Faith, survival, and misplaced allegiance
Marli Olive Wesley: “We are heirs to navigators, rebels, and chiefs who reimagined the world, yet too often we hand our allegiance to men who would erase us from theirs.” (Photo supplied)| E-Tangata
“The idea that people educated in this country should devote a small fraction of their undergraduate study to understanding our history and its relevance to all citizens today ought to be unremarkable.” — Emeritus Professor Alison Jones on Auckland University’s decision to drop proposed compulsory courses.| e-tangata.co.nz
“If a ‘knowledge-rich’ curriculum isn’t grounded in te ao Māori and the very people and things that make Aotearoa unique, who is determining the knowledge and where does it come from?” — Jessie Moss on the ideology behind education reform.| E-Tangata
“Every movement that changes the world depends on two kinds of energy. One pushes from the outside, demanding transformation. The other works from the inside, turning vision into practical steps.” — Sacha McMeeking.| E-Tangata
“Rather than stripping each other down, perhaps this is the moment to hold compassion for those we have chosen to lead us, even when we disagree, even when they fall short.” — Shonelle Wana.| E-Tangata
“It's spiritually powerful music, and that's why I gravitate to it. We hear the music, and we feel it. And then we hear the social commentary, and it just tops it off and validates our feelings.” — Katchafire’s Logan Bell on reggae’s appeal.| E-Tangata
“Māori are lagging in every social and economic indicator, and the rest of the country seems to think that’s an acceptable status quo. But you won’t read about it when Te Pāti Māori are busy hogging the headlines.” — Aaron Smale.| E-Tangata
“The idea that people educated in this country should devote a small fraction of their undergraduate study to understanding our history and its relevance to all citizens today ought to be unremarkable.” — Emeritus Professor Alison Jones on Auckland University’s decision to drop proposed compulsory courses.| E-Tangata
“A new modus operandi for Māori and Pākehā relations in the 21st century may draw at least in part on some of the lessons learned from the encounters that took place before 1840.” — Vincent O’Malley, from his new book The Meeting Place.| E-Tangata
“For many, he is the face of Tūhoe, of resistance, of the resurgence of te reo, of the return of mataora.” — Eugene Bingham on Tāme Iti’s memoir, 'Mana'.| E-Tangata
“We shoulder the burden of ensuring that Te Tiriti lives in our classrooms, even when government policy tries to erase it.” — Rongopai Kira, deputy principal of Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga.| E-Tangata
Marli Olive Wesley: “We are heirs to navigators, rebels, and chiefs who reimagined the world, yet too often we hand our allegiance to men who would erase us from theirs.” (Photo supplied)| E-Tangata
Lolo Heimuli: Making champions and good humans| e-tangata.co.nz
“There are Pasifika families who want their daughter to succeed in medicine but she still has to teach Sunday school, cook food for their family, and look after the young ones — and those expectations aren’t realistic.” — Dr Collin Tukuitonga.| E-Tangata
“We’re going to be left with people who go: ‘You know what, my uncle or my brother or my cousin died from bowel cancer. And it should have been picked up in a screening programme.’ Make no mistake, these deaths are unnecessary.” — Dr Rawiri McKree Jansen.| E-Tangata
“Just like that, we were told there’d be no more books and language support for our children and families. It's been devastating. I want whoever’s in charge of these literacy funding decisions to walk in my shoes for a day.” — Alana Nootai.| E-Tangata
“It doesn’t make sense. The minister has been positive about tamariki succeeding in Māori immersion learning. But now the very people who support this to happen effectively are in the firing line.” — Ripeka Lessels.| E-Tangata
“While Māori generally support rainbow rights, many are also Christian. And on some level, they will feel conflicted about Tāmaki’s agenda. So, they become passive observers, unintentionally complicit in the hatred of takatāpui.” — Anton Blank.| E-Tangata
“If the Indonesian government has its way, the area we’ve always called home, where we’ve lived and hunted for thousands of years, will cease to exist.”— Rosa Moiwend.| E-Tangata
“NZ’s current lack of action is deeply rooted in its problematic approach to this issue in the past — a past which straddles an involvement in Palestine since the First World War, through to today.” — John Hobbs.| E-Tangata
“Pacific countries and territories trying to assert their sense of autonomy need to be treated with respect and mana, and not be growled at in a paternalistic way, as if they’re delinquent juveniles.” — Professor Steven Ratuva.| E-Tangata
“I couldn’t, in all honesty, remain in my roles. The government didn’t seem interested in listening to genuine public health advice.” — Sir Collin Tukuitonga.| E-Tangata
“Our more middle-class economic status . . . owes everything to the housing and health policies of the former welfare state in the 1950s, and nothing to gold.” — Catherine Delahunty, whose great-grandfather was a miner in the Thames gold rush.| E-Tangata
“Waitangi should be a place where political leaders are made to justify their decisions from the past year, to take stock of how they’re upholding their side of the Treaty partnership.” — Jamie Tahana.| E-Tangata
“Māori and Pacific people are not going to be pushing others further down the list. That’s just not how the tool is designed,” says surgeon Maxine Ronald. (Photo: John Stone) | E-Tangata
“It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don’t understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be . . .” — Legendary Eagles' guitarist Joe Walsh, on his awakening at Ōtātara, Hawke's Bay.| E-Tangata
