Indigenous peoples throughout English-speaking countries have had their children taken away by the state for generations. Most countries have faced up to this legacy but New Zealand has been in denial about its own Stolen Generation – a group now known as Ngā Mōrehu (The Survivors). The new Labour government has agreed to set up … Read more
Morgan Godfery was born to a teenage mother and a gang father in Kawerau, New Zealand’s poorest town. He recounts the experience in this essay from the Journal of Urgent Writing, 2017. Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future And time future contained in time past. — T. S. Eliot, … Read more
Rongoā practitioner Donna Kerridge explains how to make a simple decoction for respiratory conditions and digestion. Wairakau (decoctions) were once one of the most common and favoured remedies used by rongoā Māori practitioners. Rongoā Māori practitioners are not chemists and most are unlikely to know what the constituents or active ingredients are in the plants … Read more
A Māori language version of blockbuster Disney film Moana was released in September to celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo. Now you can get the soundtrack in your ears! E te iwi!!! The Moana Reo Māori soundtrack is now available on Spotify! Mauri ora! @Lin_Manuel @DisneyStudios #Moana https://t.co/oUeDA1bBqA — Taika Waititi (@TaikaWaititi) November 3, 2017 The film … Read more
Kera Sherwood-O’Regan (Kāi Tahu) is an Aotearoa Youth Leadership Institute delegate to COP23, the United Nations Climate Conference in Bonn, Germany. Over the next three weeks, she’ll be reporting on the conference’s outcomes for indigenous peoples. Talk to any climate nerd about this year’s UN Climate Negotiations, and you’ll likely be met with excited proclamations about … Read more
Thirty years of economic reform and the gap between Māori and Pākehā employment rates is wider than ever, says business columnist Joshua Hitchcock. I have never experienced unemployment. Since graduating in 2007 I have always found a job when I wanted one. That is not to say I have always worked these past 10 years. … Read more
Whakapapa is about relationships, not just relations, and can help us understand our all-round wellbeing, explains columnist Te Miri Rangi. Whakapapa describes a person’s genealogy, lineage or descent. It helps identify the relationships we share with others in to an organised system. Intimate knowledge of whakapapa was integral in traditional Māori society for not only … Read more
Scrapping of the “three-strikes” law will have a huge impact on Māori prisoners, and is just one new government policy which will have a positive impact on te iwi Māori, writes Mihingarangi Forbes. This post originally appeared on RNZ. Labour confirmed on Wednesday that the government would scrap the “three-strikes” law – which mandates increasingly harsh … 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
Leonie Hayden presents Kaupapa On The Couch, a six-part webseries looking at interesting issues and events in te ao Māori. What do we mean when we refer to our mountains and rivers as ancestors? Episode three looks at the world-leading legislation in Aotearoa that recognises Te Urewera National Park and the Whanganui River as people. … Read more
Dan Taipua explores indigenous ideologies in Thor: Ragnarok, the blockbuster movie from the king of the space Māori, Taika Waititi. Warning: contains spoilers for Thor: Ragnarok Without a doubt, Taika Waititi is the finest New Zealand filmmaker of his generation. At the time of writing, Thor: Ragnarok is the most critically well-received Marvel movie of all … Read more
As well as being the official NZ Wars commemoration date, October 28 is celebrated by Northland iwi for the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a document that recognised Māori sovereignty, explains Miriama Aoake. In 1835, 34 rangatira signed He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tīreni, the Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes … Read more
Rongoā Māori medicine is about more than lotions and potions, explains Donna Kerridge – it’s also about connection. Traditional Māori medicine (rongoā Māori) requires a special understanding of the world that acknowledges the interconnectedness of all things and that everything we think, say or do has a corresponding effect on the world around us. It … Read more
Radio New Zealand has released a 30-minute documentary on the battle at Ruapekapeka, an incredibly sophisticated pā in the far north where 400 Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Hine warriors stood against a combined British force of 1600. Don Rowe attends the premiere, and considers what it means for New Zealand’s self-image. There are good guys in this … Read more
The Stories of Ruapekapeka is a special online project by RNZ and Mihingarangi Forbes about Northland’s most infamous armed conflict. Historian Vincent O’Malley writes about the importance of acknowledging the darker episodes of New Zealand’s past. The battle of Ruapekapeka, fought in January 1846, was the final engagement in the war that Britain lost, as James … Read more
One of the biggest surprises of the 2017 election was Tamati Coffey’s win in the electorate of Waiariki – unseating Te Ururoa Flavell and ushering the Māori Party out of parliament. Campaign chair Haydn Marriner takes us inside Team Tamati’s strategy. It was deemed by all political pundits, Māori and non-Māori (aside from Morgan Godfery) … Read more
As Treaty commentator Joshua Hitchcock prepares to return home from London, he is optimistic for the new Labour government, but argues that reflecting on past mistakes will help them regain Māori trust. Ka mua, ka muri. This rather elegant Māori proverb reminds us that to move forward, we must keep one eye on our past. … Read more
Health campaigner Te Miri Rangi looks at what we can learn from our ancestors about the ancient art of a good night’s rest. When it comes to adopting a healthy lifestyle, the first two things that we turn to are eating healthy kai and exercising more often. But there are a number of pillars that … 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
An innovative piece of theatre has resurfaced a long forgotten story with a lasting effect on race relations in New Zealand. Simon Day spoke to director Katie Wolfe about The Haka Party Incident. New Zealand is full of racism, from your uncouth uncle to the systemic institutional racism of New Zealand’s justice and education systems. … Read more
On the 10th anniversary of the Tūhoe raids, we look back at a book published by Rebel Press in 2010 recounting the experiences of 16 people effected by Operation 8. On October 15 2007 the ‘war on terrorism’ arrived in New Zealand when more than 300 police carried out dawn raids on approximately 60 houses all … Read more
Playwright Miria George talks to Leonie Hayden about her new satire of Māori ‘one-percenters’, and challenging assumptions about what Māori art should be. The Vultures is a curious departure from most Māori theatre I’ve seen. It’s not explicitly about post-colonial disenfranchisement or violence, although it can be argued these underpin all Māori existence. It’s about … Read more
Practitioner Donna Kerridge introduces the core philosophy behind Aotearoa’s oldest medical practice. “If modern society is to have a future, what we need above all is a renewed respect for nature and reverences for the life of all created things” – Jurger Moltmann The essence of rongoā Māori and many other indigenous health practices is … Read more
The tohutō (macron) is an important and powerful part of te reo Māori. Simon Day explains how to use it. The macron matters. The use of the tohutō is essential for the pronunciation, meaning, and status of te reo Māori. When you see a vowel with its hat on it means the sound is held … Read more
Joshua Hitchcock looks at the Māori Party initiatives most at risk from a new government: the Whānau Ora health programme and the Māori land law reforms. The votes are in, negotiations are underway, and while we enjoy the peaceful interregnum between the election and the formation of a new government, the election results have sent … Read more
Filmmaker Kath Akuhata-Brown looks at the unique challenges of making Waru, a film directed by eight Māori women. Beneath the yelling and screaming of our recent general election, as child poverty was being turned into a political platform, a group of Māori filmmakers quietly went about the task of drawing attention to the issue in … Read more
Ātea editor Leonie Hayden responds to a misinformed shambles of an opinion column published in numerous newspapers this week. On October 2, Fairfax published an opinion piece across a number of their regional newspapers by an ancient and mysterious figure named Bob Brockie. Described in his Wikipedia page as a ‘cartoonist’ and ‘scientist’ (who did … Read more
Health expert Te Miri Rangi looks at ways to revive indigenous Māori knowledge to optimise health and wellbeing. Generations of evolution and human development have influenced the way our tinana, or our body, functions, and how it responds to the kai we eat. Most of the kai around us today has emerged as the result … Read more
Carl Chenery appeals to other Pākehā to be courageous in commemorating the Land Wars and for peace in Waitara today. Courage is turning towards hard truth, not turning away. The same goes for our colonial story here in Aotearoa. On 28 October, just a month after our elections, we will see the first national commemoration … Read more