Technology has helped Māori assert a strong, independent response to help stop the spread of Covid-19, but the crisis also exposes telecommunications vulnerabilities. The 1918 influenza epidemic hit Māori hard. Around 2,500 died in under two months at a rate of 50 per 1,000 people – eight times that of Europeans. So, when Covid-19 arrived, … Read more
Law professor Dr Claire Charters (Te Arawa) lays out Aotearoa’s dual legal systems and the government’s obligations to both in these uncertain times. The Covid-19 era is like a fast-moving picture which perpetually develops and re-develops. The picture adjusts with ever-changing information on the relevant health-science, the impact on the economy, the need for restrictions … Read more
Rebuilding support for her seatless party in the midst of a global pandemic is an unenviable task, but new Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer is taking it in her stride. On April 15 the Māori Party announced its new co-leaders, one tāne, one wahine, as per the party’s charter. In the top spots, the sometimes … Read more
Business after Covid: In the first of a series featuring business leaders assessing the world which will rise after Covid-19, Rachel Taulelei of food and beverage business Kono looks forward to a renewed commitment to kaitiakitanga. Mate atu he tētēkura, ka whakaeke mai he tētēkura As one frond perishes another grows in its place. Having … Read more
Ātea editor Leonie Hayden is one of the lucky ones, she says, so why does it feel like there’s a weight inside her chest? Yesterday was my first happy day in lockdown. I made fresh pasta. I folded washing and watched Moana. Am I the only one who hasn’t caught up on their washing? Two … Read more
Access to healthy food is a big issue for Māori whānau during the Covid-19 crisis. Dr Geoff Kira (Ngāpuhi), a public health senior lecturer at Massey University’s School of Health Sciences, says Māori need Māori solutions at times like this, and he has some suggestions. On March 25, 2020, the United Nations System Standing Committee … Read more
In an ideal world the physical lives we build would speak to the past, but the truth is New Zealanders silence it, building their social and industrial histories literally on top of Māori. Read more Lockdown letters here. “The past is a foreign country,” goes the famous opening line from The Go-Between, but for tangata … Read more
Māori will likely make up the worst unemployment figures in the forthcoming economic recession. Things can’t go back to the way they were, writes Joshua Hitchcock. Our world has changed. While it is too early to know with any certainty what the full impact of this crisis will be on Māori, what we can surmise … Read more
The locked-down residents of a Wellington rest home – including her mum – are treated to a live gig courtesy of historian and author Rachel Buchanan (Taranaki, Te Ātiawa). Ever since I was Dorothy in the New Plymouth Operatic Society’s production of The Wizard of Oz, I have wanted an international music career. Some 40 … Read more
Paengawhāwhā (April) also known as Kaipō or Whetūkaupō (Deneb star) is the eleventh month of the Māori year and is a productive time. Get planting! Kia ora e te whānau, ngā mihi mahana o te marama a Paengawhāwhā. March and August are often our most challenging lunar cycles from my observation, and March 2020 may … Read more
The number of Māori academic staff remains disproportionately low at New Zealand universities. Simon Day spoke to three newly appointed Māori professors at the University of Otago about why putting te ao Māori at the centre of their work is so important. Māori participation in tertiary education is steadily increasing. According to the Ministry of … Read more
Our Covid-19 gifs are now available in te reo Māori. Spread the word (while staying at home). The suite of excellent illustrations and gifs created by microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles and illustrator Toby Morris have had an undeniable impact during the Covid-19 crisis. They offer clear communication of sometimes complex concepts, and their popularity has seen … Read more
A poem by Ngāti Hine/Ngāpuhi writer Nadine Anne Hura. Rest now, e Papatūānuku Breathe easy and settle Right here where you are We’ll not move upon you For awhile We’ll stop, we’ll cease We’ll slow down and stay home Draw each other close and be kind Kinder than we’ve ever been. I wish we … Read more
Māori authorities have acted swiftly on behalf of their people, but some say they’re concerned about the lack of communication from government. Māori have not fared well in pandemics of times past. Health statistics remain grim compared with other demographics, and there are fears that should the Covid-19 coronavirus spread via community transmission, it’s Māori … Read more
Māori have fared worst in every pandemic New Zealand has seen. Measures must be taken to ensure equity during the Covid-19 outbreak or history will repeat, writes public health physician and senior lecturer Dr Rhys Jones. Covid-19 is about to hit Aotearoa in earnest. The New Zealand government’s response to date has generally been received … Read more
There was a lot of kōrero at Waitangi this year about women’s speaking rights, both at Waitangi and around the motu. Dr Rawiri Taonui looks at the history. The call for Māori women to speak on marae was reignited this year when Mere Mangu, the chair of Te Rūnanga ā Iwi o Ngāpuhi, welcomed Prime … Read more
A proper reckoning with March 15 2019 demands that we take up a generations-long struggle to destroy all the exclusions that make up our society and produce the conditions we know as racism. An essay by Morgan Godfery. This work is made possible by Spinoff Members. 1 I was cleaning out the garage the other … Read more
As rumaki reo classes and other kura reo begin again for the year, RNZ journalist Te Aniwa Hurihanganui reflects on coming full circle back to te reo Māori. Why did I lose my reo? That’s the question I have been asking myself since I enrolled in Te Pōkaitahi Reo, a full-immersion te reo Māori programme, … Read more
The government is proposing a national policy statement on indigenous biodiversity, giving power to the protection of our native forests and the indigenous species within. Wellington city councillor Tamatha Paul explains why it’s important we have a say on it. ‘He manu hou ahau, he pī ka rere. I am like a fledgling, a newborn … Read more
An excerpt from an essay by Treaty and constitutional law expert Dr Moana Jackson, taken from Imagining Decolonisation, the latest in the BWB Text series from Bridget Williams Books. James Cook’s belief that he could take this country for England in 1769 because he had ‘discovered’ it, and the whole discourse in the 1830s about … Read more
Research released by justice advocacy group JustSpeak shows that racist, structural bias is still a huge problem in New Zealand Police. We have the tools to make things better, writes Laura O’Connell Rapira. Last week lawyer, children’s rights advocate, and my go-to karaoke friend, Julia Whaipooti, delivered a hard and heartbreaking truth on national television: … Read more
Poutūterangi is a lunar phase, usually around March, marked by the rising of the star of the same name, also known as Altair. It is also the sixth phase of summer, Matiti Rautapata. Poutūterangi shines bright in the sky this month which traditionally indicated a time of harvest. Today during Poutūterangi we see awesome festivities … Read more
There’s a big pay disparity between nurses working for Māori health providers and nurses working at DHBs. And Māori voters aren’t going to ignore signs of indifference, writes Morgan Godfery. At the last election I was a know-nothing 25-year-old who truly, genuinely, thought a Labour-led government would catch up on nine lost years under National. … Read more
With te reo Māori classes about to start for 2020, the ‘no vacancy’ signs are going up around the country as people continue to flock to learn our native language. There’s no denying that a reo-volution is underway across Aotearoa. At Te Wānanga o Aotearoa we have around 8000 people enrolled on our te reo … Read more
A surge of Māori internet memes have appeared on Instagram in the past year tackling topics from land theft to a shared love of fry bread. They’ve been around since the dawn of the internet, but in the last few years memes have become intrinsic to popular culture. They’ve also become increasingly political. Indigenous groups … Read more
Art schools are seen by many as beacons of liberalism. But is this the reality? Former student Anna McAllister recounts her fraught journey through art school. This piece was first published on The Pantograph Punch. In high school, the only subjects I was remotely good at were the practical arts. I stayed in the art block … Read more
New child poverty figures were released today by Statistics NZ. A press release from the prime minister boasts, ‘18,400 children lifted out of poverty’. National meanwhile claims ’20k more children in poverty under Jacinda Ardern’. Can they both be right? As ever, the numbers are more complex (and malleable) than they seem. Leonie Hayden and … Read more
A group discovered to be digging for proof of a giant pre-Māori race in the limestone caves of Waikato have not lost their minds all of a sudden, but are continuing a legacy of religion-based racism in the area, writes Scott Hamilton. Earlier this month, RNZ’s Susan Strongman reported that amateur archaeologists were digging for … Read more
No matter how you measure it, science remains systematically biased against women – and ethnically diverse women even more so, writes Dr Hinemoa Elder. Women and girls in science, this is a public health announcement. You are entering unfriendly territory. Kia mataara, be vigilant. Keep your wits about you. There is irrefutable data that discrimination … Read more