‘You better send your uncle home’
They didn’t know how he’d died, where he had fallen — nor where he lay. There was no gravestone for Sonny. No place to visit. No place to mourn.
Reflections
Comment & Analysis
For the sake of the whānau
“Every single approach to ‘fixing’ our people has been designed and decided by Pākehā — and it has made things worse.”
Mike Stevens: Bluffies and Kāi Tahu
“The first land purchase began here in Otago in 1844 and, within 50 years, Kāi Tahu were virtually landless."—Mike Stevens, historian and Bluffie.
Cathy Dewes: We have a right to be Māori in our own land
"Our goal is that all Māori children should have access to their language and be able to live as Māori in Aotearoa."
Tiana Epati: Be the change you wish to see
“It’s great to have this role, but it won’t mean much if, over the next 20 years, we don’t see anyone else coming through the door and rising up through the ranks.” — Tiana Epati, president-elect of the NZ Law Society.
Meihana Durie: Education is a lifelong journey
"You can do anything you put your mind to. Don't be limited by having just one path."
Comment & Analysis
The Empathy Gap and Me
"The Māori experience of colonisation, disease, war, urbanisation and deprivation within this country is unique to Māori."
The shameful treatment of gout in New Zealand
“I don’t just see numbers when I’m reporting research. I see people’s faces and hear their kōrero, and the impact inadequate gout management has on them — all from a condition that is entirely manageable.” Leanne Te Karu, prescribing pharmacist.
Māori media: We’ll need to make tough calls
A one-stop shop of Māori news won’t mean less diversity of voices. —Mike Rehu, media consultant and broadcaster.
You can’t be a kaitiaki from a distance
Our ability to care for and protect rivers, lakes, and wetlands is based on our ability to hear what they’re saying to us.
Reflections
Restorative justice in a Māori community
Māori communities had their own ways of resolving conflict and anti-social behaviour, writes Kim Workman, in this extract from his memoir “Journey Towards Justice”.
Nevak Rogers: Windows into other worlds
“I’d led such a privileged life, had copped so little overt racism, and learned so little history, that I was oblivious to much of what was going on in Aotearoa.”
‘When did you first know you were a fa’afafine?’
“It takes courage to step out from a lifetime of bullying and discrimination to be the me I was meant to be.”—Ashleigh Feu’u
Witi Ihimaera on Mika: Still a star
“From the beginning, each of us recognised something in the other: two Māori boys off to conquer the world.” —Witi Ihimaera
Identity
I’ve tried to learn Tongan, and I’ve tried to be Tongan
"Being an outsider because of my personality quirks was an identity I could embrace. Better than being defined purely by my lack of culture and language. Give me Crazy Pālangi over plain Pālangi any day."
My mother is Pākehā — and I love her
When I hear a child saying she hates Pākehā, it doesn’t sit right with me. It’s the same when I hear people referring to the “bloody Pākehās”.
Old certainties, old prejudices, old fears are losing their grip
The good news is that the country seems to be in a process of recovery — and for Pākehā, discovery — of the Māori conceptual world.
Why I didn’t sit with the other Māori girls at school
I grew up in a predominantly Pākehā town in the South Island. My mother is Pākehā. My father, who...
Reo
Māori media: Broadcasting can’t save te reo
"The sad truth is our kids don’t really watch te reo Māori television. Or listen to te reo Māori radio. If they do, it’s not improving their ability to kōrero."
How compulsory te reo in schools would make us smarter
A bilingual education policy may well become the greatest strategy for racial harmony and social cohesion that this country has ever seen.
Ruakere Hond: A language and a legacy
“If we're not going to use the reo on a regular basis in our homes, as we’re raising our children, we're probably going to miss the main way forward for reo Māori.”
Media
Māori media: Is an axe about to drop on iwi radio?
“God help the bureaucrat that decides to cut an iwi station. You’d not only have 21 station managers to deal with. You’d have their iwi as well.”
Māori media: Inconvenient truths
Te reo Māori isn’t just the Māori language. It’s also the voice of Māori, and that voice comes in English as well as Māori.
Māori media: Work hard, but fight hard too
“We need well-trained troops, adequate supplies, and a clear and comprehensive strategy to win through.”
Māori media: Where are our Māori print journalists?
“We’re in the danger zone if Māori print journalism relies on mainstream organisations for its survival (and let’s be honest — it does).”
Arts
Madeleine Sami: No holding her back
"I was so lucky to grow up with my 23 cousins. We all liked to joke around. I was used to banter and coming back with one-liners. And being a smartarse."
Rose Matafeo, Edinburgh, and the Pacific arts pantheon
Comedian James Nokise, an Edinburgh Fringe festival veteran of seven years, on why Rose Matafeo winning the Edinburgh Comedy Award last week is a very big deal.
Tihi Puanaki: Kapa haka has been my life
“People have come in for the haka boogie, and when they stay for a while, we can see them becoming empowered to take on fulfilling roles.”
Rediscovering our mother tongues
Four plays in four languages staged over four weeks — a theatre experiment which aims to challenge the idea of English as the “mainstream” language and all other languages as exotic.
History
A dark tale of dispossession and greed
The New Zealand Settlements Act of 1863 “was part of a package of measures passed by the all-Pākehā parliament to crush Māori independence.”
With heads hung low
“We come with solemn sadness that the events of the past have cast such a long shadow on the generations that have followed, and left a legacy of injustice and controversy."
A betrayal of trust
Historian Alistair Reese backgrounds the history behind last weekend's apology from the Anglican Church to Tauranga tangata whenua for the betrayal that led to the loss of their land.
The New Zealand Wars and the school curriculum
This is too important to leave to the whims of individual schools and teachers.
RADIO WAATEA
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