On so many fronts, it’s been a year of frustration and despair.

Hard-won Māori rights and aspirations have been methodically dismantled by a government that seems intent on erasing Te Tiriti o Waitangi from law and daily life. Meanwhile, our most vulnerable communities have continued to suffer from service cuts that compound the cost-of-living crisis.

We ran plenty of critiques of these policies from writers who explained the injustices and reminded us of our history and the promise of partnership over enforced homogeneity.

But we also published many pieces about fortitude, accomplishment, and optimism. Many reflected on life in Aotearoa and in Moana nui a Kiwa with insight and nuance, and offered ways to move forward, both as individuals and collectively, regardless of who’s in government.

These are the stories that we’d like to leave you with over the summer — stories of restoration, resistance, and hope.

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Murdoch Ngahau: My angel in high-vis

Murdoch Ngahau was an 11-year-old runaway when a Māori warden pulled up beside him in a yellow van. He wrote this tribute to the woman who stopped and saved him.

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Emma West: You’re not lost if you don’t know your pepeha

The impact of colonisation means many Māori don’t know the details of their whakapapa. Emma West was one of those who knew she was Māori, but nothing more than that, right up until the age of 50. She shared her advice with us on how to manage a pepeha when you’re still learning who you are.

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Natalie Coates: A koro’s legacy

This year, at the age of 98, Tā Hirini Moko Mead released a foundational new book, Mātauranga Māori. It encapsulates his life’s work and was beautifully reviewed for us by Natalie Coates.

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Aroha Gilling: The home my mothers made

Home has been a shifting idea for Aroha Gilling, who was adopted as a baby by two Pākehā sisters. Here, she reflects on the loving home her mothers made for her, and the whakapapa she discovered later in life.

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Paora Moyle: If nothing else, we’ve put our pain on the record

Paora Moyle, a survivor of abuse in state care, received a King’s Service Order medal for her work with the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. In this conversation, she reflected on the prime minister’s apology, her work with the inquiry, and why she’s still fighting for tamariki Māori.

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Rebecca Macfie: What do I know of hardship

When award-winning journalist and author Rebecca Macfie began a new project to explore poverty in Aotearoa, she first had to ask herself some hard questions.

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Jordan Milroy: Wow, I’m the lucky one

Jordon Milroy was born in Sāmoa with cerebral palsy, and he’s had to learn to walk twice in his life. In this kōrero, the 35-year-old disability advocate talks to Dale about his life, and the work he’s done to raise disability awareness — including walking up the world’s tallest towers.

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Timoti Te Moke: ‘I should have been a doctor 30 years ago’

Timoti Te Moke’s story is both harrowing and hopeful — he survived abuse, state care, gangs and prison, even an unsubstantiated manslaughter charge, to become a doctor at the age of 56. He talked to Dale about the long, hard road to his medical degree.

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Tui Taurua: Into the light

Tui Taurua describes herself as a “mental health warrior”. After spending more than two decades in and out of psychiatric hospitals, being over-medicated and misdiagnosed, she turned to te ao Māori for answers. It saved her life, as she tells Dale Husband in this kōrero. Now, she uses her lived experience to fight for change in a system that too often fails Māori. (Warning: This kōrero discusses suicide.)

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‘So many people have cancer’: Living with the French nuclear legacy in the Pacific

For 30 years, France exploded nuclear bombs in Mā’ohi Nui/French Polynesia. The last one was detonated in 1996, when Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross was seven. Years later, like thousands of other locals, she developed cancer. Hina talked to Teuila Fuatai about confronting the French nuclear legacy in her home islands, and how it’s spurred her anti-nuclear work and path as a politician.

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To the US, we’re a giant military station

Increasing militarisation of the Pacific continues to cause tension inside and outside the region. In Hawai‘i, where the US Navy’s Pacific fleet is stationed, Indigenous rights advocates have fought for decades against expansive military occupation and use of their lands and the surrounding ocean. One of them, Joy Enomoto, who lives on the island of O‘ahu, talked to Teuila Fuatai about that fight.

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Charlotte Doyle: Around the world, we’re tangata Tiriti

Charlotte Doyle, a Pākehā expat living in London, reflected on what Te Tiriti means from a distance.

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Renee Karena: Sticking with my language journey

Deciding to learn te reo Māori is often the easy bit. Sticking with it is much tougher. Renee Karena wrote about starting her journey later in life and reaping many rewards along the way.

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Tarsh Te Rure: Bringing my darling dad home

When it became obvious that her dad was at the end of his life, Tarsh Te Rure decided to care for him herself at home, even after his death.

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A victory for Pacific people

A group of Pacific law students in Vanuatu had the idea of going to the world’s highest court to seek climate justice — and this year, they won a landmark advisory opinion that said countries are legally accountable for the climate harm they wreak on the world. It was a victory for the planet, said the UN secretary-general. Distinguished Professor Steven Ratuva wrote about the significance of the ruling.

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Navigating the tipping point

A tipping point in society can be an idea whose time has come, or a critical mass of circumstances whose timing will not be denied. We’ve seen such tipping points in Aotearoa, in the language movement and Matariki, writes Tainui Stephems. And no matter what politicians and media blowhards say or do to try to diminish the organic growth of the Māori world and its impact on our society, they’re too late. Te ao Māori will not be denied.

E-Tangata, 2025