Issue 86

Restoring the mana of our most vulnerable

In 2018 the Labour-led coalition government established the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. This came after years of lobbying from survivors, community leaders, iwi Māori, the Human Rights Commission and the United Nations. The inquiry is investigating why people were taken into care, the abuses that took place, and the lasting impact on survivors. It is specifically focusing on Māori, Pasifika and disabled people because of the disproportionate representation of these communities in the care system.

Building on a legacy

Peter Ramsden (Rangitāne, Ngāi Tahu – Koukourarata) is a man well known for his boundless passion – for his people, the environment and for the regeneration of the place he calls home – Koukourarata. In the recent Queen’s Birthday honours, Peter was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for his considerable contribution to the environment over the past decades.

Genomes run deep in whakapapa

Genomics is the study of genomes. A genome is the complete set of DNA of any living thing. Each genome has a history. It has parents, grandparents, and it potentially descends from a long line of chiefs. Like whakapapa, environment shapes the genome. Its surroundings cause adaptation and evolution.

Levi Collier-Robinson (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, Ngāti Porou and Te Whānau a Apanui) is using genomics to help understand the kōwaro, one of our endangered taonga species.

Against the COVID tide

Ruminating on the path that brought her to owning and operating a restaurant, Sahni Bennett (Ngāti Mako, Wairewa) says her success probably has a lot to do with her dogged determination to build on what existed before. At just 22, she opened her first cafe with no experience and three tamariki in tow. “I learnt how to carry a baby and make a flat white at the same time; they’d just come along to work and were very much part of it,” she laughs.