‘Not everyone gets a miracle ending’
“Living rurally, I knew an ambulance would take 45 minutes. It wouldn’t get here in time.” — Shelley Burne-Field on trying to save her husband after his heart stopped.
Reflections
Paying the price of racism
“Sometimes you just brace yourself and decide to cope with racist attitudes to get the medication, or the appliance, or to join your friends for a birthday dinner.” — Aroha Gilling.
The death of language
“Our urgent challenge is to preserve language as a human activity. It's not a job for a bot.” — Tainui Stephens
Being a good partner
“Part of being a great parent is being a great partner. Everything in your life will go better if the mother of your children is happy, well, and well supported.” — TikTok star Louis Davis, in an extract from his new book, ‘The Modern Dad’.
Reclaiming the mana of fatherhood
“In that moment with my son, I was standing on the edge of a line that must not be crossed. But so many other Māori men have crossed it.” — Tīhema Baker, author of ‘One Day a Taniwha’.
How to go home to your marae
“The mataku, or fear, of being rejected from the one place you’re told and feel you truly belong is real and somewhat paralysing.” — Lizzie Dunn.
Why we call Winston Peters ‘Lao Pi’
“Mandarin-speaking communities are so familiar with Winston, we have nicknamed him 'Lao Pi'. Lao Pi is like that grumpy neighbour everyone knows is a problem. Except he’s not a random neighbour. He is the foreign affairs minister and former deputy prime minister.” — Mengzhu Fu.
Why I dread Cook Islands Māori Language Week
"Whenever Cook Islands Māori languages week rolls around, I get a sense of dread. I know that’s probably not what some of you want or expect to hear. But it is my reality." — Tepaeru Minster.
Flight of the albatross
“Deborah had no idea her words would spend years waiting in a garage before pushing a young Māori boy to see what was possible, ultimately starting a journey that carried him straight to her doorstep.” — Will Flavell.
Matariki: Stolen from me but returned to my children
“Back then, it wasn’t called Matariki. It was just winter. No one gave a shit about the stars in the sky.” — Haeatarangi Barker on welcoming Matariki as an adult.
Fanning the flames of friendship at Matariki
“This year, I joined a predominantly Māori team, and I’ve never been so instantly embraced by a group of colleagues. Usually, I take a while to warm up and trust new people.” — Aroha Gilling.
Whatarangi Winiata: He taniwha hikuroa
“Whata was referred to as ‘he taniwha hikuroa’. He truly was a taniwha of our times, with a long tail reaching into the future through our people.” — Tainui Stephens, farewelling Professor Whatarangi Winiata, a giant of the Māori world, who died early this month.
The incredible example Māori set other Indigenous peoples
“They encouraged me to recover the ancestral teachings of my Diné people, and to explore how our ancestral wisdom approaches disability.” — Sandra Yellowhorse on how Māori scholars inspire other Indigenous peoples.
Once upon a time in Whirinaki
“The only chance he had to hold on to his life lay somewhere else. Somewhere with an operating theatre, a table, a surgeon leaning over him.” — Dr Clare Ward, in an extract from her memoir, ‘A Place to Stand: A country doctor’s life’.
Hirini Moko Mead: ‘Calm, measured, never showy’
“As your Koro, my task was to explain the legacy so that each of you can hold it in your hands, absorb it, share it, add to it what you already know and finally cherish it.” — Tā Hirini Moko Mead, who died last week, aged 99, writing to “the mokopuna generation of the nation”.
Unstitching equity in the name of so-called equality
"Stirring deep in my belly is the call to action. I’m going to do my level best to ensure that every eligible whānau member in my considerable network is registered to vote, is conscious of the issues, and is ready to turn out and vote come election day." — Denis O'Reilly.
How empire falls
"I declare, in the shadows of my ancestors, that the sun must set not just on the British empire but the whole project of empire." — Marama Davidson addressing the Oxford Union.
The ways we stand by each other
“I stand beside Indian New Zealanders who recognise Te Tiriti o Waitangi, in the same way as I stand beside anyone who recognises our nation’s foundational arrangement.” — Denis O’Reilly.
Witi Ihimaera Smiler: ‘Call me Ishmael’
“My fellow students thought I was that person, the Ihimaera, when I was really this person, Witi Smiler. Witi Ihimaera was really a construct, somebody I had created to do the mahi he does.” — Witi Ihimaera Smiler, in an extract from ‘Te Kaikaukau / The Swimmer’.
Race is a junk word
“Race may make no biological sense, but this does not reduce the power and reach of the idea that it does.” — Richard Shaw, from his new book of essays "The Good Settler".
A stone for Mary Nu
“Many Māori homes have a ‘dead wall’. A place for photographs of beloveds who have passed on. No one living should be seen up there. On our wall, there's a small, framed picture of a smiling Māori woman holding up a tāniko panel." — Tainui Stephens.
Shilo Kino: Indigenising writers’ festivals
“Literary spaces have largely been Pākehā, but things are shifting, and to me, literature and storytelling are deeply connected to the wider work of decolonising and indigenising our spaces.” — Shilo Kino.
A journey of one hundred languages
“It’s only a small effort and a smattering of words against the sea of culture and history, but my small effort in many directions has taken some of the bitterness from my heart and brought me into relation with the entire world of people.” — Makaira Waugh.
Te Pahi — a story of mana and mamae
“Te Pahi’s name had been defamed and tarnished by Pākehā histories for more than a century, the falsehoods and lies carried by newspapers and books for generations.” — Eugene Bingham, author of ‘The Chief and the Empire’.
There’s no word for this in my language
“It’s unhelpful to think of Indigenous people as idealised, perfect creatures. To do so is to separate us from the flaws, and thus the humanity, that we share with all human beings.” — Nīkau Wi Neera.
Jacquie Kidd: Living while dying
“Living while dying, grieving while anticipating, good days and appalling days, happiness and despair, all co-exist quite comfortably within te ao Māori.” — Jacquie Kidd, on how whakapapa has guided her since she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Cultural safety in nursing — brave but unsuccessful first steps
“We were told that a large number of our classmates had complained about being forced to sleep communally and subjected to learning things that they considered irrelevant to their nursing programme.” — Jacquie Kidd, on the tentative first steps to introduce Māori concepts into nursing.
How university became home
“Through my education, I’ve been able to honour and affirm my Sāmoan heritage in spaces where my grandparents feared that being seen as Sāmoan would only hinder me.” — Dr Sarah McLean-Orsborn, Pacific Studies lecturer.
We refused to accept injustice
“We spent years speaking to people in all sorts of places, from Rotary Clubs to historical societies and business conferences. Basically, we’d talk to anyone who wanted to know the story.” — Kerensa Johnston on the fight for the Nelson Tenths.
It’s the systems we need to fix, not our people
“What we report on isn’t new, but the urgency of the need is only increasing.” — Charm Skinner, te ao Māori policy analyst, on this year’s State of the Nation report from the Salvation Army.
After 100 years, it’s time for Tokelau to take stock
“One of the lasting legacies of Tokelau’s relationship with New Zealand is its loss of population and capacity, through both the resettlement and Tokelau scholarship schemes.” — Melanie Puka Bean.
A more critical history of Forest & Bird
“For all intents and purposes, Forest & Bird waged a media and political war on Ngāi Tahu and the Crown during negotiations.” — Martin Fisher.
Becky Manawatu: Kataraina and beyond
“Whatever my original idea was for the book, it didn’t stand a chance against the spiritual thirst I had for kawakawa green to spill across my life and work, which was the desire to respond to the deaths and violence of Auē.” — Becky Manawatu on writing Kataraina.
One Māori in the room isn’t enough
“Two Māori combined may just get their point across, but one Māori alone often goes unheard.” — Aroha Gilling.
Kim Workman: My life in the criminal justice system
“My first response to going inside Kohitere was one of anger and disbelief… Anger that no one understood that the offenders of today were almost always the victims of yesterday.” — Tā Kim Workman reflects on his long career in the criminal justice system.
Restoring Aunty’s real name
“She began life as Narua, and she was Narua when she passed. In between, a wrong was corrected. The mana of her name was restored.” — Maureen Sinton.
Making an uncommon land
“They were unwitting participants in the violence of colonisation, imperialism and capitalism, just as we, their descendants, continue to be today.” — Catherine Knight on her settler ancestors.
Brown and sorted
“Every ancestor that has ever lived is still a part of your family. Their physical absence doesn't alter their ongoing impact on your life. One of the beauties of living a brown life is to know you're never alone.” — Tainui Stephens.
On the ground in Geneva
“As soon as the Committee began its questions, I knew we were in the right place at the right time. The questioning was fast, direct, and showed they understood the situation in detail.” — Roimata Smail, on the UN trip to deliver evidence of government discrimination against Māori.
Tōku tuakana hou: My new sister
“The arguments to exercise caution with DNA are valid, if a bit doom-laden. But there is another perspective that we need to consider, and that’s the power of DNA to reconnect those Māori who don’t know their whakapapa.” — Atakohu Middleton, who found her sister through DNA testing.
Towards He Whakaputanga
“What is clear from He Whakaputanga is that there was never a ceding of any kind of sovereignty to Britain. Not then, nor five years later, when Te Tiriti was signed at Waitangi.” — Catherine Delahunty.
Our legacy of peace
“As November 5, the anniversary of the invasion of Parihaka, reminds us, non-violent peaceful protest is rooted deep within this nation’s whakapapa.” — Alistair Reese.
From the periphery into the centre
“I had naïvely assumed that as we marched towards social freedom and equity for all, the benefits of these social changes would be self-explanatory, and conservative resistance would dissipate and eventually disappear, like a kind of natural evolutionary extinction.” — Anton Blank.
Why the system will never truly serve us
“The system was designed by individuals who believed in a specific version of New Zealand — where everyone was theoretically equal, yet the structures of equality were calibrated for only one culture.” — Mark Feary.
My season of renewal
“Like many of us, I learned to numb my sensitivity through alcohol and distraction. For years, I spoke about mauri as a concept, yet I had never truly felt its flow within me.” — Kingi Snelgar on healing.
Our leaders are human too
“Rather than stripping each other down, perhaps this is the moment to hold compassion for those we have chosen to lead us, even when we disagree, even when they fall short.” — Shonelle Wana.
The mindful Māori: Finding calm in everyday chaos
“Our tūpuna navigated vast oceans with no modern instruments, guided by the stars, the winds, the currents. If they could find calm in the uncertainty of the Pacific, surely, we can find it in the uncertainty of our inboxes and calendars.” — Nathan Hira.
Holding fast to the memories that remain
“Brain injuries are invisible, so it was very difficult to explain the mumbled words, or the incorrect word for simple items and activities. Today people still laugh at me when I get a word wrong.” — Aroha Gilling.
Healing before the crisis
“When people are empowered to self-heal, they reclaim their mana. They are no longer passive recipients of care — they are active creators of their own wellbeing.” — Rebecca Collett on creating a mental health support programme in Ohakune.
We all have a stake in the future of this place
“For those of us who’ve been pressured to assimilate into Pākehā culture, it’s tempting to think that assimilating into Māori culture is respectful. But this is not what’s being asked of us.” — Mengzhu Fu.
Resisting the plunder in Pātea
“The sands here are not just matter, materials, or commodities. They are alive with the energy of our mountain and moana. They carry whakapapa. They are not for sale.” — Kate Paris in Pātea.
Our birdsong is back
“It was a thrilling cacophony of joyous birdsong. A jostling, prancing throng of utterly diverse tangata whenua giving vigorous and unified voice to a new māori era.” — Tainui Stephens on the response to Kuini Nga wai hono i te po’s first speech.
Being woke is not weakness
“Using woke as a slur dismisses not only a word but the centuries of struggle, pain, and progress it represents. Whether intended or not, it aligns with the same forces that upheld slavery, apartheid, and white supremacy.” — Gregory Fortuin.
The gift of a tangihanga
“Her farewell was her final gift. She showed us the strength of our culture, the resilience of our whānau, and the power of kaupapa Māori when it is lived, not just spoken.” — Shonelle Wana.
Invisible intelligence
“I still have James’s letter. It became my conscience. It reminded me not to walk away from something I should be fixing. He asked me to come back, and I didn’t.” — Professor Welby Ings remembers a seven-year-old student he had taught in Ōtara 50 years ago.
A koro’s legacy
“This book is for everyone. It offers a generous, wise and deeply grounded account of a knowledge system that continues to shape our present and future. It opens the door and invites us in.” — Natalie Coates reviews Tā Hirini Moko Mead’s new book "Mātauranga Māori".
Preparing our kids for the real world?
“Children have a human right to a quality education that equips them for effective participation in a strong democracy — not one that simply shapes them into cogs for the economic machine.” — Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn.
Covering Te Kerēme
“I will always treasure the memories of people who came together for a dream of justice, not just for themselves but for their descendants and for the lifeblood that is the earth and water.” — Saige England on covering the Kāi Tahu claim as a young Pākehā journalist.
Bread
“Looking back I see how fiercely stubborn she was, this 20-something woman who would not let go or go home, even when all signs were pointing to disaster.” — Tina Makereti.
Voting changes will silence voices like mine
“Same-day enrolment isn’t a flaw in our democracy. It’s one of the few things that works for us: for Māori, Pacific peoples, rangatahi, and anyone who has ever felt like the political system wasn’t built for them.” — Eden Fusitu‘a.
Is a blanket enough?
“When a young parent and their baby sleeps in a car, it’s not just a housing failure, it’s a failure of our collective memory and responsibility to one another and our most vulnerable.” — Lizzie Strickett.
A love like this
“You have a friend who knows a love like this. You have a neighbour who knows a love like this. And I hope that you, too, know a love like this.” — Renee Karena on her mastiff mate Nīkau.
My angel in high-vis
“You didn't just save me from the roadside, Joyce. You saved me from becoming someone who had learned to be silent, someone who had accepted that their voice didn't matter.” — Murdoch Ngahau pens a letter to the Māori warden who saved him as an 11-year-old runaway.
It’s time to listen, and to lead
“Walking in, I felt all the other elected members looking at me in astonishment. For the first since the establishment of the Auckland Council Super City, an elected member was Māori and under 30 years old.” — Will Flavell.
Back to the bad old days
"I had started to notice our reo all around me. We could hear it on the news, and we could see it on our government buildings and street signs. You would hear people saying 'Kia ora' and 'Mōrena' when you got into work. It began to feel okay to be Māori. Then came the new coalition government." — Hira Nathan.
Navigating the tipping point
“The language movement was the tipping point that changed Aotearoa forever and for the better. Along with the reo came all the beliefs that define us as children of the land, stewards of each other, and active participants in the times.” — Tainui Stephens.
Takutai Tarsh Kemp: A grassroots marae girl
“Everything I know can be attributed to my upbringing at Takirau marae, our whānau, our ahi kā . . . I will always be grateful for my whānau who raised me in a home on my whenua, surrounded by my cousins. We're proud to be Māori.” — Takutai Tarsh Kemp.
Restoring a piece of ourselves
“His name is etched into the memory of our people, not only as a historical figure but as a living symbol of resilience, leadership, and the unbreakable spirit of the Moriori.” — Whānau of Moirori ancestor Tommy Solomon.
The $53m cost of losing our reo
“Cultural harm was no longer just ‘sad but unmeasurable’. It had become economically quantifiable. We'd created a bridge between how we understand our losses and how legal systems work.” — Atawhai Tibble.
Keeping the taonga warm
“Much of Mina McKenzie’s legacy is intangible. It exists in the way museums today work to keep taonga warm — by connecting with tangata whenua, and understanding that communities are as important as collections.” — Tanja Rother.
There is no ‘Māori problem’, there is a ‘white people problem’
“If Pākehā people want something different, or want an end to the ‘Māori problem’, it’s our white-centric social and economic structures that must change, and the way we view the world.” — Elizabeth Ann Cook.
The home my mothers made
“I was adopted in the late 1960s by two Pākehā sisters. My first memories of home are anchored firmly in the memories of these shy women. They parented me from when I was three weeks old until they passed away within a few months of each other when I was in my mid-20s.” — Aroha Gilling.
Hands fluent in silence
“The steamroller of Pākehā assimilation, combined with patriarchal notions of masculinity, flattened all the words out of Moses, in any language. This left only his hands to demonstrate what could not be uttered out loud.” — Nadine Hura, from her book ‘Slowing the Sun’.
Helping survivors of abuse to find answers
“The pieces of paper inside told me that my family wanted me, and that the government should never have taken me.” — Christine Ammunson, on the impact of accessing her case files at 52, and helping others to navigate the records labyrinth.
Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku: On show
“We did one tourist show every second week at a hotel restaurant, and the income went to the church. If our main tutor was away, I was the announcer with my snooty voice, which the tourists loved and remarked on.” — Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku in her Ockham-winning memoir 'Hine Toa'.
Our mum, Bernadette
“Her greatest gift was being a genuinely good person. A kind and reliable force who could let go of the leash, knowing she had passed on a good moral compass to guide and hold us together. We were the lucky ones.” — Moana Maniapoto on her mum.
Audacious incompetence
“Of the 150 government departments, state-owned entities and councils in the audit, not one had fulfilled all its obligations.” — Tainui Stephens on the failure to meet Treaty settlement obligations.
Beating the taniwha of shame
"I speak the reo like a newborn. I make shapes with my mouth and hope the correct sounds will come out. I'm now eight weeks into this journey, and it’s been a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs." — Michelle Campbell.
Maybe you’re already living your dream
“It’s taken me a while to figure out that ‘dreams’ are vital. But they are definitely not something that’s separate from ourselves. They don’t have to be written down with a timeframe, or drawn on a vision board. You can leave them to reveal themselves.” — Shelley Burne-Field.
We are strongest when we walk together
Gagana Sāmoa “has challenged, humbled, and ultimately made me a better person.” — Dr Will Flavell, a former reo Māori teacher, on learning Sāmoan.
Sticking with my language journey
“I had no idea during that first class that I was about to embark on a path which would see me return to the classroom every year. I’d finish at one language institution and move to another.” — Renee Karena.
Belonging isn’t optional
“He knows he’s different. And not in a ‘celebrate diversity’ kind of way, but in a way that feels like he doesn’t belong. And that cuts deep, for him and us.” — Dahlia Malaeulu, on navigating the school system when your child has autism.
Back on the waka
“I tell myself I should be enjoying the day, but honestly, I’m battling feelings of not being up to scratch. I’ve done no reo over the summer despite promising my kaiako I’d keep on it.” — Emma Hislop takes her first trip to Te Matatini.
Shrek: Kātahi Te Korokē!
“Shrek has been dubbed into more than 40 languages. There have been four sequels. But this is the first time any of the American studio's films have been adapted into an Indigenous language.” — Tainui Stephens, director of 'Shrek – Kātahi Te Korokē!'
Hoki ki te ūkaipō: Bringing my darling Dad home
“I think we’re meant to go out as we came in — totally dependent on those who love us. Caring for Dad after he died felt like the most natural thing to do.” — Tarsh Te Rure.
Graciously tenacious
"I think she was incredibly ambitious —not for herself but for the greater good of whānau Māori. She wanted the best and wasn’t prepared to accept anything less."— Merepeka Raukawa-Tait remembers Dame Tariana Turia.
If nothing else, we’ve put our pain on the record
“Social workers still have the power to just go in, willy nilly, and take children away, largely based on whānau not being able to afford to feed their kids — not abuse.” — Paora Moyle.
The lethal invader in our communities
“Not one atom, not one molecule of methamphetamine is indigenous to Aotearoa. It is a lethal invader, colonising the mind of the user as surely as foreign systems and patterns of thinking colonise our society.” — Denis O’Reilly.
Around the world, we’re tangata Tiriti
“In London, I’m constantly searching for signs of Aotearoa and Te Tiriti in museums, public squares, and wall texts. But in the museums I’ve visited so far, there are no references to Te Tiriti or Aotearoa at all.” — Charlotte Doyle.
Nothing says ‘home’ like Te Matatini
“I felt so proud to be Māori, and grateful, too. I was home on our whenua, and my whānau cup was full from seeing familiar faces, reconnecting, and being exactly where I was meant to be.” — Eden Fusitu‘a on her first Matatini after four years abroad.
Finding my way back, over and over
“Not everyone knows their iwi. It’s only recently that my son has started talking about being from Puketeraki. You need to see places to feel like you know them, I reckon.” — Emma Hislop.
Befriending our wild disagreements
“It’s easy, in these violent days of oligarchs and kleptocrats, algorithms and shadow lobbyists, to think that tending to ourselves and each other with radical love is somehow too soft.” — Sarah Hopkinson.
Unintentionally complicit
“While Māori generally support rainbow rights, many are also Christian. And on some level, they will feel conflicted about Tāmaki’s agenda. So, they become passive observers, unintentionally complicit in the hatred of takatāpui.” — Anton Blank.
We are not on ’empty land’
“If the Indonesian government has its way, the area we’ve always called home, where we’ve lived and hunted for thousands of years, will cease to exist.”— Rosa Moiwend.
Stop doing the enemy’s work for them
“Pākehā, we are not here to fight you. But we are here to fight the system that benefits you while breaking us. We are here to fight the structures that let our babies fill the prisons while yours fill the boardrooms.” — Heemi Mahauariki.
We’re the experts in our own stories
“It had been a long, moving and sometimes confusing day of storytelling, re-telling, and listening. For me, it reinforced the importance of iwi as experts in our own narratives.” — Aroha Gilling.
Rebecca Macfie: ‘What do I know of hardship?’
“There we were. Heaps of kids. Isolated location. A stoic, hardworking young mum struck by an awful disease. A husband out until all hours. But no one turned up at the farm to take us into care. No. Instead, we were raised up by the benevolent state.” — Rebecca Macfie.
Chaos and serenity
“Abstinence as a lifestyle percolated like a long, slow epiphany as I contended with the consequences of my addiction and mental health challenges.” — Anton Blank on 15 years as a clean addict.
We’re not here to negotiate our own marginalisation
"The Treaty bill is not just about legal wording — it’s about economic power. If Te Tiriti is successfully reframed as symbolic rather than contractual, the Crown will have removed one of the last barriers standing in the way of total economic control." — Joshua Koko.
‘So many people have cancer’: Living with the French nuclear legacy in the Pacific
“The only ‘development’ that happened in our islands was sickness. The health consequences and cost of France’s nuclear bombs continue to be borne by our people, yet France still refuses to take responsibility for them.” — Tahitian anti-nuclear activist and politician Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross.
Reimagining what it means to be a gang
“Reimagining what being a ‘gang’ means is complex and requires rejecting the imposed criminal connotations, not only by voice but in action, placing whānau at the heart of lifestyle, and moving away from gangsterism.” — Denis O’Reilly.
A subtle silencing
“I’ve spent a lifetime being gracious and kind to careless, well-intentioned but hurtful, crass and outright racist people, and I’ve had enough.” — Aroha Gilling.
A war crime at home
“They'd lost the sights, sounds and smells of their Taranaki home, but never the story that took them away.” — Tainui Stephens.
Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti: Is this what peace feels like?
“This wasn’t a protest. It was an affirmation of Te Tiriti.” — Meriana Johnsen on the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti.
Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti: Walking into the future
“It’s perfectly possible to spend decades living on Māori land and never think of Te Tiriti, or falsely believe that tangata whenua rights are being honoured.” — Ara Alam-Simmons.
Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti: Flags of hope
“It was like a glimpse of the country as we want it to be: diverse and respectful and Māori-led.” — Catherine Delahunty on the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti.
Resisting battle fatigue
“I’m not from the kōhanga generation and I do struggle with feeling like I’m good enough, Māori enough, doing enough. But I’ve learned as I get older not to let those feelings be a barrier to action.” — Aroha Gilling.
Reaching kids who hate to write
“Our class had a reputation for burning through English teachers like a bonfire does kindling and twigs. One term, we had four English teachers. Some teachers stopped teaching our class. Others left the school completely after their time with us.” — Te Kahu Rolleston.
The pain and privilege of being ‘afakasi
“There’s no doubt that our proximity to whiteness makes us 'afakasi more palatable to the mainstream organisations that hold the resources and power in New Zealand.” — Lisa Meto Fox.
Lost among the Lululemon
“In the 15 years I've been practising yoga, I've attended retreats, trainings, and a few of these festivals… but I seldom find what I’m looking for. I often leave these events feeling alienated. This time, it will be with a simmering rage.” — Michelle Campbell.
Just being a tiny bit racist is enough
“Our paper described cardiovascular risk factors in different ethnic groups in NZ. We were told the reviewers included three (anonymous) New Zealand professors of cardiology. However, many of their comments were outright racist.” — Professor Rod Jackson.
West Papua: Whose lives matter?
“I am haunted by the lives that do not matter to us. There are more than 80,000 people displaced in the highlands of West Papua . . . Why do these neighbours’ lives mean so little to us?” — Catherine Delahunty.
The weed factor
“It's easy to laugh at the Cheech and Chong silliness of weed, but it is a drug. Too much of a good thing is always a bad thing. Too much of a bad thing is even worse.” — Tainui Stephens.
Five things I didn’t know about Te Tiriti o Waitangi
“Despite 184 years of an unequal and discriminatory relationship, Māori still believe in the future that Te Tiriti can offer us.” — Kassie Hartendorp.
Te reo is not a Pākehā asset
“Pākehā being supportive tāngata Tiriti is more than just learning a language. We have to start with untangling our sense of entitlement to all that we can access.” — Kay Benseman.
‘Disconnection is part of my whakapapa’
“Every day that I haven’t taken them to their marae adds up. It builds a mountain of guilt and inertia that gets harder to cross.” — Kim Mcbreen on introducing her kids to their marae.
Falema’i Lesā: The law is unfair and racist
“I believe to this day that the law is unfair and racist. We were treated so badly, labelled as lawbreakers and criminals for overstaying our visas, yet the Privy Council ruling proved it was the government’s immigration policy that was breaking the law.” — Falema’i Lesā.
‘Māori are not a garnish’
“Not everyone has the chance to create mana motuhake and tino rangatiratanga in their lives. But we’re lucky enough to be able to do that by creating a dinner and sharing our kōrero in a space that is otherwise pretty white.” — Chef Kasey Bird.
We owe it to Uncle Toni
“He’d been ripped away from a happy childhood, growing up with a loving mother, connected to his marae and surrounded by family, to become a slave in the system.” — Kare Tipa writing about her Uncle Toni's experience in state care.
Reckoning with reo revival
“Te reo can’t be revitalised to its fullest extent without addressing some of the fundamental constraints under which its revitalisation is taking place.” — Awanui Te Huia.
Paying the price of pine
“Those who wanted pine trees — the Crown and outside corporate interests — got pine trees. But it was Ngāti Porou and their lands and moana that would pay the price.” — Aaron Smale.
When the wairua knows
“Lately, it’s felt like every single day there’s a new struggle to add to the list, a new fight to be had. But the kotahitanga I witnessed and felt at Tūrangawaewae gave me hope again.” — Siena Yates on attending the tangihanga for Kiingi Tuheita.
Bravery is just a breath away
“We live in a Māori culture where bravery is often called for. A people embattled by historical and current oppressions has a need to be brave.” — Tainui Stephens.
Wāhine wow at Paris Olympics
“This moment is about acknowledging the strength and unwavering determination that has always existed within women, especially Indigenous women — and wow, they sure did seem like the dominant Olympians on the podiums.” — Shonelle Wana.
A tale of two cities
“Never mind Auckland’s ostentatious wealth. Provincial visitor from Hawke’s Bay, I may be, but I prefer the company of the honest society of the Auckland downtown’s brown whānau.” — Denis O’Reilly.
Our Treaty future: A place for us all to stand
“Our future under Te Tiriti gives cause for huge opportunity and optimism, if only we Pākeha would simply get out of the way, and let that future come to greet us.” — Martin Williams.
Shilo Kino: Writing my way to peace
“I wanted to show what colonisation is like today, because a lot of people seem to think of it as a one-time historical event. But it's actually an ongoing process that has seeped into our everyday lives — and this applies whether you’re Māori or not.” — Shilo Kino on her new novel All That We Know.
How far we’ve all come
“I was shaped by both my mother's perspective on her own history, and the dismissive, often derogatory societal views about Māori at that time, where a half-done job was a ‘Māori job’, tomato sauce was ‘Māori gravy’, and someone was ‘okay — for a Māori.’” — Chris Mirams.
Schools mustn’t wait for mandate to tackle racism
“A good place to start would be to simply admit that there is an issue of racism in our schools, and to start talking about it in our communities and at school.” — Ara Alam-Simmons.
Robert Oliver: Believing in Pacific cuisine
“In the Pacific, food strengthens and creates communities. The story of food is also the story of people. There’s wisdom, there’s survival, there’s knowledge in the growing of crops and methods of food gathering. It goes way beyond the recipe.” — Chef Robert Oliver.
Staying Māori in a global system
“Māori are accustomed to seeing how domestic institutions and systems impinge on our rights as tangata whenua. We must take this same lens with us when we explore the world and consider international institutions and systems.” — Rhodes scholar Rhieve Grey.
Lady Muck
“I’d been so judgmental and had no idea what this woman had been through. In fact, it didn’t even take the whole eulogy before I realised that I really needed to stop calling her Lady Muck.” — Kirk Mariner.
We’re a people who need to pray
“Prayers and karakia are not a matter of religion. They’re a matter of faith: of placing your trust and confidence in something you can't see. To get in touch with the companions of your heart and soul.” — Tainui Stephens.
Let’s do better for Māori in civil service
“Revealing to my bosses how vulnerable I feel was out of the question. To say such things out loud creates a damaging cycle of anxiety, hope, vulnerability, and disappointment that most Māori in the public service are probably familiar with.” — Aroha Gilling.
‘Our history is your history’: Lessons from Parihaka for Pākehā
“There are a great many Pākehā who, like me, are very supportive of tino rangatiratanga . . . We know that Tiriti justice will remain our most enduring protest issue until the Crown catches up with this reality.” — Sarah Hopkinson.
Joe Walsh’s awakening at Ōtātara
“It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don’t understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be . . .” — Legendary Eagles' guitarist Joe Walsh, on his awakening at Ōtātara, Hawke's Bay.
A difficult time to be a Māori public servant
“Many people are worried and scared, simply because they’re Māori working in the public sector. There is a real feeling of helplessness.” — Kura Moehau.
He’s 80 years old and discovering the power of te reo
“When I first started coaching in the 1980s, I didn’t have the right language to express the values that have always guided me. They were expressed in European terms.” — Lance Smith.
Home and harakeke flowers
“How could I have forgotten the harakeke flowers? I had looked at them every summer, my whole life. But I hadn’t remembered them at all.” — Lauren Keenan.
Making mokopuna decisions
“With just three days’ notice, thousands responded to the call of Toitū Te Tiriti, and they responded in the name of making good decisions for our mokopuna.” — Eru Kapa-Kingi.
The case of the invisible footy boots
“I was the only brownie, twice the size and weight of the other sprinters. All the Pākehā kids were skinny and had on their club kit and special track shoes. I was in bare feet.” — Kirk Mariner.
Our case shows why the fast-track bill must be stopped
If the Fast-track Approvals Bill goes through, “our coast will once again be the target of mining consent applications — this time, with no clear avenue for our voices and rights as mana whenua to be upheld.” — Olivia Haddon, on winning an 80-year battle to stop sand mining at Pākiri.
Suppressing te reo is small-minded and futile
“Suppressing and belittling the use of Māori language . . . appears to be part of a small-minded and ultimately futile effort at returning our country to the state of race relations in the blandly monocultural 1950s.” — Mark Derby.
‘There’s joy in the struggle’
“For Indigenous people, our rituals are a shortcut to joy. When we connect and when we share, we secure our sense of belonging. I see and feel Indigenous joy in all the occasions our people gather, because we've overcome so much.” — Tainui Stephens.
Fanning the flames beyond Matariki
“Ritual and celebration are absolutely a form of resistance. Matariki, for example, is a very loud statement that we don't need to follow someone else's idea of ceremony or celebration.” — Dr Rangi Mātāmua.
Reason to feel hopeful about Aotearoa
“The tamariki received a standing ovation, partly because they filled the audience with hope and belief that the disrespectful and demeaning politics of the present will fade like mist before the sun of our nation’s culturally adept youth.” — Denis O’Reilly.
Who’s the wannabe Māori now, Mum?
“She wanted us kids to assimilate, believing wholeheartedly that this would protect us from white judgment. Being good, compliant coconuts would mean we wouldn’t be exposed to negativity as Sāmoans.” — Kirkpatrick Mariner on his mum.
A most diplomatic intent
The 1972 Aboriginal and Māori tent embassies in Canberra and Wellington “were created by frank and fearless young people sick of the status quo. They declared that the Indigenous tribes of these lands would no longer be aliens in their own country.” — Tainui Stephens.
Whose Anzac Day is it?
“If we commemorate wars and service in war, then why not all wars? Why do we just remember the settler colonists and their wars? And why are those settler colonists the only ones remembered?” — Maarama Kāmira on Anzac Day in Australia.
Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku: On my own terms
“I realised that the Law School would never let me thrive, that everything about it was hostile.” — Emeritus professor Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku, in an extract from her new memoir 'Hine Toa'.
Righting an injustice: Sāmoa citizenship bill
“There was this fear that if the Privy Council decision was upheld, 100,000 Sāmoans living in Sāmoa would arrive in New Zealand, virtually overnight, because they, by right, were also New Zealand citizens.” — Arthur Anae, on the 1982 law that denied New Zealand citizenship to a group of Sāmoans.
Fast track to nowhere
"The fast-track bill to nowhere breaches Te Tiriti and is an attack on tangata whenua rights as well as a disaster for te taiao (the environment)." — Catherine Delahunty.
How do we face this moment, and not turn away?
“I realise that I’m looking for an action that will feel as effective, as true to who I am as becoming vegan. Action driven by what I feel when I watch coverage from inside Gaza: a feeling of incineration, of urgent helplessness.” — Simone Kaho.
Paddle like a girl
“Waka, paddling, reading the water and the wind, navigating our own paths — all these things are in our whakapapa. In our blood. As wāhine Māori, there’ll probably always be barriers in front of us, but there will always be ways around them too.” — Tui McCaull.
Defiance is life
“She was intimate with death, conversed with it sometimes, muttering away, defying, even threatening. How the hell do you threaten death? A frequent reminiscence of her childhood at Waahi Paa was, ‘Too many tangi, Son.’” — Ben Brown on his mum.
Road to Polyfest
“It frickin’ kills me to feel my kid's first heartbreak. And it's over kapa haka. I don't try to solve it. I just hold him. Support him. Tell him I love him, that I'm proud.” — Sisilia Eteuati.
We go to more tangi
“We start losing our loved ones earlier than our tangata Tiriti peers. We go to more tangi. We are less likely to experience being the ‘sandwich generation’ who raise their own children and moko while also caring for elderly parents.” — Tui MacDonald.
Tusiata Avia: A strange dance with friends
“I’m not here to cheer up anyone who has blood on their hands. Or anyone who is determined to be blind to the bloody hands around them. For those in Israel who are opposed to the genocide just over the border, I can only imagine how they live with that each day.” — Tusiata Avia.
Saying it through siva
"In three-and-a-half minutes, I showed everyone in the church, including my family, who I really was: a queer Sāmoan Christian.” — Iatua Felagai Taito.
Healing through “knew” knowledge
“Tino rangatiratanga is the self-determination to do what we do as Māori every day, without needing permission or a policy, or even organised protest. We just need to embody our culture every day and live it.” — Kim Eriksen-Downs.
Pete and Di
“With the support (or not) of parents and peers, Māori and Pākehā have long fallen in love, and come to an agreement about their own principles of partnership.” — Tainui Stephens.
My reluctant journey as a Pākehā
“The starting point is to recognise that Pākehā are on the wrong side of history for all things concerning Māori, including the rights and promises afforded to them through Te Tiriti o Waitangi.” — Brook Turner.
The softness of the suited heart
“I wonder how these leaders, both here and overseas, grew such bleak ambition. Who emboldened them to grow such entitlement and separation? What fuels their need for violence, supremacy and domination?” — Sarah Hopkinson.
Efeso Collins: I’ve come to this House to help
“There's a saying in Sāmoan: E le tu fa'amauga se tagata. No one stands alone, no one succeeds alone — and, for me, no one suffers alone.” — Fa’anānā Efeso Collins (1974-2024).
Sharpening our sovereign minds
“We were fed a narrative that always seemed mind-suckingly one-sided. We were supposed to believe that Māori willingly handed everything over to the benevolent latecomers and pretend-discoverers for mere nails and blankets.” — Manase Lua.
What really counts is aroha
“We are awaiting tangihanga, yet out come the homemade chocolate kisses, shortbread, cake, pikelets. Love, glad-wrapped in perfection with a beating heart fit for the living.” — Elana Curtis.
Whispers from the whenua
“The whenua knows our pain. Generations of loss, hurt and violence stain the soil. Broken promises and lost dreams lie scattered across the land like discarded weapons on a battlefield.” — Aroha Gilling.
Finding wellness in te ao Māori
“I’ve developed a new sense of knowing — which runs far deeper than a 'belief' — that my tūpuna are with me. A couple of years ago, this understanding would’ve been too airy-fairy for my liking.” — Siena Yates.
We can’t carry it alone, but we can carry it together
“Part of showing aroha to yourself is accepting that you can only do what you can do. Some people can do more than others, and some people go about it differently, and all of that is okay as long as you're doing something. The little things that we're all doing come together to make a difference.” — Dr Waikaremoana Waitoki.
Fighting for a more visible Pacific Rainbow community
“Within the wider Rainbow community, our Pacific voices were very much a minority. Over and over again, our needs were overlooked, sidelined and excluded. We were a minority within a minority.” — Phylesha Brown-Acton.
New Zealander of the Year
“My reo journey is one of constant conflict. There are times when the reo just flows out of me, from a place that I believe lies somewhere both within and beyond myself. Then there are times I can’t even string a basic sentence together.” — Tīhema Baker.
Manalagi, Mariah — and a Pacific queer story
“What is it like to grow up Pacific and queer — or in my case, gay and fa’afafine in Aotearoa-New Zealand? If I had to describe it in one word, I’d say: ‘Lonely.’” — Seuta’afili Dr Patrick Thomsen.
Dancing in the footsteps of our ancestors
“Our girls echo their female ancestors in ways they cannot imagine. They dance with this DNA buried deep in their bones. They dance in the footsteps of a line of women that snakes back across the Pacific to the islands.” — Tusiata Avia.
The great leap backwards
“The challenge to tangata Tiriti is what we’ll do to support a fightback led by tangata whenua. Will Pākehā, in particular, be prepared to march in solidarity with tangata whenua and all people directly affected by the neo-racist political programme?” — Catherine Delahunty.
Tusiata Avia: Giving myself permission
“Year after year, I wrote and performed and did the astonishing amount of admin it requires. And stayed broke. I perform at festivals and win awards and look fab in sparkling red dresses at the openings of my plays. And stay broke.” — Tusiata Avia.
Breaking free from alcohol’s embrace
"I’ve grown up in a household where alcohol, my father, and other male figures were king. Alcohol trumps everything. The toxic fallout from alcohol on family and whānau and community was etched on the inside of my eyelids from an early age." — Shelley Burns-Field.
Facing a new day
"The flawed campaign and the overwhelming result made it clear that a lot of Aussies are, to varying degrees, racist, ill-informed, or simply ignorant.” — Tainui Stephens on Australia's Voice referendum.
Zion and the Three Cancers
"'That nurse was really rude,’ I told Jaye as we walked out of the exam room in Auckland Hospital. She rolled her eyes at me impatiently. ‘That’s why I brought you. To see the way people who look like me get treated.’” — Eru Hart.
You can’t hide big and brown
“My story is one of absence, loss, and sometimes sadness. Still, I refuse to let it be a story of despair.” — Aroha Gilling.
Doctor from the ‘dumb class’
“I’ve been mistaken for an orderly, a cleaner, and the girl who collects the food menus. I’ve even walked into rooms where patients tell me they’re waiting for the doctor because they assume that can’t be me.” — Dr Vanisi Prescott.
Streaming shame
“Our research has shown how Māori students experience shame while white students experience entitlement through mathematics streaming.” — Mahdis Azarmandi, David Pomeroy, Sara Tolbert.
He tapu Te Tiriti
“The enduring tapu of Te Tiriti cannot be harmed by shallow political baiting. Te Tiriti exists and cannot be made to un-exist.” — Eru Kapa-Kingi.
The slow path to mātauranga
“You can’t simply learn about mātauranga or whakapapa, just like I couldn’t learn about my whānau. It’s meaningless without the connection and lived experience. It takes community.” — Kim Mcbreen.
Back to the future, marae style
“I think about how I grew up with my grandparents, and I’m hoping we can get back to that idea of “a village raises a family”, and not just for the kids but for our kaumātua and others who might be struggling with loneliness and anxiety.” — Miriana Stephens.
This is exactly who we are
“To defeat the rage, or at least tame it, we turn, as Abraham Lincoln once said, to ‘the better angels of our nature’. Those angels are everywhere, in spiritual beliefs, in tikanga, in simple notions of courtesy and civic pride.” — Tainui Stephens.
The system won’t shift to help our kids
“We can’t just be about teaching and learning, as the Education Act dictates. We’ll never break the cycle for our young people if we don’t go outside our little school box. I can’t say that enough.” — Soana Pamaka, principal of Tāmaki College.
The power of three
“Tripling the vote has been giving us hope. It makes sense because many of us feel powerless in the face of skyrocketing prices, unlimited corporate profit, a horrific rental market, and a burning planet.” — Kassie Hartendorp on a campaign to get people voting.
The Voice referendum: Yes and No
“For too long, Australia has been too comfortable with perpetrating and witnessing the despair of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people." — Tyson Carmody on why he’s voting Yes in the Voice to Parliament referendum.
‘We’re not just here to play the guitar and say grace’
"I don't remember even talking about race when I was in the SAS. I certainly didn't have to deal with racism there. But, boy, I got it back in spades when I went into the police.” — Vitale Lafaele, in A Canoe Before the Wind.
Weave the people
“A rangatira is more than just a chief. The word ‘raranga’ means to weave. A ‘tira’ is a group of people who have a purpose. A rangatira is one who weaves together people who are on the move.” — Tainui Stephens.
Kelvin Kong: Your Māori elders are my heroes
“The number one reason that having Indigenous surgeons is important is purely because Indigenous people are amazing.” — Professor Kelvin Kong, Australia's Indigenous Person of the Year.
An accidental convert
“I come from a rugby-obsessed family. I suspect they thought football was a bit girly even though the sport was pretty much invisible in our lives. We’d barely heard of blokes playing, let alone women.” — Moana Maniapoto on the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The white tears of Taranaki
“My people’s story in Taranaki didn't start so much with the milk flowing, but with the muskets firing.” — Sarah Hopkinson reckons with her history and the future of dairy farming.
The voice of the writer won through
“The Bone People is both a testament to this massive struggle against yourself ('You are nobody') and evidence that the struggle can be won. Hulme won.” — Rachel Buchanan.
The first people we ever live with
“Brothers and sisters, by blood or by connection, are often the first people we ever live with. We discover our individual selves after years of gradual growth alongside each other.” — Tainui Stephens.
Reclaiming takatāpui
“The colonisers tried to make us conform to a heteronormative way of living and being — and I reject this kaupapa.” — Allan Heta Cleaver.
‘We are not going away’
“The Crown can make the case as complex as they want. But at its heart, it’s simple. And we are not going away.” — Professor Sandy Morrison on the Nelson Tenths Reserves.
Shaneel Lal: I didn’t fit in anywhere
“The young Pacific people who grew up in Aotearoa were taught that to be intelligent, you have to behave and speak like white people. They punish Pacific students like me who don't behave like white people.” — Shaneel Lal.
Feeling the K-wave wairua
“For me, the K-wave has been this beautiful, shining example of how our reo and traditions could be one day, in a very real and attainable sense.” — Siena Yates.
Julian Batchelor’s muddle of mischief
“Once the manager found out who Julian really was, she rang him back, told him that this was a Māori business and to go hither and fornicate with himself, or words to that effect.” — Denis O’Reilly on the anti-co-governance roadshow.
Chelsea Watego: I’m not afraid of the dark
“My work as an intellectual — 'native', 'Black', 'public' or otherwise — is not to be of service to the coloniser and their institutions.” — Chelsea Watego.
Putting Pākehā in the shoes of a colonised people
“I wanted to write something that puts Pākehā in the shoes of a colonised people. I want them to imagine a world in which their principles and values are routinely laughed at.” — Tīhema Baker, author of ‘Turncoat’, a satirical sci-fi novel.
My name is spelled ‘Araraina’
“We talk about the sorts of things brown women who work in mainly white professions and systems talk about. About how ignorant and racist some Pākehā managers are. About how ignorant and frustrating some Māori managers have become.” — Shelley Burne-Field.
Making a life on unceded Indigenous land
“The realities of the settler nation determine the possibilities for how we, as Pacific Indigenous peoples, relate to one another when we build our lives on the unceded lands of fellow Indigenous peoples.” — Sam Iti Prendergast.
The last White Queen
“Of all the things known about the Queen, of all the things written about the Queen, this is the most important: that she was White. It is the most important thing to me. She was the epitome of Whiteness. Without Whiteness, she would not have been Queen.” — Stan Grant.
Cutting back on inclusion
"It seems that after a run of good years, we’re moving backwards. And all the progress that had been made by those who came before me for equity and inclusion of Pacific is set to be undermined and undone.” — Petra Satele, PhD student and assistant lecturer at Massey.
The least of these, my brethren
“Māori gang members . . . have suffered the negative consequence of being poor, young and brown in contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand without enjoying any of the compensating advantages of a strong sense of Māori identity.” — Denis O’Reilly.
Dr Elana Curtis: We want to see them fly
“For Māori, the MAPAS agenda is grounded in our rights as tangata whenua. We have the right to become doctors in our own land, even in western medicine.” — Dr Elana Curtis.
‘Oceania is us’
“In his writing and teaching, Epeli Hau’ofa rejected the portrayal of the Pacific as weak, disconnected and dependent on outside help for survival — a soul-sapping belittlement that the Pacific has endured for centuries.” — Kennedy Warne.
Do we deserve to feel superior?
“One antidote to Indigenous chauvinism is found within the Māori world itself. The tikanga of the marae where honest discourse is encouraged, show that transparency and accountability still matter.” — Tainui Stephens.
What it’s like receiving racist health care
“I’m an articulate person and able to advocate for myself, but even I struggle with this tsunami of racism that has threatened at times to wash me away.” — Aroha Gilling.
Thinking about tatau? Pain comes to mind
“It was an experience I’ll never forget. I endured over 60 combined hours of physical and mental torture that threatened to tear my soul apart, let alone my skin.” — Pakilau Manase Lua, on getting a pe'a.
50 reasons there are no Māori in your science department
“We are swimming upstream, the trout are nipping at our heels, the farmers are draining our habitat, and algae are stealing our oxygen. It's hard to survive, let alone thrive, in your white science department.” — Tara McAllister.
Turning to tikanga when someone dies
"It would have cut out such a huge chunk of our grief and trauma if we’d done it the way that our people used to do it." — Sharday Cable-Ranapia.
Māori doctor
“I went to medical school to train to be a Māori doctor. Not a doctor, a Māori doctor.” — Dr Emma Espiner.
Almost like immunity
“I have no criminal record despite having been in numerous political protests for many years where I could‘ve been arrested and possibly charged. It’s almost as if I have a form of immunity.” — Catherine Delahunty.
Moetonga: One step ahead
“When we return, we don't go home to the tribe. We go home to the hapū. Any hapū is a collection of whānau linked by a common ancestor or history. Way back in the day, the hapū was the main political unit of Māori society.” — Tainui Stephens.
Peace, unity and restless activism
“Let us not forget and fail to salute Pat while he’s still with us. We should demonstrate that we hear and listen to his kōrero by way of restless activism.” — Denis O’Reilly on his kaumātua Pat Magill.
We need to refill our kete
“Māori staff must be able to replenish our emptying kete. Any organisation that recognises this need, plans for it and supports it, is demonstrating long-term cultural integrity and sustainability.” — Aroha Gilling.
As a doctor, being Māori is my superpower
“When a MAPAS student finishes work, they often drive home to a whānau where their knowledge of the health system is so badly needed. We’re pursuing equity not just at mahi, but in our whare, at our marae, and in our whānau circles.” — Chloe Fergusson-Tibble.
Matua? Moi?
“Not everyone is fortunate enough to reach old age. Now that I’m closer to the end than the beginning, I’m grateful for the story of my life, so far.” — Tainui Stephens.
RSE: Not an easy conversation
RSE “thrives because New Zealand is wealthier than any of its RSE partnership countries, and the monetary payoffs for workers and their communities are simply too great to say no to.” — Teuila Fuatai.
Why we’re on the RSE scheme
“I was scared we’d get accused of money laundering because he was sending so much money home. It was double or triple what I earned at the bank — and that job was a good income at home.” — Noellina Meltenoven, an RSE worker from Vanuatu.
Saving Kauri
“It all happened within one hundred years, ‘with an axe’. Within that time, 96 per cent of the forest, most of which was north of Auckland, was destroyed.” — Rebecca Priestley on the destruction of the kauri forests.
Why our marae will always open in a crisis
“None of the people of our marae wait to find out if there’ll be money coming down the track. When you ask them why they do what they do, they say: ‘That’s what we do as Māori. That’s manaakitanga.’" — Siena Yates.
Bring all of yourself to the game
“Just as discovering and asserting your cultural identity sometimes means standing up for your rights, so it is with your sexual identity. To be your authentic self may require courage.” — Tainui Stephens.
The obligation of citizenship
What’s the census got to do with our current needs? “Everything! Many of our whānau are not only displaced but they are resistant.” — Denis O’Reilly.
Te Matatini: More than a bit of song and dance
“The moment you entered the festival, you became everyone’s ‘sis’ or ‘aunty’ or ‘kare’ — and they became yours.” — Siena Yates, on her first Matatini.
Pākehā identity and the Treaty
“Although Pākehā ‘enjoy’ the political, social, and economic advantages of a dominant people, in the deep area of our identity, we are insecure and somewhat challenged.” — Alistair Reese, Pākehā theologian and historian.
There’s a fine line between appropriation and respect
“If the tikanga is severed from its mātauranga, it has been appropriated.” — Kim Mcbreen on the misuse and appropriation of tikanga.
Cyclone Gabrielle: Now is the time for mana motuhake
“When I think about whether we can sustain a future here, I know we just have to, because a lot of our whānau have got nowhere else to go.” — Lillian Te Hau-Ward, who leads the local response and Civil Defence team in Tokomaru Bay.
Cyclone Gabrielle: ‘We were a united nation’
"We were caring for each other, sharing what we had, improvising meals without access to electricity, making sure the young ones felt safe even after traumatic experiences.” — Denis O’Reilly, on the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle on his community in Napier.
Honouring the atua and the tuākana
“How do we recognise, respect, and maintain the sanctity and dignity of these tuākana, these whales who are our elders?” — Te Kaurinui Parata.
Partnership means pulling up your socks
“You need to rise to the challenge, accept the discomfort, and not lurk around in the back row mumbling resentfully and looking at your boots.”— Aroha Gilling to local and central government staff who work with iwi.
Making Māori decision-making visible
“We know very well that Māori assertion and self-confidence frightens and angers some Pākehā. They're not used to Māori being in control. Rangatiratanga gives visibility to Māori decision-making.” — Tainui Stephens.
Mary’s mokopuna are coming home
“It is the way of our people to reach for new horizons and, by doing so, create new worlds and new ways of living. It is also the way of some of us to return home, to the places of our origins.” — Tainui Stephens.
Is this the best we can do?
“There’s an attitude that disabled people should be grateful for what we get, that we should be satisfied with what the system offers us, because it’s better than it was in the bad old days when we were all institutionalised.” — Lusi Faiva.
Becoming Pākehā: A work in progress
“After two centuries and more of living together on the same islands, you’d think Māori and Pākehā would have got to know each other.” — John Bluck in his book ‘Becoming Pākehā’.
Reclaiming the marks of our tīpuna
“Our whānau had reached another milestone in the decolonisation process — or, rather, in our journey of reindigenising ourselves, becoming who we always were. We are reclaiming the tohu, the marks of our tīpuna.” — Ariana Tikao.
Our teachers made school fun
“Looking back now, I can see it wasn't just about learning kapa haka. It was about pride and belonging, and making sure that Māori kids had connection and support at school when, everywhere else, racism was out and proud, and tikanga Pākehā was dominant.” — Kim Mcbreen.
Is it time for new tikanga around tangi?
“That lack of control over our traditions (and data) at a tangi raises serious questions about the new tikanga we need to protect tapu online. Without the right restrictions in place, we risk the loss of tapu, and perhaps the death of tangi.” — Tainui Stephens
He maimai aroha: Wiremu ‘Knockers’ Allen
“Knox was feared and respected in equal measure. He served serial terms of imprisonment. However, age, maturity, the influence of a loving partner, and the presence of children, even in a rapscallion’s life, tend to soften and heal.” — Denis O’Reilly on Black Power leader Wiremu ‘Knockers’ Allen.
Casting off Cook
“The Cook Islands name has no meaningful connection to who we are. To me, when we describe ourselves as Cook Islanders, we’re saying ‘I am a James Cook Islander’, or ‘I am of James Cook’.” — Liam Koka‘ua.
Poly Girls Should Take Up Space
“Beneath the frequent microaggressions and low expectations is the undeniable disconnect between the Poly students and the rest of the school. Leaving us constantly feeling isolated, put down, and out of place.” — Sabina Misa.
Hinemoa Elder: Moving up the generational chain
“Hina’s shadows delivered the final gut punch realisation. I would never have another baby. I would never breastfeed again, wake in the night to the tiny cries and soothe a little one in my arms in the same way.” — Dr Hinemoa Elder.
Bringing our tūpuna home
“Numerous tūpuna were jumbled together in the box, in an unrecognisable heap. It was painful to think of them in that heap, thrown together so carelessly, unable to rest.” — Pounamu Jade Aikman.
Stood down from life
“Many of the ‘truant’ or simply AWOL students have been stood down, either legally or illegally, for not much more than ‘defiance’ or vaping, or some other teenage-y manifestation, and have decided not to go back.” — Shelley Burne-Field.
Everyday acts of resistance to colonisation
“I’ve been fortunate to contribute to big systemic change, but it’s the little acts, the personal struggles on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute basis that I find both potent and fascinating.” — Aroha Gilling.
Willie Los’e: Excelling — and looking good too
“What really impressed us was his presence. The guy had style and loved fashion. And, yeah, we made fun of him for it. But he had panache, he had class, and sophistication.” — Sir Michael Jones on Willie Los'e.
In the bedrooms of the nation
“Kiwi Keith” Holyoake reckoned the solution to our racial issues would be found in the “bedrooms of the nation”. — Denis O’Reilly.
Straight Up by Ruby Tui
“People often comment on how they love to watch us because of our obvious closeness as a team, and the joy we have towards our game and each other. What you’re seeing is real, but not simple.” — Black Ferns player Ruby Tui.
Don’t think inside the box
“The reo Māori petition and every learner and speaker of the language since September 14, 1972, has overturned one of the most damaging status quos suffered by our people.” — Tainui Stephens.
A new dawn: Finding healing after the Dawn Raids
“After our family was raided and my grandparents were sent back to Tonga . . . our family felt broken and lost.” — Emeli Sione.
‘An ill-fitting kākahu’: Being Māori and working for the Crown
“I remain in the public service, often as the only counter-narrative, and the only Māori voice, in innumerable projects and meetings.” — Aroha Gilling.
The art of slow progress
“There was nothing cool about my small classical repertoire. Beauty, yes. But a good time? No. I stopped my piano lessons.” — Tainui Stephens.
Writing while colonised
“One of the pervasive myths about Māori people (which we have taken to enthusiastically telling ourselves) is that ‘we don’t write’ despite literally millions of pages filled with words penned (or typed) by our own people — by ourselves.” — Professor Alice Te Punga Somerville.
Unfinished business: Toby Curtis
“We went to church on Sundays, mostly in the car. But if the car wouldn’t start, we would have to walk. When I was eight or so, we would often walk the 10 kilometres to church. The priest would listen to confessions before church, so we went early.” — Tā Toby Curtis.
Toby Curtis: A paradox of success
“I have always wondered how our Pākehā counterparts would have fared if they were taught solely in te reo Māori, a language that was not spoken in their homes.” — Tā Toby Curtis.
Lusi Faiva: ‘Freedom is acceptance of who I am’
“I think that if I had stayed in Kimberley for any longer, my life would’ve been worse. I wouldn’t have had the freedom that I later experienced to explore my own life. I wouldn’t be the Lusi I am today.” — Lusi Faiva.
The Happy Bankrupt
"It's been said that bankruptcy happens gradually, and then suddenly. That's very true. It was my fault for making it gradual because I didn't face up to my tax bill right away." — Tainui Stephens.
A respectfully curious approach
“Any time we’re on the world stage, it’s Māori things front and centre. As if those things are in a strong and healthy state. As if we have a bicultural country.” — Keri Opai.
Talking about Pacific and religious values
“Fa’afafine, same-sex relationships and transgender people existed throughout the Pacific well before Christians arrived.” — Fuimaono Karl Pulotu-Endemann.
Pepeha for non-Māori
“I believe that it’s inappropriate for non-Māori people to use the same pepeha as tangata whenua. It is not a matter of mere opinion, of like or dislike, of right or wrong: it simply doesn’t make sense. It is a matter of indigeneity.” — Keri Opai.
Sisters on and off the field
“For as long as anyone can remember, the team has always had a chant of ‘Sisters!’ It’s often heard before a game or at the end of the halftime huddle, but . . . there was a time when it was shouted with little meaning.” — Rikki Swannell in 'Sevens Sisters'.
Jane Kelsey: Truth to Power — the critical legal academic as licensed subversive
“Critical scholarship needs to take our teaching and research beyond the cloisters of the lecture theatres, academic conferences and scholarly journals, and apply our skills, knowledge and power to advancing transformative justice.” — Professor Jane Kelsey.
It’s you, it’s you must go, and I must bide
“Laurie O’Reilly was the first coach of the Black Ferns, and he was a champion for women’s rugby. He had a similar passion for championing the rights of children.” — Denis O’Reilly.
‘Dial a Māori’ and other mistakes Pākehā make
“If we can be more vulnerable as Pākehā — and if we can stop pretending that we know stuff because we’ve taken a few te reo classes — then we’ll be in a better position to learn. And to help create a better Aotearoa.” — Kate Frykberg.
The right words to say
“I sometimes find myself on the speakers’ paepae at a formal hui. It’s always a daunting thing. Never to be taken for granted. Always to be reflected on.” — Tainui Stephens.
Staying in our lane
“When tangata whenua share their world with the rest of us, it doesn’t mean we should claim a special insight or position. If we do this, we risk being told to stay in our lane.” — Catherine Delahunty.
The food of our ancestors
“Research showed that taro was part of the Māori diet from the moment Polynesians arrived. It was known as kai rangatira, a food for important people and eaten on special occasions.” — Lana Lopesi.
Celebrating Māori writing and storytelling
“Our most complex and important questions, theories, and ideas were shared and discussed by some of our greatest creators in te ao Māori.” — Chloe Fergusson-Tibble on Kupu, the Māori writers’ festival.
The Roaring Wind: Joe Hawke
“When Joe Hawke was born in 1940, the only land remaining to Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei in the entire Tāmaki isthmus, over which they had exercised their mana for some two centuries, was just 12½ acres of land at Ōkahu Bay.” — Professor David Williams.
Siding with the powerless
“We have to fix whānau, to fix family. And if we do that, there’ll be nobody in front of our courts. For me, that is the paramount thing to focus on within the justice system.” — Michelle Kidd.
A university where we can see ourselves
“I still remember the Year 13 dean who decided I didn’t need university pamphlets because, in his eyes, I wasn’t university material.” — Jemaima Tiatia, Pro Vice Chancellor Pacific at Auckland University.
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.
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.
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.
Don’s Last Post
“Don recalled discovering an enemy bunker and shooting the Germans inside. Inside a pocket of one of the dead he discovered a photo of the man’s wife and children. It devastated him.” — Tainui Stephens.
A day in the life of a Māori academic
“While the hijacking had taken things to another level, this was also just another day in the life of a Māori academic working within a colonial and patriarchal institution and society.” — Dr Elana Curtis.
Being part of Moana’s legacy
“Moana taught me, a young Chinese activist, the meaning of solidarity and what it means to be living on this land as tangata Tiriti who respect tangata whenua.” — Mengzhu Fu.
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.
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.
Justice Joe Williams: Kua moe Te Tāwera?
“Moana was an idealist who believed in the transformative potential of sound ideas. If the ideas were right, the practical issues would resolve themselves in time.” — Justice Sir Joe Williams.
Moana Jackson: His legacy will endure
“If he hadn't taken on those fights, he could quite easily have buffered himself against the health issues. But he didn't. He didn't swerve. He didn't flinch. He just kept on going.” — Ngahiwi Tomoana.
The Matriarch of Māngere
“June was a matriarch of Donna Corleone proportions. Smoked up a storm, was a hotshot card player, and swore like a trooper. She had a shotgun under her bed.” — Moana Maniapoto.
Tariana Turia: A time for other stories to be told
“He was tenacious and yet so tolerant; formidable in his intellect, yet always wanting to make space for the ordinary people to contribute.” — Dame Tariana Turia.
In the waiting place
“The smoke floats around her like a deadly nimbus; but the irony still pinches. That one thing that put her here is the one thing that gives her any remnant of her own life now.” — Māmari Stephens.
‘You been playing up, boy?’
“I wouldn’t say the school was racist, as such. There were Māori staff, a makeshift marae on-site, Māori students excelling in pockets. It was, however, uncomfortably tolerant of racist rhetoric.” — Airana Ngarewa.
Phil Tataurangi: Making up for lost time
“If I had personally put in more effort, or prioritised knowing my whakapapa and my reo, would I have been more successful?” — Phil Tataurangi.
Fa’afetai lava, Luteru
“When Luteru swings low and wide to launch a ball for six, he might as well be channelling one of his aunties from Saoluafata.” — James Nokise on Ross Taylor.
Much to ponder after protest
“To the nurses: I can’t understand how you think you could continue to care for my husband with cancer, or a newborn grandchild in a neonatal unit, or visit my aunty’s home to redo her dressing on her leg, if you aren’t vaccinated.” — Joanne Doherty.
Resilience and recovery
“The Tongan approach to accept trials with humility and without resentment provides a strong platform for recovery.” — Koro Vaka’uta.
Bloodways of Papatūānuku
“Wai Pasifika is not just an examination of how to manage the substance that is essential to life on earth — but which blinkered materialists think of as a ‘resource’. It is also an approach to how to be in relationship with water.” — Kennedy Warne.
Sharing the ‘ofa for Tonga
“We’ve seen it before in Aotearoa. The Tongan community can mobilise in the blink of an eye and TURN UP. Man, do they turn up.” — Emmaline Pickering-Martin.
Waitangi: A mixed blessing in a beautiful disguise
“Waitangi is more than a powerful word in legislation and history. It’s more than sausage sizzles and a family day off.” — Tainui Stephens.
Cast adrift: My story of adoption
“Around 80,000 babies were adopted. Because of shabby practices, we can’t know how many of these babies were Māori, but I imagine every whānau has been affected, and has lost precious children.” — Kim Mcbreen.
The love of place
“We want the land and the beach to be left in peace. My dream is that one day the rich will be made to give up having to own the view.” — Catherine Delahunty.
Resisting the pull to go home
“We are the people that the restrictions and the mandates exist for. We are the reason why those working hospitals, shops, schools, movie theatres and cafes have to make sure their staff are vaccinated.” — Rangimarie Sophie Jolley.
Why can’t all courts be like this?
“Treating people with humanity is good for everyone. Especially when someone hasn’t seen much humanity in their life.” — Kingi Snelgar.
Why we need you to stay away this summer
“We’re going to have to dig deep to avoid a deeply tragic scenario playing out again and again.” — Tina Ngata.
Teine Sā — the feminist icons of Sāmoa
“Looking in the mirror, brushing your hair or wearing your hair out was said to draw the attention of the Teine Sā. That could lead to sickness, possession or even death.” — Lana Lopesi, in an extract from her new book 'Bloody Woman'.
When it all feels unstoppable
“So many men have no community, and my father didn’t have friends until he found the white supremacists online.” — Kim Mcbreen, on losing her father to a conspiracy theory.
Son for the return home
“Back then, Pacific Island students weren’t just going to universities to get jobs and degrees — they were going there to change the world, to free their countries, to take back their lands, to found their national homes.” — Pala Molisa on Albert Wendt.
Waiata mai
“I think you might be able to classify Māori as one of two kinds: whakamā and katakata. The test for which kind you are is whether or not you do skits.” — Aaron Craig.
Understanding the Māori universe
“The Māori world is, in fact, a Māori universe with all of the subtleties, idiosyncrasies and nuances of any culture." — Keri Opai, author of 'Tikanga: An introduction to te ao Māori'.
What I’ve learned this year
“When Māori are used as political football, someone has to make the tackles, and that’s what we try to do.” — Moana Maniapoto reflecting on the role of her award-winning current affairs TV programme, Te Ao with Moana.
Fighting Poison
“The story of SWAP (Sawmill Workers Against Poisons) is more than the terrible and the tragic. It’s also about racism, class issues, and a kind of leadership that’s so often ignored and underestimated.” — Catherine Delahunty.
Sometimes just a chat is enough
“Don’t feel you have to finish reading this article. There will be no great wisdom at the end. If suicide has touched your life, and in reading this you find yourself treading dark territory again, please pull out.” — James Nokise.
The heroes in our whānau
“The private heroes among our friends and family won’t save the world by their personal courage, but their presence in our lives give us the chance to save our humanity.” — Tainui Stephens.
Becoming Tangata Tiriti
“How does that maunga in Aotearoa that you’ve claimed to be ‘toku maunga’ become your mountain? And what gives you the right to claim that river as yours? It’s not ancestry. It’s not an inherited story. So, what is it?” — Catherine Delahunty.
Saving our boys from their shadows
“As a teacher, I’d been invited to major life milestones of former students, like 21st birthdays and graduations. But never this.” — Dahlia Malaeulu.
Calling out hatred
“We have to make a noise about the bullshit, the bigotry, the terminally foolish, the wilfully ignorant. The dangerous.” — Tainui Stephens.
Fighting misinformation: ‘We need to wānanga’
“I have every faith in my whānau Māori to make safe decisions that protect our whakapapa. But, as a country responsible for this vaccine rollout, we’ve got to do better.” — Chloe Fergusson-Tibble.
Mark Solomon: On leadership and life
"The Crown reckoned full redress was worth around $12 to $15 billion. Our advisers thought it was closer to $20 billion. We settled for $170 million — a lot less, but it allowed Ngāi Tahu to move forward, to rebuild." — Mark Solomon.
‘I never got to go home’
“My parents' dream of a better life collided with the cultural ignorance of mainstream New Zealand in the 1950s onwards.” — Fa'amoana Luafutu, who told his story of institutional abuse to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.
The making of a Māori town: Ōtaki
“There is an indigenous spirit in Ōtaki that is unapologetic and proud. By definition that spirit is also loving.” — Tainui Stephens.
‘We’re gonna need a whole new everything’
“It occurred to me as we drove around Westport that you might feel private about flood damage. We looked at the piles of rubbish, carpet, toys and clothing and we said we would hate to have strangers looking at our sodden mess.” — Becky Manawatu.
Farewell to a woman of fire
“Like the Hawaiian atua Pele, portrayed as a goddess of volcanoes and fire, Haunani-Kay Trask could be volcanic in her thinking and writing, a lava flow of protest.” — Kennedy Warne.
Chronic Kaupapa Fatigue
“I’ve known many individuals who grew old before their time because of the energy they expended, and the risks they took with their health or their domestic happiness, all to be able to serve a vital kaupapa that uplifted the wellbeing of the people.” — Tainui Stephens.
Policing the Dawn Raids
“The attitudes of the special squads which had been formed to do this work was appalling. The latent racism, usually judiciously concealed, was blatant and paraded for all to see, with constant talk of ‘getting the coconuts’.” — Tā Kim Workman.
Thursdays with Georgie
“Georgie had a way of asking questions that would make those in power squirm. 'Where are the women?' 'Where are the Māori?' Then she would do something to answer them.” — Adam Gifford on Dame Georgina Kirby, who died last month.
A maker of stories
“Each night, there will be a sentence or a paragraph that moves me, sometimes causing tears to flow. It happens whenever I read Patricia Grace.” — Kennedy Warne on one of the country's most beloved writers.
When Pākehā are not in charge
“A lot more of our people are beginning to realise that social change led by Indigenous wisdom is about how we organise and how we treat each other, as well as what we’re fighting for.” – Catherine Delahunty.
Return to Ōtata
“We were here to get to know the place — and let the place know us.” — Kennedy Warne remembers a day on Ōtata Island with a group of rangatahi.
Remembering Richard Nunns
“He looked more Pākeha than any Pākehā I knew . . . But his was a life deeply immersed in te ao Māori. He was one of the best taonga puoro players in the world. A leading force behind their revival.” — Moana Maniapoto on Richard Nunns.
Racists Anonymous — a reflection of ourselves
“A man stood up and said: ‘I thought this was the group to come to when you want to be racist.’ And then he left. I’m still hoping that was part of the show.” — Emmaline Pickering-Martin on 'Racists Anonymous'.
None but ourselves can reboot our minds
“Colonisation’s most torrid battles take place in the mind. And here in Aotearoa, our thoughts have been held captive by misplaced perceptions of superiority and inferiority.” — Tainui Stephens.
Truth, lies, and stereotypes
“Stereotypes affect, and infect, all of us — including those of us who suffer because of them. They don’t just live in the heads of those who use them to hammer us, but in ours as well.” — Shelley Burne-Field.
Our stories about Cook
“Our stories of Cook need to explain why we need a Māori Health Authority and why such a thing isn’t apartheid or racist. Our stories of Cook need to provide ways for people on city councils to understand why there is such a broad call for Māori wards.” — Alice Te Punga Somerville.
Things have to change
“For two weeks, my co-parenting partner and my daughter and I lived out of a car. It was just the worst feeling you could imagine.” — Apanui Koopu, on how MSD decisions made things worse for him and his whānau.
Flies in milk
“The reason this female ancestor of mine is a mystery is simple. She was either Indian or what was then called Eurasian.” — Catherine Delahunty.
The Māori mascot
“The rangatahi Māori interns were like mascots. We were there to entice funding bodies into handing over more money.”
This doesn’t make us less
“We can be Māori and reo-less at the same time. It’s not ideal — especially in the hidden places we never talk about — but we can keep our heads held high. This doesn’t make us less.” — Shelley Burne-Field.
Everything ancient was once new
“Words like ‘traditional’ are used to inflict violence against us.” — Dr Emalani Case.
Rejecting the System
“We don’t need to try to shape ourselves to fit Pālagi measures of success. Because we will never win, if we just play by those rules.” — Dahlia Malaeulu.
The Dawn Raids of 1974
“No one was safe. The police just went to addresses where they knew Tongans lived, maybe tipped off by a disgruntled neighbour. And the checks were indiscriminate.” — Joris de Bres.
Underground History
“We learned of the arrests from frightened kids who came into our classrooms, wide-eyed and anxious. They talked about special police squads raiding homes and workplaces.” — Professor Welby Ings, on being a teacher during the Dawn Raids era.
Our Pacific communities do have love for us
“I know that Pacific communities do have space and love for us, even if the extremist religious groups seem to have the loudest microphones.” — Seuta’afili Dr Patrick Thomsen.
Tripping over Te Tiriti
“Much of our practice is repeatedly addressing the resistance to well-documented facts. Some people just can’t believe that they have been spun a toxic yarn about our history.” — Catherine Delahunty
‘I follow the trail of blood’
“In these fields, the tūpuna lie where they fell in the swamps or in unmarked graves hastily dug by survivors, with the dead piled up around them. I swear I can sometimes hear their voices.” — Joanna Kidman.
‘Clowns wear suits, too’: the look, feel and taste of systemic racism
“Whiteness is a dance whose rhythm we all know. And our missteps invite derision and censure, as Anantha and I found in stepping out of line at this particular dinner.”
Dawn Raid — born in South Auckland
“The legacy of Dawn Raid Entertainment serves as a timely reminder that our ambition mustn't get lost in the allure of money and fame.” — Litia Tuiburelevu.
Reading the signs on a journey into Māori law
“Up until my early 20s, Māori people and language had never really been normal at all to me. Māori concepts and ideas were not normal either, except in the most abstract and safe way.” — Māmari Stephens.
Te haunga o te tangata: Smell thy neighbour
“The soundscape of a meeting house at sleep can be a wondrous thing or a foretaste of hell for the newbie, if only for the realisation of how many ways it is possible for human beings to snore.” — Tainui Stephens.
Memories from the Mahia Peninsula
“I was very sick with pleurisy and wasn’t expected to live. But Tangitangi, a woman from Ruatorea, wouldn’t give up on me and sucked the fluid out of my congested lungs through my nostrils — giving me life.” — Derek Fox.
The big beats of history
“The thing about the big beats of history is that they’re often signs or reminders that we must now reimagine the society we live in. Momentous history requires momentous change.” — Tainui Stephens.
New Zealand universities are lucky to have us
“Even though I studied at tertiary level for 10 years, I've never had a Pacific lecturer, and there were no Pacific academics who could supervise my PhD in my school.” — Jess Pasisi.
Lost in translation
“There’s often been a gulf between our multilingual Pasifika and Māori students and their teachers, who are mostly middle-class English-speaking Pākehā.” — Kim Meredith.
Suicide prevention — we have a long way to go
"My whānau’s experience tells me that we have a long way to go in this country to prevent the mamae of suicide in our communities." — Emmaline Pickering-Martin.
Hey, that’s our mana you’re messing with
“It was straight-up rude to be honest. That mishandling, misunderstanding, minimising of mana.” — Becky Manawatu, award-winning novelist, on being labelled “average” after one school test.
Be a good tupuna: Taking climate action now
“Few people know that there is, in fact, a sixteenth island of the Cook Islands which can be found in the South Waikato: Te Kaokaoroa-o-Pātetere, or Tokoroa.” — Tamatha Paul.
Telling Niue climate change stories in Niue ways
"In the age of climate change, it cannot be clearer that when Indigenous people don’t have control in the relationship they have with their land and bodies of water, ultimately the health of the planet is put at risk." — Jess Pasisi.
The beauty and the violence
“This is the way it was for us. The two sides of our lives. The beauty and the violence; the richness and the poverty; the love and the hate. Everything, but nothing.” — Stan Walker, in his new book 'Impossible — My Story'.
The grind of racism
“Racism is wearisome. Literally tiring. It does not create a pearl after years of grinding. It creates sickness, fear, anxiety, sadness, resentment, and worry.” — Shelley Burne-Field.
‘At uni, we’re expected to be good, quiet Māori’
“We’ve struggled to find a space where we can be Māori and feel safe within these institutions.” — Māori doctoral students.
Why being a Pākehā doctor isn’t enough
“At medical school . . . I was presented with a narrative that implied that Māori were at fault for their own ill health.” — Dr Vanessa Selak.
Not all of us find our way home
“From the outside, my life looked positively magical. But this perfectly curated image that I had crafted on social media, hid the reality of what life was really like for me abroad.” — Patrick Thomsen.
This Pākehā life
“I decided to enrol in an immersion course at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, in South Auckland. My friends were impressed, commending me for my ‘bravery’.” — Alison Jones in her new book 'This Pākehā Life: An Unsettled Memoir'.
Rangatiratanga in the age of conspiracy
Preserve the rangatiratanga of the mind, writes Rangi Kemara. Without it, you're a slave.
When a loved one is in prison
“It’s one thing to know about a problem — and another to live it, to feel crushed by it, and to try to overcome it.”
Finding my way home
"The people I once loved 11 years ago had changed. They had experienced their own joys, growth, traumas and regressions. Distance had grown between many of us." — Seuta'afili Dr Patrick Thomsen on coming "home".
I am doing this for our seas
"The lack of white settlers in the Moana doesn’t mean that colonisation didn’t happen. Instead, corporate colonisation meant that corporates extracted natural resources and labour." — Tulia Thompson.
I really want you to watch ‘Sis’
“Despite Pasifika women being some of the leading figures in my life, I never saw their myriad, colourful personalities reflected on screen.” — Litia Tuiburelevu on the new comedy sketch show 'Sis'.
Hoping for a dose of humanity and decency
“There can be no open, fair and honest conversations or ‘equality’ when one side denies your history, denies your narrative, denies your suffering.” — Patrick Thomsen.
Peace, love and happiness
“Adults submitted work to a group of adults. Everyone presumed they were there, not to have their genius confirmed to them, but to become better writers.” — Becky Manawatu.
History demands a personal reckoning
“You can’t be Pākehā and believe that you’re not personally responsible for the colonial oppression of Indigenous peoples. No matter who your ancestors are.” — Leah Bell.
That funeral director from TV
"I was a whāngai kid — a pretty common practice used by Māori families to make sure their children are brought up okay." — Francis Tipene, in an extract from 'Life as a Casketeer'.
The story of Olsen Filipaina
Rugby league great Olsen Filipaina (Sāmoan-Ngāpuhi) died last week, on February 10. Here's a piece we ran about him in 2020, extracted from 'The Big O', by Patrick Skene.
The gift we gave ourselves
“Are these proposed changes the gift that we wish to give to the future generation of Sāmoans?” — Moeata Keil on the controversial changes to Sāmoa's constitution.
The colonial problem
“The origins of the racism that is tearing the United States apart has deep parallels with New Zealand, and the origins are the same.” — Aaron Smale.
We’re part of New Zealand’s Pacific story
"I've found it disheartening that their stories are almost always left out when we talk about Pacific peoples and our contribution to New Zealand society." — Seuta'afili Dr Patrick Thomsen on the Pacific's Rainbow and Queer community.
Dealing with WINZ — ‘dehumanising and demoralising’
“Even with a fair amount of privilege on my side, it was one of the worst, most depressing phases of my life. I now truly believe that our social welfare system isn’t designed to help struggling New Zealanders.” — Victoria Kaihe.
The centre is where we belong
“I realised my only ticket back into the area was to line some landlord’s pocket with 40 percent of my income and take one of four bedrooms in a rundown flat on Sussex St (his 12th property, fyi).” — Litia Tuiburelevu.
Hey, white women: Māori culture is not your birthright
"We need to reflect on those times where we have ignorantly or arrogantly claimed Māori culture as our own — as if it can be taken and used without permission, just as Māori land was." — Debra Hunt.
The land of the wrong white crowd: Growing up and living in the shadow of racism
“What are the chances of ending racism in New Zealand by 2040? The news on this front would seem to be both good and bad.” — Trevor Richards.
Mother’s Day without your mum
“Today, for my first Mother’s Day without my mum, I find myself somewhere between celebrating and commemorating.” — Dahlia Malaeulu.
Atareta Poananga: Elegant and unflinching
She described Pākehā as "the product of the riffraff, the flotsam and jetsam of British culture." — Moana Maniapoto on Atareta Poananga, who died just over a week ago.
Oh Canada!
“Canadians are inclined to point to racism as something that exists in the USA. ‘We are not the USA!’” — Tainui Stephens.
Whaikōrero with subtitles
“Huirangi’s online memorial offered those of us still working on our reo a very rare gift: whaikōrero with English subtitles.” — Vanessa Ellingham.
We owe so much to Huirangi
“Huirangi met every test of his strength, courage, integrity and leadership to secure the rights of future generations to the language of his tipuna.” — Andrew Robb on Huirangi Waikerepuru.
May the shimmer of light guide you on your way
“When this pandemic started to inch closer around us here in New Zealand, we all began worrying for Che.” — Becky Manawatu, on losing her cousin Che Warren, "one of New Zealand's most vulnerable", during the lockdown.
We’re blessed to have a son with autism
“In a way, Mase was in a bubble long before Covid-19 hit the world and we were forced into our own bubbles.” — Dahlia Malaeulu.
When I think of Italy
“In Italy, you kept house, and you kept it clean enough for the pope to visit any day of the week.” — Becky Manawatu.
The day petrol was not on special
"I am a notorious chuck-20-buckers-in-the-van to get home sort of person." — Becky Manawatu.
What will our rangatahi inherit?
"If I was a teenager today, I’d be anxious about the world I’m about to inherit. A job, a home, a family, clean air, and fresh water are well on their way to becoming luxuries." — Tainui Stephens.
It shifts, it changes
“Our world is changing so fast that many of last century’s realities are today not just irrelevant but even non-existent.” — Kennedy Warne.
Farewelling Tallulah
“I’m sad to see our Little Miss slide listlessly into a final acceptance that her magnificent animal frame is on its last legs. She writes the last page of that Ngāruawāhia chapter of my life.” — Tainui Stephens farewells a dear friend.
Classical music, New Zealand, and me
“It remained truly exhausting and alienating to be brown in the classical world.” — Sophie Yana Wilson.
The Anniversaries of our Amnesia
“I’m starting to understand that amnesia may well be one of the main organising principles of colonisation. A selective forgetting is an important part of how power maintains its privileges.” — vivian Hutchinson.
How we remember difficult histories
Liana MacDonald and Keziah Wallis visit Ihumātao and the Nixon monument — and find two starkly different ways of thinking about, and remembering, the same history.
Being Māori in classical music is exhausting
"My tūpuna deserve better than a man with a sign asking us to 'Save Another Western Value from Destruction'." — Ruby Solly.
Karanga: The call of home
To karanga or not to karanga? Anahera Higgins on practising and protecting a cultural taonga.
Whina Cooper: Fearless and unforgettable
“For several decades, Whina’s astute brand of leadership had been shaped by the traditions of her elders and powered by her own mighty self-confidence.”
Nothing bad, not ever again
“Back then, in 1992 or 1993, we didn’t know how much we might need to see these moments again. No one took a picture.” — Becky Manawatu.
Our communities are broken
“In our town, the fire brigade has more callouts for accidents, medical emergencies and suicides than it does for fires.” — Lorene Royal.
‘Tell The Dead I’m Coming!’
"It's a mix of carnage and self-mockery." — Producer Tainui Stephens on The Dead Lands, a Māori take on a television genre that relies on "dollops of action and a lot of splatter".
He maimai aroha: A tribute to Tahu Pōtiki
Rakatira, visionary, reo champion, best mate, and hōhā! All of these terms were used to describe Tahu Pōtiki during his tangihanga on Ōtākou Marae last year.
Leaving home
“In the memory, there is just my mum, standing on the verandah, smiling, waving. I was annoyed she wasn’t crying.” — Becky Manawatu on leaving home.
Moriori: Still setting the record straight
“What happened to our people has been, and to a large extent remains, an inconvenient truth and stain on the history and conscience of our nation.” — Moriori leader Maui Solomon.
Becoming ‘really Pākehā’
“Regardless of personal politics or wealth, as Pākehā we all benefit from the dispossession of Māori. There are no exemptions from Pākehā privilege.”
Crafting Aotearoa: What Planet Do You Come From?
“The ’nesian body was not welcome, nor was anything that adorned it — unless it was ‘in fashion’, doomed to disappear when the next trend arrived. The New Zealand mainstream media did not reflect the world I inhabited.”
Crafting Aotearoa: The Ancestry of Te Aute
"Most people have forgotten that the paper mulberry plant made it all the way to Aotearoa. Like their Pacific cousins, Māori made barkcloth for kites, clothing, adornment and ceremony."
The day the world changed
"Don’t let schooling get in the way of your education, moko.” — Haare Williams' grandmother, after his first day of school in 1943.
What is hope? Tales from South Africa
“I wonder how many of us here in Aotearoa can appreciate what life is like for most of the non-whites in South Africa. Not many, if any, as Scribe once said.”
The iceberg below the surface
“The people who have marched before me, who have occupied spaces before me: their feet taking steps for change, their bodies on the line, their voices hoarse with conviction . . . they are the iceberg below the surface.”
Treaty settlements and the enjoyment of land rights
“The big question that still lies unanswered is not the acquisition of land rights, but the enjoyment of land rights. How do you enjoy being where you are?”
Hearing the ocean speak
“We have come here to speak about protection of the ocean. We come in the planet’s most uncertain hours to sing a redemptive tune. And what is it we are protecting the ocean against? Regrettably, us.”
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’.”
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.”
‘Most times you let it go’
"When hospo workers stand together, when we expose what our industry is really like, we move closer to changing our industry for the better."
Treaty Negotiators: Not a job for wimps
“It was so stressful. I told my lot I just want to be Pākehā for a while.”
Saying goodbye to my mum
“She came home to die. But not straight away. She still had things she wanted to do.”
A taniwha in the city
Te Routu o Ureia is not the only site in Heritage New Zealand’s official list that has a taniwha connection. But it is the only site that carries a taniwha’s name.
Hemi at Hiruhārama
James K Baxter’s Jerusalem Daybook “had woken something, disrupted something, in my placid Pākehā existence. Like the water tank in Baxter’s story, bullet holes were appearing in the walls of assumption and belief.” — Kennedy Warne.
The singing island
“There is no airstrip. To get to Takū, you book a passage on the supply ship — if it's sailing. Last year, not a single ship visit was made. Cut off from outside supplies, the islanders relied entirely on their traditional food sources: fish, coconut and occasional taro."
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.”
Merata — a son’s tribute
“My hunger for the past came out of a need to process my own grief, rather than a desire to study the history.” — Hepi Mita, on making a film about his mum, Merata.
A river calls my name
“Of first importance, the river. Of second importance, the river.”— Kennedy Warne on the Whanganui River.
The history I wasn’t taught
The 150th anniversaries of several brutal events in our local and national history has prompted Ernie Barrington to dip into the history books — to remember “episodes that call out to be remembered and not to be airbrushed away”.
Breaking the Mould: I am a Pacific Professional
“Traits like humility and service are not typically associated with leadership in New Zealand workplaces, yet in the Pacific context they are among the most valued characteristics a leader can possess.”
Maria: A Love Story
“Maria Thompson became a part of the Jackson household after my son’s grandmother, June, found her on the streets and took her home. She stayed for over three decades.”
‘They’re not your fish’
History shows that it is invariably Māori who have been denied access by Pākehā to that which is precious to them, not the other way round.
The pros and cons of not looking Māori
“Being positioned as a “Māori” teacher came at a price. With this visible Māori identity came expectations from my colleagues that I was an expert on all things Māori.”
Listening to the People of the Land
Kennedy Warne has been a geographical explorer for 30 years, but he considers his most important exploration to have been cultural and spiritual: an awakening to te ao Māori.
Collude or Collide? My Response to Racism
"The decision to respond to racism feels challenging because of the inevitably difficult dialogue that follows and the risk to relationships."
Still more stories to tell
"I seek home in others’ hearts, and ask their permission to write of it. I look for aroha in their stories, for it is love that helps light things up when darkness threatens."
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.”
The Boss Is Dead: A tribute to Hiwi Tauroa
“Hiwi was perfect to be a Conciliator. He was not an angry man. He was a naturally diplomatic kind of guy, yet had the capacity to set his jaw, dig his heels in, and rark his voice up a bit.”
I help Māori students grow their dreams
"For some of our students, getting to uni is ridiculously difficult, and so I try to make my classes worth the long commutes, and the sizeable weekly dent in their student allowance."—Dr Jani Wilson
‘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.
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 McFall.
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
‘I was in prison and you visited me’
For decades, May Mackey provided "compassion and aroha and prayer support without judgment" to prisoners. Last week, the 98-year-old was honoured for that work.
Lani Wendt Young: Writing to live, living to write
"There’s a vast untapped market that is hungry for books where Pasifika peoples are centered, where we are the mainstream and not the marginalised Other."
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.
Steven Adams: When Dad got sick
"It was 10 o’clock at night and this massive family was crying and then laughing and then crying and laughing again. I don’t know if it’s a brown thing, but if you’re not laughing at the hospital, no matter what the situation, you’re doing it wrong."
‘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."
My story, my shame, is tragically common
“The #MeToo movement hasn’t flowed through our Pacific communities as publicly as it has elsewhere. I think a big part of that is that the ones who’ve hurt us are our family. So outing our assaulter hurts us in new ways, and brings back the old pain.”
‘You’re still my baby and I love you’
“I lived to make my mum happy . . . And hiding my truth was one way I tried to do that. I wanted to protect the both of us.”
The day our daughter told us she wasn’t straight
My daughter’s “coming out” momentarily knocked the life out of her mother and me.
Of your moko you cannot be deprived
The concept of wearing allegiances on the face, of using the skin as a canvas to tell a personal story . . . was a distinctly Māori expression.
One tough mother
Remembering the mother of the nation, Whina Cooper — a tough, uncompromising mother who understood the power of protest and the political fray.
Princesses — and the sanitising of British history
“For many Māori girls who grew up in Rotorua during the 1960s, the guides were our heroes. Our superwomen. Our warrior princesses.”
‘He’s the one who came home’
“The same courage that saw us move back to Tauranga Moana after an absence of many generations is needed again to take this next step. To finally be invested completely in the whenua of our ancestors. Our branch of the Bidois whānau will have a foothold again.”
‘Gather up the bloodstained soil’
Kennedy Warne finds a connection between Parihaka and a memorial to the thousands of African-Americans who suffered the horror of death by lynching.
Why is God and sexuality so bloody difficult?
"Christianity is a religion of failures and dropkicks, hypocrites and losers, because most of us are goodish, but not one of us is good enough. We all know this regardless of belief, right?"
Moana Maniapoto: Losing my religion
One day, while our Māori Anglican dad was at work, our Pākehā Catholic mum rushed her brood off to...
Kennedy Warne: Martin in the mangroves
Kennedy Warne reflects on the days leading up to Martin Luther King’s death, 50 years ago.
Māmari Stephens: I never saw any narrative of Māori life until I was an adult
“It took years of very conscious effort for me not to be afraid to walk into a room full of people darker than I was.”
Remembering the women of the Mau movement in Samoa
Why do we always seem to be looking overseas for our heroines and heroes when we have so many right here at home — in our own family histories and in our hearts?
Our church leaders need to see Jesus as a radical activist
There seems to be increasingly little awareness among church leaders — both Māori and Pacific — that there's a direct correlation between Gospel truth and political activism.
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.
The second migration: stories of urban Māori
In the course of Urban Māori, a 300-page book being launched next week, Bradford Haami has told...
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...
Nadine Anne Hura: I’m reclaiming the name I lost
In my life, I’ve had three names. I have lost one, borrowed two, and am in the process of...
No way do you leave the west
Like many other Waipareira stalwarts, Roimata Hansen has strong ties with the North. But she has...
From Hick’s Bay to Waipareira
This is an extract from Kia Pū te Wai o Pareira — He Kōrero a-Whānau, a Waipareira publication...