcomes in Aotearoa.But the options offered in response to the Census question has seen some question what message this sends to other minority groups who can also trace their ancestry several generations back in New Zealand.Jess Wong is the producer of Sik Fan Lah!, a show that helps viewers explore contemporary Chinese New Zealand life through food. She says the use of the ...

Clothing brand Soil and Sand

A small Māori-owned business with fewer than 14 staff is the recipient of the Te Tai Tokerau Māori Business Awards’ Māori Enterprise Award.Stephen and Charlee Taua began the Soil and Sand clothing firm in 2016 and have seen a growing wave of popularity for their brand over the past few years, as they encapsulated stories of old and meshed them with bright vibrant colours to appeal to the younger generation.But Stephen Taua says they haven’t forgotten their roots.Link to article: Clot...

‘It’s not about being a perfect parent’:

Balancing a full-time job with raising young children is a challenge — leading some burned out parents to fully put their careers on hold.The struggle of “parental exhaustion” has only gotten harder since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially for current parents of toddlers, says Dr. Marianne Cooper, a Stanford University sociologist who researches gender and the future of work.Those children, aged 2 to 5, would have been born just before or during the early days of the pandemic.L...

Port Waikato on hold for answers post-Cyclone Gabrielle

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Recap: Auckland Polyfest,

What you need to know:Polyfest, the world's largest secondary schools cultural competition, is running from Wednesday-Saturday at Auckland's Manukau Sports Bowl.In total, 181 cultural groups from 55 schools are taking part over the four days.There are six stages: Cook Islands, Aotearoa, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and a Diversity stage. There will be traditional music, dance and speech competitions.The Māori stage has been moved to a different weekend this year to allow students who also ...

Police ram-raid intel:

A police report containing “high-level intelligence” on ram raids reveals 79 youth offenders are thought to be “of concern”, as they’re being raised in an environment of “habitual and normalised offending”.The Targeted Overview of Youth Offending in New Zealand report was sent to then Police Minister Chris Hipkins in September last year.The briefing, released to the Herald under the Official Information Act, indicated an “inter-connectedness” between ram raids and a wider patte...

Harry Styles sings Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi,

Pop superstar Harry Styles embraced Māori culture during his Auckland show on Tuesday night, singing a te reo Māori classic and dancing with the national Māori flag.Read this story in te reo Māori and English here. / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki konei.In a video posted to TikTok, the British heartthrob could be seen leading his 40,000 strong crowd at Mt Smart Stadium into a chorus of Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi, a 1950s Kiwi classic popular in classrooms and at sporting ma...

Ockhams honour

Commentary on the shortlist of the Ockham New Zealand national book awardsA rare victory for populism has been declared at this morning's announcement of the 16 books shortlisted for the 2023 Ockham New Zealand national books, with the biggest-selling novel of the past year, Kāwai: For Such a Time as This by Monty Soutar, making it onto the shortlist of four novels for the fiction prize. Commentary to follow, on fiction and the other categories; right now, the shortlist.Link to article:&nb...