Waitohiariki Quayle: ‘Yep, I can do this’
“I thought: ‘There’s nothing stopping me from doing this, is there? If I’ve got a Bible and a prayer book to help me, then, yep, I can do this.’”
One reo to rule them all?
“If the best resources on offer for our children aren’t in our dialect, then how the heck does dialect survive?” — Quinton Hita on the unintended consequences of the project to translate titles like ‘Harry Potter’ into Māori.
Is our mental health system making us crazy?
“We’ve somehow arrived at a point where normal life events are catastrophised and the only people deemed able to fix those catastrophes are the professions that start with ‘psych’.”
Jade Kake: Māori by design
“There’s a lot of ways that Māori design can be woven into a building. But I think the essential thing is that whoever holds mana whenua in that area is engaged in the process."
Tim Tipene: My teacher changed my life forever
“Their idea was to send me to school to beat other kids up — and that didn't go down too well with the teachers.”
Hiria Te Rangi: Stubborn has to be the best trait ever
“Only Māori have Māori insights. There’s still the routine where other cultures think they can build things for us. But that’s a no. Kāhore.” — Hiria Te Rangi, CEO of Whare Hauora.
Tuari Potiki: Fighting the darkness with the light
“This year, there’ll be another 4,000 convictions just for cannabis offences. Forty percent of those will be Māori. So I see decriminalisation and regulation as a way of reducing harm, particularly to Māori.”
Why we should care about retirement policy
“The simplicity and universality of the NZ Superannuation model is the envy of many across the world, but it doesn’t address the needs of all — nor is it guaranteed to be sustainable without refinement.” — Peter Cordtz, interim Retirement Commissioner.
Why aren’t universities made for people like me?
“The longer I stay at university, the more I realise that not only are universities not made for me, but there are institutional structures embedded within them that actively exclude me."
A tika Māori approach to climate change action
“The Treaty relationship needs to underpin the Climate Change Commission — and in fact, all the commissioners should be bound by Treaty obligations, such as to actively protect Māori rights.”
Māori suicide rate calls for new strategy
“With Māori people, it's not just one thing. There's a plethora of social barriers and problems that are against us at the moment, such as the recent kaupapa about Oranga Tamariki.”
The one place I felt safe
“I did not want to go home. Because I knew that when I went home someone was going to be angry, someone was going to fight, and someone was going to get hurt.”
Ihumātao feels like how I wish Auckland felt
“I can’t think of a time I’ve been in such a mixed group. There is a vibe of considerateness, gentleness. People are careful with the kids, and with each other. If you make eye contact, people say 'Kia ora', even if you don’t say it first.”
Witi Ihimaera: A writer’s memoir
“You must continue your education, son, I don’t want you to be a servant to anyone, man or woman, Māori or Pākehā. Your father and I didn’t raise you to help us on the farm.”
The problem with white saviours
“There was an imbalance — visually, strategically, and hierarchically. White people on top, founding, leading, paying. Indigenous people beneath, benefiting, smiling, grateful.”
‘Don’t you want to be Sāmoan?’
“Except for church, our Sāmoan-ness never made it out the front door of our house.”
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.
A Tongan without the tongue — a cautionary tale
"Rightly or wrongly, my father was trying to protect us from a world that treasured English above all else, that used English as a marker for intelligence."
I’m good at languages — so why can’t I speak Sāmoan?
“Many of us have lost our languages through no fault of our own. Let’s remove the shame from reclaiming our languages.”
Rawiri Wright: It’s cool to be Māori
“I believe absolutely that the Kura Kaupapa Māori Aho Matua is the way forward for us to revitalise and regenerate ourselves as Māori.”
Māori media revamp: Where’s the focus on quality journalism?
Being a good reo speaker doesn’t necessarily qualify you as a good reporter.
Indira Stewart: When one of us wins, all of us win
“When I think about the shortage of Pasifika journalists, I'm a bit surprised there aren't more of us, because we're powerful storytellers and we always have been.”—Indira Stewart, host of RNZ's new morning news show First Up.
This is not the time for white voices
“Everyone has their say in a democracy. But mostly the people who have their say in public life in New Zealand are white.”—Steve Braunias
Conversations: Lifting our voices
Our stories create the lens through which we see ourselves and our neighbours and the world around us.
Conversations: It’s about serving our communities
“Our women look at people as if everyone is important and everyone belongs to one of the communities they serve.”
Kerry Warkia: A chorus of Pacific voices
“In filmmaking, the essence is collaboration. For something to be really good, there needs to be different perspectives, techniques and skills from lots of different people.”
Lani Wendt Young: A hunger worldwide for our stories told by us
“There are lots of silly excuses that people offer for why there aren’t more of us published. They say, for instance, that we don’t like to write. We aren’t storytellers. We’re not readers. But that’s ridiculous.”
Kura Forrester: Rudely funny
“Everybody knows what it's like to be on a first date. Or have rude thoughts. And, as long as you're being honest, it can be funny.” — Kura Forrester, Billy T award winner.
Whiti Hereaka: My advice? Let yourself write terribly
“It's okay to be a bad writer in your first draft because a lot of the craft of writing is in the rewriting.”
Rua Kēnana and the teaching of history
The move to make the teaching of history compulsory, “will not produce lasting benefit unless history comes to be seen not as information to be learned and then set aside, but as a force that shapes identity and influences choices.”
Restoring mana and confidence
“We want to work shoulder to shoulder with this government rather than head-to-head headbutting.” — Ngahiwi Tomoana, Kahungunu leader.
How can there be justice if the process isn’t just?
“If someone had said to me in 2008, I’d be turning the Whanganui River into a legal person — or parliament would be — I would have laughed.” Chris Finlayson, former Treaty negotiations minister.
Treaty Negotiators: Not a job for wimps
“It was so stressful. I told my lot I just want to be Pākehā for a while.”
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