“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.
Read More
“If a kid comes to school and they’re hungry, then feed them. If they’re cold, give them a jacket. We’re not here to judge parents.” — Karl Vasau.
Read More
“Something happens at graduate school to make people leave — and we believe a lot of it has to do with the racism you experience in the university system.” — Dr Leilani Walker & Dr Sereana Naepi.
Read More
“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.
Read More
“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.
Read More
“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.
Read More
“We have to treat every Pacific student as being precious because they are precious. And we should remember that each student is a connection to an entire community.” — Dr Sereana Naepi.
Read More
Teachers “don’t realise they spend more time with Asian and Pākehā students. Māori students see it, though, and retreat to the back of the classroom, where they sit in groups and disengage.” — Anton Blank.
Read More
“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.
Read More
“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.
Read More
“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.
Read More
“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.
Read More
“When we had king tides at night, we’d have to put our mattresses on Mum’s bed and wait until the tide went down. And Dad would put the babies, asleep, in the plastic baby bath, and they’d just be floating on the tide.”
Read More
“We’ve struggled to find a space where we can be Māori and feel safe within these institutions.” — Māori doctoral students.
Read More
“When I take the clamps off the vessels and see the shrivelled-up grey kidney become purple and then pink and then pulsate with blood, nothing else I do beats that.” — Dr Lupe Taumoepeau.
Read More
“Don’t let schooling get in the way of your education, moko.” — Haare Williams’ grandmother, after his first day of school in 1943.
Read MoreE-Tangata is an online Sunday magazine specialising in stories that reflect the experiences of Māori and Pasifika in Aotearoa.
We welcome submissions or inquiries to:
editor@e-tangata.co.nz
Sign up for our email newsletter and get the latest E-Tangata stories sent straight to your inbox.
SubscribeYou can support E-Tangata’s kaupapa by contributing through PressPatron. With your help, we can tell more Māori and Pacific stories.
