“We have to make a noise about the bullshit, the bigotry, the terminally foolish, the wilfully ignorant. The dangerous.” — Tainui Stephens.

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.

“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.

“Of first importance, the river. Of second importance, the river.”— Kennedy Warne on the Whanganui River.

“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 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.”

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.

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.

"The decision to respond to racism feels challenging because of the inevitably difficult dialogue that follows and the risk to relationships."

"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."

"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

“From the beginning, each of us recognised something in the other: two Māori boys off to conquer the world.” —Witi Ihimaera

"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."

Even in death, Tiki Raumati chooses to live out his message of painful reconciliation.

“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.”

Papatūānuku has been an emblem of political identity and cultural survival for Māori.

"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 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.”

My daughter’s “coming out” momentarily knocked the life out of her mother and me.

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.

Kennedy Warne reflects on the days leading up to Martin Luther King’s death, 50 years ago.

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.