– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

A Hawke’s Bay post-settlement iwi trust has written to the Prime Minister calling for the removal of Paul Goldsmith as the Minister of Treaty Negotiations.

Iwi trust chairperson Pieri Munro told RNZ that Goldsmith should not have oversight of negotiations affecting Wairoa iwi, after his decision to transfer six Department of Conservation reserves to a neighbouring iwi.

Under the Ngāti Ruapani mai Waikaremoana settlement bill six reserves around Lake Waikaremoana, Mangaone, Panekirikiri, Tutaemaro, Waihi South, Waikareiti and Ruakituri Scenic Reserve, would be transferred to the Te Urewera Board which Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa (TToTW) says would alienate them from Ngāti Kahungunu.

Munro (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāruahinerangi, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngā Rauru, Ngāti Irakēhu) said the trust supports the Ngāti Ruapani settlement, but it wants the reserves removed from the bill.

Munro wrote to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on 2 April seeking the removal of Goldsmith. He’s still waiting for a response.

“This bill, if it passes through, will alienate Te Rohe o Te Wairoa, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa, from any future decision-making surrounding those [reserves].

“It will pass under Te Uruwera Board, we have no seat there, Ruapani does, the majority is held by Ngāi Tūhoe.”

Munro said through history and whakapapa there was shared interest in the land among Ngāiti Kahungunu ki Wairoa, Ngāti Ruapani and Ngāi Tūhoe.

The six reserves in question were also identified in the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa settlement, he said.

“The Minister sees fit to actually put them exclusively in the Te Uruwera Board, and that just doesn’t make sense and that’s really our objection. We support Ruapani in terms of its settlement and its redress, but we do object to these six DOC reserves passing away and alienating us from our rights and interests in those six blocks,” he said.

The alienation risks litigation and future treaty grievances, he said.

“[Goldsmith] preferred to try and find a way of balance. Well, this has created imbalance if it passes through in the bill process.”

In a statement chairperson of Ngāti Ruapani mai Waikaremoana Kara Puketapu-Dentice said Wairoa iwi are long-settled iwi who had their own dedicated opportunity through the Treaty settlement process to pursue any rightful claim to these areas.

“As required by the settlement process, Ngāti Ruapani mai Waikaremoana engaged directly with Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa and all neighbouring iwi, including hui in Pōneke, Wairoa, and at our marae in Waikaremoana. We acknowledged whakapapa connections to our rohe and welcomed whānau from Wairoa to participate in caring for this whenua as members of our hapū, in accordance with our tikanga and under the guidance of ahi kā.

“We are disappointed that engagement undertaken in good faith is now being misrepresented in an attempt to achieve through our settlement what was not achieved through their own. The hapū of Waikaremoana has maintained ahi kā on this whenua for generations, that will not be undermined by those who had their own path and chose not to walk it.”

As for TToTW’s options should the Bill become law Munro said litigation was one avenue but the Trust was cautious of taking that approach.

“But what we’re seeking in the bill process is that those six identified reserves be removed so that we continue to work with Ruapani, with Ngāi Tūhoe, and also with the Department of Conservation. We expect that non-exclusive redress operates in substance, not merely in form.”

Munro said TToTW have been in dialogue with Tūhoe post-settlement trust Te Uru Taumatua as well as Ngāti Ruapani mai Wakaremoana over the future of the reserves.

Carefully balanced views – Goldsmith

In a statement Goldsmith said he wrote to both Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa and Ngāti Ruapani mai Waikaremoana in August 2025 advising of his final decisions on the overlapping interests.

“The two groups had been in negotiations with each other since 2022, however, could not reach an agreement.

“My decision sought to carefully balance the views of both groups. Ultimately, I decided to follow the advice from my officials to retain the proposal to add land into Te Urewera. This is a core settlement aspiration for Ngāti Ruapani mai Waikaremoana and I consider it appropriate to recognise their interests in this way.

“I was also reassured that the proposal to add land into Te Urewera means that the land will continue to be able to be enjoyed by all New Zealanders.”

Goldsmith said he had nothing further to add at this stage.

Submissions on the Ngāti Ruapani mai Waikaremoana Claims Settlement Bill closed on 10 April. The Bill will now be considered by the Māori Affairs Select Committee.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Te reo and haka exponent Kingi Kiriona says government “divestment away from kaupapa Māori” initiatives is behind his decision to step into politics and contest the Hauraki-Waikato electorate for Labour.

Kiriona (Ngāti Ruanui, Ngā Rauru, Ngāti Apa, Ngāti Kahungunu) is the founder of Māori education provider, TupuOra, a former journalist and the tutor of Waikato-based kapa haka, Te Iti Kahurangi.

Te Iti Kahurangi are performing at the Tainui Waka Kapa Haka Festival on Saturday, where Kiriona will make the formal announcement to the crowd in what he says will be his first chance to stand face-to-face with the region after becoming a candidate.

He told RNZ if elected his first priority would be re-establishing a focus on Te Tiriti, particularly in education where the government has removed school boards’ legal obligation to give effect to Te Tiriti and cut funding for te reo Māori teacher training.

“It’s policies like that that really hit hard at the spirit of Māori. And as someone that’s always fought for mātauranga Māori and for the place of mātauranga Māori, particularly within education, alongside my partner, Te Waipounamu, our whānau, our colleagues, actually, in TupuOra, it would be remiss of me not to stand up in the way that I’m standing up right now to say enough is enough. It’s time for change.”

He’s seen the effect shifting government investment away from Māori initiatives has on Māori families first hand.

“My wife and I, we run a Māori education business, TupuOra Education and Development Limited. At our peak three to four years ago under the previous regime, we had a complement of 30 staff, as of January this year, we’re now down to five staff.

“So we’ve seen the direct impact of the divestment away from kaupapa Māori, in this instance, kaupapa Māori education. We’ve seen the direct impact on us, but also on the whānau that we employ.”

As for why he went with Labour, Kiriona said it comes down to one word – “friends.”

“People that know me know that I’m fiercely Māori. Everything that I’ve done has been done and achieved and predicated on Māori values and on what’s best for te ao Māori and certainly in the interests of mana motuhake. But we all know in this game that we call politics, you need friends, you need friends to advance, to make policy gains, funding shifts and so I see an opportunity here with the Labour Party.”

Kiriona said he made it clear his candidacy would always be contingent on receiving the blessing of Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po, which he did earlier this year.

“Her words were, ‘Mō te oranga o te iwi me pēwhea e kore ai au e whakaae.’ So for the betterment of the people, how can I not support or agree? So to receive that blessing is huge.”

Kiriona was born and raised in Dannevirke, but has been living in Waikato for close to 30 where he said he has been blessed to be taken under the wing of key people in the rohe, so it means a lot to stand in the region especially with the blessing of Te Arikinui.

Although Te Arikinui was clear she didn’t want to see an adversarial election campaign against incumbent MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, he said.

Kiriona has an existing relationship with Maipi-Clarke having worked with her father during his time as a journalist, that whakapapa drew him to contact Maipi-Clarke ahead of the public announcement of his candidacy.

“Sure we come from different parties, we may represent different policies on behalf of our different parties. But we are Māori, we’re grounded in tikanga, we’re grounded in kaupapa Māori, we are a part of the Kiingitanga, and the Kiingitanga is predicated on te kotahitanga,” he said.

Kiriona is currently the Deputy Chair of Te Māngai Pāho, following three terms as Board Director of Whakaata Māori. He’s also a sitting member of the Waitangi Tribunal and before its disestablishment was the deputy chief-executive of Te Aka Whai Ora.

In the other Māori electorates Labour has selected the former chair of Te Rūnanga o Koukourarata Mananui Ramsden in Te Tai Tonga, former Auckland Councillor Kerrin Leoni in Tāmaki Makaurau and current List MP Willow-Jean Prime in Te Tai Tokerau.

Incumbent MP Cushla Tangaere-Manuel will also be trying to hold on to Ikaroa-Rāwhiti for Labour.

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By Taroi Black, Tuia News

Family and friends have gathered at Ōrākei Marae to farewell activist Sharon Hawke who passed in Samoa last week.

Sharon was just 52 when she passed, and is the daughter of renowned Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei leaders, Joe and Rene Hawke. Joe lead the protest at Takaparawhau, Bastion Point, to reclaim whenua belonging to his people.

Precious Clarke of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei says the grief being felt is shared across many.

“She has been a leader of kaupapa within our iwi. She sat alongside her father, her mother, our grandparents. So she was up at Takaparawhau Bastion Point. She was one of the 222 people that were arrested on the day. And she never stopped. She continued to support our iwi to stand up, to take charge.”

Sharon’s work spanned media, governance and community leadership, where she became a strong voice for Māori representation and equity. She helped create pathways for wāhine through Ngā Aho Whakaari, challenging spaces where Māori voices were often sidelined.

Libby Hakaraia of Ngā Aho Whakaari remembers her as a force in the industry.

“He wahine toa ia, he wahine kaha mo tenei ao pāpāho, she catered for wāhine in every space because she had a vision.”

Beyond the screen, she worked across health and wellbeing, advocating for better housing, resources and support for whānau, while also championing breast cancer awareness and early detection for wāhine Māori.

Fellow activist and friend, Hilda Harawira, remembers Sharon as a talented student at Auckland Girls Grammar school, whilst Hilda was attending the University of Auckland.

“I remember her taking all these school certificate subjects, and she was an astute student.”

“Sharon grew into a leader – a leader for wāhine – that was really obvious. You couldn’t put her in a box either – she was vocal and fought for her iwi, Ngāti Whātua Ōrā

Clarke said a lot of planning had gone on behind the scenes organising her tangihanga, with attendees asked to dress in the dandyism theme, as Sharon would have liked.

“We are sending her off with full magnificence in the way that she lived her life. And there’s so much colour, there’s so much flair. We’ve been able to incorporate the moana, which she loved. We’ve been able to incorporate the strength of wahine”

She was buried at her iwi urupā at Ōkahu Bay today. Her whānau and friends say she will be dearly missed, but will leave a long lasting legacy for generations to come of her iwi, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei.

-Tuia News

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By Erin Johnson

The Tūpuna Maunga Authority and an Ōtāhuhu resident were back in court on Wednesday in a long-running fight over consent to remove hundreds of trees.

Ōtāhuhu resident Shirley Waru previously challenged Auckland Council’s 2021 decision to grant the authority resource consent to remove 278 exotic trees from her local reserve and maunga, Ōtāhuhu Mount Richmond.

In a 2024 decision, the High Court found the council had inadequate information to assess the temporary adverse affects of removing the trees, and set aside the non-notified consent.

The maunga authority appealed that decision. Its lawyer, Paul Beverley, told the Court of Appeal on Wednesday that adequate information was available to the decision makers, who would have had Auckland’s Unitary Plan in mind when making their decision.

He said it was “not tenable” to suggest experienced council officers were unaware there could be non-visual and recreation affects from the tree removals, when they were a key part of the methodologies they work through in the unitary plan.

Beverley also pointed to information in the authority’s integrated management plan which outlined its restoration plans for the maunga.

However, when Justice Matthew Palmer asked for information on how long it would take for new plantings to become established, Beverley was not able to provide that detail.

In response, Waru’s lawyer James Little asserted the integrated management plan the council officers had access to was different to the revised one Beverley referred to.

“No one in this whole saga is opposed to planting native trees, the concern is with the wholesale felling of hundreds of exotic trees at once. That’s the real gist of the concern,” Little said.

“… a decision that cutting down hundreds of these trees all at once in this type of place forms a reasonably acceptable use is plainly contrary to the Auckland Unitary plan,” he said.

Auckland’s Tūpuna Maunga Authority manages Auckland’s tūpuna maunga, the volcanic cones regarded as spiritually and culturally significant to iwi and hapū in the region.

The authority plans to restore the cultural, spiritual and ecological mana of the maunga through planting native plants, including planting 39,000 indigenous plants on Ōtāhuhu.

The court has reserved its decision.

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Māori sisters are combining engineering and tikanga in a landmark project to ensure the mana of traditional pou is upheld.

Ngāpuhi and Waikato sisters Ngarui Manukau and Tiaho Wihongi-Minhinnick have been working on a design solution for Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, which plans to install four 10-metre-tall tōtara pou at a papakāinga in Ōrākei, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland.

The project, supported by MĀPIHI, the Māori and Pacific Housing Research Centre at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, focuses on how to secure the 1.2 tonne carvings in the ground without compromising their cultural significance.

Wihongi-Minhinnick, 21, was chosen to lead the kaupapa while completing her Bachelor of Engineering.

“These are not just posts, they have stories, histories and mana in and of themselves,” Wihongi-Minhinnick said.

Her older sister, Ngarui Manukau, was called up to help with the kaupapa, after years of experience working in the industry. She told RNZ Ngāti Whātua wanted a solution that protected the integrity of the pou from the outset.

“They wanted something that actually enhanced the mana of the pou and didn’t distract or take away from it,” she said.

“They’ve seen a lot of instances where that has happened.”

Traditional engineering approaches often prioritise function over form, but Manukau said that mindset did not align with the kaupapa of the project.

“It’s not just if it works, that’s the bare minimum.”

Instead, the sisters have been working to develop a design that balances structural strength with cultural considerations.

The pou, which will stand 10 metres tall and measure about 600 millimetres in diameter, present significant engineering challenges. While concrete is still required, the sisters have explored ways to conceal structural elements and incorporate natural materials such as stone.

Manukau said there was little existing research in Aotearoa on how to approach this kind of work.

“There’s a big gap for this type of foundation design,” she said.

“We had to look at examples overseas, like Native American totem poles, because there wasn’t anything here.”

The project is still in its early stages, with the research phase completed and findings yet to be presented to Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. The pou have not yet been carved, allowing the engineering design to be integrated into the process from the beginning.

Manukau said this approach should become standard practice.

“In other cases, it’s often an afterthought. This is the time where you want to make these decisions.

Beyond the technical challenge, the project highlights a broader issue, Manukau said, the lack of Māori, particularly wāhine Māori, in engineering.

Manukau, who graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) from the University of Auckland in 2021, said she did not grow up knowing what an engineer was.

“I didn’t even know engineering existed,” she said.

“That door only opened from a random conversation with a careers advisor.”

Since then, her two younger sisters have followed in her footsteps. Phoenix Manukau graduated in recent years, while Wihongi-Minhinnick has just completed her degree and will graduate soon.

“There’s three of us now,” Manukau said.

“That sort of blows my mind sometimes.”

The sisters are the only engineers in their whānau.

“It’s a brand new world to us,” she said.

“It’s rare to have a Māori female engineer, and even rarer to have three Māori engineer sisters together in a family.

“The challenge was that this was a whole, brand new world to us. The journey to get there was rough,” Manukau said.

Their presence in the field is still rare. Manukau said the number of Māori students in her university lectures was small, and even fewer were women.

“The amount of Māori in that room was tiny,” she said.

“When you get into the workforce, it’s even less – especially for Māori women.”

She said a lack of visibility was a key barrier.

“If you don’t even know it exists, you can’t aim for it.”

Manukau said that people might assume Māori have an easier time getting a degree, because of targeted entry schemes, but her and her sisters say the opposite is true.

“The reality is that as Māori and as women we have to work at least twice as hard to prove ourselves,” she said.

“And just when you think that it can’t be more isolating than that experience, you’re in the workforce … and it’s even worse,”

“At my last company I was the only Māori engineer … Phoenix and Tiaho share similar experiences, as well as others I know.”

Manukau said when working on large infrastructure projects, people often assumed she worked in the office.

“If a man was with me, they automatically assumed he was the engineer.

“Imagine their surprise when I introduced myself.”

Manukau said increasing Māori representation in engineering was critical to ensuring projects like the pou installation are approached in culturally appropriate ways.

“There’s a very one-dimensional way of thinking sometimes – as long as it works, that’s it,” she said.

“But that’s not the way we should be thinking about it.”

She said Māori perspectives were essential in projects involving taonga, where cultural meaning and whakapapa must be considered alongside technical requirements.

Manukau hopes the work will not only benefit Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, but also provide a foundation for others.

“I hope it’s a starting point for things to be built on,” she said.

“There is a different way to design things, and it should be normalised.”

She also hopes it encourages more Māori, particularly rangatahi, to consider engineering as a career.

“There are so many opportunities that come with it,” she said.

“If I can do it, you definitely can.”

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Researchers have identified “te reo trauma” as a barrier to the revitalisation of the Māori language.

Dr Raukura Roa (Waikato, Maniapoto, Ngāti Hauā, Ngāti Korokī Kahukura, Ngāti Raukawa) told RNZ the working definition for te reo Māori trauma is “a person’s emotional, psychological, spiritual distress and or physical injury caused by harmful events or by association to harmful events, which directly impacts their ability and or willingness to learn and or speak te reo Māori”.

One of the things that had her start research on this topic, which became the report Te Reo Māori Trauma Literature Review authored with Professor Tom Roa, was the fact that despite it being widely talked about on social media especially, there was no definition for Māori language trauma.

“The fundamental thing I wanted to accomplish, though, with this particular research is identifying exactly what it is we’re talking about when we say te reo Māori language trauma and also to be quite specific. So language trauma is across all languages, te reo Māori language trauma is specific to te reo Māori, so I wanted to get those things distinct.”

Research was expanded in a second report, Everyday Experiences of Te Reo Māori Trauma by Dr Mohi Rua, which saw a small number of participants share their experiences anonymously.

Roa said when learning a language there were both internal and external barriers that needed to be overcome. External barriers included time, money, government policy, but other people’s attitudes and comments could also be perceived as external barriers.

“So other people’s behaviours, other people’s attitudes, comments can be perceived as an external barrier. The other people, however, the comments, the judgments, it points to an internal barrier around fear.

“Fear of being judged because you made a mistake or just plain fear of making mistakes. Fear of being embarrassed or humiliated because you mispronounced some words, or you used the completely wrong word for the wrong context and in that moment was either judged or experienced embarrassment by being judged or publicly humiliated based on the way in which you were corrected.”

The physical injuries and emotional scars experienced by the generation of Māori who experienced corporal punishment at school for speaking te reo was also a barrier, she said.

“Even by association, so even if you yourself weren’t caned for speaking te reo Maori, if you saw someone who was caned, that would stop you as well. Our brains do a quick calculation. Te reo Māori equals pain. Te reo Māori is bad. Don’t speak te reo Māori.

“What’s missing is just there’s no freedom to just kōrero. Just kōrero. If it’s on social media, if it’s, you know, in person, on the phone, on Zoom hui. Kaore te iwi i te tino wātea ki te tuku i te reo kia rere, he wehi.”

Can we reach 1 million speakers by 2040?

In 2019 the government pledged to ensure one million people in New Zealand were able to speak basic te reo Māori by 2040. Roa said reo trauma would be a big barrier to that goal.

Te reo was New Zealand’s most widely spoken language after English, data from Stats NZ showed there were 213,849 te reo Māori speakers in 2023, up from 185,955 in 2018, an increase of 27,894 people (15 percent) since the 2018 Census.

Roa said that was a huge increase, but if the number of speakers continued to increase at a pace of 30,000 every five years, the country would reach approximately 303,000 speakers by 2040, quite a shortfall.

“The thing is, until now, we haven’t really started dealing with Māori language trauma as a barrier. We’ve talked about it. We know about it. We know that there’s a barrier there. We know that there is trauma there. We know that people experience fear, they experience embarrassment. We haven’t actually come up with a strategy to combat that barrier, to dismantle that barrier.”

In order to reach that goal, New Zealand needed to find new strategies and be committed to not only identifying the barriers, both external and internal, but also be willing to work on dismantling those barriers, she said.

‘It gives a very clear message’ – Te Mātāwai on trauma research

Chair/toihau of Te Mātāwai’s Komiti Rangahau, Teina Boasa-Dean, said it made sense that there be further research from Te Mātāwai into te reo trauma.

While the themes and issues raised by Roa’s research were not new, they brought new insight into the contemporary experiences of te reo speakers, she said.

“It gives a very clear message that what is still deeply embedded inside communities, Māori communities in particular, is the notion that a number of different forms of distress, anxiety, even discriminatory, I think, attitudes towards te reo Māori has exacerbated lots of different forms of anxiety around language learning, language revitalisation.”

Boasa-Dean said te reo trauma had “without question” been a hindrance to language revitalisation over the last 50 years.

Referring to it as “trauma” was a very pointed and accurate way of describing what people were experiencing, what learners were experiencing in terms of encountering their language and their cultural knowledge, maybe for some of them for the first time, she said.

Māori needed to design innovative strategies to cope with the different forms of trauma, whether that was anxiety or distress, she said.

“Much of that sits on the shoulders of skilled and talented facilitators to ensure that they are conscious, number one, that … many, many of our people will walk into the door, the language learning door, with different levels, different shades, and different degrees of fear.

“Kei te nui anō hoki te aupēhitanga i tō tātou reo me ōna tikanga i roto i a Aotearoa i tēnei wā tonu. Nō reira, he wā tōtika tēnei wā ki te kawe haere anō hoki i ō tātou taiaha ki te turaki anō hoki i ērā taiapa ki raro, kia mauri tau ai te ngākau, te wairua, te hinegaro o te tangata e kuhu mai ana ki te ako i tāna reo me ōna tikanga tonu.”

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The Public Service Association (PSA) says further job cuts at Te Puni Kōkiri the Ministry of Māori Development would gut the Crown’s ability to meet Te Tiriti obligations.

The PSA said staff had recently received a change proposal which would cut 45 roles and establish 18 to meet government spending reductions.

If it proceeds 27 roles will be cut, impacting the ministry’s people capability and culture, Māori capability, health and safety, information systems, and property and finance functions.

The loss of those roles would come on top of previous restructuring at the ministry.

PSA kaihautū Māori Jack McDonald said the cumulative job cuts would decimate Te Puni Kōkiri.

“These proposed cuts would mean the overall loss of more than 100 roles, about 21 percent of the workforce, further gutting the Crown’s ability to meet their Te Tiriti obligations and deliver improved outcomes for Māori.”

In a statement to RNZ, Te Puni Kōkiri said it was consulting with kaimahi on proposed organisational changes, and no final decisions had been made.

“We recognise that this is a challenging time for our people. Our priority is to ensure kaimahi are kept informed, supported, and have the opportunity to engage meaningfully in the consultation process.

“We are committed to a fair and transparent process and will carefully consider all feedback before any decisions are finalised. We will take the time to carefully consider all feedback before any decisions are made.”

McDonald said Te Puni Kōkiri led critically important work, including advising government on kaupapa Māori and Māori/Crown relations.

“This government has slashed Māori- and Te Tiriti-focused roles, teams and programmes, and the role of te reo Māori and tikanga Māori in the public service has been undermined.

“These senseless cuts will mean the work of supporting ministers and senior leaders will fall on already stretched staff. This mahi is often unseen and unpaid and will increase the risks of burnout and increased stress for staff.

“Axing Māori capability roles that support Te Puni Kōkiri kaimahi strengthening their te reo Māori and tikanga Māori will hamper the organisation’s ability to engage effectively with te ao Māori, which is critical to the work of Te Puni Kōkiri.

“Te Puni Kōkiri has a proud tradition over decades in ensuring that public services deliver for Māori. It is very disappointing that its legacy is being undermined.”

The PSA said the final decision would be announced at the end of April.

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A Māori researcher says being forced to remove his rei mako (traditional shark tooth earrings) at the New Zealand border felt like “a stripping of mana”.

Tanith Wirihana Te Waitohioterangi (Rongowhakaata, Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, Te Whānau a Kai, Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Ngāti Ruapani) was stopped by biosecurity officers in Aotearoa after returning from Europe.

He had been in Germany working with the Museum of Five Continents in Munich on Māori taonga, including a pou tokomanawa (carved centre post in a wharenui) taken from his iwi in the 1890s.

“I was infuriated… I was greatly shamed and embarrassed,” he told RNZ.

“I was asked to remove them, place them on the table, and then told they would be sent to DOC to decide whether I could keep them.”

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has since apologised to Wirihana Te Waitohioterangi and says it will remind staff to handle taonga with greater sensitivity.

But he says more should be done at a systemic level so incidents like this do not happen in the first place.

The traditional mako shark tooth earrings were returned about 10 minutes later, he said, after a staff member reconsidered the decision.

“That indicated they could have exercised more discretion in the first place.”

Wirihana Te Waitohioterangi is a PhD candidate in Māori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, as well as a kaiwhakairo (carver). He said the experience came despite him declaring the taonga on arrival.

“I’m coming through with French wines, cheese and chocolate and there’s no problem, but something that belongs to our people has to go through a DOC process.”

He said the issue was with the system, not individual staff.

“I do not believe the staff themselves are at fault. I believe it is part of a very flawed process.”

He said he felt forced to comply after more than 30 hours of travel.

“I thought to myself, well, I don’t want to be getting arrested by making a scene by refusing to give them. So I just signed the form to forfeit them. And I was so infuriated by having to do so.”

“I was so angry that I couldn’t even remember which way it was to get to the domestic terminal.”

He said the taonga carry deep cultural and personal significance – especially for Rongowhakaata and Ngāi Tāmanuhiri.

“It carries my mana, the person who gave them to me, and all of the whakapapa connected to them.”

The rei mako were made using traditional methods by tohunga whakairo Tiopira Rauna Jr, from teeth that were gifted to him and hold particular significance in Tūranga – where he is from.

“Our tūpuna wore exactly the same thing,” he said.

“One of our most famous last barrers of such great taonga was a great tohunga and rangatira of Te Whānau a Kai named Te Kani Te Ua. And you can Google any one of the photos. He wears very large rei mako.”

“I thought to myself in that instant, if he was here, he would have absolutely refused. And he would have been infuriated if he was alive to even be asked such a question.”

In a statement to RNZ, Mike Inglis, Biosecurity New Zealand commissioner, North said at the border, Biosecurity New Zealand officers are responsible for assessing whether items carried by passengers pose a biosecurity risk or are subject to international wildlife protections.

“Our staff assess thousands of passengers coming through our borders every day. This work helps protect New Zealand’s primary sector, environment, and biodiversity, and ensures we meet our international obligations relating to trade in endangered species.”

In this incident, Inglis said, during a baggage inspection, an officer “correctly identified the mako teeth as a restricted item under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).”

“Our standard process is to refer such items to the Department of Conservation, which is responsible for administering and enforcing New Zealand’s CITES obligations.”

“However, there is an exemption for taonga that appear to originate from New Zealand and are carried by a New Zealand resident.”

Inglis said as usual procedure in this case, the rei mako was temporarily taken for assessment.

“After consideration by a chief quarantine officer, it was determined the exemption applied in this case. As a result, the earrings were quickly returned to the passenger.”

When asked by RNZ what training biosecurity officers receive around tikanga Māori and taonga, Inglis said they recieve training in tikanga Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations.

“Including workshops on the handling of taonga and other culturally significant items. We also employ cultural advisers to support this work.”

He said, Biosecurity New Zealand will take the opportunity to clarify their processes for officers dealing with passengers carrying taonga and other items of high cultural significance.

Wirihana Te Waitohioterangi said the issue may be resolved for him personally, he described the experience as an example of systemic failure.

“Well, the first thing that came to mind was this is just systemic racism… you don’t see people being asked if their diamonds are blood diamonds.”

He said the handling of taonga raised concerns under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

“We didn’t sign up to have our taonga removed from us… to have something of that significance taken and for a government department to decide whether you get it back, that is infuriating.”

He also questioned the process of removing taonga to be assessed elsewhere.

“The greatest thing that I really didn’t like was the fact they were going to take them off me in Auckland and then send them back to me in the mail.

“That’s not the respect that these taonga deserve.”

Wirihana Te Waitohioterangi said greater cultural understanding and discretion is needed.

“The question remains this could happen again.

“There needs to be greater sensitivity in how indigenous people are treated with their taonga… it’s not just about me.”

He also pointed to the potential impact on others.

“We’ve seen it time and time over the years with airport security taking people’s tiripou (walking stick) and saying, well, this is a taiaha, you could use this to harm people, when it’s clearly a person who’s carrying a walking stick… I would like to think and hope that people are a little bit more sensitive to those things.”

“I thought about our kaumātua… if this was one of our older people, they wouldn’t be too happy about that.”

Since sharing his experience publicly, he said the response had been overwhelming.

“I think this has helped send a gentle reminder to border security to please do a little bit better.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Tano Uilelea has been working towards his Restricted Licence with Youth Inspire for just over a year. He said he’s had amazing support from the Driving School and from his mum.

With their support the learners test “wasn’t really hard,” he said, and his confidence is building as he prepares for the practical test for his restricted licence.

“I reckon having a licence is really important for, yeah, especially finding jobs. Like, there’s a lot of jobs that need motors and yeah, just because we live in a world of illegal drivers, like kids our age just driving, just for the sakes of driving without a licence.”

Uilelea said that attitude is widespread among his friends.

“The boys think it’s cool to illegally drive. Not saying names, but yeah they think it’s just because we live in New Zealand that legally driving is just a free thing, but yeah, getting your licence is really important because you never know, one day you might just get pulled over randomly.”

Youth Inspire has been running a Driving School in the Hutt Valley for more than seven years, during which time over 1200 young people have come through its doors.

Māori and Pacific young people hold drivers licence’s at much lower rates than their Pākehā counterparts and the charity believes that’s locking them out of employment opportunities.

Youth Inspire CEO Zainab Ali said rangatahi who aren’t driving on their correct licences are often referred to the program by local police.

“We are very blessed because we are funded to provide the service for free to rangatahi, they don’t pay anything including their testing fees. So I think the need for the service is, you know the largest it’s ever been.

“Our demand, our waiting lists are you know, really full and that’s a great sign because it means more and more rangatahi want to get their license, want to do it the right way,” she said.

Ali said the program is currently funded through Waka Kotahi’s Road Safety Fund.

“Unfortunately, we have heard that we have been denied further funding for the next three years. We just found out two weeks ago, so that’s a big blow to this community. So Youth Inspire and our governance members were working through how we can resolve that, how we can continue to provide this service to our community without that funding.”

The rising costs of fuel is also becoming a concern for Youth Inspire, but Ali said they invested in driving school vehicles in the past that are low cost in terms of fuel usage and one which is electric.

“Day-to-day when we fill our tanks up we can absolutely see the rise in cost and we are predicting that there will be a general rise in cost across all products and services, which means that even the price to power our electric car will rise, the cost of resources, you know, and all of the things that come with running a driving school is going to rise as well.”

Ali believes the importance of a driving licence to a young person is often underestimated, as it opens up a larger pool of job opportunities.

“The demand is higher than ever before and I worry that if a driving school that’s not free for the rangatahi in our community, if we didn’t exist it’s going to leave a huge gap and I can guarantee we will see a rise in road-related offences for young people in our community.”

‘They’re breaking the cycle’

Driving School Manager Kinder Khakh said there are currently 15 young people preparing for their learners test, with 20 more training for their restricted or full licences.

Many rangatahi have been driving illegally, so there is a need to help them get their licence sorted before they get into justice system, he said.

“Some people just don’t actually have ability to go to VTNZ and get their license sorted, some people are just too anxious to go there seeing the big bright orange building and seeing the big bright yellow building at AA. It’s hard for them to go there on their own and some people they don’t even have any licence in the household. So I have encountered, I have seen people doing the learners and restricted through us and they’re first in the family. They’re breaking the cycle, they want to get a job, they don’t want to sit around.”

Khakh said with around 70 percent of jobs requiring a driver’s licence it’s a huge barrier, coupled with the second barrier of cost.

“When they come here the first thing they ask how much does it cost? When we tell them it’s free, then they say oh, what’s the catch? And they always kind of asking for that to start with because it’s a huge thing because the licence costs a lot, it’s $96 for learners license and some people getting their licence replaced.”

Khakh said the majority of jobs who ask for a licence are checking for reliability and more often then not they will go for someone who has a car and a licence rather than someone who relies on public transport to get to and from work.

It’s a privilege to help the young people achieve what they need to be and what they can because they have so much potential, he said.

“I think Youth Inspire is the only community driving school in the Hutt Valley and that caters to a lot of young people within the community here and for me why is this so [meaningful] to me is I’m the first person in my family to have a license and a car and we never had this kind of programs.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

An Auckland man has failed in his bid to stop Kāinga Ora removing him from his mother’s home because he claimed it was Māori land.

The case was decided on the papers by Kaiwhakawa (Judge) Te Kani Williams at the Māori Land Court of New Zealand, Taitokerau District.

Jonathan Albert filed an application in relation to a property in Beatrix Street, Avondale, in Auckland.

He had already had an application declined for an urgent injunction over the land, after the Tenancy Tribunal awarded Kāinga Ora vacant possession of the property.

In his second application, he sought a finding that the land was taonga tuku iho, deemed to be Crown land but actually recoverable Māori customary land.

He wanted the court to find that he was entitled to seek recovery of the land via an occupation licence.

His mother had previously rented the land from Kāinga Ora but died in October. The family had stayed in the property but Kāinga Ora wanted to terminate the tenancy, and had been awarded vacant possession by the Tenancy Tribunal.

Kaiwhakawa Williams said the certificate of title for the land identified the owner as Housing New Zealand and indicated that it was not Māori freehold land.

It became Crown-owned land in 1942 and was owned by the Crown until Housing New Zealand acquired it in 1981.

“At no time within that sequence of events is there any record that the land was anything other than either Crown land or general land owned by a Crown entity. There is no suggestion that the land has been held in a trustee capacity or that there were any fiduciary obligations in relation to any third parties,” the judge said.

“Importantly, there is no recorded interests in favour of Ellen Albert and therefore there can be no interest that could be vested in any kaitiaki trust that had been incorporated for Ellen Albert or any of her descendants… nothing has been filed by Jonathan that establishes that the land is held by the Crown in a fiduciary capacity for the benefit of Jonathan or his family.”

He said there were no grounds for the application to succeed and it should be dismissed.

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Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi has been awarded nearly $300,000 in research funding from the Centre of Research Excellence Coastal People: Southern Skies to give rangatahi a hands-on education about climate change.

Project lead Dr Mawera Karetai (Kai Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Waitaha) told RNZ kids needed education to understand what the future impacts of climate change would look like and as a way to alleviate climate anxiety.

“Especially here in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, when it starts to rain, our kids will look out the window from their school and wonder if they’re going to get home, wonder if their parents are going to get home, wonder how bad the flooding is going to be and are there going to be any slips, and all of these stresses that happen in their life.

“We came up with this really cool education package that teaches our kids to understand what’s actually happening in the climate.”

The funding will enable researchers to create and distribute hands-on ‘Earth Science kete’ to schools.

“We’ve already run this as a pilot programme and the kids loved it, but so did the adults,” she said. “The adults became kids too.”

Karetai said each kete would come with different resources and tools for the kids to run experiments, including ice-melting experiments to explore sea-level rise, laser tools for observing land movement, emergency preparedness planning and food resilience kits that support local growing

One set of resources are earthquake-shake tables, which can run scenarios simulating earthquakes, while the kids build structures on the table to see how they hold up, she said.

“We’re helping the kids to understand truly what a long and strong earthquake actually looked like, then we talk about what’s the appropriate response to that. When should you worry and what should you do?”

Kids also get the chance to begin putting together their own Civil Defence family emergency plans, which they then pass on to their families to continue together, she said.

“Even here in Whakatāne, we had a tsunami evacuation just a few years ago, but if I ask parents where their school evacuates the kids to, they often can’t tell me. I’m quite alarmed by that, because if the parents don’t know, the kids also don’t know and that uncertainty leads to a little bit of anxiety.

“We’re trying to address that.”

Rangatahi need hands-on experiential engagement opportunities, so they get to do fun stuff and learn along the way, she said.

“Our rangatahi these days, gosh, they’re a cynical bunch, there is no doubt. Their access to information, they’re constantly bombarded with misinformation, so they’re cynical about everything.

“This is why this hands-on science is just so good, because they can see that it’s real. They can see how it works.”

Too often, parents believe whatever they see on the internet, she said.

“Our kids don’t think that way. They want to know, they want proof, they want evidence and, gosh, I think we’re in good hands for the future.”

Karetai said, with extreme weather events growing and becoming more frequent, the impacts were not experienced equally with Māori communities often on the frontline of coastal change.

Karetai was elected to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council at last year’s election and said she came into local government with goal to represent the smaller communities, like Murupara or Te Kaha.

That on-the-ground knowledge comes from years of working with rangatahi, she said.

“My heart is in making sure that our rangatahi are fully equipped with all of the knowledge that they need to be able to manage the uncertainty and complexity of the future that they’re growing into.

“In the regional council, I’m that voice at the table, reminding the other councillors that these are the things that we need to be thinking about.”

Following the Bay of Plenty pilot, Awanuiārangi plans to expand the programme to other coastal communities across Aotearoa and into the Pacific, as further funding partnerships are secured.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi has been awarded nearly $300,000 in research funding from the Centre of Research Excellence Coastal People: Southern Skies to give rangatahi a hands-on education about climate change.

Project lead Dr Mawera Karetai (Kai Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Waitaha) told RNZ kids needed education to understand what the future impacts of climate change would look like and as a way to alleviate climate anxiety.

“Especially here in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, when it starts to rain, our kids will look out the window from their school and wonder if they’re going to get home, wonder if their parents are going to get home, wonder how bad the flooding is going to be and are there going to be any slips, and all of these stresses that happen in their life.

“We came up with this really cool education package that teaches our kids to understand what’s actually happening in the climate.”

The funding will enable researchers to create and distribute hands-on ‘Earth Science kete’ to schools.

“We’ve already run this as a pilot programme and the kids loved it, but so did the adults,” she said. “The adults became kids too.”

Karetai said each kete would come with different resources and tools for the kids to run experiments, including ice-melting experiments to explore sea-level rise, laser tools for observing land movement, emergency preparedness planning and food resilience kits that support local growing

One set of resources are earthquake-shake tables, which can run scenarios simulating earthquakes, while the kids build structures on the table to see how they hold up, she said.

“We’re helping the kids to understand truly what a long and strong earthquake actually looked like, then we talk about what’s the appropriate response to that. When should you worry and what should you do?”

Kids also get the chance to begin putting together their own Civil Defence family emergency plans, which they then pass on to their families to continue together, she said.

“Even here in Whakatāne, we had a tsunami evacuation just a few years ago, but if I ask parents where their school evacuates the kids to, they often can’t tell me. I’m quite alarmed by that, because if the parents don’t know, the kids also don’t know and that uncertainty leads to a little bit of anxiety.

“We’re trying to address that.”

Rangatahi need hands-on experiential engagement opportunities, so they get to do fun stuff and learn along the way, she said.

“Our rangatahi these days, gosh, they’re a cynical bunch, there is no doubt. Their access to information, they’re constantly bombarded with misinformation, so they’re cynical about everything.

“This is why this hands-on science is just so good, because they can see that it’s real. They can see how it works.”

Too often, parents believe whatever they see on the internet, she said.

“Our kids don’t think that way. They want to know, they want proof, they want evidence and, gosh, I think we’re in good hands for the future.”

Karetai said, with extreme weather events growing and becoming more frequent, the impacts were not experienced equally with Māori communities often on the frontline of coastal change.

Karetai was elected to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council at last year’s election and said she came into local government with goal to represent the smaller communities, like Murupara or Te Kaha.

That on-the-ground knowledge comes from years of working with rangatahi, she said.

“My heart is in making sure that our rangatahi are fully equipped with all of the knowledge that they need to be able to manage the uncertainty and complexity of the future that they’re growing into.

“In the regional council, I’m that voice at the table, reminding the other councillors that these are the things that we need to be thinking about.”

Following the Bay of Plenty pilot, Awanuiārangi plans to expand the programme to other coastal communities across Aotearoa and into the Pacific, as further funding partnerships are secured.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand