Back to Blog

Waikeria: Protesting inmate 'assaulted by others'

A protesting Waikeria Prison inmate who surrendered on Thursday was assaulted by other prisoners who wanted to stop him leaving, according to the Department of Corrections.Māori MP Rawiri Waititi offers to negotiate with Waikeria Prison rioters.It comes as Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi calls on the Minister of Corrections to step in and resolve the situation at the Waikato jail after the MP met with inmates.Smoke is still rising from the century-old 'top jail' where 16 inmates rema...

Oranga Tamariki is leaving kids in meth homes to be abused,

Children are being abused and dying because Oranga Tamariki is reluctant to remove them from homes where parents are using methamphetamine, former social welfare boss Christine Rankin says.Her comments come in the wake of revelations that the child protection service knew that 2-year-old Nevaeh Ager was living with a father who used meth but did not intervene. The father, Aaron Izett, has been convicted of her murder.Rankin, who was chief executive of Work and Income NZ (which is now p...

What are we afraid of

OPINION: I grew up, like many others around me, in a privileged white middle-class family, although slightly eccentric, immersed in a community and school system that observed the world through a Pākehā lens.I was oblivious to the undertones of racism that was serving to marginalise Māori through everyday language presented in acceptable speech, classic storytelling, and the use of common phrases that bolster the ideology of Pākehā dominance.An ideology fed by 19th-century Darwinism vi...

Children's Commissioner calls for probe

The Children's Commissioner is demanding to know whether police are routinely taking pictures of young people on the street nationwide.He joins others, including Wairarapa iwi, calling for an investigation after the police in the region admitted illegally taking pictures of young Māori. Whānau in Wairarapa described their sons walking alone in broad daylight when police approached and insisted they take their picture before letting them go on their way. Children's Commissioner Andrew Becroft s...

Shelly Bay opponents Mau Whenua

Iwi members fighting the sale of land at Marukaikuru / Shelly Bay are pinning their hopes on the Māori Land Court after the funder for their High Court case pulled out.Mau Whenua have been occupying the land in Wellington where a controversial $500 million development is planned.The Wellington City Council voted to sell the land in early November and Mau Whenua was due to appear in the High Court next March in a bid to overturn the sale.In a statement last week, Mau Whenua said a major party fu...

Maori boys' boarding school

Historic Māori boys' boarding school St Stephens (Tipene) is closer to reopening at Bombay.Twenty years after the school closed, its board has submitted a draft application to the Ministry of Education to become a special character school and will now put in a formal application to reopen in 2022 with 50 students. it already has a waiting list of 150 so plans to expand rapidly.Former student and St Stephens School spokesperson Nathan Durie reunited with other former students both from the boys'...

Oranga Tamariki ‘review’

Children's Minister Kelvin Davis has ordered Oranga Tamariki to stop its 'reverse uplifts' of children from foster care, after a limited internal review raised systemic issuesAn internal Oranga Tamariki review of a 'reverse uplift' of children from their foster parents - highlighted in a court-injuncted Newsroom documentary - did not even talk to those parents and did not look into how they were treated by the agency.The review, by the Chief Social Worker, instead focused on something that ...

Sir Jerry Mateparae ‘aghast’

Sir Jerry Mateparae is calling out racism in health research to help lift the lid on what he says is a pervasive issue, Laura Walters reportsFormer Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae says racism in health research is pervasive and is hindering the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders.Mateparae (Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Kahungunu) became chair of the Healthier Lives National Science Challenge in June, and now he’s using his position to call out racist comments and beliefs hel...

Listen to your ancestors:

Shilo Kino has written previously on the challenge of being a Māori journalist. But this year the Marae reporter has discovered the power of Māori journalism that comes from telling our own stories.The night before I met the four sisters, I couldn't sleep. I spent hours reading through the court documents which detailed the horrific abuse, the injustice and travesty of what these girls had gone through.It was heartbreaking, emotional and heavy to say the least. As I lay awake on my bed thinkin...

Te Paati Māori takes on

Te Paati Māori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi started off the term with clashes with the Speaker and a bit of interior redecorating. As part of a year in review series, they spoke to Newsroom about their working relationship and plans for the next three years"Oh, are those still here?" Debbie Ngarewa-Packer mutters to Rawiri Waititi as they enter the room.We're meeting in Te Paati Māori's new caucus room. A dozen old political cartoons from the Muldoon era adorn the w...

Stress, lockdowns

The Covid Kai Survey has revealed that most people ate more sweet and salty snacks, white bread and pasta, processed meat and sugary drinks during Level four."It was not such a great story, but it is what we're seeing in countries overseas as well," says Dr Sarah Gerritsen, a research fellow at Auckland University's School of Population Health. She led the survey of 3,028 people when New Zealand was at alert levels 3 and 4."This has been a really stressful year and when you're stressed you ...

Children's Minister Kelvin Davis orders immediate halt

Newshub can reveal Children's Minister Kelvin Davis has ordered an immediate halt to 'reverse uplifts' - when children in state care are taken away from their foster parents and placed with whānau. It comes as Oranga Tamariki boss Grainne Moss clings to her job despite the Children's Minister now questioning some system-wide processes within the agency. Moss was back in front of the Waitangi Tribunal on Monday - under increasing pressure to resign - but the chief executive is not goin...

Ōrākei kaumātua returning to the land,

Decades after the Crown razed a Ngāti Whātua settlement and evicted its occupants, more kaumātua are set to return to the land.Tears flowed as the sun rose over the site in Auckland’s Ōrākei this week, during a special karakia held on Atareta St.It marked the start of development for 10 new whare for kaumātua.In 1951, the Crown took possession of the last remaining papakāinga, homes built on ancestral land, nearby at Ōkahu Bay, and razed the settlement a year later ahead of a visit by ...

Saying sorry to Māori is a good start

OPINION: The late 20th century has been termed “the age of apology”, in reference to the proliferation of expressions of regret and remorse by governments, official bodies and institutions to amend historic wrongs. The recent mea culpa by Stuff for its discriminatory treatment of Māori can be viewed in this context – partly as a social speech act of contrition, and also as a promise to do things better in the future.Apologies are emotionally powerful utterances – and these kinds of...

Waitangi Tribunal hears of ambitions

A family have outlined their vision of revitalising Māori in their tribal homelands, at a Manawatū Waitangi Tribunal hearing.The Ngāti Raukawa iwi confederations treaty claim resumed at Te Tikanga Marae at Tokorangi, north of Halcombe, on Thursday, where a Te Reureu family told the tribunal about their idea of restoring Māori culture in the area.This week of hearings is focused on the Te Reureu area, which borders the Rangitīkei River, but is part of the Porirua ki Manawatū inquiry. Raukaw...

I walk in two worlds

Recently, I heard one of my daughters whisper to the other, “Millie do you remember what my superpower is? My superpower is that I’m Māori”.I grinned. The seed was planted, and they were listening.Popoia te kākano kia puawaiNurture the seed, and it will grow In my childhood, there were three types of Māori that I saw. Those who grew up in walking distance to the marae, interconnected with extended whānau, tikanga and Māori ways of doing woven into their everyday lives. Those who lived...

Children's Commissioner pushes for closure

The Children's Commissioner has backed a call for the closure of New Zealand's large care and protection residences and the eventual abolition of the four youth justice detention centres.It comes after a report for the Human Rights Commission found that the use of seclusion in the youth justice residences reviewed had doubled since 2016, while seclusion in the care and protection residences reviewed had declined slightly.It is a follow-up to a previous report in 2017 by the s...

The Detail: Reducing child poverty is more complicated than

Last week, the latest Child Poverty Monitor report revealed 235,000 children – about one in five kids – live in poverty.In some senses, including those raw numbers, the statistic is shocking.But it also represents progress.Children’s Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft says the numbers are tracking in the right direction – particularly when it comes to the overall level of incomes.But in other senses, little progress is being made.Link to article: The Detail: Reducing child ...

'Colonial noose' — Māori Party's Rawiri Waititi

Despite the ultimatum, Waititi says he will continue his stand against ties.  Last Thursday, Waititi promised the Māori Party's "unapologetic Māori voice will be heard and that our Māori cloak is felt and is present in every piece of legislation and bill passed in this House".  At the end of the speech, he spoke of his tipuna who was wrongly convicted and put to death for Anglican Priest Reverend Völkner in Ōpōtiki in 1865.  Rawiri said in the H...

Valuable land confiscated from Māori

Land taken from Māori by the Crown in Te Reureu, Manawatū, is estimated to be worth between $250million and $770m today.Tiwana Tibble of Ngati Pikiahu made the valuation at a Waitangi Tribunal hearing at Te Tikanga Marae at Tokorangi, north of Halcombe, on Wednesday, as part of the Ngāti Raukawa iwi confederations treaty claim.This week of hearings is focused on the Te Reureu area, which borders the Rangitīkei River, but is part of a case relating to the historical purchase of the Rangitīke...

Taranaki iwi representatives

Three Taranaki iwi representatives will be invited for the first time to participate in regional civil defence management meetings from 2021 onwards.The decision, after a long debate at the Taranaki Regional Council (TRC) civil defence emergency management (CDEM) joint committee meeting on Thursday, was heralded as a “forward thinking” move, which would be looked on with interest by the rest of New Zealand.The committee, chaired by regional councillor Tom Cloke, included the mayors and chief...

‘How we halted a reverse uplift

One couple's harrowing story of being caught in Oranga Tamariki's machinations but managing to hold off - for now - a 'reverse uplift' of their whānauWe are a professional couple of Māori/Pacific Island/European heritage who have whāngai cared for many of our younger siblings, nieces and nephews over the decades. In late January 2019 we received a call from extended whānau who were desperate to find a permanent home for a baby and toddler.The two tamariki had already been through three whān...

Good intentions are not enough:

I read Lawrence Patchett's novel The Burning River when it first came out late in 2019.A year later, I’m brave enough to contribute to a public conversation about Pākehā writing, so that Māori don’t always have to do the work of responding, and so that Pākehā have access to an alternative perspective.Critiquing the fundamental decisions of a novel about identity makes a review pretty personal. I’ve held off commenting for so long because of this, but it begins to feel someth...

Anne Salmond:

Stuff’s apology for the inequitable treatment of Māori and tikanga Māori by Stuff and its media predecessors is so powerful, writes Dame Anne Salmond, because it recognises the Queen’s promise of equality and mutual respect for different tikangaIn 1992 and 2010, as an anthropological historian, I was asked by the Waitangi Tribunal to explore understandings of Te Tiriti o Waitangi when the document was signed (or not) at Waitangi, and other places around the country.In 1992, I had the privi...

Apologies issued, cultural sites vested in 'long overdue'

The Crown has made a“long overdue" apology to a Bay of Plenty iwi as part of an $11-million treaty settlement.Ngāti Rangitihi is a Te Arawa iwi based in and around Rotorua, Kaingaroa and Matatā.Among the reasons for the Crown's apology were aggressive land purchases, failure to protect the “defiled, degraded and polluted” Tarawera River, and failing to stop Ngāti Rangitihi from becoming virtually landless by 1900.The deed of settlement of the iwi's historical Treaty of Waitangi claims w...