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Iwi keen to explore cultural centre

A Marlborough iwi has asked the council to fund a feasibility study into a cultural centre, which could finally see artefacts stored in Christchurch returned to the region.Te Rūnanga a Rangitāne o Wairau Trust general manager Corey Hebberd presented at the council’s annual plan hearings on Wednesday – telling councillors the project, Ngā Wairau o Ruatere, is something they’ve had their sights on long before their 2010 settlement was even signed.Hebberd said while there had been a&n...

Hinemoa Elder on wellbeing, writing and Millie

Once she was known for being a children's TV presenter and wife to Paul Holmes. Now at 56, Dr Hinemoa Elder has found her place in the world as a psychiatrist, health researcher, successful author and proud Māori woman.She will mark Matariki by taking the stage at M9, a new speaker and performance event.Are you excited to be involved with the inaugural M9 event?I'm so looking forward to it. M9 is the work of musician Ria Hall, who has put together an eclectic combination of Māori women to pres...

Iwi's big CBD plan:

Hamilton’s biggest CBD landowner has revealed bold plans to reimagine the central city, anchored by a major redevelopment of Centre Place.Iwi-owned Tainui Group Holdings (TGH), in partnership with Kiwi Property, plans to reimagine the inner-city mall, turning it into a mixed-use precinct, complete with high-rise apartments and multi-storey office blocks.The remodelling of Centre Place is part of TGH’s 20 – 30 year vision to reinvigorate the central city and create a “vibrant heart” for...

Learning a code language

The simple English sentence “This is good.” consists of two phrases –with the phrase-break coming between “This” and “is good.”A sentence of similar meaning in te reo is: Ka pai / tēnei. (“Is good / this.”) also two phrases, but in reverse order.Apart from the reversal of the phrase- sequence, however, there is another difference between these two sentences which is of much greater significance.This column focuses on further clarifying this particular difference.Link to video ...

Te Papa opens interactive Matariki exhibition

The exhibition made up of three interactive parts including past, present and future was blessed this morning by mana whenua.Te Papa kaitiaki and design team lead Crystal Jones said the first part focuses on the star "Pōhutukawa" and looks at remembering those who have died in the last year."You come up and you push one of the buttons and you think about the person or people or say their names out loud. In historic times, you would call their name out to the stars and Pōhutukawa would take you...

Dame Silvia Cartwright to head inquiry

Dame Silvia Cartwright will head the independent inquiry into abuse at Dilworth School.Eleven men linked to Dilworth School have been charged over historical assault, totalling over 50 separate charges. Three have pleaded guilty and two have been sentenced to prison.Dame Silvia, a former Governor-General and hight court judge, led the inquiry into the Earthquake Commission's handling of the Canterbury earthquake claims, and the 1988 Cartwright Inquiry into cervical cancer treatment at Auckl...

Gaps in learning, behavioural issues worsening as students struggle in pandemic -

Principals and teachers warn they are seeing worse behaviour and achievement after two-and-a-half years of pandemic disruption.They told RNZ many young people were doing well, but some had gaps in their learning and had missed basic routines and socialisation that helped them get along with one another and with their teachers.They said the situation was worst in Auckland, where schools had lost more time to lockdowns than schools in other parts of the country.Link to article: Gaps in learni...

Seventh report:

In this, the Seventh report of the Family Violence Death Review Committee, we draw attention to the concept of a duty to care. It is related to but distinct from a common concept in a western framework: a ‘duty of care’, which is a legal obligation to ensure the safety or wellbeing of others.This report explores factors that have pushed Aotearoa New Zealand away from caring for people who experience family violence, reinforcing messages that no one is there to help them.The&nb...

Māori organisations lead way in dealing with family violence -

The latest report from the Family Violence Death Review Committee (FVDRC) is calling for government agencies to be more responsive to whānau. A duty to care - Pūrongo tuawhitu: Me manaaki te tangata from the Family Violence Death Review Committee draws on findings and recommendations from in-depth reviews conducted between 2019 and 2021.Link to article: Māori organisations lead way in dealing with family violence - report (1news.co.nz)...

TREATY OF WAITANGI

From beginning to end, Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a non-racial agreement, writes Dame Anne Salmond, but it has been recast as a partnership between races, and that has provoked racist reactionsIn 2017, film director Taika Waititi released a video for the Human Rights Commission, ‘Give Nothing to Racism,’ mercilessly satirising everyday racist behaviour in New Zealand. The next year in an interview in the UK, he described New Zealand as ‘the best place on the planet,’ but added, ‘It’s as...

Māori rangatahi,

Karanama Ruru (Ngāti Raukawa/Ngāti Maniapoto) is a te ao Māori and youth affairs reporter for Stuff in Auckland.OPINION: It was hard to claim my Māoritanga growing up. It wasn’t so much that I had fairer skin than most Māori I knew or that I couldn’t speak much te reo. I blame that on urbanisation.It was the mamae and internalised racism that was enforced by the idea that I’m nothing more than a statistic waiting to happen.I’m not sure if I realised it ...

Once were one colony:

With a new Australian government comes revived hopes for movement on section 501 deportations, a policy that disproportionately affects Māori in that country. One big hurdle? Australians’ ignorance about the impact of colonialism in Aotearoa, says Mat Henderson (Ngāpuhi).I am descended from a Ngāpuhi shearer who migrated to Australia 110 years ago and share my korero with you today from the lands and waters of the Gadigal Nation where my whānau have lived for three generations. The first p...

Witi Ihimaera:

"I was staying with my nan at Waituhi [near Gisborne], and she said to me: 'Wake up... we have to get going,' because outside our window there were all these people carrying lamps and walking up the hill opposite, where Takitimu marae was."I was a townie boy and loved my sleep and said: "Can't this wait until morning', but I come from a place, Waituhi, that was a Ringatū stronghold, ... and so we went outside and I followed these lights going up towards the Takitimu marae, and then suddenly a d...

The Māori movies to watch

For the past 17 years, the Wairoa Māori Film Festival has championed Māori cinema in the pre-dawn of Matariki at Queen’s Birthday weekend. We picked a long weekend for people to travel the long distance to the East Coast, and we picked Matariki because it has traditionally been a time of remembrance and storytelling. In ancient times, we gathered around the fireplace and shared oral histories, moteatea and waiata. In modern time, we gather in a cinema, a marae or around our giant s...

Auckland Māori medical students

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CAB has advice

The idea of becoming a grandparent can be exciting and a bit daunting at the same time, depending on our role as grandparents. Many grandparents enjoy interacting with their grandkids without the day-to-day responsibilities of parents. This can mean a weekend together every now and then, an afternoon playdate, babysitting in the evening, or chats on the phone or even emails written. Sometimes however, life circumstances change or maybe things just haven't gone to plan and it can often fall to gr...

Protest at Papakura High

Students at Papakura High have been protesting after three kaiako involved with the school's Māori full immersion unit resigned.A hui is being held tonight for concerned students and their whānau after the resignations of the teachers, one of whom the Herald understands founded the rumaki reo unit.Videos posted to social media show dozens of students performing haka and confronting principal Simon Craggs, demanding answers about why trio have left and accusing him of forcing them out.Link to v...

Aotearoa name better represents country's identity,

So what should the country be called officially? Te Pāti Māori on Thursday morning is presenting its petition to Parliament calling for the country’s name to be officially changed to Aotearoa. It’s also calling for the Government to officially restore the Te Reo Māori names for all towns, cities and place names. Lobby group, Hobson's Pledge, has a petition of its own campaigning against the use of Aotearoa, and is calling for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to publicly affirm that the count...

Tenants don't want to be moved

There are finally some new housing projects in the pipeline, including a state house development of 200 homes.But locals do not want it to further rip apart the suburb.Roopu-a-Iwi Trust supports local whānau and its office is in the heart of Maraenui, having been there for 17 years.Chief executive Maureen Mua said about a decade ago, Housing New Zealand ripped down many houses."By demolishing just under 100 homes, they replaced it with 7 two-bedroom units."Some of the them were removed because ...

Fears cultural significance

Matariki holds significant cultural and spiritual weight for many Māori and some fear the occasion could become commercialised or reduced to a homogenous celebration.Astronomer and maramataka expert Rangi Matamua, who spent decades campaigning for Matariki, is brimming with excitement for the holiday. So much so he is keeping count: Three weeks and two days.Matamua is the chair of the government's Matariki advisory committee and is also an adviser for Crown agency Te Arawhiti as it prepares for...

Matariki should not be commercialised

The first Matariki public holiday is less than a month away, and while excitement is building for many, some have raised fears about how it will be marked.Matariki holds significant cultural and spiritual weight for many Māori and some fear the occasion could become commercialised or reduced to a homogenous celebration.Astronomer and maramataka expert Rangi Matamua, who spent decades campaigning for Matariki, is brimming with excitement for the holiday. So much so he is keeping count: Three wee...

Māori Party backs calls for establishment of iwi-led

The Māori Party and the National Māori Authority are backing calls for the establishment of an iwi bank to finance building on Māori land.It comes after Māori housing advocates told RNZ red tape and barriers at the bank were preventing whānau building on their own land.The Māori Party proposed an iwi-led bank in their 2017 election policy, under the leadership of Marama Fox. Almost five years later, co-leader, Rawiri Waititi said the party still backed the idea.Lin...

Māori health leaders

Leading Māori health specialists will talk at a one-day symposium about the critical role rongoā Māori could play in the country's health and disability sector.Whanganui-based Whakauae Research Services says the symposium is a pivotal collaboration between Māoridom and Crown health agencies to improve health equity.The symposium, called Tū Mai Rongoā Symposium - Calling Forth the Mana of Rongoā, brings the Ngāti Hauiti research institute together with the Ministry of Health, ACC, the int...

The place for mātauranga Māori

Since colonisation, mātauranga Māori has been pushed aside by Western notions of science. Ngā Pae o te Māramataga research lead Dr Ocean Mercier explains how the two can coexist, and why it’s crucial for Aotearoa that they do.Around 800 years ago, Polynesian voyagers used their rich knowledge of stars, weather, currents, plants and wildlife to navigate across the expanses of Te-Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa to Aotearoa. As they established a society of iwi and hapū groupings across the islan...

Protest at Papakura High

Students at Papakura High have been protesting after three kaiako involved with the school's Māori full immersion unit resigned.A hui is being held tonight for concerned students and their whānau after the resignations of the teachers, one of whom the Herald understands founded the rumaki reo unit.Videos posted to social media show dozens of students performing haka and confronting principal Simon Craggs, demanding answers about why trio have left and accusing him of forcing them out.Link to v...