Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, a clickable, shareable, bite-sized FAQ on the news of the moment. Today, we look at the meaning of Matariki. Matariki is the Māori name for the Pleaides star cluster. It rises during mid-winter and marks the beginning of the Māori new year. The word is an abbreviation of Ngā Mata … Read more
Many of the children abused in state care facilities over the past 40 years have grown up lost in the system. Ricky Houghton decided to overthrow the system completely. He Korowai Trust CEO Ricky Houghton comes from the Pita Sharples school of style – a perfectly moussed mullet, a sharp leather jacket and a gentle … Read more
Legal action has been taken by multi-millionaire Bob Jones against two Māori women who have called him and a column he wrote racist. Is it true? And what is racism anyway? We delved into the archives for answers. So two weeks ago it was announced Sir Bob Jones was suing Māori filmmaker Renae Maihi on … Read more
Breakout performer of a hit local film and now award-winning theatre maker, Ana Scotney is the definition of a rising star. She talks to Sam Brooks about her upcoming show The Contours of Heaven. If you’re most people, the first time you saw Ana Scotney (Ngāti Tāwhaki) was in The Breaker-Upperers, in which she plays the take-no-shit … Read more
The government’s inquiry into mental health and addiction, announced in January, travels to Whanganui this week, home of the mental health worker who changed Jason Renes’ life. Content warning: suicide, self-harm, depression. After the third time I self-harmed I told my mother I was hurting myself and I needed help to stop. She set up … Read more
The Spinoff presents the video premiere of Ria Hall’s ‘Te Ahi Kai Pō’, directed by Shae Sterling, inspired by the Battle of Te Ranga in June of 1864. Ria Hall says: I’ve used this battle as a metaphor for the composition, contemplating on how to find solace and peace after the onslaught and dispossession. This song is applicable … Read more
Historian Vincent O’Malley conducted his own survey over the weekend on what people did and didn’t learn about New Zealand history at school. The results, no matter how unscientific, still paint a clear picture. By now many people know something of the story of the small-town petition from which big things grew. In December 2015 … Read more
Jason Te Kare grew up watching his mum raise and love at-risk youths in their family home. The director of new prison-set play CELLFISH talks about learning how to live a compassionate life. When playwright Miriama McDowell worked with inmates in a Christchurch prison, she was often asked to sneak in contraband. Not your typical … Read more
Māori are in the process of choosing which electoral roll to vote from. Simon Day spoke to Dr Paerau Warbrick about what that decision means. I grew up firmly in te ao Pākehā. I also grew up very aware of my Tainui whakapapa, and the story of grandfather’s family – his father a legendary Māori … Read more
The calls happen every year now for Matariki to be turned into a public holiday. Soon they will be too loud to ignore. It always happens around late May, early June. It gets cold, the days are short, the steam from cooking pots on the stove fogs up the windows. The good folk of New … Read more
Ian Tarei has spent over a decade protecting kiwi in the forested hills behind the Eastern Bay of Plenty settlement of Awakeri. Late last month Jason Renes joined him on a kiwi call count to learn how the Omataroa Kiwi Project made its way out of some hard times to become a kiwi conservation success. … Read more
The Spinoff talks to wāhine Māori about the history, present and future of moko kauae, as well as Inia Taylor, the tā moko artist behind the controversial moko kauae worn by life coach Sally Anderson. “Moko kauae is not for Pākehā!” That outcry by a group of wāhine Māori, prompted by a recent media investigation … Read more
Marama Fox’s elimination from Dancing with the Stars NZ on Monday caused outrage across the nation. She talks with Leonie Hayden about leaving the show, ‘scrapping’ with producers, and why she wouldn’t back down on using her performances to showcase Māoritanga. Māori Party co-leader Marama Fox is often painted, fairly and unfairly, as firey, mouthy … Read more
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Ihumātao, South Auckland over the weekend to protest against Fletcher Building’s planned housing development, known as SHA62. Text and photos by Qiane Matata-Sipu. The ‘Take a Stand on the Land’ action saw kaumātua, kuia, families, students, activists and unions take to the lower slopes of the tupuna maunga, Te Puketaapapatanga … Read more
This week marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most pivotal land actions in New Zealand history – the 506 day occupation of Bastion Point. I don’t whakapapa to Ōrākei but I share an ancestor, Tumutumuwhenua, who didn’t arrive in Aotearoa on a waka but grew from the earth. The wharenui at Ōrakei is … Read more
Friends and collaborators Maisey Rika and Seth Haapu sit down together to talk about Haapu’s new single and video ‘New Wave’. Maisy Rika: Seth, thank you so much for making yourself available for this kōrero. We’ve known each other for a while now, but just so the world knows, e hoa, who are you, where do … Read more
Pākehā life coach Sally Anderson has come under fire this week for receiving moko kauae, as has the tā moko artist that gave it to her. Leonie Pihama looks at the difference between rights and privilege when it come to wāhine Māori and moko kauae. Over the past few days I have been watching from afar … Read more
Climate change is not a taniwha far off on the horizon, it’s right before us demanding we address it. In the first week of May, members of Te Whānau-a-Apanui invited indigenous climate change activists and thinkers from Aotearoa and around the world to the Red Tide International Indigenous Climate Action Summit. Jason Renes travelled 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
If we’re serious about improving youth participation in politics, we need the Don Brashes of the world to get out of the way, writes Action Station’s Laura O’Connell Rapira. When I was in sixth form (year 12) I was elected as the student representative on my school’s board of trustees. My primary school principal, Mr. … Read more
Three extraordinary women have taken their design and architecture skills and created a training programme for some of the country’s most vulnerable rangatahi. Head north on state highway one, stopping for a sandwich among the bright and busy architecture of Kawakawa. Past Moerewa’s giant AFFCO meatworks, glowering on the edge of town like a taniwha … Read more
Reggae musician Carl Perkins has died, aged 59, after a battle with bowel cancer. He was a member of pioneering Aotearoa reggae group Herbs in the early ’80s, starting on percussion with the band when they were recording their second album Light of the Pacific. He had a hand in writing the hit ‘Long Ago’ … Read more
Studies show high levels of racial bias and discrimination in schools continues to disadvantage Māori and Pasifika children. Some say a new initiative has already yielded results but isn’t getting the support it needs. The Ministry of Education has told the government it could achieve a “step change” in Māori children’s achievement by tackling their … Read more
Former Green MP Catherine Delahunty makes the case for a new ministry. The new government needs to face facts: Pākehā need help to assimilate into Aotearoa. We have had more than 160 years but some of us are still struggling to cope. Reluctant as I am to throw more money at Pākehā, the failures are … Read more
As the University of Otago Māori student body grows, so too do their aspirations for a space to call their own. In March, the University of Otago’s Vice Chancellor Harlene Hayne announced a 10% increase in Māori students, and over a decade of uninterrupted year-on-year growth in both Māori and Pacific enrolments. The university says its … Read more
Māori voters overwhelmingly put their trust in Labour at the 2017 general election, so why are they missing from their policies? RNZ‘s Guyon Espiner investigates. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spent five days at Waitangi and was photographed tending the BBQ after the dawn service. Social media swooned when she wore a kahu huruhuru to meet the Monarch – … Read more
Today’s Māori organisations are the result of decades of Māori being forced into corporate structures that don’t fit. It’s time to rethink them, writes Joshua Hitchcock. The accountability of Māori organisations to their members was back in the news in April, with several stories highlighting unjustified spending and unaccountable governance structures. It is always disheartening … Read more
He showed up to a voice over job and was asked to mispronounce a Māori place name. Dave Ward explains why he chose to speak up instead. Taika Waititi was right on the money. We have a race issue in Aotearoa and it’s not going away. Last week I refused to deliberately mispronounce a Māori … 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