Author: Dale Husband

“Being able to express myself as a Cook Islander through dancing and singing and teaching is still important for me.” — Caren Rangi.

“I always loved that little kids could watch bro’Town and not feel so stink about being poor.” — Oscar Kightley

“Look, if you do a deal with us, you can call us in 200 years’ time and we’ll still be here. Someone will pick up the telephone.”

“The city can eat you up. And I don’t think I’d be writing the music I write if I was living in Auckland.”

“There’s value in going back to Pūao-te-Āta-tū. You’ve got to go back sometimes to go forward.” — Neville Baker.

“I think some of it is well-meaning and paternalistic stuff. But it’s racism nevertheless. So it doesn’t matter whether it’s malicious or accidental or just ignorant racism. It’s still racism. And the outcome is just the same.”

“People don’t realise that we’re descended from scientists. They just think we’re a bunch of indigenous people who fluked getting to places.”

We’re “a changing, creative and responsive people whose culture isn’t fixed or static”. — Sean Mallon, Senior Curator Pacific Cultures, Te Papa.

“I see moko as a reflection of our society. We’re now at a stage where we can celebrate who we are as Māori people.”

“Teaching your kids that they need to develop some resilience and strength of character is essential, but it’s just as important that they know and feel the love from the people bringing them up.”

The soldiers of the Māori Battalion never envisaged that, for their descendants, the rates of incarceration, ill-health, and unemployment were going to soar when they came back from the war.

“It wasn’t until I went to Westlake Girls’ that I realised I was Māori. In Kaitaia, everybody’s Māori to some extent. Even the Pākehā or the Dallies.”

“I have a lot of faith in this country and in our people to navigate a future which is positive and which is probably different from anywhere else in the world.”

“As Māori, we’re unique. I don’t think I’m better than anybody else, but I think I’m bloody just as good.”

The education system kept excusing itself for not doing the best it could for Māori kids by blaming Māori kids themselves.

“Our future wellbeing relies on addressing issues far deeper than how much money will become ours in a settlement deal.“

“The only way Māori and Pacific outcomes are going to improve is if European New Zealand actually confronts its racist heritage and acknowledges that that racism is alive and well.”

“It’s not being Māori, Pacific, disabled, or rainbow that’s the disadvantage. It’s the discrimination in the system that disadvantages us and treads on our dignity.” —EEO Commissioner, Dr Karanina Sumeo.

“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.

“You can do anything you put your mind to. Don’t be limited by having just one path.”