Getting past white defensiveness
“How do we begin to have conversations about critical issues when we’re so far apart?”
Comment & Analysis
A call to war?
“There’s a litany of examples, including admissions by the police themselves, of unconscious bias. Or racism, as we called it in the good old days.” — Moana Maniapoto.
‘They travel with shadows’
“Their tūpuna inhabit every room they enter, they embody every act, and they help guide every word.”
Why we should care about retirement policy
“The simplicity and universality of the NZ Superannuation model is the envy of many across the world, but it doesn’t address the needs of all — nor is it guaranteed to be sustainable without refinement.” — Peter Cordtz, interim Retirement Commissioner.
Why aren’t universities made for people like me?
“The longer I stay at university, the more I realise that not only are universities not made for me, but there are institutional structures embedded within them that actively exclude me."
A tika Māori approach to climate change action
“The Treaty relationship needs to underpin the Climate Change Commission — and in fact, all the commissioners should be bound by Treaty obligations, such as to actively protect Māori rights.”
Māori suicide rate calls for new strategy
“With Māori people, it's not just one thing. There's a plethora of social barriers and problems that are against us at the moment, such as the recent kaupapa about Oranga Tamariki.”
Beyond the Dusky Maiden
“Even in the most liberal of spaces, such as universities that publicly commit to being a space that welcomes and celebrates Pasifika, we see a pattern of racism and sexism.”
It happened here — a snapshot of hate crime in New Zealand
Nine years of race and religious hate crime in New Zealand, based on news media reports between 2004 and 2012.
The whakapapa of our literature
“Instead of placing Māori and Pacific literatures as late arrivals to English literature, we instead recognise a whakapapa of Māori literature that goes all the way back to Te Moana nui a Kiwa.”
A good death
“Those who cannot truly and freely choose should be protected by the state, not exposed to greater risk of death.”
Now there’s hope
"Let’s be honest. Both sides of politics abandoned the provinces last century. The Provincial Growth Fund is the first injection of capital in a long time."
James Cook and our monuments to colonisation
The upcoming Crown commemorations of James Cook’s voyages are "part of a wider narrative in which racism has been denied more often than it has been acknowledged".
Israel Folau’s demise is also partially ours
"Israel Folau’s demise is one that I can’t fully celebrate as a gay Pasifika person."—Seuta'afili Dr Patrick Thomsen.
The Far Right is Right Here
“The number of far right groups or individuals isn’t important. It is their potential to harass and intimidate, and to be violent.”
The connection between white supremacy and colonisation
“The Christchurch terrorist was not some ‘lone wolf’ psychopath. He may have acted alone, but he drew upon the shared ideas and history that still lurk in the shadows of every country that has been colonised.”
Standing still in the whirlwind
"We haven't 'lost our innocence', as so many have said. We never had any."
Don’t get me started on compulsion
Maybe it's too late for some of us to learn our history, but why subject our children and mokopuna to the same fate?
For the sake of the whānau
“Every single approach to ‘fixing’ our people has been designed and decided by Pākehā — and it has made things worse.”
The Empathy Gap and Me
"The Māori experience of colonisation, disease, war, urbanisation and deprivation within this country is unique to Māori."
The shameful treatment of gout in New Zealand
“I don’t just see numbers when I’m reporting research. I see people’s faces and hear their kōrero, and the impact inadequate gout management has on them — all from a condition that is entirely manageable.” Leanne Te Karu, prescribing pharmacist.
Māori media: We’ll need to make tough calls
A one-stop shop of Māori news won’t mean less diversity of voices. —Mike Rehu, media consultant and broadcaster.
You can’t be a kaitiaki from a distance
Our ability to care for and protect rivers, lakes, and wetlands is based on our ability to hear what they’re saying to us.
The New Zealand Wars and the school curriculum
This is too important to leave to the whims of individual schools and teachers.
Let your story be heard
We won’t see significant change in educational achievement for Māori until we free our children from the negative narratives about them in their everyday lives.
They’re our whānau: Māori perspectives of NZ’s justice system
We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform our justice system so that it better serves humanity.
Don’t go down into the gutter with them
"Education can provide information but may do little to change a person’s worldview or heart."
How the Māori Party lost its way
Both major parties are more than happy to put the boot into Māori if that helps position them in the political centre at election time.
Did the Māori electorates decide the 2017 election?
“Labour’s Māori MPs live and work in two worlds, relating to Māori voters as Māori, but also as workers, citizens and more. The problem for the Māori Party is it never did the same.” —Morgan Godfery, in an extract from a new book, 'Stardust and Substance'.
The justice summit — and the road from populism to principle
"For the first time in political aeons in Aotearoa, we’ve seen a demonstration of political leadership based on principle, on what must be done, rather than on populism."
Ani Black has opened a can of worms. Let it stay open.
“While the fight for whose truth is the truth continues, the reality of child sexual abuse remains the same. High. Under-reported. Not understood. Silent.”
Moana Jackson: Rethinking free speech
“The so-called humanitarian colonisers who came here in the 19th century did not necessarily hate Maori. Indeed, they sometimes professed to love us and simply wanted to dispossess us in a sensitive and caring way.”
Morgan Godfery: The hardest job in politics
Failure is part of the Treaty settlement process, at least if you understand a settlement from the side of iwi and hapū — who never get what was taken.
Racism and White Defensiveness in Aotearoa: A Pākehā Perspective
"I think for those of us who identify as Pākehā, or who grew up in Pākehā dominant spaces, there's a special responsibility to strive to be aware of our own advantages in Aotearoa New Zealand."
Respecting what we’re prepared to share and not share
“All that has come out of the moko kauae debate is that, as Māori, we’re still having to justify ourselves in order to appease those who think that what is ours should also be theirs.”
Heke Tangata: The ebbing tide
For a decade or more, there have been no marked gains in economic progress for Māori. Instead, there’s been stagnation and even some setbacks.
Moana Jackson: No one’s exercise of free speech should make another feel less free
"The bliss of freedom enjoyed by those who have power should never mean the right to cause pain to those who are comparatively powerless."
Israel Folau and God’s plan for gay people
A few weeks ago, Australia’s number one rugby star, Israel Folau, responded to a question on God’s...
‘I was joking’: the all-purpose humour defence
Bob Jones’s column on Māori was “mean, malicious and infantile”, but it gets a Press Council pass under the humour defence.
Turning workers on and off like a tap
“This is a small part of a much larger conversation we need to have about underemployment, security of work, and the standard of living you can expect in Aotearoa.”
Moana Maniapoto: Let’s judge Simon Bridges on his politics, not his whakapapa
If you can't kill us or shut us up, redefine us — then make us extinct. Problem solved.
Moana Jackson: Understanding racism in this country
So once again racism has been in the news. In the last few months, the numerous examples that have...
The Waitakere rāhui is kaitiakitanga in action — so where’s the support from government?
Frustrated by inaction from central and local government over kauri dieback disease, which is...
Moana Maniapoto: Every day is Waitangi Day
I love a good debate. When I was at St Joseph’s Māori Girls’ College, I was in the school debating...
Kennedy Warne: No more shoes on Uluṟu
In two years’ time, Uluṟu /Ayers Rock will be closed to climbing — an outcome the traditional...
Damon Salesa: Our Pacific future is already here
New Zealand might not be ready to see itself as a Pacific country, but its Pacific future has...
Stacey Morrison: Te reo growing pains — this is what change feels like
When there were cries of “Māori snowflakes” in the media, it seemed to me the writer...
Joanna Kidman: Reaping our own strange and bitter harvest
Last week, I was at home finishing off a paper for a conference when I heard a hacking smoker’s...
Moana Maniapoto: I hope the new government doesn’t need sleep
Birds are singing, the grass is greener — and after Winston Peters’ announcement, there’s...
Graham Cameron: Why my tamariki are feeling hopeful about the new government
The announcement of the new government by Winston Peters on Thursday night felt more like a...
Moana Jackson: Prison should never be the only answer
The recent election had its usual, predictable talk about law and order — and that talk ranged...
The Crown isn’t just Pākehā. It is also Māori.
Symbols come in many forms, tangible and the intangible. They tell us stories we may not even be...
Graham Cameron: The mātauranga divide decided the fate of the Māori Party
At the beginning of this election campaign, I had the privilege of being with the Māori Party and...
Sandra Lee-Vercoe: Labour and Winston aren’t a bad fit
As usual, we now wait for Winston to determine who will be our new government. Of course, there...
Moana Maniapoto: Why I’m not a party girl
When I was young and apolitical, I didn’t get around to voting. It was the ‘80s. Party time. I met...
Richard Pamatatau: Will they make room at the cabinet table for Pacific talent?
Amid the post-election clamour to form a coalition government, an interesting development has...
Moana Jackson: How about a politics that imagines the impossible?
It is often said that politics is the art of the possible. The election campaign over the last few...
Laura Toailoa: Making sense of the election noise
Laura Toailoa — 22, graduating in December with a BA (Honours) in English Literature, and...
Can we make progress if we never question our Māori traditions?
In this essay from Ora Nui 3, Going Global, Hautahi Kingi, a Whanganui-born economist now working...
Buddy Mikaere: I’ve tried them all — but I’m standing for TOP
Lately, the polls have been telling us that maybe only three or four parties will make it into...
Turning the tap off? Righting water wrongs
One of the things I’m really enjoying about this election season is how many cats are being...
Why is tax evasion treated more gently than benefit fraud?
Lisa Marriott, Professor of Taxation at Victoria University’s Business School, has spent six...
Bad laws sometimes deserve breaking
In the opening moments of the 1970s, my father left my mother and followed his elusive business...
Just because some people think it’s funny, doesn’t make it okay
Would Māori Television executives have considered broadcasting a show based on a Pākehā man in...
Putting the boot into Awataha hurts all our marae
I’ve been to a fair few marae in Auckland. The first one was Hoani Waititi at Glen Eden, in...
Tuku Morgan: Who better than Māori to look after their tēina?
Tukoroirangi Morgan, who’s been the president of the Māori Party over the past 12 months, has set...
And there he lies, ever, ever, the manuhiri
Our father died in 2012. He’d been living in Australia for about 42 years and had only rarely...
It’s time for Māori to be heard on immigration policy
Tahu Kukutai is an associate professor at the University of Waikato. As a specialist in...
Is the Green Party out of touch with Pasifika voters?
When you step into the polling booth to vote on election day you are equal to every other...
Māmari Stephens: What some bloody awful cartoons can tell us about ourselves
I don’t get personally offended easily. I learned a while ago not to buy too much into the...
Richard Pamatatau: Alfred Ngaro has soured his brand
Alfred Ngaro did a lot of apologising after his “naïve, poorly worded” comments at the National...
Stan Grant: Talking to my country
When Adam Goodes, an Indigenous Australian footballer, was abused and humiliated by football...
Glacial pace – but inexorable progress for tangata whenua
I’ve always liked the idea of New Zealand having an unwritten constitution. I was a reporter...
Moana Jackson: Colonisation and the suffering of children
It always requires a certain courage to speak the unspeakable. The increasing number of Māori men...
Nadine Millar: I wish my teachers had been more encouraging
Twenty years ago I graduated from Whitireia Polytech with a Certificate in Journalism. I scraped...
Max Harris – a visionary worth following
Max Harris is a good bloke who has written a book. He doesn’t need me to repeat all his...
Māmari Stephens: What about a welfare system that doesn’t judge need?
A couple of weeks ago, on a Lower Hutt street, a woman and her children decided to do something...
Are Pākehā up for the challenge?
Four years ago, there was an unprecedented Chinese presence at Ōrākei marae. And that event...
Nadine Millar: Be a hōhā about your kid’s education
A few years ago, I worked as a quiz writer on a TV show aimed at secondary school kids. Trial runs...
It sticks like a knife in my guts
Every time Anne Tolley and Bill English talk about the new Ministry for Vulnerable Children, or...
Māmari Stephens: Kaupapa Māori and the war on words
I am no political pundit. I have no great insight into Māori politics on the national or local...
Moana Maniapoto: The Willie Jackson I know
Willie Jackson can be really annoying. In fact, that was one of the reasons we divorced about 16...
The Christmas Gift
“2016 has been the story of that first Christmas played out once again,” writes Rev Don Tamihere,...
Laura Toailoa: Just because sex is taboo, doesn’t mean we’re not doing it
Sex is a sticky topic to unravel and explore for many young Pacific Islanders, writes Laura...
The haka that united Wairarapa
Last month, almost every schoolkid in Wairarapa — more than 6,000 — stood together and performed a...
Brian Tamaki & Destiny Church – looking beyond the caricatures
A few years ago, I visited Destiny Church in my hometown of Rotorua. It was my sister’s church and...
Moana Maniapoto: Watch out for a Trump talkalike here
I started US election week in San Francisco, hanging with a bunch of Māori and native Hawaiians...
Māmari Stephens: Can we learn from what’s happened in Trump-land?
I remember waking up one morning last year, lying awake for a moment, feeling warm, contented and...
Patrick Thomsen: The racial divide in our education system
The NCEA final exams that are about to take place in a few weeks will, for a large proportion of...
Moana Maniapoto: We need doctors to be on top of their game
Doesn’t life pack a wallop sometimes? One minute our family was laughing, singing and dancing,...
An attack of the guilts? Yeah, nah
There has been a lot said lately about people of privilege behaving badly. You remember. There...
When I turned five, I turned bad.
Sixty-five percent of young people who end up in front of the Youth Court are Māori. How do we...
Moana Maniapoto: Hold on Hekia. Cyber schools aren’t the answer
Our daughter turned eight this week. She is a bright, happy and curious little girl with lots of...
Kalafi Moala: Is Tonga’s democratic hero failing to live up to expectations?
‘Akilisi Pohiva, who was in New Zealand on his first state visit a few weeks ago, was the hero of...
Squatters on their own whenua
I’ve grown up in Auckland. I can’t say I love it as a city, but I’ve spent enough time in...
Iwi leaders are losing this one
Heading the list of present-day Māori challenges is still the apparently hopeless task of...
Will Tūhoe provide the welfare model?
There’s all this doom and gloom in world news these days. Fear and fearmongering too. From the...
Different deal — same stink “consultation”
All quiet on the TPPA front. Is that good or bad news? Well, it’s a bit of both, actually. The bad...
Moana Maniapoto: Hands off our images
I reckon we’ve come a long way in New Zealand. Yes, we have our fair share of nutters and racists,...
Māori are leading the way
“Bet we’re the first Māori to come here,” I whispered to Toby when we landed in Inari, a tiny...
The Kermadecs – what does the government not understand about ‘consult with iwi’?
I imagine John Key must have had a lovely warm feeling as he announced before the world (well, the...
Our kids are rising to the challenge
A Catholic education wasn’t something that we ever considered for our kids. It’s not...
Lance Norman — the nice face of the urban Māori movement
Numbers. Spend an hour with Lance Norman and numbers will come up. Numbers of people. Numbers of...
The racism that too few of the privileged can see
We can all understand plain old personal racism. Like the time the friendly stranger at the bus...
If we ban the Bible from schools, will karakia be next?
Karakia are cultural practices, but are they religious as well? Or just spiritual? And how exactly...
Hekia is right about our history teaching. Well, half right.
We can all recall a horror story from our time at school. But Māori are likely to have a longer...
Let’s leave the flag decision to our children
The other day we got a letter from our 13-year-old son at boarding school, wanting to know which...
Māori veterans’ support for the old flag is about nostalgia
Many Māori veterans have opposed a change to the New Zealand flag because it was the flag they...
Here’s to the Black Pearls in our lives
Black Pearl, precious little girl, let me put you up where you belong. Yep. That was me. And that...
How climate change is like the slave trade
My mother was born in Washington, DC, the capital city of the United States, the seat of...
We’re not alone in opposing the TPPA
You’d think that, moving about in the biggest city in the world, you’d struggle for space on the...
We need to hear Māori and Pacific voices on the euthanasia debate
There is a tin. It looks like Nana’s biscuit tin, but is actually the tin from which private...
Veering off the beaten track
The first assignment that ever captured my imagination at school was to devise a three-week tour...
The Whole World Is Watching
So it’s game on. Next week, on February 4, our PM, on behalf of himself and others who, like him,...
Our Māori MP of the year?
I’m not a great fan of political awards. The way I see it, it’s usually better to criticise than...
Breaking the silence on prostitution and rape culture
When Pala Molisa argued in an article on this website that prostitution was a form of male...
“Hey mister. Why did you drop Jonah?”
Like many others in New Zealand, I first became aware of Jonah when he played for Wesley College...
White Ribbon — too white and too polite
Anti-violence campaigns like White Ribbon are all about men being “part of the solution”. Around...
How can the Mormons justify this?
When I converted to Christianity about 15 years ago, my dear, late mother was not impressed. She...
Those trees on One Tree Hill may be doomed
Back in October 1994, Mike Smith headed up to the top of One Tree Hill in Auckland and, according...
A Taniwha by the Tail
I heard the news yesterday and my heart gave a leap. In fact, I think it must have levitated a...
Tonga — an incubator for world rugby
There are many people — and not just Pacific Islanders — who’ve been disappointed that our teams...
TPPA. “By the people, for the people?”
So they did it. They finalised the TPPA. But it will be hard for us to get our heads around the...
Sacrifices but no reward
A whānau dinner earlier this year was a life-changing experience for six Māngere cousins. That...
Dawn raids, detention and deportation
It’s hard to soften and cool the little hot knot of rage that has been living in my...
The joys (and trials) of boarding school
It’s not for everyone. In fact, some people can’t handle it. They rebel, take off or drop out....
Kiri Danielle: We can still save Turakina
Hekia Parata, as the Minister of Education, has made it clear that Turakina Māori Girls’ College...
The “hakarena” – a silly dig or a serious insult?
Behold, the “hakarena”. And yes, that’s a combination of “haka” and “macarena”. It was coined in...
Figuring it out for the refugees
When I was a little girl, I dreamed of doing aid work in distant Africa. Feed the starving. Heal...
CYFS has failed our kids. Miserably.
Naida Glavish was in the limelight in 1984 when, as a young tolls operator for the Post Office,...
Chicago, Auckland Grammar and Ngāti Whātua
Going back a few years, the Maori and Pasifika boys at Auckland Grammar School amounted to less...
Warrior race? Pull the other one
My deepest impulses are pacifist, something that seems out step with what I’m told it means to be...
Who wins from health and safety reforms?
Here’s an unwelcome stat if you’re Māori or Pasifika. It confirms that you’re more likely to be...
We should all salute Adam Goodes
Kiwis mostly aren’t at all familiar with Aussie Rules players, even the big guns. But a 35...
UPDATED: Cuppa tea time for the TPPA
NOTE: Update from Tuesday, August 4, at the bottom of this page. This update is prompted by a...
Is it ever okay to eat a kererū?
The native wood pigeon – that’s our kererū or kukupa – has been a tasty item on the news menu...
The TPPA is a game changer
There’s a new treaty in town. It looked as though Waitangi was a game changer in 1840. But this...
Sonny Tau and the kukupa
This whole “Sonny stole the pigeons” fiasco has turned real ugly here in the north, and some of it...
The Ngapuhi crisis – and a question of courage
What is official and what is moral and acceptable don’t automatically line up. For instance,...
The Treaty settlement clock is ticking
The National Government likes to point to the number of Treaty settlements it has arranged in the...
Too quick to take the credit?
We’ve just had Budget 2015 which Labour has called the budget of broken promises. National,...
Yep. They went and did it
The axing of Campbell Live and the loss of John Campbell is a blow for those television viewers...
In defence of Whānau Ora
Last week the Auditor General, Lyn Provost, released a report on the Whānau Ora programme....
Hone Harawira may have a point
From time to time, New Zealanders from any number of political persuasions have rubbished the way...
No pro-Maori line on water rights
It doesn’t take much for the Establishment in New Zealand to find fault with any Maori effort to...
Winston Peters just keeps winning
Winston Peters is the most successful Maori politician since Apirana Ngata. Or so says Tau Henare....
It’s time for some action
There’s more news out of the north, but it has nothing to do with Winston’s win in the Northland...
This Northland win was worth Winston’s wait
Winston Peters returns to the North every year to go fishing. His boat is tied up near the shore...
Not all cults are bad
When it comes to exercise, my natural inclination is to skip the sweaty stuff and head straight to...
We’ve heard more than enough from David Rankin
He wants to “overthrow” the Kingitanga, he “boycotts” Waitangi Day, and he seems to think a...
Let’s not leave politics to the politicians
Eleanor Catton copped a lot of flak for her comments last month. There were plenty who challenged...
Let’s not get too gung-ho about freedom of speech
I’m not a journalist. Nor am I an academic. I’m not religious either. And, although I hate...
Sovereignty not surrendered – and not asked for
There’s no point in exhuming the sovereignty debate – or so we’re advised by right-wing...
A brand-new princess of colour – is it black and white?
Looks like there’s a brand-new Moana in town. Disney have announced that their next big animated...
We need a new approach
The final results are in and #Kowhiri2014 is now part of history. The National Party gained a...
It’s not easy being Green
A couple of months before the election, a plant told me who to vote for. Not literally of course,...
It’s now up to Te Ururoa
Democracy thrives in turbulent times. Where there is resignation, passivity or inactivism – the...