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Why my tamariki are feeling hopeful about the new government
[The original article was published at e-Tangata on 22 October 2017] The announcement of the new government by Winston Peters on Thursday night felt more like a Melbourne Cup than politics. I...
View ArticleAll Saints, All Souls or All Parihaka? Connecting Allhallowtide to Aotearoa
The following is essentially the sermon I gave at St George’s Anglican Church, Tauranga Moana, 5 November 2017 We have just had the observance of the Allhallowtide triduum from 31st of October to the...
View ArticleNet Neutrality: don’t freak out yet, but the neighbours are fighting
If you are reading this blog, then in all likelihood you are successfully online. Welcome to the internet! For most of us the length of time we wait between clicking a link and the webpage opening is...
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Radio NZ’s sinister plan revealed: te reo for you, te reo for you, te reo for...
Radio New Zealand produces a Statement of Performance Expectations every financial year. It is a requirement under the Crown Entities Act. So for this current year they are working to the 2017/18...
View ArticleA Christmas to remember
I am neither here nor there about Christmas. My favourite time in the summer break is after Christmas is done and after New Year; we often go away camping and I find it the most relaxing time. Our...
View ArticleHow Hobson’s Pledge is taking aim at Māori wards in Tauranga
[First published on The Spinoff Ātea, 30 November 2017] In our balmy autumn months in Tauranga Moana, during the commemorations for Te Weranga (the 1867 Tauranga Bush Campaign), I have often had the...
View ArticleMāori health and education models can work for everyone
[This was first published in The Spinoff Ātea, 15 November 2017] The Minister of Social Development announced early in the term that they will repeal the part of the Social Security Act that requires...
View ArticleManus Island: why we can’t keep our noses out of it
[This was first published in The Spinoff Ātea, 16 December 2017] The deputy prime minister of Australia, Barnaby Joyce, is grumpy with Jacinda Ardern because she offered a place to 150 of those...
View ArticleHey, saw you grab her breast at Rhythm & Vines. Come on bro, it’s time to...
Hey bro. I saw you blowing up on Facebook wearing some kind of ridiculous toga. I bet you’re shit scared now; I wonder if your Mum knows it was you? She would lose her rag. I bet you’ve rolled through...
View ArticleWaitangi Day AKA How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Day
We’ve arrived at another Waitangi Day. The usual players have grumbled about Te Tii Marae. A grumpy Bill English’s trying to remind us all that we should be taking Waitangi Day away from Waitangi. I’ve...
View ArticleThe waka-jumping bill is bad for democracy
[This orginally appeared in the Spinoff Ātea on February 8 2018] Labour’s Electoral (Integrity) Bill has passed its first reading. It’s likely to pass despite some criticisms. It demonstrates how far...
View ArticleMāori need to do more for our Pacific cousins
[This originally appeared in the Spinoff Ātea on 26 February 2018] As our Pacific Islands cousins face the unprecendented impacts of climate change, they are looking for allies who will support them by...
View ArticleWhat it’s like to be a solo mum searching for a rental
[This originally appeared in the Spinoff Ātea during their Rent Week series] It was reported in January that Tauranga now outranks Auckland as New Zealand’s most unaffordable city and in the city’s...
View ArticleAre indigenous people united under the United Nations?
[This originally appeared in the Spinoff Ātea on 29 April 2018] Law professor Valmaine Toki is purported to have described the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues as a “huge Waitangi...
View Article‘He’s the one who came home’
[This originally appeared in E-Tangata on 6 May 2018] There’s a photo of my great-grandparents, Erueti Bidois and Ataraira Edwards, on the day they got married, in 1917. They sit uncomfortably: Erueti...
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