Back to Blog

Wahine challenges Māori

Online blogger and Clinical Psychologist, Kiri Tamihere-Waititi has laid down a challenge to Māori by encouraging them not to spell out their names when conversing with customer service representatives.The challenge comes following a recent phone call she had when a customer service agent asked how to spell her last name.“Something happened to me, I don't know what it was but I said to her, ‘actually, how about you give it a go?’“How about you try to spell my name and I w...

Māori receive fewer prescriptions

Māori patients receive fewer prescriptions for the common diabetes medication Metformin than non-Māori despite suffering from the disease at twice the rate, according to a new study by the University of Waikato.The researchers studied prescriptions from doctors, dispensing by pharmacies, and a marker of blood sugar levels over time which involved more than 1500 patients in the Waikato region.Metformin is a common medication which lowers blood sugar levels for patients while also preventing 'hy...

Value of te reo Māori for all

It was part of a kōrero at the National Library in Wellington on Wednesday on the revitalisation of te reo Māori, which has been documented in Te Mana o Te Reo Māori, an interactive web series laying out the history of the Māori language from the 1200s to today, and the people who championed it.It is part of a wider digital storytelling programme, Te Tai, a collaboration between the Māori Language Commission and The Ministry of Culture and Heritage aiming to increase the understanding ...

Māori about half as likely as Pākehā to get Covid-19 income support

The Covid Income Relief Payment - which starts at $450 a week - is about twice the jobseeker support benefit, and Māori are much less likely to get it. The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) information between June 8 and August 28 shows applications by those who identify as Māori were unsuccessful at nearly twice the rate compared to New Zealand Europeans. More than a quarter of the more than 5000 unsuccessful applications were by Māori, despite them making up just 17.25 per cent of the to...

The website helping Māori access crucial data

A new website has consolidated data about and involving Māori, making it easier for iwi groups, trusts and Māori communities to access the statistics that impact their lives.A collaboration years in the making, the new Figure NZ and Callaghan Innovation website Pātaka Raraunga aims to make Māori data access easier for everyone. Consolidating thousands of data sets from hundreds of sources into one hub with tools, reports and graphs all about Māori, it’s been made to help Māori ...

Four Toi Moko welcomed back to New Zealand

A journey spanning more than 100-years – plus two weeks in quarantine – has finally come to an end for four Toi Moko (tattooed Māori heads), which were welcomed at Te Papa with a pōwhiri on Tuesday morning.The Toi Moko, which were returned from Germany, are just four of an estimated 300 which left the country between 1770 and 1840.The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa now holds about 200, the museum’s head of repatriation Te Herekiekie Herewini said.He said Tuesday’s pōwhir...

'Transformative' changes needed

Researchers who are also former wards of the state have stressed the key changes needed to ensure any Māori-run alternative to Oranga Tamariki doesn't just turn a "white bureaucracy to a brown bureaucracy".The second week of the Waitangi Tribunal hearing into why there is a disproportionate number of tamariki Māori in state care is under way in Hastings.Lawyer Annette Sykes said the treaty breach at the heart of the joint submission by claimants Dr Alison Green, Dr Rawiri Waretini Ka...

‘Walk away from it.

The Waitangi Tribunal has heard multiple, strong calls for an independent, Māori-run authority to replace Oranga Tamariki. Laura Walters reportsMāori leaders have told the Waitangi Tribunal they’re sick of waiting while the Crown fails Māori children and whānau.The Waitangi Tribunal’s Oranga Tamariki Urgent Inquiry has heard a series of examples of “mana-diminishing practices”, carried out by an agency with a lack of cultural understanding and competency, which has led to long-lastin...

'Families are just not getting what they need':

A British social worker says overseas staff are desperately needed here and they should be allowed a border exemption.Sarah Griffin, her husband and two children are among those rejected after applying to travel to New Zealand.She said New Zealand was crying out for social workers, especially to address domestic violence and with initiatives such as eliminating rheumatic fever. Social work experts were the people going into homes and making referrals to health authorities."You've got to look at ...

Crown unwilling to give power to Māori,

The Māori Women's Welfare League has told the Waitangi Tribunal that Māori initiatives to reduce the number of tamariki in their care have been short-lived because the Crown has all the control.On the fourth day of the hearing into why there is a disproportionate number of tamariki Māori in state care, the Māori Women's Welfare League spoke of their "disappointment" when the Mātua Whangai programme was withdrawn in 1989, just six years after it was first implemented.The hearing aims to iden...

A day to recognize

Indigenous peoples have been heavily impacted by COVID-19. Nevertheless, their response to the global pandemic has shown their resilience in overcoming challenges. Indigenous peoples continue to use unique solutions to tackle the pandemic – as they have for centuries. They are taking action, drawing on their traditional knowledge and practices, such as voluntary isolation, and sealing off their territories.For example, the Karen people of Thailand have revive...

'Still killing us':

Melvina Musket stared at her dying father through the cellphone screen. His mouth hung open, his eyes were clamped shut and a beard covered his chin. She heard nurses crying in the background. “Jesus is waiting for you,” she told him.Musket, 52, had never seen her father with facial hair. Benjamin Musket, 80, was a former Marine, a retired machinery mechanic, a basketball coach and a board member at their church. He didn’t do beardThe family had been cautious when ...

Calls for Oranga Tamariki resources

The National Urban Māori Authority is calling for Oranga Tamariki to make way for a "Mokopuna Authority".They say the Government needs to relinquish power and allow Māori to do what it knows works for its own.National Urban Māori Authority chairwoman Lady Tureiti Moxon will be giving evidence today at a Waitangi Tribunal hearing, under way in Auckland, into the practices of Oranga Tamariki and why there is a disproportionate number of Māori children in state care.Link to article: https:...

The structural whiteness of academia

OPINION: Evidence of institutional racism in Aotearoa is overwhelming. Rhys Jones recently described the health sector by saying “inequity is not a bug in the system – it’s a feature” and we argue the university is no exception.This collective form of racism is embedded as normal practice within society and is systematic, long-term and often grounded in inertia.A recent report into Waikato University acknowledged there was structural, systemic and casual discrimi...

Now we know who the new US Supreme Court judge could be,

OPINION: By the time you read this, US President Donald Trump will have named his nominee for the US Supreme Court to replace US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg following her death on September 18.Trump’s said it’ll “most likely be a woman”, but I’m putting my money on Justice Amul Thapar, a sixth circuit judge who once put an 84-year-old nun in prison for a peace protest. I mean, if 2020’s got a guy, it’s the one who’ll throw elderly peace protesters in jail,...

Problems in te reo pronunciation

COLUMN: The primary aim in these columns is to provide clear explanation of the ways in which the structures of phrases and sentences in te reo Māori differs from those of English.From time to time, however, other points of interest arise.Over Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, there appeared in print a number of attempts to represent correct pronunciation of Māori words by offering alternative spelling.This is understandable because the vowel-sounds in Māori words are often quite different to tho...

Waiata 'spark the fire'

Performing music is a key to happiness for singer, songwriter, presenter and all round talented Kiwi Pere Wihongi. He spoke to Music 101's Charlotte Ryan about coping strategies, and the positive impact music can have on mental health.On Thursday night Pere hosted a one-hour livestream showcasing Māori musical talent.The Facebook special was organised by Hāpai te Hauora - Māori Public Health with the aim of celebrating wellbeing through waiata and kōrero.  Pere told Music 101 ...

How learning te reo Māori

Jacinta Gulasekharam is a socially driven entrepreneur and co-founder of period poverty start-up Dignity. We spoke to her about how that work feeds her drive to learn and honour te reo.Growing up in Feilding, Jacinta Gulasekharam felt both safe and strange. She was the only person of South Asian descent at her primary school (Jacinta’s mother is Pākehā and her father Sri Lankan), and most kids couldn’t pronounce her surname. In some cases, the racism she experienced was blatant, ...

Te reo Māori more than just flavour of the week

It was with much pride on a mid-September Monday morning that I opened our very own The Southland Times and saw the usual masthead – the name of the paper – replaced with Te Karere o Murihiku.To me it looked perfect. I would be happy seeing that on every copy of The Southland Times, not just for one week of the year.Murihiku is the steering part of the waka that fished up the North Island. We could be frontrunners in the country and lead mainstream media by having our pap...

Māori school to deliver ultimatum

Te Rūnanga nui o ngā kura kaupapa says institutional racism is the cause of total immersion Māori schools being dropped down the list for repairs and rebuilds and they are fed up and calling on the Education Ministry to act.Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o te Whānau Tahi, based in Christchurch, has been waiting more than a decade for their dilapidated mouldy and leaky school to be rebuilt.The school was told by the Ministry of Education a rebuild would happen. But in June ministry officials then tol...

Te reo dream still alive for activists

...

When our excellence

The University of Otago, which has been considering a controversial proposal to cap its intake of Māori and Pacific medical students, admitted last week that it’s facing a legal challenge to its medical school admissions programme. Dr Papaarangi Reid, Professor of Māori Health at the University of Auckland, looks at what’s at stake.What if my son wanted to be an All Black? Really, really, really wanted to be an All Black? Let’s say it was a passionate lifelong dream. That ...

Racism and White Defensiveness in Aotearoa:

Written in 2018 but worthy of a read:At a recent talk I attended, Claudia Rankine, a Jamaican-born American poet and academic, spoke about how, in many places, “white life is a standard for normal life”. Whiteness is seen as “neutral, nonpartisan, and normal,” she said, and we’re encouraged to think that “white people are The People”.In contrast, people who aren’t white are either “invisible — or hyper-visible.”Rankine called on those in the audience, includin...

TOP keen to work with Māori Party

The Opportunities Party (TOP) has thrown its support behind the Māori Party, talking up a possible joining of forces after this year's election.On Thursday, Māori Party co-leader surprised many when he said TOP would be his preferred coalition partner, should his party be in a place to pick the next Government. "In terms of policy settings, we're closest with TOP," he told The AM Show. "They've got some outstanding ideas."His former party Labour was Tamihere's second choice, followed...

Prospective Māori students question if uni is a safe space

The fear and intimidation Waikato University professors have experienced when calling out racism has been putting prospective students off from going to university, the Māori Tertiary Student's Association has said.Te Mana Ākonga, the Māori Tertiary Students' Association, are the latest group to send an open letter to the Minister of Education Chris Hipkins calling for a nationwide review into racism at all universities.An open letter was also sent to Hipkins on 14 September calling for a nat...