For years now, people who should know better have been spreading misinformation about Ihumātao. Now that a deal has been made, it’s time to set the record straight on some of these repeated falsehoods. Didn’t ‘the iwi’ sell the land in the first place? Nope, the block of land named the Ōruarangi block was stolen … Read more
Good morning and welcome to the final Bulletin of 2020. In today’s edition: A wrap of some of the issues that will matter in 2021, and a reflection on coming out of this tough year with hope. For the final Bulletin of the year, we’ll once again look ahead to the next one: Some people might … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Australia welcomes travel bubble talk, no new public info about Ihumātao, and speaker Mallard proactively arranges meeting with select committee. There’s still some water to go under the air bridge, but a trans-Tasman travel bubble could become a reality early next year. At her post-cabinet press … Read more
Profiling 100 indigenous women – how hard can it be? Very bloody hard, it turns out. But worth every sacrifice, says Qiane Matata-Sipu. Qiane Matata-Sipu is many things to many people. She’s a journalist who has written for this very website. She’s an award-winning photographer. She’s an activist and one of the land protectors at … Read more
Whoever is successful on October 17, there is urgent work that needs doing to meet obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Laura O’Connell Rapira offers five to begin with. In 1840, Māori rangatira and representatives of the British Crown signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The Māori text, which is the version of the Treaty recognised … Read more
Today marks one year since police evicted mana whenua and members of the Protect Ihumātao campaign from land at Ihumātao, South Auckland. Justin Latif looks back at the standoff, the eviction, and what’s happened since. Has it really been a year?! Yes it really has. On July 23 2019, police descended on Ihumātao in South … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Questions over stability of the government, health minister throws top official under the bus, and concerns raised over dolphin protection plan. After several days of frantically knifing each other at parliament, you’d be forgiven for thinking the coalition government is on the verge of collapse. The … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: New testing strategy unveiled by minister, Otago Regional Councillors preparing for leadership showdown, and PM dismisses Ihumātao reports. Every person known to have Covid-19 right now is in quarantine, including the two new cases at the border yesterday. With that said, Radio NZ’s Rowan Quinn reports the new … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Auckland drought leads to fears of severe water restrictions, exclusive new poll results on government’s Covid-19 response, and is a resolution coming at Ihumātao? The Auckland water crisis isn’t getting any better, and the city’s leaders are getting extremely nervous about the coming months. That is … Read more
Take a vicarious roadie via Attraction, the novel by Ruby Porter that was longlisted for the country’s biggest fiction prize. Released last year, it’s now a slightly eerie snapshot of Aotearoa as we were. Attraction is a New Zealand road trip novel with a heavy dose of postcolonial guilt. Whitewashing, cultural amnesia, reckoning with intergenerational … 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
The president of the Māori Women’s Welfare League, the oldest national Māori organisation still in existence, has a few words on the misogynistic comments made by Shane Jones at Rātana. In July 2019 the minister for women, Julie Anne Genter, announced with some pride the allocation by the government of $6.2m to put together a … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Impacts of coronavirus in focus, claims of NZDF coverup of indecent assaults, and will NZ and Europe get a trade deal this year? I realise that the lead story in Friday’s Bulletin was also about the coronavirus, so apologies if you feel there is too … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Two disturbing stories around extremism, a significant milestone reached at Ihumātao, and gang tensions flare in the Hawke’s Bay. In the space of a day, two disturbing stories emerged about the presence of extremists within the community. The first was around charges against a soldier who … Read more
On day 1,173 of the occupation at Ihumātao, it was announced that a resolution is imminent, and expected before Waitangi Day. Leonie Hayden reports from Māngere. This morning Kiingi Tuheitia travelled to Ihumātao and lowered the flag of the Kiingitanga. Six years after ancestral land at Ihumātao in Manukau was earmarked for a future housing … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: What the UN climate refugee ruling means, Whānau Ora funding battle escalates, and what’s going on with Ihumātao? A United Nations ruling on an i-Kiribati man who sought asylum as a climate refugee in New Zealand could have global implications. Ioane Teitiota was denied asylum and deported in … Read more
He Kākano Ahau is a podcast by writer and activist Kahu Kutia (Ngāi Tūhoe) that explores stories of Māori in the city, and weaves together strands of connection. In this episode: Ihumātao and a new generation of resistance. It’s an interesting time to be indigenous. Or is that what every generation says? Every day when … Read more
Summer reissue: The standoff at Ihumātao has deep roots in the legacy of colonialism and land confiscation. Historian Vincent O’Malley writes about how it was taken by the Crown, and why that matters today. First published 27 July, 2019. The New Zealand Wars may have ended nearly 150 years ago. But their consequences continue to … Read more
A conversation between editors about what made an impression in New Zealand visual arts in 2019. We unpack the highs and lows, and the exhibitions both naughty and nice. Warning: includes light interference from Elf on a Shelf. After six months of The Spinoff Art, co-editors Megan Dunn and Mark Amery pause for pavlova and … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Fletcher Building holds AGM at crucial time for company, chances of Manus Island refugees being settled in NZ increases, and more NZ First Foundation documents emerge. To lead us off today, a look at the AGM of a hugely important company. Ihumātao has been forced onto … Read more
Fletcher Building has finally addressed the elephant in the room and it has caused no more than a ripple among its conservative shareholder base, writes business editor Maria Slade. Pania Newton, shareholder, and protector at Ihumātao, is now close to an old hand at Fletcher Building annual meetings. When she rose to ask a question … Read more
After months of silence on Ihumātao, the government is considering a loan to Auckland Council to buy the occupied Fletcher-owned land, according to an RNZ report. What is the dispute over the land? Fletcher Residential bought a section of land in South Auckland in 2014 for $19m with plans to build a 480-house development. A … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Clayton Mitchell denies accusations around a night out, food insecurity on the rise, and UK PM Boris Johnson secures deal with dubious prospects. NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell has got himself in a spot of late night bother in a Tauranga pub. Newshub’s Tova O’Brien reports he was … Read more
Occupiers of the disputed land at Ihumātao have been shut out of talks with the government about finding a resolution, saying they haven’t had any direct contact with ministers in more than a month, write RNZ’s Te Aniwa Hurihanganu and Meriana Johnsen. The Māori King announced in September mana whenua had reached a consensus that they … Read more
Auckland rapper JessB has just released a new EP and wraps up a national mini-tour tonight in her home town. Jogai Bhatt talked to her about her world travels, performing at Ihumātao, and how her community and her music intersect. It’s only been two years since JessB entered the public radar as the first woman … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Difficult decision looms for govt over Ihumātao, NZDF story scrutinised at inquiry, and innovative new bus service to be trialled in Timaru. This is far from the end of the story about what will happen to the land at Ihumātao. A major development took place … Read more
After over a month of discussions, Kiingitanga has announced that mana whenua at Ihumātao want to keep the land. Fletcher Buildings still owns it, so what comes next in the movement to protect Ihumātao? After over a month of discussion between divided mana whenua over the land at Ihumātao, the Māori king, Kiingi Tūheitia has … Read more
1000 Words is a Spinoff series talking to the photographers behind our most iconic political images. In this instalment, Don Rowe speaks to Chris McKeen, the photographer who shot Pania Newton at Ihumātao. The story of Ihumātao is, in a certain sense, one of timing and potentiality. At a moment of ascension for a new … Read more
In the ongoing battle to prevent 480 houses being built on ancestral land, a petition with more than 26,000 signatures was delivered to the Prime Minister’s Mt Albert office yesterday. Leonie Hayden was there. Lead by the inimitable Pania Newton, about 100 kaitiaki set off from Ihumātao near Māngere yesterday morning for the 18km walk … Read more