It is surveying 3,000 Maori online about the way they use Te Reo in their email addresses and web sites.

Society spokesperson Karaitiana Taiuru says the survey will examine how much, and where Maori language is used; an aspect of Te Reo that he says is always over looked.

He says domain names and web addresses are the last frontier of the Maori language and is an area which hasn’t been studied.

There is, he says, no information available yet of how many people use Te Reo to identify themselves on the internet.

Mr Taiuru says this is important research that will assist language revitalisation strategies in the future.

The research will analyse the Government’s and education providers’ attitudes to the Maori language on the internet and how iwi perceive their own domain name which has been in existence for more than 17 years.

Mr Taiuru says the findings will be released by the end of the year.

“Our band Te Kohikohinga Kohatu (TKK) is pleased to announce the release of our first single and music video during NZ Music Month” says band manager and singer Morgana Watson.

Whakataka Te Hau’ is an original and it’s all in Te Reo Maori! In fact, all our waiata are composed by members of our band and we sing in Te Reo Maori only. This new song incorporates old karakia (prayer) from our tipuna (ancestors).”

This group of musicians who’s name means “A Collection of Stones” was brought together by Simon James and Morgana Watson to introduce a new sound to Aotearoa and the world.

This is contemporary and traditional Maori (indigenous New Zealand) music in the styles of World, Jazz, Funk, Soul, Reggae. TKK endeavours to promote and celebrate Te Reo me ona Tikanga (the language and protocols) of Taranaki to share with all audiences.

“We are launching our EP in July here in Taranaki. Watch, learn, sing, dance and have an awesome time with us!” concluded Morgana Watson.

This is their first video single called “Whakataka Te Hau”. It speaks of the elements of nature and includes a Karakia (chant) well-known to Maori culture. Check out their sites and please Subscribe, *Like*, Share and all of that, to keep up to date with their music and gigs.

• http://www.tkk.co.nz
• https://www.facebook.com/TKKNZ
• Credits: Dayna Jury – Video.
• Matt Benton – (Thomas Oliver Band, Black Seeds) Guest Artist on Baritone Saxophone
• Tansi Williams – Hair & Make Up: tansi.productions@xtra.co.nz

(RadioNZ) The Maori Women’s Welfare League is thrilled to be reaching out to a younger audience with the launch of its new website – which goes live on Friday (at 11.30am we’re told).

Te Ropu Wahine Toko i te Ora says the development of a website is a top priority this year and it wanted to build a contemporary profile to attract young adults and potential members.

Web developer, Caleb Kingi of Lamp Studios, was contracted to create the website while he was on a working holiday to Europe via China and managed to complete the design while he was travelling by train between Amsterdam and Germany.

Newly appointed kaiwhakahaere (manager) Awhimai Reynolds says the league is particularly interested in appealing to an untapped younger age group.

She says the future is promising for the organisation that already has a strong membership of 3000 women.

The economic and social value of Maori culture to New Zealand and the way that it is marketed and sold to the world is the theme of a new exhibition called Mana for Jam at Wellington’s Toi Poneke Gallery from Friday 31 May to Saturday 22 June.

The exhibition’s curator, Reuben Friend, says it explores the value of Maori cultural capital, and the lengths people are willing to go to sell themselves and their culture to the world.

Mana for Jam looks at this concept of self-sufficiency, and the idea of ‘selling’ ones cultural capital to the world to earn a living – questioning the appropriateness of some of those actions in relation to Tino Rangatiratanga.”

The title plays on the phrase ‘money for jam’ – an expression that originated during the First and Second World Wars. When money and food rations were in limited supply, non-essential items such as jam were seen as luxuries.

In recent years the global economic recession has forced many people to return to the ways of their grandparents, planting gardens and re-learning handicrafts such as sewing and preserving food. For Maori communities, these types of practices are part of their concept of Tino Rangatiratanga.

“Tino Rangatiratanga, at its core, is about autonomy and self-sufficiency. These practices alleviate our reliance on money and help us to cater for our own needs using our own resources,” says Friend.

Six artists have contributed to Mana for Jam, commenting on everything from the value of Maori in the New Zealand labour force, to the way Maori television and movie celebrities ‘sell’ their ethnicity on the big screen.

Mana for Jam opens at Toi Poneke on Thursday 30 May.

Like their Facebook page here > https://www.facebook.com/ManaForJam

(Al Jezeera) New Zealand police acted unlawfully and unreasonably during armed raids near a small Maori settlement in 2007, an independent report has said.

• Click here to read the full report

Police accepted the findings of the Independent Police Conduct Authority report on Wednesday, but said they were targeting military-style camps based in Ruatoki Valley in the remote Urewera mountain range of New Zealand’s north island and the operation had to be taken in context.

The Maori tribe of Tuhoe called for a formal police apology after the report said that police unnecessarily intimidated people during the operation and acted unlawfully in establishing road blocks and detaining people during the raids.

The police arrested 18 people in the raids, which uncovered illegal firearms and Molotov cocktails, and sought charges under the Terrorism Act.

Only four people stood trial and were found guilty of firearms charges, but they were not found to be part of an organised criminal group.

Prosecutors had said that the group was planning to use guerrilla warfare to achieve self-determination in the Tuhoe region if negotiations over the issue with the government had failed.

‘Unjustified and unreasonable’

The report found that the detention of some Ruatoki residents while their properties were searched was “contrary to law, unjustified and unreasonable”.

With regard to road blocks established by police in the towns of Ruatoki and Taneatua, Sir David Carruthers, a judge and chairman of the Independent Police Conduct Authority, said in a written statement on Wednesday: “Police had no legal basis for stopping and searching vehicles or photographing drivers or passengers.”

The report also found that police planning and preparation for the establishment of the road blocks was deficient and intimidating.

Peter Marshall, New Zealand’s police commissioner, said that he accepted the report’s findings and apologised for the impact on “innocent residents of the Ruatoki Valley and elsewhere”, but later said he offerred no apology to those who were involved in the investigation.

Ruatoki residents said they were still traumatised by the actions of police during the raids and the Tuhoe was seeking a formal apology in a face-to face meeting.

Ruatoki resident Molly Turnbull said police acted like “terrorists” during the operation. “It’s something you read about in the movies, not in our community,” she said.

‘Significant changes’

Marshall said in a written statement that the police had made significant changes to address many of the issues noted.

But he said the context of the anti-terrorism operation involving more than 300 police was important.

“It followed an almost two-year investigation into a group of people involved in military style training camps using Molotov cocktails, semi automatic rifles, threats to kill people and destroy property,” Marshall said.

“When Police executed the 41 search warrants they found 26 firearms. Seventeen were found in Ruatoki including a loaded pistol under the mattress of a suspect.”

But he apologised for police officers’ failure to meet expected standards when carrying roadblocks in Ruatoki and the town of Taneatua, and five of the 41 property searches.

The report cleared the decision of Howard Broad, the former police commissioner, to authorise the raids and said that he was justified to do so.

From May 23 to 24 2013, the Maori Caucus of Community Law will meet at Owhata Marae, Rotorua, for its first dedicated hui in the history of Community Law.

The purpose of this hui is to strengthen and enhance Community Law’s ability to meet the high unmet legal needs of Maori throughout Aotearoa, to look at how Community Law can better support its kaimahi Maori, and to develop kaupapa Maori legal services throughout the country. Paula Bold-Wilson, Chair of the Maori Caucus, says “We’re really excited to finally have the chance to come together, and identify strategies which will provide greater access to justice for our people.”

The Caucus says now is the right time to tackle this kaupapa, especially while the future of the only specialist Maori law centre in Aotearoa – Ngai Tahu Maori Law Centre – is uncertain, and when Community Law is pushing for more cohesive services across the country. The Maori Caucus fears that the legal needs of Maori in general, and specifically in relation to land are not being acknowledged. A lot of work is needed to ensure that these needs are recognised and met. “We need to ensure that all Maori, no matter where they live, can access kaupapa Maori legal services, including land law services,” says Paula Bold-Wilson.

Confirmed speakers include Annette Sykes and Moana Jackson, who have long histories with Community Law, and Tiaki Hunia of the Maori Trustee. The hui is being generously sponsored by the Coalition of Community Law Centres, Community Law Centres o Aotearoa, Bell Gully, Chapman Tripp, Hopetoun Legal, the Otago University Faculty of Law, Sarah Armstrong – Barrister, Te Hunga Roia (the M?ori Law Society) and Wackrow Williams and Davies.

The Caucus looks forward to updating the community on developments after the hui.

If you would like to know more about this hui please contact Paula Bold-Wilson (Chair of M?ori Caucus) on (09) 835 2130 or paula@waitakerelaw.org.nz

Note to editors:

• In 1984 CLCs formed the Coalition of Community Law Centres Aotearoa, to act as an umbrella body for most centres. The Maori Caucus was created in 1987 through the Coalition of Community Law Centres.
• M?ori members of Community Law Centres’ staff and governance throughout the motu form the Maori Caucus of the Coalition of Community Law Centres Aotearoa.
• The Maori Caucus works to ensure that Community Law:
• Upholds its Treaty obligations
• Is a force for Treaty-based change in Aotearoa
• Contributes to law change that works against the social exclusion and disadvantage of Maori.

In a room full of 275 mostly die-hard New Zealand and US supporters of free trade and the controversial trans-Pacific partnership agreement (TPP), Kiwa Huata rose to her feet and delivered her response to the description of opponents of the deal being “wreckers”:

I think that’s bullshit.”

It was a sudden departure from the script after two days of talks where any questions about the TPP were largely focused on timing and the number of countries which should be allowed to sign up.

Huata – Hawke’s Bay born and bred and now studying economics and international business in Auckland -  admitted she would rather someone else had asked the question. She was so nervous she had to write the question down – “I’m not really good with public speaking”.

But she wanted answers to questions including whether the TPP undermined sovereignty and the law, the impact on Maori culture, whether it would open the door to genetic modification and also the potential fallout for Pharmac and copyright.

The audience included the likes of former prime ministers Jim Bolger and Mike Moore, a large number of New Zealand and American business men and women and US government officials, and the heads of New Zealand government agencies including Treasury, Foreign Affairs, Defence, Customs and others.

“To me it was the elephant in the room,” says Huata.

We’ve seen our free trade deals get passed unnoticed …..and I always see the losers are people like myself, young Maori people, we are not often heard.”

Huata is in Washington as one of a new generation of members attending the US-NZ partnership forum, previously a closed shop affair where discussions were held behind closed doors between senior politicians and government, military and select business men and women from both countries. Its membership has been expanded this year in an effort to be more relevant.

The TPP notwithstanding, the forum is exactly the sort of forum she wants to be part of, says Huata.

This is the epitome of what I want to do. I love economics, I love trade, I love business but I think there’s a lot of flaws in it and if we don’t speak out who the hell will?”.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority on Wednesday released the findings of its investigation of the case and made a series of recommendations for change.

The authority has found that, as a whole, the police operation was reasonable and necessary, but it also faults the police for several shortcomings.

Authority chairman Judge Sir David Carruthers says it scrutinised police actions at 11 properties that were searched, after people from three different addresses complained that they and others had been personally searched.

Police had no justification for personally searching occupants, and these searches were unlawful.

“The detention of the occupants at five properties examined by the authority was also unlawful, unjustified and unreasonable.”

Judge Carruthers finds fault with the police for leading people to believe they were being detained, and has also criticised what he calls deficient planning for roadblocks set up in Ruatoki and Taneatua.

He says photographs were taken of 66 drivers, 15 passengers and some children, which left people feeling degraded and intimidated.

It also added to people’s fear and anxiety. Police did not have reasonable grounds to search vehicles at the Ruatoki roadblock. Police actions in this regard were contrary to law.”

The authority has made seven recommendations, including ordering the police to repair their relationship with Tuhoe and to change Armed Offenders Squad policy.

Police acknowledge mistakes

Police Commissioner Peter Marshall says he accepts the report’s criticisms and acknowledges officers acted illegally in some parts of the raid.

Mr Marshall says the operation was a large one, with 300 officers deployed to search and raid properties around the country.

While there had been a two-year investigation leading up to the raids, he says, officers were only briefed that morning.

Mr Marshall also says the officers in charge of the road block at Ruatoki misinterpreted the legislation they were working under,but were not acting with any malice.

“There was an abundance of caution being exercised by them and they simply got in wrong in terms of the interpretation of the legislation on the roadblocks, and we accept that.”

He apologises to anyone whonot involved in the investigation who was not a suspect and who was inconvenienced, frightened or distressed.

(Radio NZ) A landmark report has heavily criticised the police for illegally searching and detaining people, and for setting up unlawful roadblocks, during the Urewera raids in October 2007.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority on Wednesday released the findings of its investigation of the case and made a series of recommendations for change.

The authority has found that, as a whole, the police operation was reasonable and necessary, but it also faults the police for several shortcomings.

Authority chairman Judge Sir David Carruthers says it scrutinised police actions at 11 properties that were searched, after people from three different addresses complained that they and others had been personally searched.

Police had no justification for personally searching occupants, and these searches were unlawful.

“The detention of the occupants at five properties examined by the authority was also unlawful, unjustified and unreasonable.”

Judge Carruthers finds fault with the police for leading people to believe they were being detained, and has also criticised what he calls deficient planning for roadblocks set up in Ruatoki and Taneatua.

He says photographs were taken of 66 drivers, 15 passengers and some children, which left people feeling degraded and intimidated.

It also added to people’s fear and anxiety. Police did not have reasonable grounds to search vehicles at the Ruatoki roadblock. Police actions in this regard were contrary to law.”

The authority has made seven recommendations, including ordering the police to repair their relationship with Tuhoe and to change Armed Offenders Squad policy.

Police acknowledge mistakes

Police Commissioner Peter Marshall says he accepts the report’s criticisms and acknowledges officers acted illegally in some parts of the raid.

Mr Marshall says the operation was a large one, with 300 officers deployed to search and raid properties around the country.

While there had been a two-year investigation leading up to the raids, he says, officers were only briefed that morning.

Mr Marshall also says the officers in charge of the road block at Ruatoki misinterpreted the legislation they were working under,but were not acting with any malice.

“There was an abundance of caution being exercised by them and they simply got in wrong in terms of the interpretation of the legislation on the roadblocks, and we accept that.”

He apologises to anyone whonot involved in the investigation who was not a suspect and who was inconvenienced, frightened or distressed.

]]> http://news.tangatawhenua.com/archives/22453/feed 0 http://news.tangatawhenua.com/archives/22442 http://news.tangatawhenua.com/archives/22442#comments Tue, 21 May 2013 20:40:20 +0000 DigitalMaori http://news.tangatawhenua.com/?p=22442 It’s official, the Mana Movement has confirmed that they have formally selected Te Hamua Nikora to stand for the 2013 Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election.

The announcement follows three selection hui held within the electorate this week to determine if it would be Leon Hawea or Te Hamua Nikora.

There was intense interest in who Mana members would select and in the end it was Te Hamua who was picked reflecting a fresh approach to representation in Parliament.

Te Hamua’s strength lays in his work at the coal face. He understands the community and the challenges they face. With that said his own challenge will be proving to the electorate that the “funny fella” has the skills to represent his people at a national level.

From our analysis Te Hamua ticks all the right boxes, he’s affable, approachable, smart and brings something new to the table, something that just might invigorate an electorate which sees its highest enrolments taking out the 18-24 year old age bracket.

If Te Hamua can capture these voters, the seat will be his.

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