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200,000 sign up for

New Zealanders will set a record this Māori Language Week as more than 200,000 people are already signed up to celebrate te reo as part of the country’s first, virtual Māori Language Moment on Monday 14 September at 12pm.Hei Te Wiki o te Reo Māori nei, he tuatahitanga ka tutuki i ngā tāngata o Aotearoa nā te mea kei tua atu i te 200,000 te tokomaha kua tuku i ā rātou ingoa ki te whakanui i te reo hei wāhanga mā tā te motu Wā Tuku Reo Māori ā-hangarau tuatahi ka rere hei te 12 kar...

Christchurch chippy bringing te reo

It's fairly rare to see Māori-branded mainstream food products, so a Christchurch business has decided to change that, starting with an iconic Kiwi condiment. Anton Matthews has been dishing up fish and chips with a side of te reo since he opened his doors. Fush, Wigram's local chippy, is a proud kaitiaki of Te Reo Māori, and he takes every opportunity to further educate his customers with his customs. Now he's going bigger, teaming up with Barkers of Heratini (Geraldine) to release an old Kiw...

Four in ten social workers anticipate quitting profession

Four in ten social workers anticipate quitting the profession within the next five years as a result of high caseloads, stress and a negative working environment, finds research for Social Work England published today.The perspective was held more strongly by children’s practitioners (41%) than adults’ colleagues (37%) and was particularly high among newly-qualified social workers at 48%, found the research by YouGov, based on online surveys of 494 existing practitioners, 135 former soc...

Māori are invited to the dance -

OPINION: In the 1980s, Tūhoe educator Te Rangihau quipped that putting a carving over the door did not make a place Māori. He was referring to the increasing practice of cultural responsivity to Māori in public institutions – in government departments, schools and local bodies.At a surface level, this practice saw the adoption of Māori names, the rollout of strategies or key performance indicators for Māori, formation of advisory groups, departmental waiata and whakatau to welcome ne...

Police facial recognition discrimination

Police have been working on a $23 million upgrade of their biometrics images system run by the US firm Dataworks Plus, hoping to make it easier to match poorer quality images.In July, a US senator from Ohio accused Dataworks of exacerbating systemic racism through its technology, after African American man Robert Julian-Borchak Williams was incorrectly identified by facial recognition software for committing a crime he did not do.Karaitiana Taiuru, who has completed a PhD in indigenous ethi...

SWRB: Scope of Practice

Subject: SWRB draft Scope of Practice Kia ora koutou As you will be aware, the SWRB is developing a scope of practice for social work in concert with a sector-led working group. I attach the draft scope, and the brief history of the inclusion of a scope of practice in the Act and an introduction to the development of the scope. Please share the documents attached with your networks and encourage them to share as widely as possible, with their networks. We would like the Scope to reach as many so...

'Premature and dangerous':

A Māori pandemic group is condemning Auckland's move down to 'alert level 2.5', warning it's "premature and dangerous".Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā, set up by Māori doctors and health experts to focus on the impact of COVID-19 on Māori, is urging the Government to stay with alert level 3 until it can be confident current clusters and new sub-clusters are under control. Link to article: https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/premature-and-dangerous-m%C4%81ori-pandemic-group-condemn...

Māori academics allege structural racism within Waikato University,

Six academics, who have sought the protection of a whistleblowers Act (the Protected Disclosures Act), penned a 13-page letter to the Ministry of Education alerting them of the issues. The letter alleged “structural and ‘casual racism’” within the university.  Other allegations also included lower pay for Māori staff, the constructive dismissal of talent across the university and no indigenous advancement plan. The university refuted all allegations.Link to article: https://ww...

Hamilton high school lockdown:

A Hamilton youth escaped from Oranga Tamariki supervision yesterday afternoon and made their way to Fraser High School, triggering a lockdown.Principal Virginia Crawford told parents the young person presented a "real and present danger to our students and staff".As soon as the school was informed the youth had absconded from Oranga Tamariki's supervision, police were called and the school went into lockdown.Staff and students remained in lockdown as police engaged with the young person, who was...

Social Workers Registration Board

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Election 2020:

John Tamihere is typically straight up: This will not be the Māori Party’s year.New Zealand is in crisis, and it’s not the crisis Tamihere wants to talk about, and it’s a crisis that has dampened the prospects of the political party which he co-leads."With Jacinda all over everything it's changed the whole landscape politically. In February, NZ First and-or us could have held the balance of power, so fine was the line between National and Labour. Along came Covid and that's no longer the ...

Auckland reports to Oranga Tamariki

With schools closed, Ministry for Children expected to see a decrease in notifications about suspected abuse or neglect, as happened during the first nationwide Covid-19 lockdown in March and April.Oranga Tamariki deputy chief executive Alison McDonald said usually, about a third of the reports of concern made in Auckland are made by people in the education sector, such as teachers.But over the last two weeks, she said that had dropped to 7 percent.Oranga Tamariki is working with other agencies ...

Low-level tertiary courses put Māori in debt

Their study, He Awa Ara Rau, tracked education and employment of 76,000 Māori to age 25.It found 18 percent got tertiary qualifications at levels 1-3, but those courses did not lead to higher incomes and better job prospects.The study said even those who achieved NCEA level 2 at school and completed a level 3 certificate at a tertiary provider would have been better off staying at school."A disproportionate number of rangatahi leave school after completing NCEA Level 2 to go on to Level 3 ...

Otago university medical students

The pathway, which currently has no limit, was designed to boost the number of Māori in the health workforce.RNZ understands the cap could be 56 Māori students a year, and even less for other minority entry pathways.The Māori Entry pathway means students only need to reach the minimum grade threshold, be committed to giving back to Māori communities, and have whakapapa to be accepted into the second-year programme.For students who aren't eligible for the pathway, meeting the minimum grade th...

Social workers fear

Some social workers are suspicious of a move by Oranga Tamariki to join a project to survey the experiences of frontline staff, fearing it is trying to control the result. Bonnie Sumner reportsA rift has broken out within New Zealand’s largest professional body of social workers, with a plan to collect the experiences of frontline Oranga Tamariki staff stymied amid division between members and management.A number of members within the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Worker...

SOCIAL WORKERS ARE REJECTING CALLS

Jon, a social worker in New York City, began to fully understand the relationship between social services and law enforcement during the years they spent working with formerly homeless people at a single-room occupancy building in the South Bronx. In one case, officers arrived in response to a mental health call involving an older woman with severe schizophrenia. As officers escorted her off the premises, Jon said, a staff member of the building who had gone out to smoke a cigarette saw police p...

Oranga Tamariki not solely to blame for child uplift,

Tommy Wilson of Te Tuinga Whanau Services is speaking out because he says families need to take responsibility and fix the harm caused by addiction which is tearing families apart. Mr Wilson says whānau need to take responsibility. "The taniwha, the elephant in the room for us is P - let's start talking about what happens if you don't uplift those children and that's the other half of the conversation that's not been had,” says Mr Wilson. He says two kilograms of methamphetamine is being cons...

Thousands of iwi members had no say

A report by the Māori Land Court has found thousands of iwi members did not get a say in the sale of iwi land at Shelly Bay in Wellington due to failings of the iwi membership system.A group of Taranaki Whānui iwi members, Mau Whenua, complained about the vote process which resulted in the sale of iwi land by the Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust (PNBST) to property developer Ian Cassels.Sir Wira Gardiner was appointed independent reviewer by the Māori Land Court and found that the PNBST ...

Terrible sadness for talented master carver

There has been great sadness and confusion this week in the rugby World after the Crusaders eased to yet another win in Super Rugby Aotearoa. The way the Crusaders treated the trophy has many very upset.There has been widespread outrage and sadness from the rugby community as these images were released online this week. Some fans questioned why the Crusaders would be so careless with a trophy that is so important.Link to article: https://rugbyonslaught.com/terrible-sadness-for-talented-mast...

Streaming Māori students into

A report has identified that streaming Māori students into low expectation classes is one of the key barriers limiting their options to future pathways.The report He Awa Ara Rau: A Journey of Many Paths is a collaboration between Waikato-Tainui, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, The Southern Initiative and BERL.The findings The data research project tracked the journey of more than 70,000 rangatahi through education into employment. The report is a summary of the research findings, ...

What is Islam’s

Islam is set to become the largest religion in the world in the next four decades and is one of the fastest-growing religions in Aotearoa New Zealand - particularly among Māori. Dr Ayca Arkilic is exploring Islam’s growing appeal and the socio-political implications of conversion.As demonstrated by census data and various academic studies, conversion to Islam has been on the rise in Aotearoa New Zealand. Following the 2019 Christchurch attacks, three to five people a day were converting at a ...

Social work is a crucial service

During the pandemic, the demand for social workers has become even more critical with an increase in the number of cases.“There is anxiety over the loss of jobs leading to other social issues, restriction of movement where families being cooped up together may result in more incidents of domestic violence. Some clients have also experienced a loss of income and are unable to come for treatment, ” says Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC)’s Department of Social Work senior community deve...

The Māori Party calls for level 4 lockdown

The Māori Party is calling for all Māori to move into level 4 now and for the borders to be completely shut, including to returning New Zealanders, for two weeks.The party's co-leader, John Tamihere, also said this morning that iwi checkpoints will be back in operation around the country, whether or not the whole country goes back into level 4.Tamihere also called on the election – at the moment scheduled for September 19 – to be pushed back until next year."We do want to be part of the te...

Mātauranga Māori to be equal to Western science in biodiversity plan,

The new strategy, Te Mana o te Taiao, has five key outcomes including that ecosystems from mountain tops to ocean depths are thriving, indigenous species and their habitats are protected, and treaty partners are exercising their full role as rangatira and kaitiaki.New Zealand's biodiversity is in crisis with about 4000 species threatened or at risk of extinction.Conservation Minister Eugene Sage said the last plan - launched 20 years ago - failed to have a strong Māori perspective, an...

Iwi considers placing

Its 13 hapū are situated along the coastal strip between the Raukumara Range and the Eastern Bay of Plenty.Leader Rawiri Waititi, who is also a Māori Party candidate, said his people were meeting today to discuss their options."Level 4 will include community safe zones and checkpoints. It will also include many of our whānau moving back into bubbles, coordinated hunting and fishing efforts throughout the hapū, marae closures and all those types of things," he said.Te Whānau a Apanui was one...