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Dr Monty Soutar,

Several decades ago Dr Monty Soutar knew someone would have a crack at writing the books he is currently working on, he just did not know it would be him.The historian, Māori scholar and Waitangi Tribunal member has recently been awarded the prestigious, biennial $100,000 Michael King Writer’s Fellowship from Creative New Zealand to finish his trilogy, Kāwai – a saga from the uttermost end of the Earth.The historical novels narrate the experiences of nine successive generations of one...

Haka Party Incident play

A play about a triggering point in Aotearoa history reveals the country's racist past and what it took to change as a nation. The Haka Party Incident premieres at ASB Waterfront Theatre tonight, and delves into a historic event where young Māori activists clashed with engineering students from Auckland University, who were giving a mock performance of the haka in 1979 during traditional capping escapades. Director Katie Wolfe of Ngāti Mutunga and Ng...

Taonga returns home

Tears flowed as a taonga with whakapapa to Tūhoe prophet Rua Kēnana was returned home last week ahead of a symposium this weekend to reflect on his life and legacy.The taonga, a kahu huruhuru (feathered cloak), belonged to Rua Kēnana's daughter Pinepine and was stolen by armed police when they raided the village of Maungapōhatu in the Urewera Ranges to arrest Rua Kēnana on false charges 105 years ago.Police also killed two Māori men at the settlement, including Rua Kēnana's son Toko.The s...

Celebrating 'Imagining Decolonisation'

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Film: Cousins

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Decolonizing the Mind and Mindfulness

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Govt announces multi-million dollar funding

While the industry is under pressure with the increasing shortage of midwives around New Zealand, the problem is even more prevalent in Māori and Pasifika communities who currently represent just 12 percent of the workforce. Yet together, they make up 30 percent of women giving birth.An announcement from Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall on Tuesday will give $6 million over the next four years to provide wrap-around care, academic support and to actively recruit Māori and Pasifika. T...

"Culture as Cure?

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Netsafe warns Kiwis to be vigilant after spike in Easter holiday

An internet safety organisation is warning Kiwis to be vigilant this Easter as data shows a 360 per cent jump in online incidents during the break since 2017.Netsafe CEO Martin Cocker said during Easter many people connect online with whānau and hoa and share special memories on social media.But it has also turned into the time of year when the internet is the most dangerous, according to the agency.Over the past four years, it means Kiwis have reported to Netsafe they have lost roughly $1.2 mi...

Judge to 18yo meth dealer:

A teenager who got caught-up with some big players in the Hawke's Bay methamphetamine trade has been granted home detention for offences which carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.James Morris, not yet 19 and with family waiting anxiously in the public gallery as he appeared in Napier District Court on Friday, was sentenced to 11 months' home detention, departing with a sound warning from Judge Gordon Matenga, not only for himself but also others who might drift into the clutch of the dr...

NZ's top spy tells group of powerful MPs

NZ Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) Director-General Rebecca Kitteridge spoke on Wednesday at an annual review of the agency, chaired by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and with members including Opposition leader Judith Collins. "There's no doubt that we are seeing an increase in white identity extremism in New Zealand and around the world. That is an unfortunate international trend," Kitteridge told the Intelligence and Security Committee. "It's not just that type of ideology, bu...

Auckland marae caring for city's homeless

Te Puea Marae is leading the claim as it asks for reparations from the Crown for its past failures, and a commitment to do more for its future generations. The marae chairperson, Hurimoana Dennis, hopes the hearing will be the “beginning of the end”. “This is when people are allowed to turn up and tell their stories and talk about the ongoing failings of government agencies, and their policies, to adequately support and house whānau Māori into homes.” The claim before the tribunal...

'We want the whenua back':

Originally published by Māori TelevisionAn occupation has begun in the Whangārei area to put a halt to a transfer of land from the Department of Conservation to the Whangārei District Council.Pātaua South is 30 minutes from Whangārei, and local iwi Te Waiariki and Ngāti Kororā began occupying land at the DoC carpark in Pātaua South in protest of a potential sale of 57ha of land owned by the Harrison family of Pātaua. The iwi has been in discussions to buy the land but time is running ou...

Mana Wāhine

The Tribunal’s kaupapa inquiry programme is designed to provide a pathway to hear nationally significant claim issues that affect Māori as a whole or a section of Māori in similar ways.Introduction Wai 2700 – Mana Wāhine Inquiry will hear outstanding claims which allege prejudice to wāhine Māori as a result of Treaty breaches by the Crown. These claims extend across many fields of Crown policy, practice, acts and omissions, both historical and contemporary, and of related legislation, s...

Old boys return to St Stephen's School at Bombay

Old boys have returned to St Stephen's School at Bombay in an emotional step towards reopening the historic school next year.The school, which educated generations of Māori leaders from 1844 until it closed in 2000, has become derelict and was used as target practice by the army, police and Fire Service for three years up to 2009.Old Boys' Association chairman Joe Harawira, who led 40 old boys back to the school for a working bee on February 27, said the return was "a powerful ex...

Hui to put Māori in driving seat

A group working to protect mānuka honey in the global marketplace is holding a series of hui with Māori around the country.The meetings, which got under way in Northland last week, are being held by Mānuka Charitable Trust. The trust's operating arm - Te Pitau - has funding from the government's Provincial Growth Fund to take legal action to stop Australian beekeepers marketing their products as mānuka honey.The legal challenge was previously being led by Mānuka Honey Appellation ...

Complaints spike as readers

The Media Council has rejected a complaint which opposed the Herald's use of te reo Māori words.It said it was up to a news media organisation to decide the extent to which it wishes to use Māori words.The Media Council informed the Herald of the complaint, following a Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) announcement which declined complaints of TVNZ using too much te reo on mainstream television.The article, which received a significant response, reported several Māori leaders' responses ...

Kids pulling hair out,

A quarter of Kiwi parents say their kids have been showing increased signs of anxiety thanks to the COVID-19 lockdowns.The YMCA surveyed 500 parents and found their anxiety about the state of the world in 2020 was also rubbing off on their children."We've had kids who have started pulling out hair," YMCA North Out of School Care and Recreation (OSCAR) operations manager Kristina Ellson told The AM Show on Wednesday."We've got parents battling to get their kids to school because they don't w...

Traditional Māori game, Kī-O-Rahi

A traditional Māori game, Kī-O-Rahi, is taking Taranaki schools by storm.The sport was played by the Māori Battalion during World War II, and is now also played in France, Sport Taranaki kaiwhakahaere Larnee Wallace said.Back then it would have been played with a stone wrapped in harakeke (flax), but now the kī is a small football.‘’A lot of our traditional Māori games, which are called taonga tākaro, were invented or created for training purposes. That’s how our tūpuna used to trai...

New South Canterbury business

New professional development business, Kia Tika te Ara (Correcting the Pathway) focuses on all things Māori to improve understanding of the language, and culture, in order to build good relationships.Richie Waa (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Pūkenga) known for his eight years as an alternative education manager in South Canterbury, and wife Naresha, a Māori medium teacher, have recently established the company which offers tailored Māori professional development programmes.Also available are session...

America's Cup: How great Polynesian voyagers

Despite his Māori heritage, animation entrepreneur Sir Ian Taylor was 68 before the lightbulb moment when he heard of the Polynesian migration across the Pacific and to Aotearoa thousands of years ago.Two and a half years later, Taylor has launched an online education programme which he hopes will inspire children, especially Māori and Pasifika, to believe they can pursue science and technology.Dunedin-based Taylor, said learning of the huge sea voyages in double-hulled wak...

Honouring Te Tiriti means ‘getting into the stream together’

As first-year students flooded onto campuses around the country this week, gripped with uncertainty and curiosity about their new lives, I too returned to university to learn.For the first time since what feels like forever, but in reality was 1997 when I finished my PhD, I am now a bona fide university student.It’s confronting to go back as an undergraduate online student (I’m doing a BA, through my own university, Massey University). But at the same time, it’s exciting and new. And for m...

Stories about Polynesian discovery of NZ

The legendary stories about the Polynesian discovery of New Zealand have been told in oral history for centuries.But those very same stories, about Kupe and Maui, are set to be retold using the most modern of technology.Shannon Redstall reports on an educational tool being given to schools.Link to video:Stories about Polynesian discovery of NZ to be told with modern technology (msn.com) ...

Willie Jackson unleashes

Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson has taken a swing at National’s Simon Bridges and ACT’s David Seymour, saying they’re a “total waste of bloody time’’ when it comes to advocating for their own Māori people, writes political editor Jo Moir.Willie Jackson is offended, hacked off, but not surprised there are Māori MPs within Parliament who want the “racism and prejudice’’ of Māori wards to remain.On Wednesday night legislation passed under urgency that will undo the c...

App for learning Moriori

An app providing an introduction to ta rē Moriori - the native language of the Moriori people - has been released in a bid to revive the endangered language.The Ta Rē Moriori Language App was released on Tuesday by the Hokotehi Moriori Trust, an organisation representing the indigenous people of New Zealand's Chatham Islands (Rēkohu), located off the east coast of the South Island.The free app provides an introduction to basic Moriori language and contains a beginner's guide to pronuncia...