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Iwi walks away from Taranaki Crossing project

after being forced to use the Official Information Act to find out where millions of taxpayers money is being spent.Kaiarataki of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, said the iwi waited several months and had to appeal directly at ministerial level before 122 pages of heavily-redacted documents were released to it - and she said it was still none the wiser about how the money is being used.The Taranaki Crossing - formerly known as the Pouakai Crossing - has been promoted as an al...

Autonomy the solution to Māori health - Janice Kuka

Not ambitious or empowering enough - that's a Māori health advisor's diagnosis of a new government report into revamping the health system.The report recommends setting up a new independent Māori health authority that would advise the Health Minister on eradicating inequality in the system, identifying problems, developing and testing solutions.But as it stands, the authority would then work with another new agency - Health NZ and DHBs - when it came to commissioning kaupapa Māori services.Ja...

Netsafe: Keep It Real Online

As tangata whenua and as an Association we are aware that during Lockdown and even post Lockdown, the internet, social media and gaming may have gained even more importance and therefore we are urging practitioners to work with schools, tamariki and whanau to keep everyone safe.Check this website out for really useful information, to report any concerns and to access resources:https://www.netsafe.org.nz/...

Oranga Tamariki social workers' te ao Māori knowledge questioned

There are concerns that universities are churning out social workers who have not been taught the skills to work well with Māori.Last week, Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft released a report revealing harrowing stories of Māori mothers experiences with social workers in the state care system.The report was looking at how to keep Māori babies in the care of their whānau, as data showed Māori newborns were five times more likely to be taken in care than non-Māori.Judge ...

Kidnapped, ripped from the arms of their loved ones and forced into back-breaking labour:

Tens of thousands of Pacific Islander slaves were ripped from their families and forced into back-breaking labour on sugar farms across Australia, in direct opposition to controversial remarks made by Scott Morrison.The prime minister sparked outrage on last Thursday by claiming there was no slavery in Australia, despite historians widely documenting the fate of the slaves - called Kanakas. Edmund Barton, Australia's first prime minister, even admitted in a speech in 1901 that Kanaka people...

Parent wants Marist College to meet with families over racism

A parent at Marist College in Auckland say the school needs to meet with families and address accusations of racism at the school.About 30 students and some of their parents protested outside Marist College in Auckland after Black Lives Matter posters were taken down at the school. Photo: RNZ / Gill Bonnett Students say there has been no apology for how the school dealt with Black Lives Matters protests there.About 30 students and some of their parents protested outside the Auckland sc...

Fears the future of Te Karere Māori news is on the line

The future of the flagship Māori news show Te Karere is on the line as the government proposes to create a single Māori news service run by Māori Television.The Government this week released its much-anticipated proposals for a major Māori media shake-up, Te Ao Pāpāho Māori, but some of the plans have come as a shock to the industry.The project covers Māori broadcasting funding agency Te Māngai Pāho, Māori Television and Te Whakaruruhau o Ngā Reo Irirangi Māori, which represents 20 ...

Armed response to Māori children 'absolutely appalling'

for attending call outs to deal with children as young as 12 while they were in action.The controversial teams were officially scrapped this week, but data shows the armed units were called out to several incidents involving children during the six-month trial.The Police Armed Response Team dealt with eight, mostly Māori, 12-year-olds.Armed officers dealt with six incidents involving a total of eight 12-year-olds - seven of whom were Māori. The other 12-year-old's ethnicity was reported "unk...

Publication: 'Aroha'

Ki te kotahi te kakaho ka whati, ki te kapuia, e kore e whati When we stand alone we are vulnerable but together we are unbreakable See the world differently, through some of the wisest of human eyes. Discover traditional Maori philosophy through 52 whakatauki - simple, powerful life lessons, one for every week. Each one is retold by respected Maori psychiatrist Dr Hinemoa Elder to show how we can live a less stressful daily life, with more contentment and kindness for each other and the planet....

Waitemata Hospital: No babies to be removed by Oranga Tamariki

A Māori trust and a senior health board member claim they have stopped Oranga Tamariki taking children into state care at Waitākere Hospital this morning.Dozens of people gathered at the hospital in anticipation of two children being taken into state care.Waitematā District Health Board chief adviser tikanga Dame Rangimarie Naida Glavish said the board decided last year it would not support the state's removal of babies from any of its properties.She said there was "no way" the babies would b...

Te Kuku O Te Manawa - Ka puta te riri, ka momori te ngākau, ka heke ngā roimata mo tōku pēpi

Tamariki do best when they are cared for and nurtured by their whānau. For pēpi Māori, their connections to whakapapa and the importance of whanaungatanga affirm the importance of them remaining in the care of their whānau. This review recognises that ‘whānau’ extends further than immediate family and includes extended family members. Those we interviewed self-defined who was in their whānau. The Children’s Commissioner has statutory responsibilities under the Children’s Commission...

Concerns social work students don't get enough cultural training

There are concerns that universities are still churning out social workers who don't have the skills to work well with Māori. It comes as report by the Children's Commissioner reveals harrowing stories of Māori mothers experiences with social workers in the state care system. Oranga Tamariki says their social workers work hard and are trained to understand colonisation and their Treaty of Waitangi responsibilities. But a lecturer in social work at Massey University Dr Paule' Ruw...

‘Every time an elder dies, a library is burnt’: Amazon COVID-19 toll grows

COVID-19 kills the elderly, those with underlying health conditions, the poor and vulnerable. It is now doing so in the Brazilian Amazon where the virus killed nine Munduruku indigenous elders in just a few days. Forest people elders are typically leaders and keepers of culture, so their loss is especially destabilizing.Officially, 218 indigenous people had died of COVID-19 and 2,642 were infected as of 7 June. But experts say that the numbers are at least three times higher, with poor governmen...

Eighteen ex-social workers recruited from temporary register through national campaign

Lack of employer demand and knowledge and skills gaps among reasons cited for less than 2% of those expressing an interest in rejoining workforce returning through campaign.The national campaign to bring up to 8,000 former social workers back into the profession to bolster the workforce during Covid-19 has resulted in the recruitment of 18 practitioners during its first two months.Over 1,000 people expressed an interest in returning to work as temporarily registered social workers through the&nb...

Severely beaten 4yo Flaxmere boy discharged from hospital with permanent brain damage

The four-year-old boy found severely beaten at a Hastings property in January has been discharged from hospital. He was found on January 29 in a Ramsey Crescent, Flaxmere house, and Detective Inspector Mike Foster said at the time the child sustained some of the most severe injuries he'd seen in his 30-year career. The boy was later taken to Auckland's Starship Hospital in a serious condition. "He's received extensive injuries across the whole of his body," he said at the time. "He has a severe ...

COVID-19 Highlights Indigenous Inequities in Canada

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians have shown their support for front-line workers. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other political leaders have told Canadians “we are all in this together” and “no expense will be spared” to ensure the health and safety of Canadians.Yet, when it comes to the persistent and glaring inequities facing Indigenous communities in Canada, many of these same leaders, as well as Canadians, have fallen drastically short. The stubborn tendency of non-Ind...

Māori mothers describe child welfare system as dangerous and brutal in new report

Māori mothers of newborns involved with Oranga Tamariki say the child welfare system is dangerous, brutal and racist.Their experiences have been detailed in a report from the Children's Commissioner, which was released today.Judge Andrew Becroft is calling for fundamental change at the Children's Ministry, saying the system is racist and is being let down by some poor social work.'I didn't even get to see him...' The report Te Kuku o te Manawa is focused on how to keep Māori babies a...

COVID-19 and police violence fuel a push to declare anti-Black racism a public health crisis

For some, the protests erupting in reaction to the deaths of George Floyd and Regis Korchinski-Paquet have been a distraction from the COVID-19 pandemic. But Black health leaders say these two crises are connected by the same deep-rooted ill: anti-Black racism.Researchers, advocates and racialized communities have long recognized racism as being harmful to human health. But there are now calls from multiple groups to declare anti-Black racism a public health crisis — an effo...

Māori speech therapist walks the talk

The first 1000 days of life are a key part of a child's development. No one understands this more than Māori speech therapist Hana Tuwhare - who helps to develop communication with pēpi.She's part of a whānau-led approach encouraging pēpi not only to korero but to develop early learning skills.As the granddaughter of renowned Ngāpuhi poet Hone Tuwhare, Hana knows the legacy language can create.She is following in his footsteps, using oral language to inspire a new generation. She's a speech...

Te reo Māori use by under-fours widespread - research

A new study has found te reo Māori is flourishing among pre-schoolers, with nearly three quarters of New Zealand four-year-olds using at least some of the language.The research, led by Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, analysed information from Growing up in New Zealand, the country's largest study of child development.It found 10 percent of children could speak or understand simple sentences in te reo Māori at age four - and about 20 percent of those were non-Māori.Executive Director of Res...

Building a country free from violence against Indigenous women and girls

On the land, in classrooms, in boardrooms – wherever we choose to be is where every Indigenous woman and girl should be. Instead, I’ve watched as many of my sisters have been found dead, abandoned in rural ditches and left at the bottom of city rivers. This reality continues to persist one year after the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) released its final report, which symbolized the promise of a new era. It compiled evidence of the forces th...

Indigenous communities, land rights and Covid-19

Indigenous territories impacted by oil palm, mining and criminalisation are disproportionately affected by Covid-19 - yet still they support those most vulnerable. Food sovereignty within the Indigenous communities of the Indonesian archipelago is under threat, not least during a pandemic. The Banten Kidul Indigenous Peoples are known for their advanced technique of food preservation, but violent incursions by mining companies and complicit governments threaten trad...

Defending Land and Water From Mining Profiteers in the Time of Covid-19

Over the years, the mining industry has taken advantage of dictatorship, disasters, and a variety of distractions to expand operations in Latin America. In the time of Covid-19, with entire populations under lockdown and economies falling apart, mining companies have also hopped on the pandemic profiteering bandwagon.The potential implications are wide-reaching. In Latin America, the areas of interest to mining companies whether they are exploring or digging for gold, silver, copper, iron-ore, a...

A message for NZ about racism

As protests sparked by the death of George Floyd unfold across the US, David Mayeda has a message for NZ: 'For those of you who don’t experience racism, be publicly anti-racist - support those of us who do'.Monday evening in Washington D.C. shortly before a 7pm curfew and just before President Donald Trump made a White House speech, police “fired tear gas, flash-bang shells, and rubber bullets into a crowd of peaceful protestors”. By now, most of us are aware of the protests unfo...

Māori-led Oranga Tamariki inquiry did not require response - Minister

Children's Minister Tracey Martin says she was never officially asked to do anything about the Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki which was commissioned by Whanau Ora.The inquiry was one of five initiated after Oranga Tamariki tried to take a newborn baby from a Hawke's Bay mother last year.The three-part report, released in February, was based on contacts with more than 1000 whānau on their experiences of the Ministry.The review detailed three key actions to overhaul the system: supportin...