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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Monday, September 13, 2010

Maori bearing burden of recession

The New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services says the effects of the recession have not been shared equally, with young Maori and Maori families bearing a disproportionate burden.

Releasing the council’s six quarterly Vulnerability Report, executive officer Trevor McGlinchey from Kai Tahu said social service agencies are fully stretched.

He says with families hit by a lack of jobs are unable to survive on the very low benefit rates.

“We’re living in an unequal society and somehow we’ve got to get that message out, that we’ve actually got to make sure that all of our people, Maori, Pakeha, Pacific people need their needs met and met properly, and at the moment that’s not happening,” Mr McGlinchey says.

Instead of working or training, almost a third of young Maori are unemployed, which will have long term social consequences.

LAND AGENTS SEE MAORI AS THE FUTURE FOR MARKET SEGMENT

The head of the real estate industry training organisation says getting more Maori real estate agents could help boost Maori home ownership.

Lesley Southwick says REAL ITO intends to run courses in schools with high Maori or Pacific Island rolls to encourage students to consider careers in the industry.

She says fewer than 1 percent of the country’s 17,000 real estate agents are Maori or Pasifika.

“People like to buy off their own cultures so the more successful that Maori become and Pasifika become, then the more they are likely to want to buy real estate and participate in the industry so it is only natural that we should encourage those cultures, Maori and Pasifika, to gain qualifications to become real estate professionals,” Ms Southwick says.

KARAPIRO IWI LOOK TO MINI MUSEUM

Karapiro iwi hope a culture room being built for the World Rowing Championships later this month will in time be used to house tribal taonga.

Wilie te Aho, an advisor to Ngati Koroki Kahukura, says returning taonga from museums to their originating iwi is very much a live issue.

He says often the problem is finding a suitable home.

“Not all taonga need to be in those strict temperature-controlled environments. Certainly our taonga like our korowai and kakahu and those cloaks, definitely have to be but there are some taonga that were made to be seen and seen they should be,” Mr Te Aho says.

MINISTER CLAIMS IWI SUPPORT FOR CLAIM FILING DEADLINE

The Minister for Treaty Negotiations, Chris Finlayson, says there is iwi support for a time limit on foreshore and seabed claims.

The Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill, introduced to parliament this week, includes a six-year deadline for filing claims either with the High Court or the government.

Waiariki MP says the length was a compromise, with the Maori Party wanting 10 years and National four.

Mr Finlayson says it came from talking to iwi.

“There are a lot of iuwi who have had their negotiations put on hold while we look at the question of this whole issue, and I’m thinking of Te Rarawa, I’m thinking of Ngati Porou ki Hauraki, I’m thinking of Ngati Porou, Te Whanau a Apanui, Te Uri o Hau, there are a lot of them, so it is really for the benefit of iwi so that we can get some closure on this issue,” Mr Finlayson says.

The bill is at the top of the order paper for debate this week.

LINKS BETWEEN COLONISATION AND HEALTH MERIT STUDY

A researcher who has looked at links between colonisation and Maori health and social statistics is off to the United States to see how Native Americans cope with similar issues.

Leonie Pihama has won the first Fulbright Scholarship organised in partnership with Nga Pae o te Maramatanga, the national centre for Maori research excellence.

She will spend 5 months at the Indigenous Wellness Centre in Seatle, which is at the forefront of studying the impact of colonisation on indigenous people worldwide.

“What they are doing in Seattle is the team there is making real and clear connections between 500 years of colonisation for Native American people and the impact now on family violence, even issues like quite clear health issues like increased heart attacks, all those kinds of issues. There’s quite a clear link being made now. That’s the kind of link we are working towards here are now,” Dr Pihama says.

WHAKORERO INFLUENCED BY CRASH COURSES

The author of a new book on whaikorero says many young speakers of te reo Maori aren’t doing the sustained listening that will make them first class orators.

Poia Rewi, an associate professor at Otago University's Te Tumu school of Maori studies, says Maori orators range from the flamboyant and theatrical to those with more reflective styles.

He says Maori language schools are developing a different type of speaker.

“Many of them in listening are very high quality but there still seems to be something lacking in there – maybe because they are all crash taught in upskilling their own language whereas the people of old have been through 60-odd years of listening, observing, being informed, informing themselves and developing those skills and what to look out for,” Professor Rewi says.

His whakapapa connections to Tuhoe, Ngati Manawa, Te Arawa, Ngati Whare and Ngati Tuwharetoa gave him access to a wide range of elders who were willing to share their knowledge for the book, Whaikorero - the world of Maori oratory.

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