Our Stories

Kaitohu – the signatories

Waikahutia Tamati Tupa’i (left) and Kiliona Tamati-Tupa’i (right) perform a fearsome wero as manuhiri approach Ōtākou Marae for the Ngāi Tahu Treaty Festival. The theme of this year’s event was Kaitohu – the signatories, in honour of the seven Ngāi Tahu tīpuna who put their names to Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840.

Protecting our taonga

Whitebaiting has been a customary practice for many generations of Ngāi Tahu, and a popular pastime for many Kiwi. In recent years, declining fish stocks throughout the country have prompted the Minister for Conservation to announce a consultation period on proposed changes to whitebait management, including regulations that would limit when, where and how the practice occurs. Kaituhi Anna Brankin catches up with Ngāi Tahu whitebaiters to learn more about the significance of the custom, and to hear their thoughts on the proposed changes.

Bringing tikanga Māori into the courtroom

“When I came to leave high school, the deputy principal called me into the office and said, ‘What are you going to do?’ I said, ‘I don’t know’, and he said I should go into the army.”

But Quentin said he couldn’t be bothered getting up early in the morning and shining his shoes. The deputy principal asked what he did want to do, and his flippant answer at that young age was that he just wanted to make money.

“His response was to be a doctor or lawyer. I said, ‘I can’t be bothered getting up early in the morning and delivering babies, so I’ll go lawyer then.’”

He laughs about that little exchange now, with many years of success in the profession behind him. As one of the country’s newest judges, Quentin is now on a mission to bring his own personal style to the District Court.

Time to raise the gaze

The practice of sorting students into classes based on their perceived abilities – streaming – has been the status quo in schools throughout Aotearoa for many years. New research reveals that this age-old practice is biased and as a result negatively impacting the educational potential of many of our rangatahi.

Making the cut

“It chose me. I never planned any of this,” Niko says of his flourishing shop Georgetown Barbers on the fringe of Invercargill’s central business district.

About eight years ago he started cutting hair for his son and brothers and the idea of becoming a barber snowballed from there. His career choices at the time were either farming or barbering. Farming didn’t work out so he completed a three-month New Zealand Barber Skills Certificate course in Auckland.

Growing Māori engagement in our foreign affairs

Each year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) offers a range of paid summer internships for university students. The Arorere Internship Programme targets applicants of Māori descent, specifically rangatahi who are still studying or have recently completed their formal qualifications. It offers tauira Māori the opportunity to work in one of the Ministry’s business units with support and guidance from the wider MFAT team, including its Te Pou Māori network.

Te Whare Taonga ki Kawatea

When Kōtukumairangi was paddled down the Ōpara River on Waitangi Day this year it marked 20 years since the waka had been formally gifted to Ngāi Tahu by the late Murray Thacker (1933-2017), founder of the Okains Bay Māori and Colonial Museum. Craig Pauling and Iaean Cranwell have been the unofficial kaitiaki of Kōtukumairangi for much of that time, taking responsibility for training and coordination of paddlers, and overseeing care and maintenance of the waka, in collaboration with museum volunteers and staff. In so doing they have been contributing to the intergenerational history of Ngāi Tahu involvement with the museum (and its famous Waitangi Day commemorations) that stretches back almost half a century.

Unleashing tomorrow’s leaders

The whenua kura, unleash the māui programme is breaking new ground for young Māori eyeing a career in the primary sector.

Māori interests across the sector are growing with 50 per cent of the fishing quota, 40 per cent of forestry, 30 per cent in lamb production, 30 per cent in sheep and beef production and 10 per cent in dairy production, according to New Zealand Foreign Affairs and Trade.
However, according to Bob Cottrell (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Raukawa) from the Red Meat Profit Partnership (RMPP), a key partner behind the Unleash the Māui programme, there still needs to be more Māori in the sector.

Te Ao o te Māori

Ngaropi, the kuia with the moko kauae, would put her walking stick out and touch one of the strands so I knew it was in the wrong place. I’d look at her and I’d shift it and she’d go, ‘kāo, no!’ They would laugh and chatter away, but I didn’t mind at all, because that’s when I really got the feel of harakeke and knew, hey, this is something I want to do.

Hei Mahi Māra
Ecopsychology and the Māra

Autumn is a time to optimistically look forward to a bountiful harvest from the hard work put in through spring and summer. As I have said in recent articles, the benefits of having a māra are multi-faceted; not least of all getting the nutrition we need to feed all the bugs and bacteria that make up our internal microbiome and help keep us physically healthy. Research is also increasingly showing that the psychological benefit of just being in nature is also very important for our sense of wellbeing.