Ancestry: Indigenous Pride
This is a poem written in the build up to Waitangi Day 2016, as well as the signing of the Trans-Pacific-Partnership in Auckland (New Zealand).
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Demonizing Teachers & Mental Health over a 0.099% statistic
A Fairfax journalist has, in a single article, overtly demonized our hardworking kiwi teachers as well as further stigmatising kiwis with mental health concerns. The piece (‘Nearly 100 mentally-ill teachers investigated by the Education Council in the past six years’) published on Stuff yesterday late afternoon, used information gained through the OIA to weave […]
Read more "Demonizing Teachers & Mental Health over a 0.099% statistic"Gospel bicentennial: Has it been good news for Māori?
Christmas 2014 marks the bicentennial of the first Christian service in NZ. However in light of its pivotal role in the colonisation of indigenous Aotearoa, as well as its overbearing silence towards present day socio-ecological inequity, why should we be celebrating something that isn’t really good news?
Read more "Gospel bicentennial: Has it been good news for Māori?"Māori Privilege: Ramblings of a privileged Māori
Contrary to what some may believe, Māori aren’t privileged citizens of Aotearoa New Zealand. Dr (yes this guy is learned) Jamie Whyte and Winston Peters would obviously beg to differ, as their recent remarks clearly propagate a narrative that belongs in the 19th century. Analysing the situation, it’s evident that two major discourses influenced the […]
Read more "Māori Privilege: Ramblings of a privileged Māori"We can #EndNeoliberalism in New Zealand – Ramblings of a #Maori Socialist
“The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.” – Frederick Buechner 1/4 New Zealand children live in poverty. Evidently the Neoliberal economics of the 1980′s, which are still at large today, […]
Read more "We can #EndNeoliberalism in New Zealand – Ramblings of a #Maori Socialist"New Zealand politics: Labour needs to remember who they’re fighting – ramblings of a #Māori socialist
National will win the 2014 elections, but it won’t be due to any politicking by the Right. Since David Cunliffe became the leader of the NZ Labour Party, the political Centre-Left has gravitated more towards creating factions and discord than a sense of political direction and unity against the capitalist National government. Labour needs to […]
Read more "New Zealand politics: Labour needs to remember who they’re fighting – ramblings of a #Māori socialist"The irony of New Zealand and the Avatar Sequels: ramblings of a Maori socialist
Given the current political climate surrounding New Zealand’s growing chumminess with multinational corporations (as well as the country’s colonial history) one could unquestionably agree that Aotearoa is the right place for the filming of the Avatar sequels – for all the wrong reasons obviously. The first Avatar instalment was heavily drenched in themes of capitalism, […]
Read more "The irony of New Zealand and the Avatar Sequels: ramblings of a Maori socialist"Manaakitanga, indigeneity and nationhood: ramblings of a Maori socialist
As the government targets to resolve all historical Treaty claims by 2014[1] (more likely 2016), the subsequent aftermath will be intriguing to observe, as the historic transition is bound to be marked by conflict. The only way New Zealand society can meaningfully move forward is together, some believe that comes in the form of […]
Read more "Manaakitanga, indigeneity and nationhood: ramblings of a Maori socialist"Colin Craig and the threat to mana tangata whenua
“You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say you are free to compete with all the others, and still just believe that you have been completely fair.” – Lyndon Johnson, Affirmative Action, 1965 […]
Read more "Colin Craig and the threat to mana tangata whenua"An open letter to Pita Sharples and Tariana Turia
Tēnā kōrua Tariana and Pita, I write to ask you both, as the Minister of Māori Affairs and the Minister of Whānau Ora, to rectify the tapu that has been disregarded. Explicitly, I am referring to the comments and actions made by John Tamihere and Willie Jackson over the past week. As prominent Māori leaders, […]
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The Postcolonial 