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We have the power to ensure

If someone had told me decades after my childhood we would still be shovelling money into the America’s Cup, I would have dropped my 12-sided, Dungeons and Dragons dice and laughed in their face.Why are we still enduring this never-ending ritual hazing: forking out cash, pleading to get a beating, “again please sir”, with confetti-popper stuffed red socks? Just so we can hang out with the cool kids.Sadly, the plucky underdog in this tale is of course reality. The nice-to-have gliding over ...

Where Weta Workshop went (really) wrong

Weta Workshop meant to name itself after a spiky native insect. Missing macrons meant the special effects and prop company ended up with something quite different.According to Hēmi Kelly, a lecturer in Te Ara Poutama, the faculty of Maori Studies at AUT, the correct way to spell weta, as in the insect, is with a macron on the ē and the ā to elongate the vowel sounds. Like weh-taa.Without the macrons, it means something quite different – “It’s excrement. S...,” Kelly said.Lin...

Cannabis referendum:

Three prominent Māori MPs and candidates have come out in favour of voting 'yes' in the cannabis referendum, each with their own reasons.Labour's Peeni Henare, Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson and Māori Party co-leader John Tamihere, all running for the seat of Tāmaki Makaurau, gave their views in an election debate hosted by The Hui on Tuesday night. A question on whether recreational cannabis should be legal will be asked as part of this year's general election. Legislation on how...

Stop colonising

It’s become noticeable of late that government departments are increasingly sprinkling Māori terminology throughout their documents and the language they use. It’s crept up slowly and now seems to be ubiquitous.It’s encouraging that the Māori language is being embraced and appreciated in non-Māori circles – long may it continue. But there is a fundamental problem with the trend in government departments. Apart from just jumping on a bandwagon, the state is colonising the Māori langua...

Children's Minister Tracey Martin on

Oranga Tamariki has been in the spotlight since its inception in 2017.  The name change was supposed to herald a new era for the Ministry which has been plagued by negative stories regarding the care of tamariki.  Since the Puao Te Ata Tu report in 1989, Māori have lobbied against state intervention and asked that at the very least, Te Tiriti o Waitangi should be enshrined in the legislation. Oranga Tamariki was the first Government Ministry to do so, and in 2019, further entrenched t...

The power of a name -

At the start of Māori Language Week Helen Harvey looks at the place names around Taranaki and asks how many were changed by settlers and how many ancient names remain.Taranaki’s mighty maunga will soon have his name back.In the near future, Mt Taranaki will again be officially known by its pre-European title, Taranaki Maunga.It will lose forever the name of Egmont, bestowed on it by Captain James Cook in honour of a British earl who never stepped foot in Aotearoa. The park, which the maunga d...

15,000 social workers renew registration in first ten days

Almost fifteen thousand social workers have renewed their registration in the first two weeks of the process, but almost three-quarters are still to meet the requirement to upload one piece of CPD to keep their registration.Social Work England said 14.8% of registrants – 14,770 – had renewed since the process opened on 1 September. There has also been a notable increase in the proportion who have uploaded CPD, from 21.7% on 25 August to 27.1%, but that leaves a substantial majority who have ...

NZ Election 2020: Māori Party proposes new independent child agency,

The Māori Party wants to take Māori children out of Oranga Tamariki's care, saying staff "either do not understand or do not care" about Māori.Instead it's proposing a Mokopuna Māori Entity, "which will be responsible for the care of all mokopuna Māori in Aotearoa".Oranga Tamariki would be left only looking after non-Māori children - which make up only about a third of its total caseload.Link to article and video: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/09/nz-election-2020-m-ori-...

Teacher on spreading a love

Māori language teacher Kay-Lee Jones didn’t grow up speaking te reo.Her family would sing Māori songs but the main te reo Māori terms they used were for food.“There was kina, pāua, karengo, penupenu. All of those types of words were our te reo Māori,” she says.Today, Jones lectures at University of Canterbury’s (UC) School of Teacher Education and has taught te reo Māori to more than 2000 students who now work throughout New Zealand.Link to article: https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou...

I've struggled my entire adult life

OPINION: Being paler than everyone else in my family, it’s been a long-running joke that I am a "washed out Māori".My sister, cousins and even my own children are all darker than I am, and it’s often been difficult for me to fit into Māori settings. The recent trend in Ancestry DNA tests to tell us what ethnicity we are, and the curious case of Rachel Dolezal who claimed that she was transracial, identifying as black, has made me reflect on how I identify myself, and the way...

Procter & Gamble under fire

Procter & Gamble is under fire for misusing te reo Māori and exploiting the New Zealand image with its Kiwi Botanicals skincare range.The American company, which owns brands including Gillette, Pantene, Tampax and Braun, makes the Kiwi Botanicals range in the US for supermarket chain Walmart.Its marketing claims the products use New Zealand mānuka honey “harvested by the principle Māoris of the South Island”, without identifying a specific iwi.It also refers to a Māori “tribe” rather...

Caution urged over 'out of blue' proposal to limit special pathway

The Medical Council is adding its voice to the chorus of concern about Otago University medical school’s closed-door discussions about capping the number of special entry students.Groups representing the country’s medical school student population have been trying to secure a meeting with the university’s leader to urge against changes discussed in a selection policy document.The document talks of limiting the number of special category – Māori, Pasifika, rural, refugee and low soc...

Māori disappointed bowel screening age

Māori bowel cancer patients are disappointed the Ministry of Health will not drop the national screening programme eligibility age to 50 for Māori and Pasifika, who get the cancer on average much younger than non-Māori. The ministry's own expert advisory group recommended the minimum age for bowel screening be dropped from 60 to 50 for Māori and Pasifika. However, due to "higher than forecast demand" for screening services, which were "placing pressure on colonoscopy capacity", district...

How one iwi's treaty settlement

Today The Detail is looking at why they’re so important and how they can change lives for the better.Jessie Chiang speaks to Auckland hapū Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei about their journey from once being landless to now being able to divide millions between whānau.The chief executive of the iwi's trust, Jamie Sinclair, says they now have all sorts of programmes, from education grants, to housing and saving schemes."I guess it cuts to the heart of why we exist, we exist for the well-bein...

Children use both brain hemispheres

Infants and young children have brains with a superpower, of sorts, say Georgetown University Medical Center neuroscientists. Whereas adults process most discrete neural tasks in specific areas in one or the other of their brain's two hemispheres, youngsters use both the right and left hemispheres to do the same task. The finding suggests a possible reason why children appear to recover from neural injury much easier than adults.The study published Sept. 7, 2020 in PNAS focuses on one ...

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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