A new website has consolidated data about and involving Māori, making it easier for iwi groups, trusts and Māori communities to access the statistics that impact their lives. A collaboration years in the making, the new Figure NZ and Callaghan Innovation website Pātaka Raraunga aims to make Māori data access easier for everyone. Consolidating thousands … Read more
Waikato University has started an internal inquiry after a number of senior Māori staff alleged structural racism from the institution. One former and one current staff member say the issue’s been bubbling away for years. In 2018, staff and students of the University of Waikato’s Māori and Indigenous Studies faculty fought to stop the faculty … Read more
Despite changes made to original plans to ‘avoid’ the Hua o te Atua Urupā, an iwi group says the Waikato Regional Theatre is still set to be built on their burial ground. A group of rangatahi from Kirikiriroa iwi Ngāti Wairere says a big part of the community wasn’t consulted on the Waikato Regional Theatre … 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
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
The controversy over the fate of RNZ Concert, and the proposed youth music network to replace it, have sucked up a lot of attention this week. But the idea the government might foot the bill for a new youth brand haven’t gone down well with iwi stations suffering from years of underfunding, writes Alice Webb-Lidall. … Read more
Te Huka Mātauraka, the University of Otago Māori Centre, celebrates its 30th birthday this year as a crucial part of life for the university’s Māori students. Its manager Pearl Matahiki and student Sarafina Tipene reflect on what the centre means for them. In 2017 when Sarafina Tipene left home to attend the University of Otago … Read more
New book Protest Tautohetohe: Objects of Resistance, Persistence and Defiance explores our history of protest through objects symbolising the power and lasting legacy of activism in New Zealand. From Hone Heke cutting down the flagpole to the 1981 Springbok tour protests, New Zealand has always been a country of activists. Movements led by Māori, by … Read more
As part of the University of Otago’s Maya-Māori cultural economy exchange last month, four Mayan academics visited New Zealand to share their experiences of colonisation. Alice Webb-Liddall spoke to the group about what indigenous people can learn from their shared experiences. “It’s easy to get stuck in a bubble of your own survival,” says Maria … Read more
Six days after the terror attack in Christchurch, the University of Otago launched its participation in the Give Nothing to Racism campaign. At the launch, Tuari Potiki (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Waitaha) the director of the Office of Māori Development spoke of the history of racism he, his whānau and marae have faced. Here is … Read more
The exhumed skull of a 3,000-year-old Welshwomen. Nazi submarines. Ancient Spanish shipwrecks. The pre-Māori white civilisation theories of Noel Hilliam and his friends have a lot going for them. Except any plausible evidence, writes Scott Hamilton. This post was first published May 22, 2017. I spent part of last week at an art gallery in Manurewa, helping to … Read more
No more ‘us’ and ‘them’, writes Ātea editor Leonie Hayden. The marae ātea is the open area in front of the wharenui where a ritual of encounter takes place between hosts and guests. It is the domain of Tūmatauenga, the god of war and people. To show respect for the mana of Tūmatauenga, whaikōrero between … Read more