Ahead of Waitangi Day, Jacinta Ruru and Jacobi Kohu-Morris imagine an alternative to New Zealand’s constitutional framework that gives Te Tiriti o Waitangi the mana it deserves and Māori a meaningful seat at the table. In the early 1980s, fresh from law school, Sir Justice Joe Williams (Ngāti Pūkenga, Te Arawa) wrote ‘Maranga Ake Ai’ … Read more
It’s as true now as it ever has been: nowhere else offers an education experience like that of Dunedin. But rather than resting on their laurels, the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic have plans to make the city an even more inspiring place for students. From high in the summit beyond Pine Hill on … Read more
A Pūhoi pub is refusing to remove a piece of memorabilia bearing the n-word from its walls. Dr Lachy Paterson looks at the history of the word here, and New Zealand’s complicity in Britain’s shameful slave trading past. Content warning: This article contains racist language and images. On a pub wall in Pūhoi, covered in … Read more
Raiha Cook grew up attending kura Māori, but when she decided to study at the University of Otago she found the move from te ao Māori to European-style learning difficult. Now she’s researching that transition to help make it easier for students to feel safe at mainstream universities. Set in the spray of Raukawa Moana, … Read more
OPINION: It is time to integrate tikanga Māori into law schools to create a truly bicultural legal system, writes University of Otago law professor Jacinta Ruru. I see, hear, feel racism. Every day. Each morning, I begin my trek from carpark to office, walking across the campus lawns, alongside the Ōwheo river (that everyone calls … Read more
A legal challenge to the University of Otago’s diversity policy for medical student intake doesn’t deserve to succeed, write Maria Hook, Jane Calderwood Norton and Andrew Geddis This week the Christchurch High Court is hearing a legal challenge to Otago University’s medical school ‘Mirror on Society’ policy, and associated admission scheme. Full details of the … Read more
As tertiary institutions round the halfway mark of semester two, The Spinoff spoke to students and their universities about how they’re adapting to the changes wrought by the pandemic. With New Zealand’s alert levels confirmed to be shifting down this week, we’re edging closer to something approaching normality. But what does it mean for university … Read more
A public health professor at the University of Otago says a debate about capping Māori and Pasifika medical school admissions has come ‘out of the blue’. Te Aniwa Hurihanganui reports for RNZ. Pressure is mounting on the University of Otago Medical School to front up to Māori and Pasifika about a proposal to cap admissions … Read more
The Tahitian leader has refused to stop fighting against nuclear testing and its effects on his people. New Zealanders must do the same, writes Jenny Te Paa-Daniels. For those with memories of Mururoa, the name Oscar Temaru ought to be synonymous with the atoll and the protest against French nuclear testing in the Pacific. For … Read more
New research suggests that, contrary to received wisdom, people with little sense of control over their lives aren’t any more susceptible than others to conspiracy theories. While conspiracy theories have been around since the Middle Ages and its blood libels, in the past couple of decades they’ve experiencing something of a boom, with the rise … Read more
As we face what seems to be the tail end of the first (and hopefully final) wave of Covid-19 in Aotearoa, research is being done to examine whether people of different ethnic and socio-economic statuses have the same ability to respond to the crisis. New Zealand’s response to Covid-19 has been heralded all over the … Read more
Covid-19 has reset our understanding of the world. From this crisis comes opportunity, and University of Otago professor Merata Kawharu (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāpuhi) believes it’s a chance to apply traditional principles to our new normal. In a really short time, we have become attuned to doing things very differently. In just a few months, Covid-19 … Read more
New Zealand has never experienced anything like the Covid-19 lockdown of the past seven weeks. Simon Day spoke to a University of Otago researcher analysing the way lockdown has affected New Zealanders’ perception of the world. When New Zealand went into lockdown at midnight on March 25, and the government demanded New Zealanders stay at … Read more
The number of Māori academic staff remains disproportionately low at New Zealand universities. Simon Day spoke to three newly appointed Māori professors at the University of Otago about why putting te ao Māori at the centre of their work is so important. Māori participation in tertiary education is steadily increasing. According to the Ministry of … Read more
There’s been outrage since it was revealed that up to one in five final year medical students at the University of Otago falsified their overseas placements by spending portions of that time travelling instead. But GP registrar and former Otago medical student Toby Hills finds himself empathising deeply with his younger colleagues. One of the … 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
Otago University’s student magazine Critic Te Arohi has had a stellar couple of years, producing bold, disruptive journalism that delights in poking authority with a large stick. Respective editors have taken the same approach to their covers, producing a number of anarchic images designed to provoke and titillate (with great success). As anyone in magazine … Read more
Hōkai Rangi is a recently-released strategy aiming to drastically lower the ratio of Māori in prison in New Zealand, using Māori strategy to do so. Alice Webb-Liddall spoke with Tuari Potiki, the University of Otago’s director of the Office of Māori Development, about what these changes mean for incarcerated Māori and their whānau. Over half … Read more
Caroline Moratti goes all the way undercover to discover the truth about nude modelling for artists and photographers, in this story first published in Critic Te Arohi, the University of Otago student magazine. Like any woman, it’s fair to say I have a complicated relationship with my body. By complicated, I mean a lifelong obsession … Read more
When the University of Otago was founded 150 years ago the interests of local Māori were disregarded. But now, in the last 50 years, engagement with tangata whenua has become an essential part of the university’s identity. New Zealand’s first university was co-founded by a controversial Scottish politician determined to make something of himself in … Read more
A new ‘bath salt’ mimicking MDMA has been found circulating at the University of Otago re-orientation week. Drug testing by the New Zealand Drug Foundation has revealed a batch of the previously unidentified substance eutylone is currently circulating at the University of Otago’s re-orientation week. Eutylone, first detected by KnowYourStuffNZ in December 2018 (known then … 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 editor of Critic Te Arohi backgrounds the magazine’s major investigation into sexual harassment and troubling culture at Knox, one of the University of Otago’s oldest residential colleges. Over the past month Critic Te Arohi, the University of Otago student magazine, has been investigating how Knox college deals with sexual assault and harassment, and how … Read more
Jack Tapsell is the product of a family dedicated to the health and wellbeing of Māori. The recent University of Otago medical graduate talks to Leonie Hayden about carrying on the legacy of his father and grandfather. As descendants of Phillip Tapsell, a Danish sailor who settled at Maketū near Rotorua in 1830, and Te Arawa … Read more
In the age of advanced genetics, whakapapa is a powerful tool against hereditary illness. Don Rowe talks to Dr Karyn Paringatai, the stomach-less doctor reconnecting whānau to save lives. Dr Karyn Paringatai has lived eight years without her stomach. After the organ was completely removed in 2010, Paringatai’s oesophagus was sewn to her small intestine, creating … Read more
Physiotherapist Ricky Bell pursued groundbreaking research into holistic approaches to obesity and Māori because that’s what his community needed… even if it meant his reputation as a fisherman had to suffer. Ngāti Hine rangatira Te Ruki Kawiti initially refused to sign Te Tiriti o Waitangi, believing it would lead to further loss of land for Māori. … Read more
Social scientist Lucy Carter says people’s resilience and generosity during the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes spurred her to look at how Māori and indigenous communities respond to disaster. When I tell people I’m a disaster researcher, I tend to get a range of reactions. Some take the opportunity to share with me their personal … Read more
From an erratic flailing of limbs to the psychological powerhouse we know today, little is known about how haka developed into a steadfast tradition in New Zealand sport. Leonie Hayden talks to post-grad student Nikki Timu about how it all started and how Māori can shape its future. Kapa haka has always been important to Nikki … Read more