Andrew Little: Stepping aside — and forward
“I had confidence in Jacinda. That’s the other thing I’ve learned on my journey. It’s the importance of recognising talent — including talent that’s better than you.”
Kōrero
Comment & Analysis
How the Māori Party lost its way
Both major parties are more than happy to put the boot into Māori if that helps position them in the political centre at election time.
Ainsley Gardiner: The power is never ours
“I think the global indigenous cinema needs a global indigenous fund. We need to see the value of our stories, which somebody else takes the profit from.”
Tāmati Kruger: Down that way, glory waits
“Mana whenua has to do with acknowledging that the land has mana, and fulfilling your obligations and your kinship relationship with the land. That’s what it is — not an ownership or property relationship.”
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."
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.”
Comment & Analysis
Did the Māori electorates decide the 2017 election?
“Labour’s Māori MPs live and work in two worlds, relating to Māori voters as Māori, but also as workers, citizens and more. The problem for the Māori Party is it never did the same.” —Morgan Godfery, in an extract from a new book, 'Stardust and Substance'.
The justice summit — and the road from populism to principle
"For the first time in political aeons in Aotearoa, we’ve seen a demonstration of political leadership based on principle, on what must be done, rather than on populism."
Ani Black has opened a can of worms. Let it stay open.
“While the fight for whose truth is the truth continues, the reality of child sexual abuse remains the same. High. Under-reported. Not understood. Silent.”
Moana Jackson: Rethinking free speech
“The so-called humanitarian colonisers who came here in the 19th century did not necessarily hate Maori. Indeed, they sometimes professed to love us and simply wanted to dispossess us in a sensitive and caring way.”
Reflections
Tiki Raumati’s challenge for us
Even in death, Tiki Raumati chooses to live out his message of painful reconciliation.
False Divides — how do we get to know each other again?
“On Twitter, I found my community. False divides established through imperialism clearly exist across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, and maybe the internet provides an opportunity to jump across those.”
The Unforgiven
"The big challenge is how we as whānau and communities confront this terrible darkness, this sad duality that creates such a tragic legacy. There is no quick fix. It requires an open and honest conversation.”—Moana Maniapoto
Papatūānuku, Pan, and a lonely kid in Christchurch
Papatūānuku has been an emblem of political identity and cultural survival for Māori.
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
Guyon Espiner: I’d love a New Zealand where we all embrace te reo
"It doesn't make sense to be sharing a land with others, if you don't make an effort to learn their stories or their language."
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.
Holding on to all our ancestral languages
"Our ancestral languages and concepts, in their purest forms, are largely untouched by colonisation and Christianity."
Stacey Morrison: What I’d do if I was the boss of education
Parents who want their children to learn in te reo Māori are always compromising — whether it’s discovering your local school isn’t that supportive of te reo or whether you need to be able to afford an hour-long commute to get to your pēpi’s puna reo.
Media
Heartened and humbled
To all of you who warmed our hearts and boosted our bank account, a big, big thank you.
We need your help
If we’re to develop E-Tangata into an operation that can give Māori and Pasifika communities a strong, articulate media voice, we urgently need to find more funding.
The wharenui of New Zealand literature remains a gated community
"It’s not enough for Pākehā readers and publishers to 'love' Pasifika or Māori or 'other' writers, while barely giving them space in print."
Moana Jackson: No one’s exercise of free speech should make another feel less free
"The bliss of freedom enjoyed by those who have power should never mean the right to cause pain to those who are comparatively powerless."
Arts
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.”
Neil Ieremia: Telling our stories through dance
Being original and unique is an enormous reason that Black Grace is still here. We don't copy what happens in Europe or anywhere else.
Goretti Chadwick: Smiles, star power, and soap
“We were constantly finding ourselves among the firsts. It was scary because there wasn't enough work for us — and we had such a little voice in the industry.”
History
Rachel Buchanan: Ko Taranaki Te Maunga
“Parihaka was a place and an event that could be lost and found, over and over. It moved into view, then disappeared, just like the mountain.”— Rachel Buchanan.
‘I’m still a mum, aren’t I?’
"We were the last mothers of that generation. The last to go through before the cradle-to-grave welfare state came crashing down around us. After that, single mothers were further stigmatised — and life got much harder."
Koro Wetere: A paramount influencer
Remembering Koro Wetere — a dour, street-smart fighter for Māori rights.
Tipene O’Regan: We must remember to remember
My mother used to say: “Forgive thine enemies, my son, but write down their names.” You forgive and remember what you've got to do because you can't keep carrying those things forever.
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