Back to Blog

A taonga of their own:

When you’re a young person in the care system, your few possessions become treasures. That’s part of the reasoning behind a programme distributing pounamu to tamariki and rangatahi in state care – all 6,000 of them.There are more than 6,000 children in state care in Aotearoa, and a new initiative led in part by care-experienced tamariki aims to give them all a taonga of their own.Tū Māia is a partnership between the whānau of Nelson-based carver Timoti Moran (Tainui/Ngāti Porou/Ng...

German artist reaches out to well-known Māori kaumatua

Gerd Stritzel has reached out to well-known Māori elder Rangi McLean over the German artist's unauthorised use of his tattooed facial image.Stritzel told the Herald since receiving the legal threat from McLean's lawyers in July, he has had several written exchanges with McLean."I have been in contact with Mr McLean and have made some suggestions on how my art can be used to support the Māori community," Stritzel said.Link to article: German artist reaches out to well-known Māori kaumatua...

35 years ago te reo Māori became an official language,

Te reo Māori became an official language of Aotearoa New Zealand on this day 35 years ago. But the battle for its survival has yet to be won, experts say.The Māori Language Act came into action on August 1, 1987, and granted te reo status as an official language of New ZealandMāori Language Commissioner Professor Rawinia Higgins said it's been a hard fight to revitalise the language.“The battle for te reo Māori has been fought in communities across Aotearoa, from our sm...

Wahine toa Māhera Maihi

A young Māori wahine is helping South Auckland youth escape from cycles of family violence, gangs, and poverty through her charity."I was tired of waiting for other people to come up with solutions for young Māori. We're dying - I nearly died - and no matter where I went no one had a holistic idea of how to solve our issues."This is according to Māhera Maihi, who set up Mā Te Huruhuru in Manukau with the intention of shifting negative youth attitudes from within her community.Link to article...

Te Pūkenga cuts $8 million

The troubled vocational education organisation, Te Pūkenga, is cutting $8 million from its head office costs.The institute is trying to avoid a forecast deficit of $110m.Te Pūkenga is taking over the 16 polytechnics and most industry training organisations from the start of next year.Link to article: Te Pūkenga cuts $8 million from its head office costs | Stuff.co.nz...

Cost of Living:

One in six kiwis have been homeless and tonight about 41,000 of us will bed down without adequate access to housing - equivalent to the population of Whanganui, according to a new study.And more than a quarter of New Zealanders are struggling to make ends meet as inflation cracks 7 percent.That's according to new research for Orange Sky, a charity that provides mobile laundry, shower services and support to people experiencing homelessness.The charity's Aotearoa operations manager Eddie Uin...

Mana enhancing māra kai:

Inspiration, encouragement and heart is helping students complete qualifications while making gardening gifts for state housing tenants.High school students in Manawatū completing building and construction certificates through UCOL are producing planter boxes for Kainga Ora residents as part of a community partnership project.“It’s the whole community working together,” said Dave Mollard from the Manawatū Food Action Network who were working with UCOL and Kainga Ora, along with Awapuni N...

Inside the fight for

Small organisations around Aotearoa are placing Māori values at the forefront of their digital services. For IRL, Shanti Mathias talks to some of those working towards a version of the internet that prioritises the needs of indigenous people. Initially, Kaye-Maree Dunn (Te Rarawa, Ngā Puhi) wanted to make Indigicoin, the world’s first indigenous cryptocurrency. As a veteran of the Māori social development world – she’s also worked in community housing and the Māori Land court ...

Kapa haka makes spectacular

Nine groups from across the region hit the stage at Spark Arena on Saturday. The electrifying performances drew lots of appreciation from the gathered crowd. Check out the event in the video report above.Link to video and article: Kapa haka makes spectacular Auckland return (1news.co.nz)...

Māori landowners want more certainty exotic trees

The government, in a consultation process that is still ongoing, had proposed to remove exotic trees, such as pine, from the ETS to encourage native forest planting.It came after a backlash from the farming sector that too many beef and sheep farms on productive land would be converted to pine, thus hurting rural communities.But the moves incensed some Māori landowners, and they formed the group, Ngā Pou a Tāne / the Māori Forestry Association, off the back of it.Some iwi rely heavily on for...

Fear and loathing

The reaction to council letters telling some West Coast landowners their properties contain sites of significance to Māori has generated more heat than light. Is the agitation warranted? Lois Williams reports on what it all means. In the past week, dozens of West Coast landowners have been told for the first time that they have a site of significance to Māori on their land.As part of the work on a new district plan for the region and to comply with the law, the two coast iwi Ng�...

More absconding youth on electronically monitored bail

More than 100 young people, many linked to the rise in high-level repeat offending by young criminals, have absconded while on electronic monitoring in the past 12 months — an increase of more than 200 per cent in five years.A prominent youth worker says the surge in absconding is likely due to offenders getting younger, prompting a call for harsher punishment for recidivist lawbreakers as Auckland continues to be plagued by brazen ram raids and smash-and-grab robberies.Data released exclu...

Australian govt abandons battle over ruling

The court issued its landmark ruling in a four-three decision in 2020.That case had been brought by two men, Brendan Thoms and Daniel Love, who were born overseas and faced deportation after stints in jail.Thoms was released from immigration detention immediately after the court issued its judgement.Love was already free, as the government had reversed its decision to revoke his visa.The High Court's 2020 ruling said Aboriginal Australians had a "special cultural, historical and spiritual connec...

Pūhoro education programme

It’s hoped the number of Māori students studying science subjects at a Manawatū school may double through a new partnership with a Māori-focused education programme.Pūhoro Stemm Academy and Awatapu College in Palmerston North signed a multi-year agreement, the first time it had done so.The academy works with young Māori students to increase Māori engagement in science, technology, engineering, maths and mātauranga - Māori knowledge - subjects (stemm).Pūhoro chief executive Naomi Manu ...

Counties Manukau: Youth Services

...

Film inspired by 2007 Urewera raids

Directed by Tearepa Kahi, the film will show how armed police swooped in on the people of Tūhoe, detained innocent people, and left an enduring impact on the community. Nita Ngamotu had just moved out of Ruatoki when the raids began. She saw everything unfold on the news. "My mum and my younger sister were separated and they were put down in my shed with my younger brother, who was three years old at the time. They were strip-searched, my father was detained and arrested," she said.Link to vide...

'I never will':

On Wednesday Senate President Sue Lines acknowledged the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people as traditional custodians of the Canberra area and paid respect to elders past and present at the opening of the sitting.Hanson, a controversial politician, interrupted the Senate president and yelled "No, I won't and I never will," before storming out of the chamber in a huff, Daily Mail Australia reported.Later in the day, Hanson said in a Facebook post that she considers that the 'acknowledgement of country'...

What Māori place names can tell us

With the highest number of drownings in 40 years this summer due to unseasonably warm temperatures enticing more people into the water, this education is more crucial than ever. Dr Chanel Phillips (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi), a lecturer at the University of Otago who specialises in Māori water safety, says it is crucial iwi and hāpu and their knowledge is implemented in water safety education training.Phillips’ research looked at how Māori place names can teach people about water safe...

As cost of living increases,

The New Plymouth Community Food Bank is feeding a rapidly increasing number of people who are struggling as the cost of living continues to rise.The food bank has gone from giving out an average of 45 food parcels a week to 65.‘’We did 40 food parcels on a Friday a couple of weeks ago and that was our record,’’ manager Sharon Wills said.With inflation at the highest it has been since June 1990 and petrol prices up 32% and groceries up 7.1% – people are struggling.Link to arti...

Minister moved by Māori mental health efforts:

Minister for Whānau Ora and Associate Minister for Health Peeni Henare visited Māori health provider Te Oranganui in Whanganui last week to hear first-hand how mental wellbeing services were developing following an injection of government funding.He heard personal stories from whānau who had been part of Korowaitia Te Puna Waiora, a new kaupapa Māori primary mental health and addictions service.Korowaitia Te Puna Waiora has been designed to provide a "Whanganui-centric" approach to mental we...

Pope's apology:

...

First Nations leaders, members react

Pope Francis’ apology Monday for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s residential school system and the abuses that took place within it was a full-throated denunciation of a decades-long policy of forced assimilation that aimed to strip Indigenous children of their culture and traumatized generations.Speaking at the site of a former residential school south of Edmonton, Alberta, the pontiff said he was “deeply sorry” for actions by many in support of “the colonizing ment...

Retired psychiatrist

A psychiatrist who worked for decades in New Zealand hospitals says the Government’s health reforms have the potential to fix a mental-health service crippled by the district health board system and underfunding.Christchurch-based Alma Rae retired in May after 35 years at the coal face, treating patients with major mental illness in hospitals from Auckland to Timaru.It’s been a career spanning turn-about regimes of Labour and National governments since 1988, when she moved from general pract...

Gang meets with Oranga Tamariki chiefs

Mongrel Mob Kingdom Wahine Toa has met with Tā Mark Solomon, chairman of the Oranga Tamariki Ministerial Advisory Board, to talk about Māori tamariki and how being ripped away from whānau into state care has long and ever lasting consequences for Māori babies.Solomon and Oranga Tamariki Ministerial Board member Shannon Pakura met with Wahine Toa Mongrel Mob Kingdom representatives in Rotorua yesterday."We wanted to share what we as a Mongrel Mob organisation and whānau group are doing to su...

Former Te Pūkenga executive who quit 'Disneyland'

A former top executive at under-fire mega polytechnic Te Pūkenga has revealed she resigned last year after losing “trust and confidence” in the organisation where she alleges the atmosphere resembled “Disneyland” at times.Merran Davis is also calling for the Te Pūkenga board to be replaced by a government-appointed commissioner and for the senior management team to be replaced.Davis, who was a key whistleblower in raising issues about problems at Wintec and is now a Hamilton-based educ...