This Sunday a unique parade is taking place on Auckland’s K Road to honour Hape, the resourceful ancestor that Karangahape Road is named for – and to highlight the plight of his descendants. You may have heard the name Ihumātao at some point over the past couple of years. They are the small semi-rural South … Read more
Deloitte have released their list of the Top 10 Māori organisations for 2017. Joshua Hitchcock looks at the year’s big hitters. 20 years ago Ngāi Tahu settled their historical grievances with the Crown for $170 million. Over the past 20 years, they have developed an asset base of $1.67 billion through investment in property, primary … Read more
In August a group of New Zealand researchers presented a report to the UN detailing the effects of racism on Māori. Simon Day spoke to AUT’s Dr Heather Came about the causes and cures for New Zealand’s racism. When Dr Heather Came listened to the New Zealand government delegation present to the United Nations Committee … Read more
Kera Sherwood-O’Regan (Kāi Tahu) is an Aotearoa Youth Leadership Institute delegate to COP23, the United Nations Climate Talks in Bonn, Germany, reporting over the three-week conference. This week: COP23 is finally over, but what did it achieve? This is Kara Sherwood-O’Regan’s third report on the COP23 climate change talks and their outcomes for indigenous people. Read … Read more
Building magnate Sir William Gallagher’s recent comments calling the Treaty of Waitangi a ‘fraud’ have been roundly condemned. But he’s not the first to believe it, writes Scott Hamilton. Sir William Gallagher knows a lot about fences. He joined his father’s fencing business in 1962, and has turned it into a multinational company that he … Read more
Te Papa’s eighth iwi exhibition Ko Rongowhakaata is currently showing at the national museum in Wellington – showcasing taonga, contemporary art, and powerful stories of survival and tenacity. In this essay, Rongowhakaata kaumatua-in-residence Thelma Karaitiana speaks of the journey from Te Kore to Te Papa. Te Kore From the nothingness of Te Kore and through … Read more
Nadine Millar writes a love letter to her beloved Porirua, and asks ‘What’s in a name?’ A few years ago, in 1994, a local businessman started an unsuccessful campaign to change the name of Porirua. Chris Gollins, a real estate consultant and media personality, felt that businesses were put off coming to the city because they baulked … Read more
The forthcoming inquiry into state care abuse must remember that women were victims, too, writes Paora Moyle, herself a former ward of the state. Last week on The Spinoff, Aaron Smale shared personal stories of state abuse of indigenous people in New Zealand, Australia and Canada, and asked what we can learn as New Zealand … Read more
In his previous column Joshua Hitchcock looked at the alarmingly low employment rate for Māori. Here he searches for some solutions. Research in the United States on the effect of institutional racism in hiring practices show that a black man without a criminal record is less likely to secure a job offer as a white … Read more
Most of my life growing up I was the clean cut Māori boy with the short and tidy haircut, but all of that changed when I started learning about the tikanga of hair, writes Te Miri Rangi. Through my journey of understanding more about how my Māori worldview can shape my hauora, I discovered the … Read more
About $100 million has been pledged to a new Iwi/Māori Direct Investment Fund. The NZ Super Fund’s Tama Potaka explains the ‘mahi tahi’ behind the initiative, which has received indicative commitments from over 35 iwi and Māori groups. With more than $15 billion of assets and investments currently under management by Māori collectives, and the … Read more
Indigenous peoples throughout English-speaking countries have had their children taken away by the state for generations. Most countries have faced up to this legacy but New Zealand has been in denial about its own Stolen Generation – a group now known as Ngā Mōrehu (The Survivors). The new Labour government has agreed to set up … Read more
In a powerful and acclaimed first parliamentary speech, the new Labour MP pledges to give a voice to the voiceless Kiri Allan was elected to parliament via the Labour list. She wrote a candidate’s diary for the Spinoff during the recent campaign. Read her entries, and those of fellow new MPs Erica Stanford and Chlöe … Read more
Indigenous peoples throughout English-speaking countries have had their children taken away by the state for generations. Most countries have faced up to this legacy but New Zealand has been in denial about its own Stolen Generation – a group now known as Ngā Mōrehu (The Survivors). The new Labour government has agreed to set up … Read more
Kera Sherwood-O’Regan (Kāi Tahu) is an Aotearoa Youth Leadership Institute delegate to COP23, the United Nations Climate Talks in Bonn, Germany, reporting over the three-week conference. This week: she’s tired and no one’s listening to indigenous people. If you were looking for a nice and neat overview of the COP23 UN Climate Talks, I’ll save you … Read more
Indigenous peoples throughout English-speaking countries have had their children taken away by the state for generations. Most countries have faced up to this legacy but New Zealand has been in denial about its own Stolen Generation – a group now known as Ngā Mōrehu (The Survivors). The new Labour government has agreed to set up … Read more
Morgan Godfery was born to a teenage mother and a gang father in Kawerau, New Zealand’s poorest town. He recounts the experience in this essay from the Journal of Urgent Writing, 2017. Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future And time future contained in time past. — T. S. Eliot, … Read more
Black Sheep is an RNZ series about the shady, controversial and sometimes downright villainous characters of New Zealand history, presented by William Ray. Here he introduces James Prendergast, the attorney general and chief justice accused of being a racist enemy of Māori. “A simple nullity” – three words which damned the man who uttered them to … Read more
Rongoā practitioner Donna Kerridge explains how to make a simple decoction for respiratory conditions and digestion. Wairakau (decoctions) were once one of the most common and favoured remedies used by rongoā Māori practitioners. Rongoā Māori practitioners are not chemists and most are unlikely to know what the constituents or active ingredients are in the plants … Read more
Kera Sherwood-O’Regan (Kāi Tahu) is an Aotearoa Youth Leadership Institute delegate to COP23, the United Nations Climate Conference in Bonn, Germany. Over the next three weeks, she’ll be reporting on the conference’s outcomes for indigenous peoples. Talk to any climate nerd about this year’s UN Climate Negotiations, and you’ll likely be met with excited proclamations about … Read more
Thirty years of economic reform and the gap between Māori and Pākehā employment rates is wider than ever, says business columnist Joshua Hitchcock. I have never experienced unemployment. Since graduating in 2007 I have always found a job when I wanted one. That is not to say I have always worked these past 10 years. … Read more
Whakapapa is about relationships, not just relations, and can help us understand our all-round wellbeing, explains columnist Te Miri Rangi. Whakapapa describes a person’s genealogy, lineage or descent. It helps identify the relationships we share with others in to an organised system. Intimate knowledge of whakapapa was integral in traditional Māori society for not only … Read more
In opposition, Kelvin Davis was a vocal advocate for an overhaul of the lock-’em-up approach. In government, will he walk the talk, or cow to the reactionaries, asks criminologist Liam Martin Construction is set to begin next year on the biggest prison New Zealand has ever seen. A facility for 2000 prisoners is to be … Read more
Scrapping of the “three-strikes” law will have a huge impact on Māori prisoners, and is just one new government policy which will have a positive impact on te iwi Māori, writes Mihingarangi Forbes. This post originally appeared on RNZ. Labour confirmed on Wednesday that the government would scrap the “three-strikes” law – which mandates increasingly harsh … Read more
Hope and rhetoric are a great tonic but it’s time to act, writes columnist Graham Cameron. At the United Nations in late September, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave an impassioned speech about the historical abuses of Canada’s First Nations, stating that “for Indigenous peoples in Canada, the experience was mostly one of humiliation, neglect … Read more
As well as being the official NZ Wars commemoration date, October 28 is celebrated by Northland iwi for the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a document that recognised Māori sovereignty, explains Miriama Aoake. In 1835, 34 rangatira signed He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tīreni, the Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes … Read more
Rongoā Māori medicine is about more than lotions and potions, explains Donna Kerridge – it’s also about connection. Traditional Māori medicine (rongoā Māori) requires a special understanding of the world that acknowledges the interconnectedness of all things and that everything we think, say or do has a corresponding effect on the world around us. It … Read more
Radio New Zealand has released a 30-minute documentary on the battle at Ruapekapeka, an incredibly sophisticated pā in the far north where 400 Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Hine warriors stood against a combined British force of 1600. Don Rowe attends the premiere, and considers what it means for New Zealand’s self-image. There are good guys in this … Read more
The Stories of Ruapekapeka is a special online project by RNZ and Mihingarangi Forbes about Northland’s most infamous armed conflict. Historian Vincent O’Malley writes about the importance of acknowledging the darker episodes of New Zealand’s past. The battle of Ruapekapeka, fought in January 1846, was the final engagement in the war that Britain lost, as James … Read more