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Universities must ‘indigenise’

The University of Auckland's Te Kawehau Hoskins writes on the challenge faced by universities to ‘indigenise’ in order to be relevant for contemporary Māori agendasOur people have always valued higher learning and operated sophisticated systems of formal learning prior to, and beyond contact with the outside world. Māori were keenly interested in new knowledge and innovation offered by the wider world to supplement Māori knowledge and ways of interaction in order to be successful str...

Learning to live by the maramataka:

Nau mai haere ki ngā whetū o te tau hou, kia Matariki me Pūanga.Click here to learn how to set the maramataka dial, and you’re on your way to setting the New Year dates!The bright tohu stars Matariki (Pleiades) and Pūanga (Rigel) will soon rise to indicate the New Year. Matariki is used throughout Aotearoa, especially towards the east coast, and Puanga is often used around the West Coast. When Puanga rises in the east, the summer star, Rēhua (Antares) sets in the west, Rēhua being a...

Māori likely first humans

A new study has concluded that Māori were likely the first humans to set eyes on Antartic waters and even the continent itself.Researchers from Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu connected oral histories and published literature to better understand Māori connections to Antarctica - connections that go back as far as the 7th century.University of Otago Associate Professor and conservation biologist Priscilla Wehi spoke to Guyon EspinerLink to Recording: Māori l...

Employment Opportunity: Social Worker: Ngati Whatua Orakei

Social Worker Ngati Whatua Orakei Whai Maia Ltd AucklandAuckland Central Community Services & DevelopmentChild Welfare, Youth & Family Services Full TimeWhai Māia is the tribal development arm for Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. We are a diverse business that encompasses Education and Learning, Careers and Employment, Housing, Health and Wellbeing, Culture, Environmental and Resource Management Areas.The opportunity:We are seeking to employ a skilled and experienced Social Worker who thrives...

Effective teaching for Māori

Building relationships is the key to educators helping marginalised students achieve, a Māori academic has told the Timaru North/South Kahui Ako (Community of Learning).The group of 395 early childhood education, primary school and high school teachers, as well as support staff, attended the presentation on more effective teaching by Waikato University Emeritus Professor of Māori Russell Bishop (Tainui) at Craighead Diocesan School on Friday.Bishop developed Collaborative Storying, the subject...

Waikato teachers partner with local iwi

Waikato teachers were asked to “open their hearts” and to remember “the hurt is still there” in an emotion-filled day led by experts in Waikato history as schools across the country begin to set the scene for the New Zealand history curriculum.Around 1000 teachers from 22 schools in the Waikato gathered at a teacher development day in Hamilton on Friday to learn about some of Waikato’s conflicts from 1863 to today and how to address decolonisation in the education system.With New Zeala...

Long waitlist stopping many from

Checkpoint understands those who fall ill waiting for a bed at Pitman House are instead advised to go to already-overloaded emergency departments (EDs). Waitematā DHB, however, contends EDs provide an adequate short-term solution. Meanwhile, it has emerged some staff are concerned about the medical detox unit's move into Auckland's CBD. Whaea Michelle Kidd's walked the halls and entered the cells at Auckland District Court for decades. She supports the vulnerable, addicted and homeless as they ...

Five of the most sacred Māori sites

Blessed be Aotearoa, a land full-to-bursting with sacred sites. Many of our best-known landmarks have strong spiritual significance to Māori, helping tell the stories of how our nation came to be.Heritage New Zealand recognises more than 180 wāhi tapu – which it defines as places sacred to Māori in the traditional, spiritual, religious, ritual or mythological sense – but there are many more scattered throughout the country. In some cases, the stories behind them are recorded in official h...

Govt to inject $20m funds

The three Maori boarding schools in Hawke's Bay will get the lion's share of a $20 million government investment, to enable them to address significant declining property issues and maintain their operations.Ikaroa-Rāwhiti MP Meka Whaitiri said the investment, announced on Friday, would help grow New Zealand's future leaders."This government believes in the unique role Māori boarding schools play in helping to shape and develop rangatahi," the Labour Party MP said."The rangatahi who attend the...

Growing 'he māra kai' with your whānau

The term ‘he māra kai’ means the food garden.With many of us returning to the old ways of living, caring for our environment and leaving a footprint that is gentle, māra kai is an integral part of how we shape our future sustenance at home.It is the way we see wonder, a small kākano (seed) carrying whakapapa (ancestry) of our past to feed us in today's world.This tiny potential carries stories and hope that, if planted, can fully express itself to nourish us. With the ...

Māori get seat at table

Māori make up nearly half of the 19 member panel and research team appointed for the new research programme into how New Zealand police can ensure they deliver fair policing.The police are partnering with the New Zealand Institute for Security and Crime Science at the University of Waikato, and criminal justice advocate Tā Kim Workman for the programme, 'Understanding Policing Delivery'.The programme is focused on identifying where, and to what extent, bias exists at a system level in the...

Te reo Māori:

Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) has been chosen as one of 13 providers to deliver a programme aimed at normalising te reo Māori in the education sector.The $108 million government Te Ahu o Te Reo Māori programme, launched at the end of 2020, is designed to upskill 40,000 teachers and school staff, from early learning to secondary schools, in the language and culture.The programme is being rolled out nationwide after a pilot in four regions. NMIT said it wo...

Māori studies professor explains

University of Auckland Māori studies Professor Margaret Mutu says white supremacy has been in New Zealand since 1769 when English navigator Captain James Cook arrived."Māori are very used to white supremacy and we experience it on a day-to-day basis. It's very, very normalised in this country, and often when Māori say that white supremacy or racism is affecting them, we're not believed," she tells Newshub."These days, there is a heightened sense of sensitivity in the Pākehā world to the fac...

Kupe's voyage of discovery through Aotearoa

The great navigator Kupe is said to have had a pretty eventful time in New Zealand.According to Māori story telling, he chased a giant tentacled creature Te Wheke-a-Muturangi to the Wairarapa, where he almost lost his life in a battle with it on Raukawa Moana (Cook Strait) and had epic adventures in Wellington and along the west coast of the North Island before finding a temporary home in the Hokianga.Legend has it he loved Te Tai Tokerau so much he turned one of his sons into a taniw...

First school in New Zealand

It has been 18 months in the making but, finally, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and the Ministry of Education have allowed Te Wharekura o Ngāti Rongomai to rearrange its dates of schooling for the year and reset to the Maramataka Māori away from the Gregorian calendar, which is a solar dating system used by most of the world.Tūkiterangi and Rēnata Curtis, co-principals of the school in Rotorua, say they were thrilled to learn they can go ahead. This now means the school can change term on...

Foodbank supports whānau

Two women are fighting against kai insecurity after lockdown highlighted the needs of whānau across their rohe.More than 400 whānau have been using Te Pātaka Kai 4412 in Palmerston North each week to fill up their puku with numbers continuing to increase.Kai bank manager Kylie Johanson said during lockdown Whakapai Hauora Charitable Trust and other Māori organisations were struck by the severity of the kai insecurity whānau were facing.It was this need that sparked the idea f...

Canada lowers flags

The Canadian government demanded all flags at federal buildings be lowered to half-mast on Sunday to commemorate the death of over 200 indigenous children. A mass grave containing the remains of 215 indigenous children was discovered on the grounds of a former residential school in British Columbia. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was a "painful reminder" of a "shameful chapter of our country's history". "To honour the 215 children whose lives were taken at the former Ka...

Livestream:

Tonight on The Hui, more than 60 percent of all rangatahi in the youth justice system are Māori, and many have complicated speech and language difficulties.Tracy Karanui-Golf is helping young people to understand our complex legal system. She's currently the only full-time Māori speech and language therapist working in courts acrossAotearoa. But she's making a big difference in changing the lives of rangatahi Māori and their whānau.Then, mental health advocate Mike King discusses his de...

Rereata Makiha: Recapturing ancient knowledge

Matua Rereata Makiha is a renowned Māori astrologer and a leading authority on the maramataka -  the Māori lunar calendar, as well as traditional food planting and harvesting practices and kōrero tuku iho, or Māori history, handed down through generations.Matua Rereata Makiha is a renowned Māori astrologer and a leading authority on the maramataka -  the Māori lunar calendar, as well as traditional food planting and harvesting practices and kōrero tuku iho, or Māori history, ha...

Mindfulness study:

Karakia and connecting with te hā (the breath) were among mindfulness practices found to improve health outcomes of wāhine Māori suffering chronic stress.As part of her doctoral research at Massey University's School of Psychology, Dr Miriama Ketu-McKenzie (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Tuwharetoa, Ngāti Rongomai and Ngāti Whakatere) ran a "Māori-centric mindfulness programme" for eight weeks.Her research found mindfulness practices which "wove in Māori elements" helped regulate the hormone cort...

Many of our energy assets are built on Māori land,

He created a power company to help vulnerable whānau. Now, Ezra Hirawani is fighting to keep his dream alive. Jehan Casinader reports.Ezra Hirawani, the man leading a quiet revolution in the power industry, is dressed by Kmart. Every few months, he buys a fistful of black, white and grey T-shirts. A pair of shorts completes his work outfit, and he’s confident enough to rock up to meetings with high-powered executives.“When I started in business, I decided to be fiercely pono. That means aut...

Race Relations Commissioner says video threatening Māori

Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon says a recent YouTube video threatening violence against Māori is "extreme white supremacist" behaviour. Foon told Newshub he wants "everything under the law [to] be thrown at these people or this person for inciting violence". The video was uploaded to YouTube on May 23 but was taken down after the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) got involved.The contents of the video were described as "highly distressing" in a statement provided by the DIA ...

Employment Opportunity: West Coast

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'Cigarettes felt like a comfort blanket for my whānau and I':

Reformed smoker Rebecca Gilbert is urging Māori to break the cycle of tobacco use among whānau and get behind the Government’s proposed Smokefree 2025 Action Plan.Gilbert, who is acting health promotion manager for the Cancer Society, says many Māori will relate to her experience of spending most of her life entrenched in a community that normalised and embraced smoking from a young age, and turned to tobacco during good times and bad.“From my teenage years onwards, every social occasion ...

Māori health authority

The interim Māori health authority has moved another step forward with iwi leaders and Māori health experts appointed to the steering group tasked with choosing who will govern the authority.Six members have been chosen to sit on the steering group by chair Tā Mason Durie, based on their mana and knowledge of Māori health and iwi leadership.Their task is to identify candidates to govern the interim Māori health authority, which was announced by the government in April.Members include U...