Understanding the Many Meanings of the Fantail
The pīwakawaka is sometimes considered an omen of death, but in Māori tradition, that’s just one part of its story, Roxanne Hoorn writes for travel site, Atlas Obscura. The bird is a much more complex…
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The Two Colossi of Ahuriri, Pat Magill and John Harre
Closing a Community Chapter. The Two Colossi of Ahuriri, Pat Magill and John Harre On Monday 24 April Pat Magill, my kaumatua Pākehā, tangata Tiriti, called a few of us together for a coffee at…
Tihei mauri ora! Tihei Aotearoa
( Waiohiki Flood Recovery-Givealittle ) I began this kōrero at Waipatu, Heretaunga, in Hastings, in the early morning hours of Saturday, February 18, 2023. The sun had not yet risen, but it will….
The Night Aotearoa Won More than a Rugby Match
“The Women’s Rugby World Cup was a milestone for seeing Māori culture and worldview deeply embedded in Aotearoa’s national identity,” Tāmaki Makaurau- Auckland-based photojournalist and writer Cornell Tukiri (Ngaati Hikairo, Ngaati Whaawhaakia, Kāi Tahu)…
Tā Moko Undergoing Unprecedented Renaissance
The traditional art of Māori tattooing, known as tā moko, was at risk of total extinction after New Zealand’s brutal colonial-era efforts to suppress indigenous culture. But 50 years later, tā moko is far…
Māori Party Asks QEII for Divorce to Heal Colonial Wounds
Among celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the Māori Party has proposed New Zealand’s “divorce” from the British Crown to heal wounds left by the colonisation of native…
Newsreader Oriini Kaipara Presents World-First
Newshub broadcaster Oriini Kaipara has made the headlines herself in Britain with the Evening Standard reporting the Whakatane-born journalist is the first person to present a prime time news programme with a moko kauae. Kaipara,…
Naming NZ Aotearoa Meaningful Step for Travellers
The Māori Party has launched a petition to revert to the country’s original name of Aotearoa. In an opinion piece for Condé Nast Traveler, Māori authors Stacey and Scotty Morrison say travellers don’t need…
Revitalising Te Reo Māori Via Music
When musician and producer Dame Hinewehi Mohi, one of the primary engines behind the musical Māori revival, performed the New Zealand national anthem at the 1999 Rugby World Cup in Māori rather than English,…
Rēnata West Searches US for Spirit of His Ancestors
When Rēnata West moved from New Zealand to the US in 2016, he discovered something unexpected: the path of his great grandmother, who had travelled the same route more than 100 years ago. West…
How the Motunui Epa Returned to Rightful Owners
Throughout its reign, the British Empire stole a lot of stuff, Marc Fennell and Simon Leo Brown report for ABC Radio National. Stuff the British Stole podcast is a series about the not-so-polite history…
England Football Looks to Owen Eastwood
In a Guardian article, UK-based lawyer turned performance coach New Zealander Owen Eastwood (Ngāi Tahu), who has been working with the England football team, explains his role in building a sense of belonging and…
Integrating Mātauranga into UNESCO’s Work
“Like many Indigenous peoples around the world, Māori have developed their understanding of their environment through close observation of the landscape and its behaviours over the course of many generations,” Vogue Business sustainability editor…
Celebrate Astronomically-Based Matariki
A story about Māori New Year, when the constellation Matariki is first visible in the morning sky, features in Forbes this week. The date of the inaugural Matariki public holiday has been announced by…
Study Suggests Māori First to Encounter Antarctica
Māori explorers could have been the first humans to set eyes on Antarctica as far back as the 7th century, a new study suggests, even though for the past 200 years, tales of discovering…
Manaakitanga Behind Our Strong Covid Response
There is a deeper reason why New Zealand has “fared so much better”, than say, the United States in combatting Covid-19, and it’s manaakitanga, according to New Zealanders Matthew Milner and Richard Ngata, who…
Trapped in Museums for Centuries, Maori Ancestors Are Coming Home
Writing for Atlas Obscura, Ye Charlotte Ming has taken an in-depth look at the ongoing process of repatriation of Maori remains from international museums, quoting poet and musician Hinemoana Baker, researcher Amber Aranui and…
Learning Te Reo Māori Is Where It’s At
New Zealanders of all stripes are signing up to learn te reo Māori, according to Amy Gunia reporting for TIME magazine. Gunia writes that experts say over the last five or so years, the…
Berlin Museum Returns Toi Moko to New Zealand
With a ceremony and prayers, Berlin’s ethnological museum has marked the official repatriation of two Toi Moko, or tattooed Māori heads, to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, Deutsche Welle…
A Country Can Best Heal When it Acknowledges Past Injustices says Sociologist
What would happen if you lost your land and ended up as a second-class citizen in your own country? asks American medical sociologist Robert Bartholomew in an opinion piece for Psychology Today. “New Zealand is a land…
Oldest Surviving Photograph of Māori Discovered
The oldest surviving photograph of a Māori person, a picture of Hemi Pomara, has been discovered in the National Library of Australia, an historical “scoop” being lauded on both sides of the Tasman. Eleanor…
A Country Can Best Heal When it Acknowledges Past Injustices says Sociologist
What would happen if you lost your land and ended up as a second-class citizen in your own country? asks American medical sociologist Robert Bartholomew in an opinion for Psychology Today. “New Zealand is a land…
Recognising the Whanganui River’s Legal Voice
In 2017, New Zealand granted legal personhood to the Whanganui River. Since then, other nations have followed suit in an effort to protect the environment. The BBC’s Luana Harumi reports, with the river featured…
Businesswoman Mavis Mullins Speaks on Pukaha Treaty Reparations with NPR
Mavis Mullins runs a sheep-shearing company that handles over 1,000,000 sheep. She’s also a charming, disarmingly honest straight-shooter. One day her cousin pulled her into a café with a request: Help us fight with…
Māori Increasingly Asserting Identity with Tā moko
Gary Harding’s body is a living testimony to his heritage. Tā moko, a cultural tattoo artwork, adorns Harding’s face and body, a visualisation of his Māori whakapapa or genealogy, his role in the community…
Te Papa’s Te Taiao Nature an Urgent Call to Action
Dunedin-based Guardian journalist Eleanor Ainge Roy writes on Te Papa’s biggest development since its inception 21 years ago, the result of the largest ever investment in a museum exhibition in the country. Te Taiao…
What the Haka Means and How It’s Performed
It’s what representing their country is all about – walking out in New Zealand’s All Blacks jersey, facing their opposition, and delivering a spine-tingling, hair-raising haka before the whistle blows for kick-off. George Ramsay…
Barbie Releases First-Ever Māori Doll
Barbie has released its first-ever Māori doll, modelled after New Zealand sports journalist and former rugby player Melodie Robinson. The doll, which has “curly hair and beautiful brown skin”, holds a microphone as part of…
The Treaty of Waitangi and Its Influence On Identity Politics
“Globally, there has been a crisis of confidence in the promises of liberal democracy in recent years,” writes James H. Liu, Professor of Psychology at Massey University. Against trends like the US president wanting…
UK High Commission in NZ to Recruit Māori Adviser & Te Reo Teacher
“The British high commission in New Zealand has been given the green light to recruit its first adviser on Māori affairs, as well as a te reo language teacher for high commissioner Laura Clarke.”…
How Spark Helped NZ Learn Māori
“Whilst te reo Māori has steadily seen an increase in a number of revitalisation efforts across New Zealand—especially in recent years—actual te reo learning opportunities remain limited and sometimes inaccessible,” writes Faaez Samadi in…
Oceans Apart Doco a Tribute to Māori Determination
British art historian James Fox presents Oceans Apart: Art and the Pacific, an “engaging” BBC documentary exploring Māori culture. It is reviewed in The Guardian by Emine Saner. In Oceans Apart, Fox examines artworks that…
Maori Language Is Having a Renaissance in NZ
“A teenage thrash metal band screams out Maori lyrics in its latest videos. A popular radio host is learning New Zealand’s indigenous language and sharing new vocabulary with his audience. Maori is having a…
How Māori-Owned Small Businesses are Reshaping NZ
Kākano means ‘seed’ in Māori. For Jade Temepara, a Māori woman who was crowned New Zealand’s Gardener of the Year in 2012, though, it means a lot more. Temepara owns Kākano, a Māori restaurant…
Google and Disney Join Rush to Te Reo
Te Reo is undergoing a revival – lessons are packed, songs are top of the pops, and even the prime minister wants to be part of it. Māori language teachers from Auckland to Dunedin…
German Museum Returns Tattooed Māori Skull
The Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum of world cultures in Cologne, Germany has returned a tattooed Māori skull, which had been in its collection for 110 years, to a delegation representing the Museum of New Zealand Te…
US Actress Bryce Dallas Howard Finds Solace in NZ
In a revealing new interview with American television show Entertainment Tonight, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom star, Bryce Dallas Howard opens up about the health struggles she faced in her 20s and how New Zealand…
Early Māori Village Found in Gisborne Tells Story
While much early Māori history is documented through songs and stories – from tales of Kupe, who Māori consider to be the first adventurer to navigate to New Zealand to the deep roots of the…
Lance O’Sullivan Takes Youths on Trip of Lifetime
Twelve rangatahi Māori from across the country have accompanied New Zealander of the Year Dr Lance O’Sullivan and the Kaitaia-based Moko Foundation to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues…
Jacinda Ardern Wears Korowai to Meet the Queen
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern turned heads at Buckingham Palace last week, wearing a traditional Māori korowai to a state banquet of world leaders. The korowai was loaned to Ardern by the
Translated Moana Bolsters Maori Language
New Zealand writer and director Taika Waititi, who worked on the original English-language version of Moana, also approached Disney early on about translating the film, and his sister, Tweedie Waititi, went on to produce…
Speaking Te Reo Maori All Year Round
The real question is whether the enthusiasm around the annual Maori Language Week (Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori) can spill into the rest of the year. “Te Reo Maori Week should be an…
Pania Newton Taking up the Fight for Ihumatao
Pania Newton, 26, a descendant of Ihumatao has been integral in helping to establish Save Our Unique Landscape (SOUL Ihumatao), the group at the forefront of the Auckland land struggle. Ihumatao…
New Zealand’s Bronze Māori Storehouse Destined For UN
“A significant cultural gift from Aotearoa New Zealand to the United Nations is a step closer with the unveiling of a bronze whatarangi (storehouse) at Te Puia New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute…
New Generation of Maori Women Wearing Moko
For Maori women, the moko kauae, or traditional female chin tattoo, is considered a physical manifestation of their true identity. It is believed every Maori woman wears a moko on the inside, close to…
Speaking Irish in New Zealand to My Maori-Irish Son
“There’s a special connection between Irish people, Irish speakers and Maori. It’s another reason why Aotearoa feels like home,” educator Gillian Cotter writes in an Irish Times lifestyle piece about raising her Maori-Irish son,…
Maori Emotiki Join Emoji Crowd
People wanting to text in a Maori “accent” will be able to do so in July with the release of a special set of distinctive green emoji in New Zealand, called “emotiki”. Along with more…
US Returns Remains of 54 Indigenous People to NZ
Four mummified Maori heads have been returned to New Zealand, following five years of negotiations with the Smithsonian Institution in the United States. The objects are part of the second-largest repatriation of indigenous remains…
Ta Moko – Traditional Maori Face and Body Tattoos
The Daily Mail has featured a number of black and white photos, which were taken by possibly the first New Zealand female professional photographer Elizabeth Pulman and depict “how far…
Pataka Taonga Returned to New Plymouth
Five intricately carved storehouse carvings have been returned to New Zealand after 150 years buried in a swamp and 40 years exile in Europe. They are the Motunui epa and once were almost sold off…
Indigenous NZ Practice Aims to Reunite Kids in Care with Families
A delegation from New Zealand, led by Katie Murray has travelled to Winnipeg to work with the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre Inc. on reducing the number of children in foster care. The delegation’s…
Finnian Galbraith’s Hit Te Reo Pronunciation Video
Raumati College pupil Finnian Galbraith’s YouTube video complaining about poor pronunciation of Maori words has proved a hit online, with more than 160,386 views. Galbraith, 15, says in his YouTube video that many people in…
Settlements May Be Imperfect but Important Example Says UN
Last year’s $170 million Ngai Tuhoe settlement is one of dozens the New Zealand government has signed with Maori tribes in a comprehensive, multi-billion-dollar process described in a United Nations report as imperfect but…
Maori Feature in New Book Documenting World’s Tribes
Powerful portraits of Maori feature in a new book about 31 unique tribes by British photojournalist Jimmy Nelson called, Before They Pass Away, “an irreplaceable ethnographic record of a fast disappearing world.” Nelson writes…
USA Today: Breaking Down the All Blacks Haka
USA Today has provided insight into the Haka, which has become a familiar rite to anyone who has watched a New Zealand team play in international sporting events. The Haka, drew headlines this summer as…
New Zealand Exemplary in Embracing Indigenous Culture
“Can you imagine NBA players performing a Native American grass dance in an act of team solidarity and national unity? In New Zealand, no one bats an eye,” writes Morgan Godfery in…
