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No person is an island:

Language is a miracle of nature, evolution, whatever you want to call it. Furthermore, here in Aotearoa, learning te reo is a vital, obviously non-lethal, measure of combat in the war for our whakapapa and culture. On a personal level it is a way to find completeness, pride, strength and solace during the toughest moments. On a grand scale it adds another drop to the returning tide of our indigenous language. No drop is more important than any other in this tide but all, I suspect, are vital. It...

Fears repatriated taonga being sold at auction

Researchers and historians believe repatriated taonga (treasure) won’t be properly protected after being put up for sale by an auction house. Sacred taonga repatriated to Aotearoa from overseas are being put up for sale by auction house Webb’s. The auction house said it had worked with an overseas seller to repatriate a “significant number of taonga” that were “exported” from Aotearoa long ago.The repatriated taonga included heitiki (carved ornaments), kete and wood carving...

Reframing Māori histories

“At school, we were taught that our waka blew here on a rogue wind where our tūpuna were emaciated, lost and infighting with those that they’d left behind,” says Professor Melinda Webber (Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Hau, Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Whakaue). Read this story in te reo Māori and English here. / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki konei. “Those are the myths and legends, not our whakapapa narratives.” Webber, who is the deputy dean of Education an...

I grew up in poverty.

OPINION: Going through poverty as a kid you feel invisible - like no one sees you and no one cares about you. Often people don't want to acknowledge your existence, because they're trying to pretend there's no such thing as poor people. It just makes you feel like you're not worth much.So, I want to be a voice for kids in poverty. Not enough of us speak out about living through it, so then we're just thought of as statistics. And it's easier to ignore it, and to pretend it's ...

Hundreds sign on for forum

An education symposium hosted by iwi in Whakatū Nelson next week aims to address racism in schools and promote excellence for Māori students. The event, called Kia wetewetea, ko Māui ahau! which translates to, Loosen me, for I am Māui! is being held at the Trafalgar Centre in Nelson next Friday. It's aimed at teachers, whānau and anyone with an interest in inspiring excellence for Māori students and influencing change in the education sector. Whakatū-based teacher and education facilitato...

Tree planting vandalism

Paul Majurey, chair of the Tūpuna Maunga Authority, said the damage to the site appears to be deliberate as a large area around the planted trees was also sprayed with herbicide. “The management of the Maunga is guided by the spiritual, ancestral, cultural, customary, and historical significance of the Maunga to Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau," said Majurey. “It is tragic that people are desecrating this ancestral Maunga and taonga in complete disregard to the cultural significance...

Housing First, Lifewise mark World Homeless Day.

Missy Rehu is bubbly, cheerful and radiates joy. It's a far cry from where the 52-year-old of Te Arawa was three years ago when she was living on the streets. "Before, I was a shy girl. I never spoke much. But now, that's changed. I can communicate with people now and I'm more open. Before, I couldn't. I was just with myself, I didn't know who to trust out there," Rehu said. Rehu was born and raised in Rotorua and was orphaned when she was 12 sending her on a difficult journey into adulthood. Re...

Repatriated Māori taonga

A collection of indigenous artefacts, including tāonga Māori, have returned to Aotearoa to be sold, ensuring they "never leave home's shores again". The largest auction house in Aotearoa, Webb's, is displaying its "Material Culture" live auction of expatriated tāonga at its Auckland premises next week. Webb's director of decorative arts Ben Erren says the tāonga were exported decades ago, and returning them to Aotearoa is an important and necessary task.Link to article: Repatriated Māo...

A new suburb for Auckland

A new apartment development housing up to 5,000 people is to be built over the next 15 years on a former university campus site in Auckland. The development - which follows more than four years of collaboration with local iwi mana whenua - is seen by its developers as an opportunity to re-develop the 12ha site as a step towards a more compact city under the Auckland Unitary Plan while also addressing the future needs of Auckland's property market. Led by Shundi Group, a company responsible for a...

Staff angry, disillusioned

Auckland University of Technology (AUT) is lauding its ascent in the international university rankings, leaving staff upset and disillusioned over impending job cuts. The university was ranked in the 251-300 echelon of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2023, jumping ahead of Otago which usually holds second spot out of New Zealand universities. The University of Auckland kept the country’s top place at 139th equal, dropping two spots from 2021. Victoria, Waik...

Education symposium to 'inspire, change narrative'

An education symposium hosted by iwi in Whakatū this month hopes to be “the first step in a new chapter in celebrating and promoting educational excellence for Māori”. ‘Kia wetewetea, ko Māui ahau!’ is the first symposium of its kind to be held in Te Tauihu. Organised by Te Kāhui Mātauranga o Te Tauihu o te Waka-a-Māui, a collective of the eight iwi of Te Tauihu formed in 2019 to work alongside the education sector, it is targeted towards “teachers, whānau and anyone with an int...

Why Whangaruru locals are worried

Northland's home to one of the multi-billionaire's many Kiwi business ventures, and locals worry what sanctions against Abramov might mean for them. He made his billions a world away, but in one tiny settlement north of Whangarei, Abramov's influence runs deep.  There are local businesses, local workers and iwi benefactors of the sanctioned Russian oligarch's glitzy multi-million dollar lodge in Helena Bay. "Oh they've done heaps in the way of labour equity, letting us use their machinery a...

Official investigating OT

Adecorated former health official charged with reviewing government agencies' actions before a child's death was in another life a departmental head fobbing off police questions over Lake Alice The former bureaucrat now investigating Oranga Tamariki’s latest failure was in charge of the Ministry of Health for more than 10 years from the mid-1990s, a period when it failed to carry out a thorough investigation into the abuse of children in the Lake Alice psychiatric hosp...

The Wai 262 Claim established a foundation that

When Ngahiwi Tomoana, along with other claimant whānau, took over the Wai 262 claim from Māori legal academic guru Moana Jackson, he had no idea this piece of legal Māori history would consume his life for the next three decades. The Wai 262 kaupapa began when a group of Māori activists challenged the Crown about the policies and laws that were taking away Māori control over taonga. In fact, the Wai 262 decision goes beyond the fauna and flora argument and establishes whakapapa to taonga an...

Watch:

Tonight on The Hui, why are rangatahi not showing up to school? We're on the road with Waipareira Trust's truancy team and the reasons for truancy may surprise you. Then, The Hui host Mihingarangi Forbes speaks to Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni. Link to livestream: Watch: The Hui investigates why rangatahi aren't showing up to school (msn.com)...

Principals worried about 'families gone missing'

The Attendance Service has investigated 16,771 new cases of serious truancy in the first half of this year. During the same period it resolved 12,726 cases - nearly half of them, because the child in question was found to be already enrolled in another school. The new cases included 9838 students who were removed from their school's roll and classed as "non-enrolled" after being absent for about 20 days. The remaining 6933 cases were "unjustified absence", essentially persistent truants. The num...

Former Green Party Chief of Staff,

There is a host of new Mayors around the country, and we have witnessed a definite swing to the right in yesterday’s local body elections.  We start in the capital this morning, with one mayor that actually has bucked that trend. New mayor of Wellington, former Green Party Chief of Staff Tory Whanau is here to discuss her landslide election victory and her priorities as Mayor.Link to podcast: Former Green Party Chief of Staff, Tory Whanau is Wellington's new mayor (newstalkzb.co.nz)...

First wāhine Māori elected

The local government election was a big win for two newly-elected mayors who have become the first young wāhine Māori to lead their cities. Tania Tapsell won the mayoralty in Rotorua with more than 6000 votes, twice as many as her closest opponent Fletcher Tabuteau. The first-time mayor has been part of the Rotorua Lakes council since being elected nine years ago at the age of 21 - the youngest-ever councillor in Aotearoa at the time.Link to article: First wāhine Māori elected to lead t...

Community leader Dave Letele slams health system

Prominent community worker Dave Letele has slammed the health system, claiming an obese Upper Hutt man was essentially sent home to die. Health New Zealand's chairperson Rob Campbell has admitted they failed the man but is adamant the system is changing for the better.Link to video and article: Community leader Dave Letele slams health system after severely obese man 'left to die' at home | Newshub...

Wayne Brown:

Updated: Auckland's new mayor is the kind of politician you can take at face value – if he promises disruption and radical change, it's more than likely to eventuate. Tim Murphy distils what he's promised to do. Pity the poor road cones. The mayor-elect of Auckland, Wayne Brown, is coming for them. And for non-synchronised traffic lights. And for the directors of all Auckland Council-controlled companies. And for the high-paid echelons of executives of the Auckland Council. And for the Po...

New curriculum aims for authentic history

People curious about how the new history curriculum will be rolled out in schools from next year can hear details from one of its authors this weekend. Graeme Ball, who chairs the New Zealand History Teachers’ Association, is also due to outline how colonisation happened in Aotearoa, in talks on Saturday arranged by The Nelson Institute. From 2023, Te Takanga o Te Wā and Atearoa New Zealand’s histories will be compulsory for students up to year 10 (14 year...

Witi Ihimaera: 'If I had waited to be patted on the head

Acclaimed writer Witi Ihimaera is on the hunt for an emerging Māori writer, as the newest judge of the Sunday Star-Times Short Story Awards. In this piece written especially for Stuff, he says the main requirement for becoming a writer is simple: stamina. This year is the 50th anniversary of Pounamu, Pounamu. It’s my first published book, and a new anniversary edition has just come out. So, I decided to accept being a judge of the Sunday Star-Times short story co...

Dr Hinemoa Elder on writing Wawata -

In her day job, Dr Hinemoa Elder guides young people in extreme mental distress. In kōrero with Ataria Sharman, she explains how traditional Māori understandings of the lunar cycle guide her, and why she is sharing them in these tumultuous times. There’s something comforting in the fact that as the moon orbits, we only ever see its face. There is a constant connection between the earth and the celestial body that coaxes our tides and keeps us steady on our axis. “Hina, she's not turning ar...

Dozens of huts to be removed from Te Urewera

A plan by Tūhoe to remove dozens of back country huts over summer has upset some users of the former National Park who believe it will mean back-country heritage will be lost. But the Department of Conservation (DOC), which owns the huts, has no objections. Te Uru Taumatua (TUT), the iwi’s operations arm which has managed Te Urewera since Tūhoe’s Treaty Settlement in 2014, confirmed in a statement to Stuff that 48 back-country huts which were either near or past their e...

Recycleable plastic worth millions of dollars is going to landfill,

New Zealand is throwing millions of dollars worth of recyclable polypropylene plastic into landfill, while at the same time importing recycled polypropylene, according to a study from Plastics NZ. Polypropylene plastic is a durable, lightweight plastic that is used to make everything from ice cream containers to car bumpers. But its greatest asset is that it can be melted down and reused. However, instead of being recycled, more than 67% of polypropylene goes to landfill after a single use.Link ...