Around the world, statues, monuments and place names forged in colonialism and racism are coming under scrutiny. The police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a wave of protests around the world, and in turn a targeting of colonial and racist statues, such as the tribute to 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston, which was … Read more
Who would leave the safety of Covid-free New Zealand to travel to the US during a pandemic amid escalating racial tensions? Well, I would – but only for three very special reasons. My whakapapa extends from the tangata whenua (people of the land) of Aotearoa and across the Pacific to Samoa, Europe and beyond. I … Read more
Covid-19 has reset our understanding of the world. From this crisis comes opportunity, and University of Otago professor Merata Kawharu (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāpuhi) believes it’s a chance to apply traditional principles to our new normal. In a really short time, we have become attuned to doing things very differently. In just a few months, Covid-19 … Read more
A Children’s Commission report released this week shows that entrenched attitudes at Oranga Tamariki are still endangering whānau Māori. This is what colonisation looks like, writes former Oranga Tamariki employee Luke Fitzmaurice. Children’s Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft yesterday released the first of two reports into the removal of Māori babies by the Ministry for Children … Read more
This powerful collection of photographs and essays catalogues three generations of Ngāti Torehina ki Matakā learning to pelt North Island kiwi. Nāu, nā te Pākehā te kurī me te ngeru nāna i huna ngā kai o te motu nei, te weka, te kiwi, te kākāpō, te piopio, me te tini o ngā manu o te … Read more
With his play Shot Bro: Confessions of a Depressed Bullet, actor Rob Mokaraka has been helping people from all over New Zealand to open up about mental health struggles. A new documentary explores his journey. Content warning: This story contains descriptions of suicide, violence and abuse, which may be triggering to survivors. In late July, … Read more
Wrapping everyone in a blanket of love, whakapapa and mauri for Matariki is the brave, exuberant and generous fabric art of Maungarongo Te Kawa, writes Amanda Thompson. E te Atua Nau enei rau harakeke he taonga Tukuna ki a matou Kia tika o matou mahi Ko Papatuanuku e takoto nei Tuturu Whakamaua Kia tina, tina … Read more
Being shot by police had a profound, transformational effect on Rob Mokaraka’s life in more ways than you’d expect. A new documentary, airing on Māori TV at 7.30pm on Sunday, explores the work he’s done to heal his own mind and to ensure nobody has to go through the same pain he did. Content warning: … Read more
From 1846 onwards, various militia came together to form the New Zealand Armed Constabulary Force, to ‘combat Māori hostiles and to keep civil order’. In 1885 they changed uniforms and became the New Zealand Police. We’re still feeling the effects of that whakapapa today, writes Emilie Rākete. America is burning, burning like Rome. And like … Read more
The Matariki and Pūanga stars are due to rise this month, signalling the Māori New Year. Rehua will set in the west at the exact time Pūanga rises. So how do we see them and what are the best dates? With thanks to Matua Rereata Mākiha We often hear about Matariki (Pleiades) as the marker … Read more
The commitment and coordination demonstrated can inspire us towards a true Te Tiriti partnership, reinforced by human rights, write Meng Foon, the race relations commissioner, and Paul Hunt, the chief human rights commissioner. As we all get used to life at Covid-19 alert level two, we’ve been thinking about the success of the Iwi-led checkpoints … Read more
This is a huge opportunity – and a wero – to demonstrate commitments to diversity, write sector engineers Troy Brockbank, Elle Archer, Sifa Pole and Sina Cotter Tait and Honor Columbus. Aotearoa is awash with discussion on how we might re-imagine our post-Covid future; what could and should our economy and society look like? The … Read more
There aren’t many women composing for taonga puoro. In fact, there aren’t many people like Te Kahureremoa Taumata and Khali Phillips-Barbara at all. Earlier in the year I was lucky enough to attend the Te Hā annual Māori writers’ hui, where I met (among many inspirational kaituhi Māori) a poet and musician named Ladyfruit. Mere … Read more
A new first-person photography game set in a dystopian Tauranga under lockdown is the best work of Māori science-fiction this decade, writes Dan Taipua. Umurangi Generation is a first-person photography game set din the shitty future. Designed and developed by Naphtali Faulkner (aka Veselekov) the game has you move about a futuristic Tauranga and surrounding … Read more
While many areas of the workforce have been shaken by the effects of Covid-19, a Ngāi Tahu futures lab has been working to give rangatahi Māori the opportunity to decide their own futures. Futurists have thought up myriad strategies for how the world should look post-Covid. For all its hurt, the global pandemic is offering … Read more
Could a taiao values approach to our economy be the key to bridging the gap between protecting our environment and prospering as people? Dr Amanda Black from the Bio-Protection Research Centre explains how. Aotearoa has been economically dependent on our primary sector for generations. But in this new Covid-19-framed world, that dependence will be magnified. … Read more
Emerging Māori and Pacific academics are already severely underrepresented at universities. Now they’re in jeopardy of being the first ones to go. As the impacts of Covid-19 bite, universities are looking for ways to cut budgets. There’s a serious danger that in doing so, they erase a generation of Māori and Pacific researchers. The pandemic … Read more
This year’s budget was a chance to re-orient our economy to help it work better for Māori, not just now but into the future. The government failed to grasp the opportunity, writes Missy Te Kanawa. For Māori, the budget met the Covid-19-created need but missed the long-term mark. There were some good wins, but overall … Read more
The 1954 novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a story about young boys shipwrecked on a desolate island, is a parable for the supposedly innate cruelty and selfishness of human nature. This week, an excerpt was published on The Guardian from the book Humankind by Dutch historian Rutger Bregman, who claimed to … Read more
You might not know his face, but Māori Television’s Heta Gardiner has been one of the most valuable and memorable contributors to the daily Covid-19 briefings. Hayden Donnell spoke to him about what it’s been like covering a pandemic in a still Pākehā-dominated press gallery. The near-daily media briefings on Covid-19 often start out combative. … Read more
Budget 2020: Although it was called “Rebuilding Together”, it’s hard to see what exactly yesterday’s budget is rebuilding. Budget 2020 was never going to be a transformational budget. Not for Māori. Not for Aotearoa New Zealand. It is easy to understand the disappointment of many across the country who hoped for something more and who … Read more
Budget 2020: The Labour government must not forget the unjust bailouts of the first Great Depression when it decides New Zealand’s path out of the current one. Whakapapa is the long and never-ending line of connection from the deities to earth to us. It is the long memory of indigenous people in a world that … Read more
What do you do when you’re brown and a white woman you like gets cancelled? We can probably all agree that so far this year has been relatively bad. One thing that has made it somewhat bearable for me, many of my friends and evidently a lot of other people has been the writing of … Read more
Te Ohu Kaimoana chief executive Dion Tuuta gets to the heart of institutional racism, and adds his voice to the chorus calling for a better Treaty partnership as we emerge from the pandemic. Koi Tū – the Centre for Informed Futures, led by Sir Peter Gluckman, recently released a paper titled Social Cohesion Enhancing Kotahitanga … Read more
Where is the ‘other’ Treaty partner in this pandemic response, asks public health expert Rhys Jones. Looking at the outward face of the Covid-19 pandemic response in Aotearoa/New Zealand, you’d be forgiven for wondering where one of the Treaty partners is. No matter where you look – cabinet, those delivering official communications, experts informing the … Read more
The appeal of Star Wars is universal, but the central themes have special resonance for indigenous people – which is why having a uniquely Māori spirit at the helm is so exciting. May the 4th was with us this week as Disney announced that New Zealand film-maker and Waihau Bay rebel leader Taika Waititi would … Read more
The Māori response to the Covid-19 crisis has been swift and strong. It’s not the first time (nor will it be the last) that Māori have stepped up in a national emergency, writes historian Aroha Harris. In recent weeks I’ve been pondering the iwi Māori capacity to mobilise and noticing how quickly and efficiently Māori … Read more
Haratua/May is the 12th lunar month in the Māori year; a time to prepare for winter and Matariki. Learn more about the maramataka, the Māori lunar calendar, here. Kia ora tatōu! As we come out of noho tāpui/lockdown, and enter the moon cycle of Haratua, we welcome the 12th lunar month in the Māori year and … Read more
For the second time since New Zealand went into lockdown, the public toilet block and carpark at Ōwairaka has been defaced with racist images. The dispute over the native restoration programme for the maunga of Ōwairaka took a nasty new turn last week when the words “Majurey lies” were spray painted in orange across the … Read more