Vetting needed of boyfriends

A former head of Women's Refuge says Maori families should vet those charged with the care and safety of their tamariki and mokopuna.

Merepeka Raukaewa Tait says the death last week of Cezar Taylor, which resulted in charges being laid against his mother's partner, is just the latest of too many such cases.

She says there are often warning signs whanau should watch out for.

“That's where the wider whanau can get very active and just say ‘hey mate, you don’t measure up so you’re down the road, and as much as we love you we can’t afford to have our mokopuna at risk.’ We need to do our homework on them,” Mrs Raukawa-Tait says.

RIVER CLEAN UP GETS BOOST FROM HEALTH FUNDING

A Hokianga environment group is welcoming a quarter million dollar Health Research Council grant towards its work on improving water quality downstream from Lake Omapere.

Trustee Wendy Henwood from Te Roopu Taiao O Utakura says the Nga Kanohi Kitea Maori knowledge and development research grant will go towards data collection and developing strategies in the Utakura Valley.

She says the 18-month project will allow the roopu to step up its work raising awareness of the problems associated with bad water.

“Utukura River used to be the life blood of the community and over the last few years it hasn’t been able to bused. There’s no kai in the river, you can’t swim, it’s totally changed the way our people have been able to use the river,” Ms Henwood says.

Seven Maori initiatives were in the latest round of Maori and community focused grants

TOHU GETS CULTURE CHANGE WITH TOTAL OWNERSHIP

The chief executive of Wakatu Incorporation says moving to full ownership of Tohu Wines is already paying off for the Nelson-based conglomerate.

Keith Palmer says there was no longer any strategic reason for Poverty Bay grape grower Wi Pere Trust to retain its minority stake.

Ngati Rarua Atiawa Iwi Trust, whose beneficiaries are mostly Wakatu shareholders, has also sold its shares.

Mr Palmer says Tohu can now concretrate on producing high quality wine from Marlborough and Nelson, where Wakatu's vineyards are nw coming into production.

“When you bring things into one organisation and get them operating as a team somehow or other people have a different outlook on how to make the whole show work instead of thinking ‘that’s nothing to do with me, I’m not going to help there.’ The biggest gains are just from a mind set, that now we’ve got this beautiful asset to work with and we will work together as a team and make it work, so we are seeing the benefits already,” Mr Palmer says.

Last year was Tohu's best yet, despite the tough times in the industry.

TRIBUNAL REPORTS ON UREWERA LAND LOSS

A Ngati Ruapani claimant is welcoming the second part of the Waitangi Tribunal's Urewera report, which details how the tribe lost its land around Lake Waikaremoana.

Vern Winitana says the tribunal has recognised Ruapani as a separate entity, rather than being a hapu of Ngai Tuhoe or Ngati Kahungunu.

He says the report covers one of the most brutal periods of New Zealand history in the 1860s and 70s, after which Ruapani's tribal estate of 350,000 acres were reduced by confiscation and forced sale to just 1000 acres.

“It was acknowledged that the people who were killed by Crown forces, both kupapa and the British soldiers were in fact non-combatants. Some of them were actively defending their papakainga, their land, and there was no justification because they weren’t in rebellion against the Crown,” Mr Winitana says.

The Waitangi tribunal report should give Ngati Ruapani a solid basis to start settlement talks with the Crown.

BREASTFEEDING CHAMPIONS FIGHTING OLD INDOCTRINATION

A Maori health researcher says a generation of child-rearing practises need to be reversed to combat low Maori breastfeeding rates.
Marewa Glover from Auckland University's School of Population Health says only 45 percent of Maori babies are breastfed until 3 months compared to 60 percent of non-Maori.

She says the practices promoted for world breastfeeding week this week ... including exclusive breastfeeding until 6 months and encouraging breastfeeding on demand ... were what Maori used to do before the public health nurses of the 1950s and 60s encouraged more routine bathing, feeding and sleeping.

“Maori breast milk wasn’t seen as clean or sterilized enough. It wasn’t the best for baby. So we began to have artificial baby milk and powder, this new product that was pushed as optimum nutrition for babies and clean, sterile food,” Dr Glover says.

HOPE ROYALTY SCHEME WILL RAISE PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

Kaupapa music pioneer Ngahiwi Apanui hopes a new royalty scheme for Maori songwriters will lead to an improvement in professional standards.

Maori broadcast funding agency Te Mangai Paho has reached a deal with Phonographic Performances New Zealand which means songwriters will be paid when their waiata are played on iwi radio.

That means a windfall for Mr Apanui, whose songs like Maranga Ake E and Wharikihia are iwi radio staples.

But he says there is a lot of investment in waiata Maori which is not getting the desired result.

“We have these huge grants available at the moment. Te Mangai Paho has been really generous, and there are $50,000 grants to record an album, and sometimes when I hear the results of that, they don’t sound like $50,000 of album to me. They actually sound considerably less,” Mr Apanui says.

He says too many Maori performers are trying to sound like American R and B artists.