"What we need to do is put our mokopuna, our children first, and at the centre of all our decisions. Only then can we make this a better place for them." — Judge Frances Eivers, Children’s Commissioner.
“I have seen far too much positivity in New Zealand to be pulled down by nameless, faceless critics who want to create a perception that is designed to do nothing else but bring out the worst in people.” — Nanaia Mahuta.
“I learned that the pursuit of excellence includes embracing our own identities, as Pacific women and as Māori women. That we have a place in the law, as ourselves.” — Judge Lope Ginnen on what she learned working in an all-wāhine Māori and Pacific law firm.
“Many people now recognise that Indigenous knowledge offers solutions that will help humanity as a whole. We’re at a point where Indigenous knowledge is marching from the margin to the centre.” — Sione Tu’itahi.
“It’s time we engaged our communities. A mature and informed conversation about the impacts of colonisation and religion on our community is overdue.” — Andre Afamasaga on the Manly Sea Eagles jersey debacle.
“If there is a generalised way to describe our traditional Pacific culture, then we can say it was supportive and reverent of our diverse communities. Our culture was inclusive.” — Emmaline Pickering-Martin.
“The new EU FTA locks the door on Māori being able to get new IP laws to stop the misuse of our taonga in Aotearoa and the EU.” — Moana Maniapoto.
“Sea level rise is a slow-moving disaster for our Māori communities. They’re disproportionately at risk because our wāhi tapu, our urupā, our marae, are generally in low-lying coastal areas, or in river valleys.” — Dr Shaun Awatere.
“Any time we’re on the world stage, it’s Māori things front and centre. As if those things are in a strong and healthy state. As if we have a bicultural country.” — Keri Opai.
“Fa’afafine, same-sex relationships and transgender people existed throughout the Pacific well before Christians arrived.” — Fuimaono Karl Pulotu-Endemann.
“I believe that it’s inappropriate for non-Māori people to use the same pepeha as tangata whenua. It is not a matter of mere opinion, of like or dislike, of right or wrong: it simply doesn’t make sense. It is a matter of indigeneity.” — Keri Opai.
“For as long as anyone can remember, the team has always had a chant of ‘Sisters!’ It’s often heard before a game or at the end of the halftime huddle, but . . . there was a time when it was shouted with little meaning.” — Rikki Swannell in 'Sevens Sisters'.
“What I ended up learning about Matariki and the maramataka has changed my life.” — Olive Karena-Lockyer, planetarium presenter and educator at Stardome Observatory.
“I carry my name with pride. It’s a very public signifier of the reclamation of my whakapapa, and mine is the first Māori name in our direct line in 186 years.” — Atakohu Middleton.
"I can’t stand it any longer. I send away for a DNA test. It arrives in a little white packet, and I’m excited. I tell my husband that I’m sure I have Māori in me." — Aimee Milne.
“As ‘Mozzies’, our Māori identity is fluid and multi-faceted. We are Indigenous, we are Pacific peoples, we are largely urbanised living in a colonial world. There are many nuances to our identity.” — Ngāwaiata Henderson.
“I sometimes find myself on the speakers’ paepae at a formal hui. It’s always a daunting thing. Never to be taken for granted. Always to be reflected on.” — Tainui Stephens.
“We’re here to pass on our mātauranga Māori, and to lift each other up.” — Āwhina Kihi.
“Once you’ve started to kōrero Māori with your kurī, there’s no going back.” — Siena Yates.
“It made the racism that came with being Sāmoan in Australia even harder to deal with. On one hand, I didn’t cut it as a real Sāmoan. On the other, I was being stereotyped as dumb and a troublemaker.“ — Lefaoali’i Dion Enari.
“Anaru’s ability to speak Māori committed him throughout his adult life to holding the government to task about its obligations to te reo Māori and Māori rights.” — Wena Harawira.
“Māori want to ‘own’ spectrum, not to set up their own separate network, but as an incentive for existing telcos to enter into commercial deals with Māori.” — Andrew Robb.
“It’s been a 30-year journey to get to this point, and the knowledge that has driven us is the knowledge that the spectrum is a taonga.” — Piripi Walker.
“Am I being truthful? Am I being respectful? Am I prepared? And am I responsible? Those are the four things that really guide me.” — Susana Lei’ataua, RNZ Pacific's News Editor.
“Te Matatini is one of those rare moments. It’s our opportunity to be completely and unashamedly Māori.” — Professor Linda Waimarie Nikora.
“Love is the final word of the film — a transcendent love of place and time, as much as of the heart and of each other.” — Tainui Stephens.
“Our most complex and important questions, theories, and ideas were shared and discussed by some of our greatest creators in te ao Māori.” — Chloe Fergusson-Tibble on Kupu, the Māori writers’ festival.
“They give us not only a glimpse into the customs, the language and beliefs of the time, but also an insight into our ancestors’ way of thinking and their emotions at the time of composing.” — Tenga Rangitauira.
“No one knows exactly when it happened, but once these migration voyages ended, the practical application of celestial navigation was quietly lost to the people who would become known as Māori.” — Jeff Evans, in ‘Reawakened’.
“The instruments used to displace the querulous Irish ... are the same as those subsequently deployed to deal with the troublesome Māori." — Professor Richard Shaw.
“Whina and the other League women are remembered for ‘assaulting the ears of Government Departments’, particularly on issues related to housing and mortgages.” — Dr Aroha Harris.
“The name von Tempsky is a reminder of a past filled with despair and anguish and injustice. We did not want to have a name on our street which commemorates that man’s hand in the invasion of Waikato.” — Tukoroirangi Morgan.
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