Sharples assured on education changes

Associate education minister Pita Sharples hopes proposed changes to tertiary education won't stop Maori mature students getting to university.

His Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia yesterday warned that suggestions loans will be cut for students who don't pass their exams first time will affect many Maori second chance learners, who can need time to develop study skills.

Dr Sharples says he came away from a meeting with Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce feeling reassured.

“I mentioned I didn’t want entry programmes docked and he thought that wouldn’t be the case, that there’d still be that transition are. I’m hoping that adult Maori can still continue the road into university,” Dr Sharples says

He also gained an assurance the student learning centres which offer support for students would continue.

WHANAU BANDS SHARE WOMAD STAGE

The opening ceremony for the festival of World Music and Dance or Womad is underway about now at New Plymouth's Bowl of Brooklands.

New Zealand programme director Emere Wano says alongside the international acts, festival goers can catch performances by Te Roopu kapahaka o Te Whanau A Apanui, female vocal trio Pacific Curls, reggae band House of Shem and other Maori musical talent.

Ms Wano says for whanau bands like Kaeo's 1814, it's a chance to rub shoulders with established artists.

KORORAREKA BATTLE LEADS TO ALTERNATIVE HISTORY LESSON

It's the fourth Kororareka Festival tomorrow, as Russell remembers the 1845 battle that levelled the Bay of Islands township.

The Kororareka Marae Society is promising a celebration of Maori culture, with kapa haka, Rawhiti band Sweet As, a beauty contest, traditional kai, the Hone Heke Run from Russell township to the flagstaff on Maiki Hill, and firing of a collection of old cannons

Historian Manuka Henare says the festival allows Maori and pakeha to come together with their own views about the sacking.

“Tomorrow there will be the Maori view that Hone Heke and Kawiti and others were protecting Maori rights under the Treaty of Waitangi. But the British soldiers and some of the Pakeha business people felt the British has to stand up to these insurgents and troublemakers. Most of the damage at Kororraka wasn’t actually done by Maori, it was done by the British bombardment.
Dr Henare says.

TOBACCO SALESMAN SPILLS THE BEANS ON HARD TACTICS

The Maori Affairs select committee inquiry into the impact of smoking on Maori has heard how the tobacco industry deliberately targets Maori.

A submission by Te Kao-based Whakawhiti Ora Pai Community Health included an interview with a kaumatua who had been the Northland sales representative of a major tobacco company.

Director Errol Murray says the kaumatua detailed how free cigarettes and kickbacks were used to get retailers to give brands priority, and how a large proportion of the sales force was Maori ... not because it was an equal opportunity employer, but because Maori were the market.

“That was his job, selling to his relations, and he thought it was a glamorous job. Everybody thought it was a glamorous job. You’ve got a good job mate. He gets a company car. He gets to fly away. He’s getting good money, he’s on a salary. And it was just a fluke we knew him and we had someone talk to him. He knew what it was for. There was no hidden agenda. But he wanted to share it because he’s now a non smoker and he’s seen the effect tobacco use has had on his family, on his own health, so there’s some regrets there now,” Mr Murray says.

CHILE EXCHANGE BRINGS MATERIAL FOR DOCUMENTARY

A Rotorua kura kaupapa student who features in a Maori Television series about Maori kids in Chile says her hosts were surprised to hear the students conversing in te reo maori.

The six part documentary Kia Ora Hola follows six students from Te Kura o te Kautu during the six weeks they spent at Colegio Pucalan Montessori school in Colina, just north of the capital Santiago.

Tae Amorangi Rikirangi Thomas says her Chilean hosts were keen to pick up on some reo Maori, after they got over their surprise at hearing the children speak it to each other.

All students at Te Kura o te Kautu are taught Spanish.

Kiaora Hola screens tonight at 9-30 on Maori Television

STACEY JONES TAKE COACHING SPOT WITH PIRATES

One of the most popular Maori sportspeople of all time has made another crowd-pleasing move.

Stacey Jones, from Ngapuhi and Maniapoto has teamed up with Awen Guttenbiel to coach the Pt Chevalier Pirates, who take on the Hibiscus Coast Raiders tomorrow in the first round of the Phelan Shield.

The former Warriors have called in former teammates like Wairangi Koopu and Monty Betham to help the Pirates work their way out of third division.

Switching codes to play in the team is rugby commentator Karl Te Nana, whose son is set to join the Pirates if his school's first fifteen doesn't need him.

The Pt Chev Pirates and the Hibicus Coast Raiders square off at Stanmore Bay on the Whangaparoa Penninsula at 2-30 tomorrow.

Maori Party wants trapping over poison

The Maori Party is calling for a moratorium on use of 1080 for poisoning possums.

The Prime Minister says there is no other way to rid some areas of the Australian native.

But the party's conservation spokesman Te Ururoa Flavell disagrees.

He says more research needs to be done on the effect of 1080 on waterways.

Mr Flavell says the government should run a large scale trapping programme using the unemployed.

SMOKING AMONG YOUNG WOMEN PERSISTENT PROBLEM

A tobacco researcher says urgent action is needed to help Maori women of child bearing-age quit smoking.

Marewa Glover will give a submission today to the Maori Affairs Select Committee inquiry into smoking, which is sitting at Auckland's Alexandra Park Raceway.

Dr Glover, who has researched smoking among Maori for almost two decades, says Maori women make up a distinct group.

“Fiftyfive percent of women of childbearing age are smoking, and then they are pregnant and suddenly they have to deal with that addiction on top of all the other changes they’re going through and we haven’t got anything for them. Big holes in our delivery. Plenty of bombarding people with messages but not enough help at the other end,” Dr Glover says.

Smoking by mothers leads to a disproportionate number of Maori babies dying from Sudden Instant Death Syndrome.

MAORI LESS CONFIDENT ABOUT ECONOMIC WELL BEING

Maori are twice as negative about their current economic circumstances as the rest of the population.

A first time nationwide survey of 100 people by the UMR research group found Maori had a negative 36 rating compared with the overall rating of negative 18.
The survey was conducted in the last week of February, with respondents questioned about the national economy, personal finances and whether it was a good time to buy things.

Executive director Tim Grafton says the Maori difference comes down to income, and as more Maori are lower income they feel twice as negative as the total population.

Maori were more optimistic than Americans, who in a similar survey had a rating of negative 49.

STANDARDS USED TO MAKE MORE EFFECTIVE TEACHERS

A member of the independent advisory panel on national standards says new standards for Maori medium education can work, but parents need to ensure they don't damage what kura are there for.

The government is asking parents and teachers to comment on the draft standards for Maori-medium education programmes.

Tony Trinnick from Auckland University's school of education is part of the team which has created the maths standard.

He says the team looked at criticism of the way standards were implemented in overseas countries, and has tried to use them to enhance the curriculum rather than confuse it.

“We saw the standard as a means to support these teachers in making sure that the mathematics knowledge was much more explicit. That was our primary motivation and if you make that much clearer to teachers, the aim would be to make them more effective teachers in mathematics,” Mr Trinnick says.

He says Maori parents don't want to see the curriculum narrowed to mathematics and literacy.

SERVICE ON SCHOOL BOARDS ITS OWN REWARD

The first Maori president of the School Trustees Association says Maori should stand in this year's triennial board elections, even if the only skill they take to the table is their common sense.

Lorraine Kerr from Tuwharetoa and Ngati Awa says there has been a slight increase over the past two elections in the number of Maori on school boards.

She says many it's a rewarding job.

“Knowing that you have a say in your own kid’s future, something most of us have never had the opportunity to do so you know that you will have a say in their education, you know the decisions you make will be about all our tamariki, and hopefully for the better,” Ms Kerr says.

She says many Maori parents feel too shy or inexperienced to put themselves forward, but governance is about common sense and having a sense of what's best for one's children.

MAORI ARTISTS GIVEN POINTERS FOR WORLD MUSIC CAREER

The organiser of a two-day Taranaki music expo says Maori artists will get a chance to learn from other musician and from visiting international promoters.

Sounds Aotearoa starts today leading up to WOMAD on Friday, and features Whirimako Black, Richard Nunns, Tama Waipara, Maisy Rika, Kora and others.

Emere Wano says Maori musicians wanted a forum to present their work and discuss the challenges of making a living from music.

“We're trying to instill that sense of pride and cultural and identity about what makes us different from the rest of the world. We’re bringing in other indigenous festival directors, buyers, programmers, so they can share their knowledge and expertise with Maori artists,” Ms Wano says.

There is a demand on the international festival circuit for both traditional and contemporary Maori acts.