Willie Jackson’s comment last week that Paula Bennett wasn’t Māori enough may have been just the usual petty parliamentary barbs, but risks hurting a vulnerable group of Māori struggling with their identity, writes Graham Cameron. I was seventh form (year 13 if you prefer) when the Iwi Transitional Agency visited my high school in Christchurch. … Read more
The consequences of truancy for Māori students are as shocking that speech, writes Graham Cameron. Virginia Crawford, principal of Fraser High School, is under fire for a speech about truancy the media has characterised as “shocking”. In it she stated: “Every student who walks out of the gate to truant is already a statistic of … Read more
Pipi beds die and algae blooms, but iwi are repeatedly told ‘there’s nothing to see here’, writes Graham Cameron. When the Tainui canoe entered Tauranga harbour a millennium ago, it had the misfortune to run aground on a then prominent sandbar called Ruahine that sat below the waterline between Matakana Island and Mauao. The Tainui … Read more
What Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern actually say and do is more important than an ideological argument about freedom of expression, argues Graham Cameron. There are three aspects of the Free Speech Coalition – currently taking legal action against Auckland Council – that stand out. One, they didn’t Google before they made up their name, … Read more
On Saturday, the widow of the late Tauranga Moana leader Awanui Black posted a video to Facebook about child sexual abuse and her husband. Their whanaunga Graham Cameron says her brave stand is a chance to break the cycle of silence and shame. Content warning: sexual abuse of children. If you’ve had the opportunity to … Read more
Competing North Island iwi groups Tauranga Moana and Pare Hauraki were on track to negotiate a tikanga process for Treaty settlement talks – face to face, on the marae, no lawyers. Then the government changed hands and tikanga talks went out the window, writes Graham Cameron. My daughter Hinengākau may have delayed your morning commute … Read more
Geopolitical commentator Graham Cameron looks at the lessons learned at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues over the past two weeks. Law professor Valmaine Toki is purported to have described the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues as a “huge Waitangi Tribunal.” Did she mean unpopular, underfunded and ignored or an opportunity … Read more
After a fraught election, Labour’s Māori caucus is going head to head with the Iwi Chairs Forum. The change of government has signaled a profound change in iwi relationships with the Crown. In the past 17 years, the corporate iwi model was the power ascendent at the Iwi Chairs Forum, and has proven to be … Read more
Rent Week 2018: Two tales from a small Tauranga community illustrate the challenges solo mums still face in the renting market. It was reported in January that Tauranga now outranks Auckland as New Zealand’s most unaffordable city and in the city’s pressured rental market, landlords these days have their pick of tenants and of rental … Read more
In the past three years the Pacific Island nations have experienced the three most intense tropical cyclones on record. It’s our duty as tangata whenua and whanaunga to take a stand on climate change, for their sake, argues Graham Cameron. As our Pacific Islands cousins face the unprecendented impacts of climate change, they are looking … Read more
A bill designed to prevent MPs from switching parties, one of Labour’s concessions to NZ First in the coalition talks, has passed its first reading. Graham Cameron has strong feelings on what the ‘waka-jumping bill’ means for democracy and whakawhanaungatanga. Labour’s Electoral (Integrity) Bill has passed its first reading. It’s likely to pass despite … Read more
Blockades barring people from using a wharf on Matakana Island in the Western Bay of Plenty have drawn the ire of visitors and tourist operations, with some accusing local hapū of “taking the law into their own hands.” Tauranga Moana local Graham Cameron defends their kaitiakitanga and challenges views on land use and ownership. I … Read more
In order to be a good friend we don’t owe Australia our loyalty – we owe them honesty, writes Graham Cameron. The deputy prime minister of Australia, Barnaby Joyce, is grumpy with Jacinda Ardern because she offered a place to 150 of those refugees that Australia illegally imprisoned and then abandoned on Manus Island in … Read more
Western Bay of Plenty district council already voted in favour of Māori wards, but one councillor, the partner of Hobson’s Pledge head honcho Don Brash, is demanding a rate-payers’ poll. Let’s vote for progress, writes Graham Cameron. In our balmy autumn months in Tauranga Moana, during the commemorations for Te Weranga (the 1867 Tauranga Bush … Read more
Graham Cameron uses his background in public service to look at how the dominant model in health and education is selling us all short. The Minister of Social Development announced this week that they will repeal the part of the Social Security Act that requires sole parents to identify the other parent or face benefit … Read more
Hope and rhetoric are a great tonic but it’s time to act, writes columnist Graham Cameron. At the United Nations in late September, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave an impassioned speech about the historical abuses of Canada’s First Nations, stating that “for Indigenous peoples in Canada, the experience was mostly one of humiliation, neglect … Read more
Graham Cameron proposes reasons for learning a language that have nothing to do with business. Ni hao! It’s Chinese Language Week. There has been some attempt in our local media to wrap their lips around the unfamiliar sounds of Mandarin, a few pieces about the local Chinese community, but mostly pieces about the importance of business … Read more
The violent suppression of the referendum in Catalonia holds lessons for iwi wishing to establish their independence in Aotearoa, writes Graham Cameron. In the main, the reporting on the Catalan referendum has been surface level: the Spanish state does not want the region of Catalonia to consider independence. However, for those of us committed to … Read more
Choosing to relegate te reo into a group of languages is an insulting breach of treaty obligations, revealing a serious lack of commitment to the revitalisation of the language, argues Graham Cameron. Among the key messages the National Party wanted to highlight from their 2017 election campaign launch was their proposed education policy package. The … Read more
From the Māori-Mana deal to the Labour no-list gambit, short-sighted strategies risk excluding Māori voters from the conversation about Māori aspirations, writes Graham Cameron The popular analogy for the Māori seats in the last year has been Game of Thrones. However, outside the number of kingdoms and the genuine dislike people seem to have for … Read more