Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern helps cook breakfast on the national holiday, which celebrates the signing of the treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840 by Māori chiefs and the British Crown
Continue reading...Category Archives: Māori
New Zealand’s Māori tribes deserve recognition for their part in vanquishing Covid-19 | Morgan Godfery
Māori memories of past epidemics meant iwi were instrumental in forcing Jacinda Ardern’s government to act quickly
In the space of a few days in 2017 New Zealand’s Labour caucus made Jacinda Ardern their leader. In the space of a month the country made her their prime minister, and in the space of a few years the rest of the English-speaking world would turn to her as a global leader. That might sound cliché, and in a small sense it is, but it captures the adoration and esteem in which large parts of New Zealand and the world hold Ardern. She has apparently committed to a social democratic programme of old, from public housing to subsidised tertiary education, and – more importantly – she has dealt successfully with the virus. Global business leaders and others rightly rate New Zealand’s Covid-19 response as the best in the world.
But is it equally right to simply credit Ardern and her government for this success?
Continue reading...New Zealand’s wahine Māori have more to contend with than ordinary sexism | Tina Ngata
Colonisation has had a particular effect on Indigenous wahine that disadvantages them to this day
The Mana Wahine Kaupapa Inquiry hearings will begin this week, investigating claims regarding the specific tiriti violations of the crown that have led to injustice against wahine Māori across social, physical, spiritual, economic, political and cultural dimensions.
It has been a long time coming, having first been filed in 1993 and led out by the Māori Women’s Welfare League, and then initiated as an inquiry in 2018. While it can be said that all Waitangi inquiry hearings are traumatic, frustrating and difficult, it’s expected that this one in particular will reveal a history that is as foundational, on a national scale, as it is disturbing.
Continue reading...We need more than a sprinkle of te reo in our culture for Māori language to thrive | Shilo Kino
New Zealanders may be taking an interest in learning reo but the system seems hell-bent on making it difficult
This year I am studying a full immersion te reo Māori course at the renowned Te Wānanga o Takiura. Like many other Māori, I’ve spent my adult years using my own time, money, energy, and resources in an attempt to learn the language of my ancestors. A language that was stolen from my whānau because Te Tiriti of Waitangi was not honoured. So here I am, out of complete desperation, trying to reclaim and hopefully become fluent in te reo Māori.
At a glance, it seems New Zealanders are taking an interest in learning reo. The number of teenagers studying te reo Māori at secondary school has passed 30,000 for the first time. Māori Made Easy, a language study book by Scotty Morrison, has become a staple in every household. There are waiting lists across the country to get into part-time te reo classes. If this is the case, why won’t the Labour government commit to making te reo Māori compulsory in schools?
Continue reading...Jacinda Ardern faces Waitangi Day reckoning with Māori as progress stalls
Three years after the prime minister asked Māori to hold her to account, many are disillusioned with her government
In an oft-repeated story New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has recalled how growing up in the small, largely Māori town of Murupara, she would see children going to school hungry, and with no shoes on their feet.
It was these scenes of entrenched inequality and poverty, often along racial lines, that drove a teenage Ardern into the Labour party, where she has dedicated herself to combating child poverty.
Continue reading...‘We had no paper, no pens, but we had our bodies’: the sacred and symbolic in Pasifika tattoos | Lagipoiva Cherelle
The New Zealand foreign minister’s moko has become international news, but beyond an identifier, our tatau are a link to ancestors, a vessel for our cultures’ stories, and a tribute to those who have gone before
Shortly before my interview with six Europeans at a roundtable in Germany, I gently covered my hand tattoo with a skin-toned foundation.
I knew that without the proper context, they would stereotype me in the western sense and presume me either a criminal or at least uneducated or unprofessional. A perception of tattooing common on that side of the world.
Continue reading...Māori knowledge can help New Zealand get rid of predators but it mustn’t be whitewashed | Tame Malcolm
Indigenous methods of tackling ecological problems were developed by dint of necessity - there is no better impetus for success
When I was taught how to trap possums, I was encouraged to combine the traditional knowledge of my Māori ancestors with modern technologies. An example of this is when the kawakawa plant bears fruit – the best lure to use is cinnamon. This is because the scents complement each other in the forest, to which the possums become attracted.
I assumed this was also the case when taught to use curry powder as a lure for when the hangehange flowers blossom. Instead, it was because wasps were very active at the time and I learned curry powder is one of the few lures to which wasps are not attracted; and no one wants to fiddle with traps covered in wasps!
Continue reading...Oranga Tamariki: Gráinne Moss’s exit does not mean the Māori child welfare crisis is resolved
While the departure of the child welfare boss is welcome, social justice for Māori children in the state care system is a long way off
The resignation of Oranga Tamariki boss Gráinne Moss signals the end of a protracted ideological dispute over child protection policy. But as is often the case with social work in liberal capitalist states, this represents the end of a specific battle rather than the resolution of a long-running war.
Continue reading...The Māori Party defied the odds because Labour has left Indigenous voters wanting | Leigh-Marama McLachlan
Māori are calling for much-needed systemic change – but the question is whether Labour is willing to deliver it
It was one of the most gripping showdowns of Saturday night’s election – the Māori Party’s Rawiri Waititi and Labour’s Tamati Coffey were neck-and-neck until the end.
Counting on the night put Waititi ahead by a narrow 415 votes, but the final result will come down to the remaining half a million “special votes” yet to be counted.
Continue reading...The Māori party’s policy for land rights and self-governance is not to be ignored | Claire Robinson
The Mana Motuhake policy is a 25-year plan to improve the outcomes of whānau Māori that the mainstream major parties have failed to deliver on
In an election campaign that has so far been largely a bidding contest over who can fund the most “shovel-ready projects”, create the most jobs and support the most apprentices post-Covid, many commentators have bemoaned the absence of any visionary debate about the type of New Zealand we want to become.
It was therefore refreshing to see the Māori party announce its Mana Motuhake policy this week. As far as timing goes, the policy hasn’t gained a lot of media attention. The news has been dominated by the Serious Fraud Office’s charging of two individuals in connection with the New Zealand First Foundation, a new poll and the second leaders’ debate. Many also think the Māori party is inconsequential in 2020, sitting only on 1–1.5% party vote support in public opinion polls, and not looking like they are going to win back any electorate seats.
Continue reading...New Zealand firms switch to using nation’s Māori name, Aotearoa
Vodafone and communications agency DDB respond after calls on companies to use the reo term
One of New Zealand’s biggest telecommunications companies has heeded an exhortation to use the country’s original, Indigenous name of Aotearoa, joining others that have pledged to use more reo, the Māori language, or tikanga – protocols – in their daily business operations.
Earlier this week Vodafone – which has about 2,000 New Zealand employees – confirmed it had changed its banner at the top of users’ phones from “Vodafone NZ” to “VF Aotearoa”. The company gave short shrift to those on social media who complained about the change. Rival companies backed the move.
Continue reading...I have lost much of my childhood fluency in te reo Māori – we must fight for its survival | Leigh-Marama McLachlan
New Zealand’s national language week will have little or no impact on most Kiwis, but we must protect te reo as a national treasure
I can already feel my heart begin to race when I know I am expected to speak te reo Māori, the Indigenous tongue of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Where I am from, people know me as this confident, fluent speaker of the Māori language. But here I am today, sweaty-palmed at the mere thought of saying a simple greeting and introduction in my mother tongue.
It is a far cry from the old me, who would win back-to-back Māori language speech competitions at a school where we learned everything in total immersion te reo Māori.
Continue reading...Ardern’s promise to make Māori new year a public holiday is well overdue | Leigh-Marama McLachlan
Recognising Matariki signals official recognition and respect for Māori customs, and a wider buy-in from New Zealanders
When the small Matariki cluster of stars becomes visible over New Zealand’s early Winter morning skies, the country’s indigenous Māori people mark the beginning of their New Year.
The prospect of making Matariki a public holiday sends a well overdue sign of respect to Māori traditions and knowledge and paves the way for greater understanding of our nation’s unique, shared identity.
Continue reading...‘You have no one to talk to’: Māori pensioners face hardships during lockdown
Wardens in south Auckland say pensioners living alone are among the most vulnerable to Covid-19, fearful even of leaving their home
Wai Allan was leaning on crutches in front of her government flat when the Māori wardens pulled up in a van loaded with food, hand sanitiser and face masks.
“Oh, fruit and veg! That’s good for you,” the pensioner exclaimed, as two big boxes were unloaded and carried inside.
Continue reading...Beer brand and leather store unwittingly named after Māori word for ‘pubic hair’
Canada’s Hell’s Basement and a shop in Wellington both thought the word ‘huruhuru’ meant ‘feather’ – they were wrong
A Canadian brewery and a leather store in New Zealand have found themselves in a hairy situation after using te reo Māori to unwittingly name their respective brands after pubic hair.
Canadian brewery, Hell’s Basement, called its New Zealand Pale Ale Huruhuru, while a shop in the New Zealand capital, Wellington, gave its entire outlet the name.
“Some people call it appreciation, I call it appropriation,” te reo Māori exponent and TV personality Te Hamua Nikora said on Facebook, after explaining that most Māori would use the word “huruhuru” as a reference to pubic hair.
Related: 'Hello, death': Coca-Cola mixes English and Māori on vending machine
Continue reading...Oldest surviving photograph of Māori discovered in Australia
Picture of Hemi Pomara posing in London in 1846 was discovered at the national library of Australia by researchers
The oldest surviving photograph of a Māori person has been discovered in the national library of Australia, a historical “scoop” being lauded on both sides of the Tasman.
Hemi Pomara was kidnapped from his home on the Chatham Islands in the early 1840s by British traders, after his family were slaughtered by a rival Māori tribe.
Continue reading...Minneapolis has vowed to defund its police. New Zealand needs to have that conversation | Julia Amua Whaipooti
Dropping the armed police trial is a good step but we need transformational change to show black lives actually do matter
“We honour him today because when he took his last breath, the rest of us were able to breathe.” These were the words spoken at George Floyd’s funeral that I felt directly in my bones, here, on my whenua, or land, of Aotearoa New Zealand. On Tuesday, the New Zealand police commissioner told the country a trial of Armed Response Teams (ARTs) – frontline officers who routinely carry guns – will not continue, and the teams will not be a part of the country’s policing model in the future.
The United States is 400-500 years deep in a history of colonisation and slavery. In Aotearoa New Zealand, we are 200 years into our colonial history, and the way in which colonisation functions here is also rooted in white supremacy. Colonial structures, by design, take powers away from indigenous people and people of colour, putting them into the hands of the colonisers.
Continue reading...Māori have been robbed of our identity and our land – we must fight to get them back
Jacinda Ardern is doing a good job, but Waitangi reminds us of what we have lost
This week, to mark Waitangi Day, the Guardian is publishing five pieces of commentary from Māori writers.
I am ashamed to say this year was my first time at Waitangi.
Continue reading...Ardern is right, Waitangi Day is imperfect. But the flaws are intentional | Miriama Aoeke
Our rage, protest and mamae are much easier to dismiss if the forum designated for such processes is not of our own making
This week, to mark Waitangi Day, the Guardian is publishing five pieces of commentary from Māori writers.
Bill English once said of Waitangi Day that New Zealanders were bored of the spectacle – the unnecessary controversy – and deserved a more positive national day. The language is deliberate in its exclusion of Māori as New Zealanders and dismissive of our mamae [pain]. Our anger is a bore and a buzzkill. He declined the opportunity to own those words at Waitangi in 2017, perhaps out of fear or contempt that he would be held accountable. We will never know – his party lost the election in September later that year.
Continue reading...The treaty of Waitangi was forged to exclude Māori women – we must right that wrong | Emma Espiner
The signing of the treaty marks the point at which Māori women began to be written out of history
This week, to mark Waitangi Day, the Guardian is publishing five pieces of commentary from Māori writers.
This year I’m not interested in the symbolism of what Jacinda Ardern does or doesn’t do or say at Waitangi. I’m looking to the Mana Wāhine Kaupapa inquiry. Nearly 30 years since it was instigated, the inquiry investigates the role of the Crown in contributing to the disadvantage that has inequitably burdened wāhine Māori since the Treaty was signed. At the end of this month a judicial conference will be held to consider the claims.
Continue reading...