Dr Rawiri Taonui: The call for Māori women to speak on marae was reignited this year when Mere Mangu, the Chair of Te Rūnanga ā Iwi o Ngāpuhi, welcomed Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and other political leaders to Te Whare Rūnanga at Waitangi. The male taumata (front row of speakers) tried to make her sit down. They have been deservedly admonished..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: A decade long furore in the Netherlands over ‘Black Pete’ (Zwarte Piet) where white people dress-up with Black Faces, frizzy wigs and red watermelon sucking lips to help Sinterklaas (St Nicholas) distribute presents is now playing out in New Zealand..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: Rugby, Racism and Xenophobia Mā māminga, mā tinihanga, ka oti te mahi - ‘By trickery we can achieve’..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: Utilising ‘white’ as a metaphor for ‘a person or woman of colour’ conveys connotations of white superiority..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: As requested by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, the Kīngitanga have returned from discussions with mana whenua and called on the Government to negotiate with Fletcher Residential to return the Ōruarangi land at Ihumātao to its ‘rightful owners’..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: This column examines proposals from Auckland Mayor Phil Goff and mayoral candidate John Tamihere for resolving the impasse at Ihumātao, explores measures other councils have taken in similar situations, and questions why the Auckland Council is not applying its ten-year $1.18 billion open space budget to Ihumātao..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: This column looks at the National Party proposals for resolving the stand-off over the Fletcher Residential Special Housing Project at Ihumātao..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: This third article on Ihumātao investigates the mana whenua mandate of tribal entities associated with the proposed Fletcher Residential housing development at Ihumatao. Interrogating this question requires understanding the traditional terminology, the historical location of interests in 1840, the support and remit of tribal structures and how any incongruities may have arisen..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui; This column investigates how the proposed Fletcher Residential development at Ihumātao, the National government’s Special Housing Area policy and the preoccupation of the Auckland Council, the courts and statutory bodies on preserving Māori culture as an icon of the past rather than restoring the living relationship between Māori and their whenua constitutes a second confiscation.Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui;This column is part one of three on Ihumātao. This part traces the historical injustices behind Ihumātao. Part two outlines the legal progress and rising opposition against the Fletchers Residential development, the contradiction between justice for Māori and preserving Māori as an artefact, and how the Crown has divided mana whenua. Part three examines the political implications of Ihumātao..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: Those who apply a cultural double standard to condemn indigenous art as obscene while ignorant of their own tradition are the sorts of people who refer to sexual intercourse as having a naughty..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: In Tauranga last week there was a ‘It’s okay to be White’ leaflet drop. Complaints also came to light against netball teams from Māori schools for speaking te reo on court..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: Christchurch has suffered a lot over the past decade with the earthquakes and the white supremacist shooting that killed 51 members of the Muslim community in February of this year..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: The spat between Labour’s Minister of Employment Willie Jackson and National Deputy Leader Paula Bennett raises issues about Māori identity.
 

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Dr Rawiri Taonui: Late last year, the Motu - Economic and Public Policy Research Trust paper Indigenous Belief in a Just World: NZ Maori and other Ethnicities Compared (reported in the Herald 23 September 2015) arguing that because Maori collectivist values were like those of other indigenous, African American and Chinese belief systems they were undermining of Maori economic success..Read more