National standards’ shock hits home

The NZEI's Maori vice president says Maori parents are being told their children aren't meeting the government's new national standards, but they're not told what to do about it.

The annual hui of the union's Te Reo Areare Maori council yesterday condemned the way the standards had been imposed, and called for trials to assess their impact on Maori pupils.

Laures Park says many of the 200 teachers at the hui are also parents, and they are getting the first reports under the new system.

“The schools have said their children are not meeting the standard or are at risk and that I think is when it hit home for them. In talking to the teachers, they are uncertain what they are doing as well and the difficulty is no one has had that conversation with the teachers and with the whanau to support their tamariki through this whole exercise,” Ms Park says.

She says the Maori Party, which supports the national standards policy, needs to understand that measuring under-achievement isn't the same a doing something about it.

MARAE MAPS TO LEAD PEOPLE HOME

Veteran broadcaster Rereata Makiha says new technology will help people track down historical marae and pa sites.

Te Potiki National Trust, which was formed by Mr Makiha and former Auckland Museum Maori curator Paul Tapsell, has been given $44,000 by the ASB Community Trust to map all marae present and past in Auckland and Northland.

He says the resulting publication will include GPS coordinates, so people can find the sites, even if like many they are on the back of farms and hidden from view.

“The idea of mapping the marae was first of all as a road map to get young people home, whether it’s to do repairs, whether it’s to plant Maori trees around the marae for Matariki, all those activities the marae can decide on, so basically it’s to get our young people back to the marae,” Mr Makiha says.

He has already identified more than 100 marae sites north of Hokianga, and believes there are more than 1400 nationwide.

WEKA CAMPAIGN PICKING UP MOMENTUM

A campaign to stop the Department of Conservation culling weka on Open Bay Island off South Westland is picking up momentum.

The Minister of Conservation, Kate Wilkinson, says the colony of 100 weka are killing lizards and raiding penguin nests.

But Ngai Tahu man Rawa Karetai, whose family has traditionally harvested kai from the Open Bay and Mutton Bird islands, says the birds should be relocated, not killed.

He says a Facebook Page opposing the Open Island weka cull has already attracted more than 400 members.

WHANAU ORA PLAN FOR CITY ROLL-OUT

Auckland's urban Maori authorities will reveal today how it intends to roll out whanau ora services in south Auckland.

Waipareira Trust chief executive John Tamihere says while the government is yet to approve a collective bid by the National Urban Maori Authority to be a provider under the new integrated social service delivery model, it's a kaupapa the authorities have been pursuing for years.

He says this evening's hui at Nga Whare Waatea Marae in Mangere will hear how collaboration and cooperation is the key to whanau ora.

“If people don't want to collaboration and cooperate, then they have to account for the dollars they get for the services they provide to our community and that’s everything from schools to health providers to welfare providers, education providers, justice providers, government as well as non-government. We want people to be accountable for the dollar values they achieve in our name but do not perform or account to us for the expenditure of those dollars,” Mr Tamihere says.

The hui starts at 6.

BOER WAR RIFLES SYMBOL OF BICULTURAL HAURAKI

A Thames based Maori health trust has bought a set of 15 Boer War rifles for its art gallery.

Hugh Kinninmonth, the chief executive of Te Korowai Hauora O Hauraki, says the purchase was a way to encourage respect for the bicultural history of the region.

The Thames rifles are the only known complete set from the 600 rifles sent back from South Africa in 1904 to be displayed in public buildings around the land.

Mr Kinninmonth says the display at the trust's complex in the former Brian Boru Hotel draws attention to the achievements of Wata Te Huihana, who enlisted in the Boer War under the name Walter Callaway and became the first Maori to earn commission as an officer.

He says it’s a taonga for the whole community and a bridge between the Maori and European history of Hauraki.

ARCHIVES SEEK TREASURES FOR CONSERVATION

The Film Archive's Maori project developer wants whanau to send in footage to ensure historical recordings are not lost.

Dianne Pivac says many film formats decompose over time, but the archive has the necessary temperature controlled storage to protect them.

She says whanau can avoid the heartbreak that comes with finding precious old footage has corroded.

“We're always very interested to hear from people who have film and we are also just at the beginning of a great big project called saving frames where the government has given us to some money to help us iun the urgent task of repairing and storing films properly, so the conservation side of our work is full steam ahead, Ms Pivac says.

A classic from the New Zealand Film Archive, the 1929 feature Under the Southern Cross, will get a run at this month's film festivals.