My te reo Māori journey: Shilo Kino

This Te Wiki o Te Reo we’re sharing the stories of New Zealanders who have challenged themselves to learn te reo Māori. Today: journalist Shilo Kino (Tainui, Ngāpuhi) writes about finding her way home through studying Mandarin. I was a visitor even though it was ‘my’ marae. I watched my mother kneel down, mumble something … Read more

My te reo Māori journey: Guyon Espiner

This Te Wiki o Te Reo we’re sharing the stories of New Zealanders who have challenged themselves to learn te reo Māori. Today: RNZ Morning Report host Guyon Espiner writes about fighting the ‘whitelash’. When I started learning te reo Māori in earnest this year I had one main fear: humiliation. I expected that Pākeha … Read more

My te reo Māori journey: Anna Coddington

This Te Wiki o Te Reo we’re sharing the stories of New Zealanders who have challenged themselves to learn te reo Māori. Today: musician Anna Coddington (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa) writes about doing it for your tamariki. My journey into learning te reo Māori begins like many of my generation: a grandparent punished for speaking … Read more

Please don’t tell Don Brash, but the Māori Party could decide the next government

The party led by Te Ururoa Flavell and Marama Fox is at once clinging by a thread and on the brink of the balance of power. Morgan Godfery examines the crucial battlegrounds in the Māori seats Don Brash is waking each morning at 3am, cold sweat crawling across his face, and reaching for his iPhone. … Read more

Uh oh: Mike Hosking doesn’t know we can all vote for the Māori Party

It’s a throwaway line pretending to be a throwaway joke (in the loosest sense of the word). What it reveals is incredibly worrying, writes Leonie Hayden. It’s a fairly typical episode of Seven Sharp. A tragic tale of forestry worker deaths told sensitively by Maiki Sherman. Some quite interesting stats around what election issues people … Read more

A place for returning: injustice, legacy and reconciliation at Parihaka

Taranaki will tomorrow witness a formal reconciliation and settlement with the Crown. And like so much Māori history, it is about mana surviving, despite the odds, writes historian Danny Keenan. The Parihaka community in Taranaki will tomorrow meet with Crown officials, including the minister of treaty settlements, Chris Finlayson, to hear an apology, and to receive … Read more

The phrase ‘Māori tribal elite’ really tells you something – about the person using it

The debate around concessions negotiated by the Māori Party in the resource management bill has seen the ‘Māori tribal elite’ slur rears its head again. It is all part of a long history, writes Carrie Stoddart-Smith, of attempts to colonise tangata whenua. Kōtahi te kākaho ka whati, ina kapuia, e kore e whati. A lone reed will … Read more

Amateurish games are turning the Māori seats into the irrelevancy Don Brash says they are

From the Māori-Mana deal to the Labour no-list gambit, short-sighted strategies risk excluding Māori voters from the conversation about Māori aspirations, writes Graham Cameron The popular analogy for the Māori seats in the last year has been Game of Thrones. However, outside the number of kingdoms and the genuine dislike people seem to have for … Read more