He maimai aroha: Anaru Robb
“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.
Sarah Hirini: Back to work
“I definitely respect my opponents, but I don’t think I’m a good loser. I love winning too much to enjoy a loss, although I know that our losses have made us a better team.” — Sarah Hirini, Black Ferns captain.
The pain and anguish of a street name
“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.
Can they cope with ‘more than the odd kia ora’?
“Being exposed to te reo in our everyday environments, including on our news channels, benefits both speakers and non-speakers of the language.” — Awanui Te Huia.
Moana Jackson: Portrait of a Quiet Revolutionary
“To be honest, it’s been hard to revisit this documentary. To look at his face, hear him speak, watch him laugh. To understand that he is no longer with us.” — Moana Maniapoto on the making of ‘Moana Jackson: Portrait of a Quiet Revolutionary’, made with the support of NZ On Air.
Ron Mark: People make the difference
"If I look back at my childhood, I resented everybody for a long time. But later, you develop a strong sense of affection for your foster families. As an adult, I have nothing but aroha for my foster parents." — Ron Mark.
Building a Pacific influence in architecture
“We had eight kids and our parents in a four-bedroom house with one bathroom . . . So my floor plans were a way of imagining how we could all live together comfortably." — Dr Charmaine ‘Ilaiū Talei.
Falling through the gaps of the Covid response
“There’s a clear mismatch between what people really need and what’s going out during Covid. Especially for a lot of families that we work with — those who aren’t well connected to health services or a GP clinic.” — Penina Ifopo.
Waikaremoana Waitoki: Don’t let your mana be trampled
“I'm well if my family is well, and my family is well if I'm well. Also, as a people, we are all well if the land is well.” — Dr Waikaremoana Waitoki, clinical psychologist.
We need to talk about our pay
“When people talk about pay transparency or secrecy, or pay gaps, or marginalised workers, it sounds abstract. But having less money isn’t abstract, it means we have fewer options. It means less for our whānau.” — Kim Mcbreen.
Closing the ethnic pay gap
“A lot of places tell us they don’t have an ethnic pay gap. But when we ask for the data on their organisation, they don’t have it. To which I say: 'How can you address and fix something you're trying not to see?'” — Saunoamaali‘i Karanina Sumeo, EEO Commissioner.
The Salesman Beast
“Although his books are considered classic studies based on rare first-hand knowledge, Elsdon Best was a structural racist whose bigoted beliefs help explain a lot of the shit we’re still dealing with today.” — Connie Buchanan.
Lifting the veil on anti-blackness
“We need to understand anti-blackness as the context which allows for the N-word to be taken, claimed, and used repeatedly.” — Tina Ngata.
Portrait of a Quiet Revolutionary
Moana Jackson was “our Māori Yoda". "He brought clarity to our struggle and wisdom to our kitchen tables, influencing generations of policymakers and jurists alike.” — Moana Maniapoto on the making of ‘Portrait of a Quiet Revolutionary’, made with the support of NZ On Air.
Making friends with Mum
“It took me a long time to become friends with my mother — she was so busy being one.” — Tainui Stephens.
Stories worth telling
“Imagine. A book about people like me, and other people wanting to read about us. It showed me we were good enough already, worthy of success and happiness and love.” — Maria Samuela.
Learning from Moana Jackson
“I have never met a more inspiring person with a greater influence over so many of us for the good. Let’s hope that we can now be worthy of his generous challenges to us.” — Catherine Delahunty.
Threads of red
"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.
Mozzies: We don’t cease to be Māori once we’ve left
“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.
Reclaiming what was lost
“That bridge tragedy in 1947 severed my links to my taha Māori. And only now, in my early 40s, am I reclaiming what was lost.” — Cornell Tukiri.
No longer scared to speak my language
“It’s only in recent years that I’ve even plucked up the courage to claim my identity, to proudly say: Yes, I am Māori.” — Siena Yates.
Taking care of our kupu
“The word kaitiaki is everywhere in mainstream Aotearoa these days. We often see it used to describe a person who takes cares of others, or to describe someone who takes care of taonga and items of value.” — Tame Malcolm.
A space to breathe
“The full-time, full-immersion learning environment gives us a space where we don’t have to try so hard to be in te ao Māori.” — Siena Yates.
We don’t see te reo as ‘Māori nonsense’
“Te reo Māori is endangered in the land it comes from. It is a language that is native to this country and like an endangered bird, its future depends on what we do.” — Professor Rawinia Higgins.
Finding my real voice
“I’d finally joined an environment where I didn’t have to use my Pākehā voice for the first time in my life.” — Siena Yates.
What is spectrum, and why should Māori care?
“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.
The spectrum — the battle to reclaim a taonga
“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.
Susana Lei’ataua: Spreading her wings
“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.
Reforming Māori media
"Sometimes I think we have too big an expectation of the reo Māori sector. Yes, broadcasting is part of the reo revitalisation plan. But it’s not the only mechanism." — Bailey Mackey.
Spending time with Cousins
“As immersive and moving as the film is, the book has depths and insights that can’t be accessed on screen.” — Kennedy Warne.
The flickering genius of the artistic spirit
The Māori intellectual tradition “has always been a daring, as well as imaginative, tradition propelled by both a longing to explore and the confidence that has come from the stories told in this land.” — Moana Jackson.
Sol3Mio: Coming home
“Pacific singing is very personal because it’s the way we pass on our culture, so we bring a different range of emotions to the operatic world.” — Pene Pati of Sol3Mio.
The new generation of filmmakers
“Over the past five years, Ngā Pakiaka has given 3,000 rangatahi, here and overseas, a taste of filmmaking. With the expert guidance of Māoriland’s producers, they’ve handled the planning, funding, and delivery of their work.” — Tainui Stephens.
Hongi Hika: No other Ngāpuhi leader outshone him
"Although his name and reputation have become blurred over time, for those of us who know the history of the north — and the history of our leaders who stood and defended our lands from the triple-threat of Europeans, muskets and religion — there is no one quite like Hongi Hika." — Shane Jones.
Weaving a tribal story
“The bylines of some entries are so unique, so remarkable, as to make you marvel that such a person could exist — and then to wonder why it has taken until now for their stories to become known to the wider public.” — Kennedy Warne on 'Tāngata Ngāi Tahu'.
Monuments that uphold the status quo
“As we begin to teach our difficult histories in schools, these memorials and monuments will appear increasingly out of place and one-sided to many more of us, and there will be more and more questions about what we do with them.” — Dr Liana MacDonald.
Sitting with the Silence
“Some of the most powerful stories are recounted in the quiet spaces when words fail us — when the past turns into a tale of sadness or grief.” — Tom Roa and Joanna Kidman.
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