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Northland mother shares tips for cooking healthy kai

Kirsten Holtz began vlogging in 2020, using knowledge she gained raising seven children on a single income, to start the Facebook page Mummas Kitchen. She quickly amassed a huge following during the first Covid-19 lockdown by sharing recipes and cooking tips online, and now has 80,000 Facebook followers. Over the weekend Holtz held a health wānanga at Tai Tokerau Wānanga Marae in Raumanga. It was part of a winter wellness campaign to encourage whānau to take care of their health. The workshop...

Call for Māori land return

A bid to return the control of land used by a golf club to its original Māori owners has put a co-management plan on hold in New Plymouth.The land was previously Native Reserve land and kaumātua Peter Moeahu says the New Plymouth District Council should return it to mana whenua via a lease for one dollar a year.“The land was stolen from us, it can be returned by way of the lease,” Moeahu told the council’s partnership committee, Te Huinga Taumatua.His proposed 21-year lease would include...

Timely to increase Māori nurse practitioners numbers,

Nursing schools have united to call for doubling the numbers, but health officials say the current funding that has already significantly increased numbers, will continue as it is.Māori make up nine percent of the 612-strong practitioner workforce, versus 17 percent of the population.The national coordinator of training Josephine Davis said that was too low, even though the approach was proven to produce skilled medical professionals committed to staying in their Māori or rural communitie...

When you love your child,

It's a tricky subject, but there are times for all parents when they just don't like parenthood. They love their child, but the actual experience of being a parent at that moment just doesn't feel great. For example, when your child is inconsolable, and you haven't been able to eat or sleep for hours, and you can't even get to the toilet. Psychologist Sarb Johal says ambivalence about parenting can strike at any time - even in the lead up to parenting.  Link to...

Matau a Maui

Link: Ngā Ara Tipuna (ngaaratipuna.nz)...

Māori leader Rangi McLean plans legal action against German artist

Well-known Māori advocate Rangi McLean is taking legal action against a German artist over the unauthorised use of his tā moko image.The Manurewa Marae chairman posed as part of a wider group of 22 Māori for well-known and highly respected New Zealand photographer Michael Bradley.His portfolio - The Puaki Exhibition - portrayed the participants with their tā moko. Bradley then used digital technology to show what they looked like without their facial tattoos. The exhibition highlighted the s...

Largest-ever repatriation of Moriori

Te Papa will welcome 111 Kōimi T’chakat Moriori (Moriori skeletal remains) and 2 Māori ancestral remains when they are repatriated to Aotearoa New Zealand this week.This is the largest-ever return of ancestors belonging to a single imi (iwi, tribe). It coincides with the opening of a refreshed display of Moriori taonga (treasures) at Te Papa.Link to article: Largest-ever repatriation of Moriori ancestral remains | Te Papa...

Helping older teens

For nearly three years, teenagers and young adults have taken a psychological hit at a time when they should kicking off the next stage of their life, says clinical psychologist Karen Nimmo.“What we've got is a micro generation of young people who feel ripped off by the whole Covid experience and obviously that's had an impact on mental health and wellbeing because that's time they can't get back,” Nimmo tells Kathryn Ryan.But adolescence has always been a challenging part of life, she ...

Make a Manu

Join artist Ruth Woodbury and make a manu (traditional Māori flying kite) with whānau at the Maritime Museum.It takes two to Tukutuku!Come as a whānau and share the joy of manu-making using traditional materials - no experience necessary.Workshops last 90 minutes and bookings are required. This event is perfect for adults, school-age tamariki and taiohi.Link to information: Make a Manu with whānau (maritimemuseum.co.nz)...

Tūhoe kuia inspires Māori-

An indigenous Taiwanese director will use the memory of a Tūhoe kuia who recently died to complete her cross-cultural film project.Laha Mebow is the first indigenous female director from Taiwan. She's recently finished her third major film, which is featuring at the Cannes Festival.Mebow first met Tūhoe kuia Hokimoana Te Rika-Hekerangi - known as Nanny Hoki - when visiting Aotearoa for a film exchange programme in 2019.Mebow says she did not expect to make such a quick connection with 'Na...

Rena Owen: " Let us all put our heads together ,,,,"

https://www.facebook.com/watch......

Miria Flavell: Planting Seeds Podcast

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Living the dream

Kawakawa Fox-Reo was only months out of the New Zealand drama school Toi Whakaari when he joined Home And Away as the youngest member of the Australian drama’s first Māori family.Fast-forward three years, and the Hawke’s Bay actor found himself on stage alongside his co-stars, accepting this year’s Logie for the most popular television drama.“I was excited to be there but a little bit nervous as well,” the 24 year old says of mixing with some of Australia’s most famous faces at the ...

Great Minds: Mental health unit 'chaotic',

A staffing crisis at a psychiatric facility for teenagers with severe mental illness got so severe that employees worried it would lead to "serious injury or death", according to damning inspection reports obtained by the Herald.Inspectors from the Children's Commissioner's office visited the Regional Rangatahi Adolescent Inpatient Service (RRAIS), a 12-bed facility in Porirua, twice in the past year-and-a-half and found a multitude of alarming problems relating to staffing, the physical state o...

School-provided lunches needed more than ever

Jean Batten Primary School assistant principal Siolo John said families had become more reliant on the provided meals as soaring food prices made it hard to put food on the table and in the lunchbox. Checkpoint visited Countdown Māngere, where some said they were relying on extended family to get by, while others said their weekly grocery bill had doubled. "Before, $150 can feed ... three kids, now it’s like almost $300 to be ho...

1 in 4 preschool children

Consultant developmental paediatrician at Starship Hospital and lead researcher Dr Jin Russell said the results show a strong link between poverty and child development.She said she knew from the work she did with children on the ground that poverty had an impact on their development.But, to find out that about one in four Kiwi children weren't reaching their full developmental potential "really took me by surprise", she said of the data.Link to video and article: 1 in 4 preschool children ...

Learning te reo Māori could be key

The latest Stats NZ Wellbeing Statistics survey showed Māori were sitting at 31 percent for poor mental wellbeing in 2021, an increase of 5 percentage points in the last three years.Māori are currently sitting at 13 percent to more likely to have good outcomes in all areas of wellbeing compared to Pākehā at 24.4 percent.But people being able to speak more than a few words or phrases of te reo Māori has gone from 24 percent in 2018 to now sitting at 30 percent in only three years.W...

Papatoetoe Food Hub rescues wasted produce,

A South Auckland social enterprise has come up with a community-based solution to fix our "broken food system".The Papatoetoe Food Hub was started four years ago to rescue produce that normally gets thrown away, by repurposing it into affordable, cafe-quality food. The enterprise was set up by the Southern Initiative and Auckland Council's Eke Panuku Development who gave the location for the Hub.Hub director Raj Ramakrishna says we live in a time when there is so much food waste yet so much food...

Urgent change needed for dental care system for children

A new paper says a multi-service approach was necessary to address the long waits being imposed on children with severe decay.University of Otago researcher Dorothy Boyd said it wasn't acceptable that children were experiencing preventable pain every day."We need to say, 'actually it's not okay that so many of our children can't chew, can't sleep, can't eat, can't play, because their teeth hurt'."The oral healthcare workforce was severely understaffed, which had been exacerbated by Covid-19, she...

How Māori use maramataka to care for mental health issues

Māori are well known for using the stars and the moon to navigate across the ocean in their waka.Not so well known to non-Māori is their tradition of using the moon and stars to help treat mental health issues.It's called maramataka and will be incorporated into treatment by the new Māori Health Authority.Link to video and article: How Māori use maramataka to care for mental health issues and how the practice will be incorporated into treatment by Māori Health Authority | Newshub...

Auckland school switches back

Covid-19 modellers have warned the country could be seeing the start of a second wave of Omicron, due to the more transmissible BA.5 variant.Carmel College principal Chris Allen told First Up dealing with staff and student illness had been more difficult in recent weeks than during the first two years of the pandemic."We've got to the stage now in the last few days, we've needed relievers for the relievers. People are just dropping like flies and we can't sustain this level of providin...

New Zealand is not ready for a fentanyl crisis,

The NZ Drug Foundation says we are not equipped to deal with a fentanyl crisis but Pharmac claims the country has a "good coverage of [antidote] stock".Last weekend, 12 people were hospitalised over a 48-hour period in Wairarapa due to an overdose on the drug fentanyl. On Friday, a man in his 20s reportedly overdosed on fentanyl and was taken to Palmerston North Hospital.It is the first time the drug has been confirmed to be in New Zealand.Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm said the d...

Millions spent on truancy:

14-year-old Zane Turua’s family thought he would start high school at the beginning of this year.But the teenager, who has high needs, was still at home in June.His grandmother, Christine Bellamy, said his behaviour worsened as they continued to wait for the support he needed to attend a programme at Motueka High School, north of Nelson.Turua – who has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and a mental disability – wanted to be at school, and...

Māori authority welcomes health system

Manukau Urban Māori Authority (MUMA) is welcoming the Government's health reforms as an important first step to improving Māori and Pasifika health in south Auckland.But some in the health sector say the jury is still out on what will be achieved in Counties Manukau.Under the reforms, the country's 20 district health boards have now been replaced by Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand).The new Crown entity will be responsible for running hospitals, and primary and community health services.Link t...

Should Aotearoa

Winter, spring, summer and autumn aren’t relevant to our environment, says Rereata Makiha of Te Māhurehure, Te Aupōuri and Te Arawa. The renowned astronomer and authority on maramataka tells Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes why.  We all look forward to summer, when the environment warms up and we enter the festive season. Those terms, the festive season and even summer, were introduced to this country along with the western Gregorian calendar that follows the sun and 365-day year.Rereata ...