For more than 30 years Tīrau’s Tapapa Marae sat vacant amongst farmland. Now it’s home to the South Waikato’s first rammed earth wharenui (meeting house). It comes after the Department of Internal Affairs granted $1.34 million for the first of three stages of the marae’s reconstruction earlier this year. A wharenui was built on the […]
Ngāti Awa iwi is opposing plans for a petrol station near Whakatāne, four months after battling two resource consents in the Rotorua High Court. Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa and Lysaght Developments have each sought a judicial review of Whakatāne District Council’s decision in April to grant consent for an unmanned Mobil petrol station opposite […]
Māori electorates have been a feature of national politics for more than 150 years, but at a local level just three of New Zealand’s 78 local authorities have Māori wards – the Bay of Plenty and Waikato regional councils and Wairoa District Council. The Bay of Plenty Regional Council was the first council to introduce […]
Three Whakatāne women who led the charge for Māori wards in the district are ecstatic legislation change has been signalled. Toni Boynton, Mawera Karetai, and Danae Lee said they were stunned and excited to hear that Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta had made removing the poll provisions on Māori wards one of her top priorities. […]
Transport Minister Michael Wood has committed to bilingual traffic signs across New Zealand by the end of this term of government, but says the current rules are not racist. Wood was in Rotorua on Friday to meet with Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick. He said the reason for his visit was primarily to discuss bilingual traffic […]
Te Tatau o Te Arawa representative Rawiri Waru is calling for a rule review to allow te reo Māori to have the same standing as English on road signs. On Monday, Waru told the Rotorua Daily Post the idea that only English signs were “legally complying” meant there was “a bit of racism in there”. […]
A ceremony and prayers were held in Berlin to mark the occasion, according to German news agency DPA. Tattooed heads of Māori men, known as Toi moko, were collector’s items during the 19th century. Slaves and prisoners of war were tattooed and then killed so that their heads could be sold as demand was so […]