PR consultant Ben Thomas has been spending time in te rohe pōtae o Te Urewera. Here he reports back from Te Uru Taumatua, the Nāi Tūhoe tribal authority, on how the iwi is utilising resources, and its community networks, to respond to the Covid-19 crisis. I was lucky enough to spend the months between September … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Examples of why teaching history matters immediately emerge, accused Labour staffer resigns, and giant of Tongan democracy dies. In the space of a day, there were two examples that clearly showed why New Zealand’s history needs to be taught in schools. In case you missed it, … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Controversial West Coast dairy co-op sale goes through, time running out for sealing Tūhoe road, and tensions rising around AAAP action days. Yesterday was a hugely significant day for New Zealand’s dairy industry, partly for what happened, and partly for what it could signify about … Read more
A new cultural hub in Ruatāhuna is the third eco-friendly building for Ngāi Tūhoe, representing their values of mana motuhake and self-sustainability. Jason Renes went to the opening and explored Tūhoe’s 40-year housing strategy. This is part of a series on Māori land and housing. Hokimoana Te Rika-Hekerangi sits on the courtyard of Te Tii. Her … Read more
Every two years Te Hui Ahurei a Tūhoe invites Ngāi Tūhoe descendents to come together and celebrate their unique reo and culture. But how do urban Tūhoe express their Tūhoetanga when they live away from the lands of their tīpuna? Jason Renes attended this year’s festival to find out. There is mist around Rotorua on … Read more
New Zealand led the world with the recognition of the legal personhood of the Whanganui River and Te Urewera ranges. Otago University professor of law, Jacinta Ruru, says this needs to be the start of a Māori worldview contribution to our legal system and the way we look after our environment. Professor Jacinta Ruru doesn’t … Read more
In August, Ngāi Tūhoe invited experts and community leaders to come together in Rūātoki to declare war on drug dependence. Don Rowe was in attendance. You know you’re on a marae by the laughter. Contagious, unreserved laughter, brought up from the belly. Laughter irrespective of circumstance. Laughter in the face of historic tragedy. In the … Read more
The designation of national liberation groups like the PKK as terrorist organisations, and the scrapping of a planned Law Commission review mean the legislation could be abused again, writes Cameron Walker. The 10th anniversary of the so-called “Urewera raids”, which saw armed police descend on Māori, environmental activists and anarchists, has seen a numbers of important reflections on … Read more
Wellington activist Valerie Morse was among the Urewera 16 arrested and jailed 10 years ago. We present an excerpt from her prison diary, Can’t Hear Me Scream. As follows, four pages reproduced from a kind of journal written inside Arohata Womens Prison by Valerie Morse — one of the Urewera 16 – “of life in prison, the bureacracy and arbitrary … Read more
On the 10th anniversary of the Tūhoe raids, we look back at a book published by Rebel Press in 2010 recounting the experiences of 16 people effected by Operation 8. On October 15 2007 the ‘war on terrorism’ arrived in New Zealand when more than 300 police carried out dawn raids on approximately 60 houses all … Read more
The violent suppression of the referendum in Catalonia holds lessons for iwi wishing to establish their independence in Aotearoa, writes Graham Cameron. In the main, the reporting on the Catalan referendum has been surface level: the Spanish state does not want the region of Catalonia to consider independence. However, for those of us committed to … Read more