Frequencies irk iwi radio leader

A Northland iwi radio station says Maori radio is still being treated as second class by the Ministry for Economic Development's radio spectrum management division.

Ngati Hine Radio is being forced to switch from its 96.4 and 96.5 FM frequencies to 99.1 and 99.6 as part of a rearrangement of spectrum in advance of the shift to digital broadcasting.

Station manager Mike Kake says even though Maori won their case in the Privy Council for radio spectrum to help the promotion of Maori language and culture, they were dealt a bad hand by the ministry.

“The frequencies that were given to iwi radio were what I call the rats and mices – frequencies that are low powered, that are nowhere near the power of the mainstream commercial stations, so we’ve got that battle, and we’re continuing to have that battle,” Mr Kake says.

Radio Ngati Hine was top iwi station in the 2010 Radio Awards.

MENTAL HEALTH CAMPAIGNS HELPING MAORI SEEK TREATMENTS

A Maori psychiatrist says campaigns aimed at destigmatising mental health are helping many Maori sufferers.

Rhys Tapsell says having high profile people like footballer John Kirwan talking about their battles with depression has opened up conversations and allowed people to seek treatment.

He says Maori often need that sort of outside stimulus to seek treatment.

“Depression affects at least as many Maori people as non-Maori and possibly more. It is a big problem for us. It causes lots of disability, it causes lots of difficulty for people who suffer depression and often of course people who become depressed don’t know where to get help,” Dr Tapsell says.

A new series of ads will be premiered at this week's conference in Auckland of the Australasian College of Psychiatrists.

GENERATIONAL TRANFER INSPIRES EDUCATION LEADER

The head of Te Wananga o Aotearoa says he's a beneficiary of his father's belief that education can bring multi-generational benefits.

Bentham Ohia will today accept on behalf of the whanau the PhD his late father Monte Ohia earned from Auckland University.

At the time of his death in 2008, Dr Ohia was running as the Maori Party candidate in Te Tai Tonga, and the university was examining his thesis on whanau transformation through education.

Mr Ohia says his father devoted his life to Maori education.

“He's put all those elements as the thrust and the foundational platform for the PhD programme he completed and it’s his position in terms iof Maori leadership and the importance of education and the positive effects education has in transforming our families,” Mr Ohia says.

After the university graduation, the whanau plans a celebration on its Tauranga marae.

BILL BIRD OF NGATI MANAWA TO BE LAID TO REST

Ngati Manawa will today lay to rest the rangatira who brought home its treaty claim.

Bill Bird died on Sunday after a long battle with cancer.

Kaumatua Maanu Paul says the former teacher and forestry worker put in a huge effort not only to negotiate the deed of settlement signed in December, but to repair relations with neighbouring tribes in the eastern Bay of Plenty with potentially overlapping claims.

He says with the settlement still waiting enactment, there are parallels with Tainui's lead negotiator, the late Sir Robert Mahuta.

“The pain everybody felt while they hadn’t quite completed things, that same pain is felt here. The reverence with which people work with him and the government departments that worked against him, the respect and the mana is the same that they gave to Bob,” Mr Paul says.

The funeral service for Bill Bird at Ngati Rangitahi Marae in Murupara starts at 11 this morning.

MAORI MODEL INSPIRES INDIGENOUS BROADCASTERS

Maori Television's use of Maori journalists is proving an inspiration to other indigenous broadcasters.

Te Anga Nathan, the channel's manager of news and current affairs, was a featured speaker at a World Press Freedom Day forum at Queensland University attended by 150 indigenous journalists from round the world.

Organiser Heather Stewart says finding and training staff is a challenge for most indigenous broadcasters.

“Te Anga Nathan’s model is fantastic. To have an all-indigenous staff is stunning. In Australia, the federal government has asked the public broadcasters to meet a quota of indigenous broadcasters in its workforce by 2015,” Ms Stewart says.

GRAVE STORY CAPS EXTRAORDINARY CAREER IN MUSKET WARS

The author of a biography of one of the most colouful of the Pakeha Maori says it's fitting no one knows the location of Cannibal Jack's grave.

Trevor Bentley says Jacky Marmon was an Irishman who jumped ship in the Bay of Islands in the early 19th century, and ended up fighting for both Hongi Hika and Hone Heke.

He says when Marmon died in the 1880s, he was accorded the respect shown to rangatira and buried secretly in a cave overlooking the Hokianga.

“He had known and advised many of the great chiefs and fought beside them including Hongi Hika and Muriwai, Hone Kingi Raumati, Patuone, Tamati Waka Nene, but he’d always shown an unusual, an enormous amount of respect and enthusiasm for Maori customs and religious practices,” he says

Marmon had five wives during his lifetime, and Mr Bentley will go to Tauranga next week to give copies of the book to some of his descendants.

Wahine toa cited as smoking models

Hone Harawira wants prominent Maori to spread the message about being smoke free.

The Maori Party MP says the tax hike on tobacco pushed through last week will put a financial burden on low income Maori families if they keep smoking ... so people need help to quit as soon as possible.

He says young Maori women are particularly likely to smoke, but there are wahine toa they can look up to.

The more we promote these people and say to young women in particularly, if you really want to get to the top of the world like June Jackson, like Jacqui Te Kani, like Naida Glavish, then knock it off now,” Mr Harawira says.

He wants to eventually limit places cigarettes and tobacco can be sold.

MONTE OHIA TO RECEIVE DOCTORATE POSTHUMOUSLY

Four generations of the Ohia Whanau will gather at Auckland University this week to accept a doctorate for the late Monte Ohia.

The educator and Maori Party candidate for Te Tai Tonga died two years ago, while his thesis on Maori values and how they could be used in development was being examined.

His son Bentham, the pouhere or chief executive Te Wananga O Aotearoa, says Dr Ohia's mother Tutekawa, widow Linda, children and grandchildren will be the ceremony.

The whanau also intends to celebrate the achievement at Monte Ohia's home marae in Tauranga.

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FLOWS THROUGH TO POLYTECHS

Still on education, the principal of Rotorua's Waiariki Institute of Technology is seeing the effects of improved Maori achievement at secondary school through the increased number of rangatahi coming through to tertiary level.

Pim Borren says the number of Maori in level four to seven courses at Waiariki is up 20 percent on last year.

He says teacher development programmes like Te Rangatahi as well as the increased flexibility of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement are making a dent in what looked like intractable problems.

“We've been trying to close this gap and what we’re really seeing is both a greater focus on achievement by Maori themselves but also an improved teaching style in terms of the way we are teaching our Maori students so that they are succeeding much more closely to Pakeha,” Dr Borren says.

Young Maori increasingly understand that better education can open the door to a better quality of life.

NGA OHO WHAKAARI HOSTING DIGITAL WORKSHOP

Maori in film and television, Nga Aho Whakaari, is getting ready for the next broadcasting frontier.

Along with Script to Screen and CoLab, it's planning a workshop next month in digital media.

Executive director Pita Turei says up to nine teams will spend a weekend producing a 2-minute story-based project for the mobile phone or
Internet.

He says the cellphone could be the television of the future, and the media allows people to say what they want to say to a wider audience, with no one controlling what is said.

Applicants need to submit a project outline to Nga Oho Whakaari by May 14.

FORWARD PLANNING SETTING STUDENTS ON TERTIARY PATH

Papakura High School is finding improved relationships are lifting academic performance by Maori and Polynesian students.

The school is one of eight in the region involved in Pathways, an Auckland University research project involving academic counseling and mentoring for students.

Project manager Di Corban says in the past secondary school life has been disconnected from tertiary study, and many Maori students have discovered they have no transition path.

She says everyone in the school needs to be involved.

“To do really specific subject targets to ensure that the students are meeting their goals, so they have a goal of what they want to get out of the school, but we have to link it in to what they do on a day to day basis,” Ms Corban says.

Papakura High has a high Maori and Pasifika roll.

SCOTTY MORRISON GETS TOP MAORI JOB AT UNITEC

Boosting Maori research is on the agenda for the new head of the Maori department at Unitec Institute of Technology.

Te Karere presenter Scotty Morrison from Te Arawa has been an adjunct professor at the Auckland polytechnic for the past three years, and he's looking forward to replacing Tui Ah Loo of Ngai Tuhoe, who now heads up Te Wananga o Awanuiarangi's Auckland campus.

He says even though Unitec was denied university status, he's keen to encourage research in matauranga Maori.

“To really build the reputation of our lecturers through postgraduate study, through getting them to present at high profile conferences, submitting papers, writing papers, all of those kinds of professional development areas I am looking at to build the reputation of our lecturers so they become leaders in their field and that in effect will lead to us becoming a leader in our field of Maori education,” Mr Morrison says.

He's keen to work with other universities, polytechs and wananga so educational resources are used most effectively.