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How learning te reo Māori is the doorway

Many believe that by learning Te Reo, one realises how the language is interconnected with the natural and physical worlds and can gain insights into solving our climate issues.It's a language derived from the natural world. Māori language expert Joe Harawira said Te Reo is interconnected with the rhythms of Mother Earth."Te reo Māori he reo i ahu mai i a Papatūānuku. Kei roto i to tātou reo ngā whakaaro nga mātauranga ngā mōhioranga," he said."The Māori language originates from Mother...

Poll reveals just 54 percent of Māori babies

While the world has been dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, another deadly threat to tamariki has been growing.And COVID-fatigue could be one of the reasons thousands of children are left vulnerable.Immunisation rates for killer diseases such as measles are dropping, particularly amongst Māori. For example, the latest Health NZ figures in Counties Manukau - the centre of the last measles outbreak in 2019 - show that just under 35 percent of six-month-old Māori pēpē are fully immunised....

'Unending, unceasing daily harm':

The Mahuru Māori challenge for people to speak only Te Reo for a month finishes today.But experts are concerned about the increase in online racism towards the Māori community and over the use of Te Reo.Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori has been and gone, with Mahuru Māori wrapping up. While some businesses and New Zealanders are continuing their support of normalising the language every day, experts said the wrath towards the use of Te Reo is growing in severity online.Link to video and article: ...

Māori firefighter

A senior Māori firefighter has filed a Waitangi Tribunal claim against Fire and Emergency New Zealand.He says the organisation's continually ignored and neglected Māori-led solutions including an education programme he's been running for over 20 years. Career Firefighter Allan Brown will retire early next year and said he hopes his Waitangi Tribunal claim can provide future industry change.Link to video and article: Māori firefighter files treaty claim against FENZ (1news.co.nz)...

Tāme Iti

OPINION: Journalists - unless they've spent years covering a specialist area of reportage - can generally talk for a minute or so on almost any subject, but no more. This is a joke I often use to excuse my lack of in-depth knowledge on various subjects (Sailing! Pasture management! Global economic theory!)I do wish I knew more about art. To borrow the adage, I know what moves me, but often I don't know why. I know the art of Tāme Iti moves me deeply, and I'm not alone there; his namin...

Photojournalism images up for auction garner attention

Heavyweight bidders have been manoeuvring behind the scenes ahead of Saturday's charity auction of more than 100 examples of New Zealand's finest photo-journalism.Major corporates and even representatives of the Kiingitanga have made approaches about the images - many of iconic moments in the history of Aotearoa.The Photojournalism New Zealand Charity Auction is the brainchild of former New Zealand Herald picture editor Rob Tucker, who has terminal cancer.Dismayed at the funding crisis the ...

Waihorotiu Stream and the taniwha

Queen St is one of New Zealand’s most iconic roadways. Over a period of over 150 years, foot/car traffic and businesses have set themselves up in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Tāmaki Makaurau’s city life.What people may be unaware of however, is that an ancient awa (river) rests beneath the asphalt that has carried everything from horse and carriage to the public bus and Tesla car.It’s called Waihorotiu Stream, and is one of the many streams around Auckland&nb...

New Auckland City Hospital 'Earn and Learn' programme

Cleaners, hospitality workers and caregivers at Auckland City Hospital could soon be healthcare assistants.It's part of a new "Earn and Learn" programme aimed at upskilling employees to help tackle the desperate shortage of nursing staff.On Ward 77 at Auckland City Hospital, you'll find Sarina Prasad. For six years she worked there as a cleaner."When you do cleaning you aren't allowed to assist patients. Sometimes they want water, coffee or tea which in my cleaning job I wasn't allowed to do and...

Radio stations unite to improve

Two radio stations linked to the French Pacific's decolonisation movements want to co-operate to lift the use of indigenous languages.The heads of Radio Tefana in French Polynesia and Radio Djiido in New Caledonia said this is in line with the United Nations declaring the next 10 years as the decade of vernacular languages.Tahiti Nui TV said a member of Radio Djiido, Kengy Wiwale-Hauata, said New Caledonia has 30 local languages and they are all honoured on the radio every day.Link to article:&n...

Partnership signed between Oranga Tamariki

A new strategic partnership between Oranga Tamariki and Te Whānau o Waipareira has been officially signed at Hoani Waititi marae in Auckland.It is the latest in a series of agreements between the Ministry and Māori providers, aiming to ensure decision-making around vulnerable children sits with tangata whenua.The director of Whanau Ora at Te Whānau o Waipareira trust, Jacqui Harema, said two agreements were signed on Friday, one being a strategic partnership agreement with the other an outcom...

Urban Māori and Oranga Tamariki sign groundbreaking outcomes

Te Whānau o Waipareira CEO John Tamihere says the contract he has signed with Oranga Tamariki today is not only groundbreaking but has been 40 years in the making.The west Auckland Māori Urban Authority executive and Oranga Tamariki (OT) CE Chappie Te Kani - in front of OT Minister Kelvin Davis and Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson - formalised a Partnership and Outcomes Agreement at Hoani Waititi Marae."I cannot believe it has taken over 40 years, and while we have a long, long way t...

Healthline staff confused, angry as organisation

Healthline staff working for Whakarongorau are confused and angry, after finding out they're no longer needed.They were relied on repeatedly throughout the pandemic, but on Wednesday afternoon, staff were told they had just days left on the job."We were given nine days of notice that our fixed term contracts were ending, despite being told we were permanent," one clinician told Newshub. Link to video and article: Healthline staff confused, angry as organisation reveals more than 100 jo...

Te reo on the rise in rural town

A new wharekura will be built in the lower North Island as part of the Government’s efforts to lift the number of Māori learners in Aotearoa.Associate Minister of Education Kelvin Davis said on Tuesday the Māori immersion school would be built in Feilding in 2023 and cater for years 1-13.The wharekura was part of the Government’s commitment to increase the number of Māori learners attending Māori medium and kura kaupapa Māori education to 30% by 2040.Link to article: Te reo on the ...

Why you can’t advertise online

Social media advertising is big business but, as Reweti Kohere explains, it’s not possible for companies to reach tangata whenua in their own reo.The next time you scroll past an advertisement on your Facebook or Twitter feed, take a few seconds to ponder the NZ$255bn worth of revenue that social media advertising generated globally in 2021. Take another moment to realise that amount is expected to rise to NZ$420bn in four years. Social advertising accounts for a third of all digital adve...

Tāme Iti corrects his name on an artwork,

Artist, actor and activist Tāme Iti has corrected his own misspelt name on a painting in a Wellington hotel, prompting calls from the artwork’s owner for the police to investigate.The painting, Tama performs in a New Zealand landscape, by Wellington-based artist Dean Proudfoot, depicts Iti but incorrectly spells his first name in its title, which features in its bottom lefthand corner.In a video posted online on Tuesday, and captioned Every week is Māori language week, Iti can be s...

Should Aotearoa become a republic?

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says yes, in her lifetime - but not under her Government. Regardless, the low-level debate has begun - revealing a "stark division" between Kiwis. It wasn't long after Queen Elizabeth II's death the debate on whether or not Aotearoa should become a republic began and Ardern was asked if it was something the Labour Government will seek to do. "I do believe that New Zealand will become a republic in my lifetime but I don't believe there is a sense of ur...

Calls for Māori ACC entity after man loses both arms in 'horrific' work accident,

An ACC and employment lawyer is calling for an ACC entity designed by Māori, for Māori to help address structural biases in the compensation system."I'm applauding what they're going to do for health and I think that that should be replicated in ACC as well," Wellington lawyer Hazel Armstrong said.Māori and Pasifika are more likely to get injured but are less likely to make ACC claims, and therefore get fewer entitlements.Added to this, Armstrong said ACC processes structurally disadvantage M...

Māori legal scholar

A Māori law trailblazer focused on the environment and tikanga Māori has taken out this year’s Distinguished Research Medal, awarded by the University of Otago.Professor Jacinta Ruru (NZOM), who has been with the university since 1999, said she never expected to receive the medal.Typically, the award stays in the science faculty, Ruru said, so seeing a humanities' researcher, particularly one whose focus is on law and matauranga Māori, take out the top spot was exciting.“It feels really s...

Te Arawa calls for end to emergency housing crisis

Te Arawa leaders are calling on the Government to end the emergency housing crisis inRotorua - saying the iwi and city's global reputation is at stake.Iwi leaders have met to discuss the impact of emergency housing on whānau, hapū, iwiand their rohe (region).They are seeking to intervene at government and operational level and want greater accountability for the resources being used.A TVNZ programme further highlighted the crisis following extensive reporting from the Rotorua Daily Post.Link t...

Kapa haka champions stun audience

Aotearoa’s top two kapa haka, from Auckland and Rotorua, were welcomed by local kapa haka Te Ahi a Tahurangi, with stunning performances at the Wellington Opera house on Saturday as part of Wellington's Māori Language Festival. Te Matatini champions Ngā Tūmanako (Auckland) and Te Pikikōtuku o Ngāti Rongomai (Rotorua) both delivered melodic choral waiata and ground-shaking takahi. But the welcoming performance by Whanganui-a-tara locals, Te Ahi a Tahurangi (Wellington), too, grabbed the au...

It lives with you, boy:

Professor Tom Roa (Waikato, Ngāti Maniapoto) is a highly respected kaumātua and academic who has worn many hats within te ao Māori and te ao Pākeha. Roa is an eloquent reo speaker who had to fight to reclaim his language within a school system determined to rip it from him. Here, he recounts the story of his te reo Māori journey, as told to Katie Doyle (Ngāpuhi).This has been edited for length and clarity.There's been quite a bit written by a number of people on the loss of langu...

Air Ruatoria flying high when it comes to te reo

Pilot Mahanga Maru, who hails from Te Aitanga-ā-mate and Ngāti Uepohatu, aims to enhance Māori pronunciation of place names by other pilots and air traffic controllers."Haere mai ki runga i tā mātou waka, ki te awhi, ki te tautoko, ki te whakakaha i tō tātou reo - Jump on board my plane, to help, to develop and enhance our language."This week marks the 50th anniversary of the presentation of the Māori Language Petition, Te Petihana Reo Māori, to Parliament, when Māori language champion...

A stalwart reflects on a te reo Māori

It has been 50 years since the Māori Language Petition was delivered at the steps of Parliament. One of the key reo Māori stalwarts who fought for the survival and prominence of the language reflects on the decades since.With academic plaques pinned across the walls, bookshelves filled to the brim, taonga gifted by artists and portraits of famous leaders, Sir Pou Temara’s Waikato home is a treasure trove of knowledge.Read this story in te reo Māori and English here. / Pānuitia tēnei ...

Timaru hand cyclist learns Te Reo Māori

Jonathan “Jono” Nelson always wanted to learn Te Reo Māori.Growing up in Timaru, the hand cyclist, never had the opportunity to learn at school – now he is in his second year of learning the language, and says it was the best decision he has made.Te Wiki o te Reo Māori is being celebrated this week, with the number of speakers is growing. The Government has set a target of 1 million speakers of basic te reo by 2040, and 150,000 who are proficient.For Nelson, a community support...

Empowering Māori teachers and leaders

The next generation of kura kaupapa Māori teachers are being taught at Massey University, but it is also reo speakers, people familiar with tikanga and Māori leaders who are being developed.The university’s Te Pūtahi-a-Toi, school of Māori knowledge, has two programmes that train people to be teachers at kura kaupapa Māori (Māori immersion schools): the Te Aho Tātairangi undergraduate course and Te Aho Paerewa postgraduate course. The two courses will have 29 graduates later this year.M...