How do museums learn to tell the truth about what they hold in order to become ‘decolonised archives’ asks Puawai Cairns, kaihāpai Mātauranga Māori at Te Papa. ‘Museums are dangerous places because they control the storytelling’ – Moana Jackson For the last few months, my curatorial team – Mātauranga Māori – has been meeting regularly to discuss … Read more
First hand experiences of prison are shared in a new exhibition that provides an insight into the collateral consequences of incarceration. Eighteen people from around Aotearoa have shared their stories with Justspeak and sat for 18 different portraits, displayed at Potocki Patterson gallery in Wellington and online. It’s an opportunity to hear stories that are too … Read more
Twenty years on from the release of his debut album 2b S.Pacific, RNZ Music‘s Sam Wicks speaks to Che Fu about how getting kicked out of Supergroove lit the fire that helped him create his landmark album. In October 1998, BMG New Zealand released the debut solo project from Che-Fu (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Whakatere), an … Read more
If you serve time in jail there is a nearly one in three chance that you’ll end up back behind bars in the first year after release. For RNZ’s Insight, Leigh-Marama McLachlan speaks to former prisoners trying to build a life outside the gates. Jamie Mako, 46, spent his first night of freedom in four … Read more
Social scientist Lucy Carter says people’s resilience and generosity during the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes spurred her to look at how Māori and indigenous communities respond to disaster. When I tell people I’m a disaster researcher, I tend to get a range of reactions. Some take the opportunity to share with me their personal … Read more
For 15 years Unitec has been working with the New Zealand Police to help diversify its intake of students. Jihee Junn looks at how Unitec’s ‘pre-police’ course is changing the demographics and culture of the police service. On a dreary, rainy Monday evening in Mount Albert, Sergeant John Brown is delivering a speech in front … Read more
An indigenous free-trade agreement is one of the key ideas up for discussion at the World Indigenous Business Forum in Rotorua this week. Indigenous business leaders from around the world are looking at the ways they can create trade opportunities for their people. Hundreds of indigenous people from 25 countries are attending this week’s forum. … Read more
A Māori owner of a United Kingdom-based kapa haka company says it is vital to protect the integrity of the haka – but a Dutch man who also offers kapa haka experiences says it is there to be shared by everyone, reports John Boynton. Karl Burrows runs Haka-Works, a UK-based company which offered haka workshops … Read more
In her first post for Te Puna Kōrero, a new blogging platform for Māori education and kaupapa, Māori research expert Linda Tuhiwai Smith takes stock of how far we’ve come, and at what cost. It’s 2018. We’ve had almost 30 years of Māori education resurgence with specific and innovative developments led by Kōhanga Reo, Kura … Read more
Self-confessed fan Morgan Godfery talks Māori politics with Green Party co-leader, Marama Davidson. Marama Davidson is your best friend. If she’s isn’t, you just haven’t met her yet. The Green Party co-leader, an ex-theatre girl – the daughter of Whale Rider koro Rawiri Paratene – former human rights advocate, and multitasking mother of six, wants … Read more
Lifestyle blogger Hana Tapiata says no matter how much it hurts, if you want to bring your vision to life, you’re going have to let go of something. Ranginui was forced to let go, and by ‘forced’ I mean he and his wife Papatūānuku were severed from each other. They were pulled apart from each … Read more
In one of her first interviews since she walked away from politics, Metiria Turei talks to Waveney Russ about her new life as an artist studying at the Dunedin School of Art. Metiria Turei and I sit across the table from one another in front of her most recent piece of art at Blue … Read more
Ngāi Tahu spent 150 years in cultural and economic poverty, dispossessed of the vast majority of their whenua and mahinga kai. Today, 20 years on from their landmark settlement with the Crown, they’re sitting atop a billion dollar pūtea, writes Don Rowe. At the time of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, almost half … Read more
New Zealand hops are hot property in the beer world, but some overseas breweries’ tone-deaf homages to Aotearoa are causing offence. Worldwide, the beer industry is coming under increasing pressure to be more inclusive. In many parts of the world, breweries are dominated by white males, and the industry has a history of sexism — … Read more
The low energy day of Whiro is best spent fasting, meditating and cleansing the body. Want to know more? Check out the maramataka for October. Kia ora tātou, welcome to Whiringa-ā-nuku! Hopefully the last few columns have got you thinking and talking about the maramataka. With this latest instalment, we will continue to add mātauranga as … Read more
The Māori caucus statement that it stands by Meka Whaitiri is simply tikanga in action, writes Morgan Godfery. Parliament and the Beehive are, as workplaces, uniquely awful. The expectations are high. The hours are punishing. And the work never really stops. There’s correspondence to file, press releases to draft, briefings to read or write, negotiations … Read more
A tool of colonisation or liberation? Te Paipera Tapu (The Holy Bible) turns 150 this year, with the first full translation being published in 1868. Dr Hirini Kaa shares some of the cultural and historical significance of this book. The late, great Māori academic Ranginui Walker, in one of his memorably powerful phrases, once described Christianity as ‘total … Read more
It has been 25 years since the commencement of the Wai 262 claim, and seven years since the Waitangi Tribunal’s Ko Aotearoa Tēnei report. So why are we still waiting for the New Zealand government to respond? One of the promises of the new government was a better relationship with Māori. A large Māori caucus … 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
A year and two days ago New Zealanders went to the polls, returning a record 29 Māori MPs. But who’s up and who’s down? Who are the top performers and who are the up-and-comers? Māui street editor Morgan Godfery picks his faves and rates them out of 10 for performance. Ministers Willie Jackson, Labour (Ngāti … Read more
This week the Supreme Court dipped its toes into the troubled waters of the Crown’s settlement negotiations with Hauraki iwi in a decision on whether or not Ngāti Whātua can challenge elements of that settlement in court. Lawyer and mediator Baden Vertongen (Ngāti Raukawa) peels back the complex layers of that decision. In 2006, Ngāti Whātua sought to … Read more
When Hinewehi Mohi was asked to sing the national anthem before New Zealand’s 1999 quarterfinal against England, she made a choice that would change the pregame ritual for good. Don Rowe reports. The Rugby World Cup in 1999 smashed sport, politics and New Zealand’s sense of nationhood together in two pivotal moments which still echo … Read more
To mark the anniversary of women’s suffrage, we republish this essay from International Women’s Day 2018 by Ātea editor Leonie Hayden – how Māori women can find their way back to equity through the stories of the past. 1893 was the first time New Zealand women were given access to the Westminster vote, but traditionally Māori … Read more
A group of entrepreneurial aunties from Ōmaka marae in Blenheim and their delicious preserves are finalists in the New Zealand Artisan Awards. The aunties of Ōmaka marae have turned their desire for tino rangatiratanga into a social enterprise, with products that are gaining national recognition. The rongoā Māori-inspired condiments, sold under the brand Manaaki, are finalists … Read more
Ra Pomare conveys the eternal bliss of being single with three handy phrases in te reo. “Table for one?” “He tēpu mō te tangata kotahi?” “I just remembered, I also have plans.” “I wareware katoa ahau, he kaupapa anō tāku.” “My holiday was great.” “I pai rawa atu taku hararei.”
As the second annual commemoration of the New Zealand Wars approaches, Green MP Gareth Hughes lays down a wero for his fellow MPs. On the walls of Parliament’s debating chamber hang 33 memorial plaques and wreaths commemorating battles where New Zealanders fought, from South Africa to Afghanistan. One is missing. There’s a wreath to the … Read more
The debate continues on whether compulsory schooling could be effective as a te reo Māori revitalisation tool. Kristin Hall reports on the view from Ireland. ‘Mattresses have three suites. Macdara has four more flavours. How many mills are Macdara?’ This is a question I found myself pondering for far too long while sitting in a … Read more
At the beginning of Te Wiki o Te Reo 2018, a new app was launched that translated images into Māori. Karyn Tattersfield looks at the legacy of John Moorfield ‘s famous dictionary, and the revolutionary new technology of Kupu. The extent of the late Professor John Moorfield’s impact on te reo Māori is hard to quantify. … Read more
This is the te reo journey of one very colonised Māori, writes journalist Meriana Johnsen. In one of our te reo classes, we had to choose a whakataukī that resonated with us. I chose: Ko taku reo, taku ohooho, ko taku reo, taku mapihi mauria. My language is my awakening, my language is the window … Read more