E-Tangata
An online magazine committed to independent Māori and Pacific journalism that challenges and cultivates understanding. Subscribe and donate here: e-tangata.co.nz
- “Every ancestor that has ever lived is still a part of your family. Their physical absence doesn’t alter their ongoing impact on your life. One of the beauties of living a brown life is to know you’re never alone.” — Tainui Stephens.
- “They were unwitting participants in the violence of colonisation, imperialism and capitalism, just as we, their descendants, continue to be today.” — Catherine Knight on her settler ancestors.
- “She began life as Narua, and she was Narua when she passed. In between, a wrong was corrected. The mana of her name was restored.” — Maureen Sinton.
- Alongside the many critiques of government policies that we published in 2025, we also ran many pieces about fortitude, accomplishment, and optimism. These are the stories that we’d like to leave you with over the summer. Stories of restoration, resistance, and hope.
- “The arguments to exercise caution with DNA are valid, if a bit doom-laden. But there is another perspective that we need to consider, and that’s the power of DNA to reconnect those Māori who don’t know their whakapapa.” — Atakohu Middleton, who found her sister through DNA testing.
- The Jevon McSkimming affair “is yet another distraction, a smokescreen, from some truly worrying developments at the other end of the criminal justice sector”. — Denis O’Reilly on the soaring prison muster (and its soaring costs), and the meth crisis.
- “The relationships that schools and kura have with Māori endures despite directives from the right-wing.” — Awanui Te Huia.
- “The treaties of the 1840s shared a common foundation. They were instruments of imperial domination, signed under pressure. The Treaty of Waitangi belongs in that company — yet where others withered, it lived on.” — Shane Te Pou.
- “Māori institutions can’t rely on formal mandates alone. If we want legitimacy that endures, we need to design institutions that reflect our own power dynamics.” — Sacha McMeeking.
- “We have a government willing to reshape constitutional understandings without genuine consultation, careful process, or respect for long-standing norms.” — Mark Feary.
- “You can’t separate the conditions in which people live from their health. They’re completely interwoven, and I absolutely feel a deep sense of responsibility and commitment to addressing those wider determinants.” — Dr Corina Grey, Director of Public Health.
- “I had naïvely assumed that as we marched towards social freedom and equity for all, the benefits of these social changes would be self-explanatory, and conservative resistance would dissipate and eventually disappear, like a kind of natural evolutionary extinction.” — Anton Blank.
- “As November 5, the anniversary of the invasion of Parihaka, reminds us, non-violent peaceful protest is rooted deep within this nation’s whakapapa.” — Alistair Reese.
- “What is clear from He Whakaputanga is that there was never a ceding of any kind of sovereignty to Britain. Not then, nor five years later, when Te Tiriti was signed at Waitangi.” — Catherine Delahunty.
- “The proposal effectively deprioritises Te Tiriti so that it sits as a supporting objective. We believe, and have advised, that this will not have the desired effect.” — Rahui Papa.
- “Not caring anymore doesn’t mean the problem is no longer there. Especially in the Pacific, where climate change isn’t a distant threat but a present-day catastrophe already uprooting communities, unravelling the fine tapestry of culture, and upending entire ways of life.” — Jamie Tahana.
- “As Māori cultural practices continue to thrive here in Australia, it’s important to know that even here, dress codes regulating tattoos should yield to the right of Māori to wear moko kanohi and other tā moko.” — Brisbane-based lawyer Bridget Burton.
- “Like many of us, I learned to numb my sensitivity through alcohol and distraction. For years, I spoke about mauri as a concept, yet I had never truly felt its flow within me.” — Kingi Snelgar on healing.
- “The system was designed by individuals who believed in a specific version of New Zealand — where everyone was theoretically equal, yet the structures of equality were calibrated for only one culture.” — Mark Feary.
- “In Sāmoa, our people are the doctors, the lawyers, the prime ministers. I’ve grown up always surrounded by our people being educated, being in leadership.” — Dr Emma Dunlop-Bennett, assistant vice-chancellor (Pasifika), Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington.
- “Rather than stripping each other down, perhaps this is the moment to hold compassion for those we have chosen to lead us, even when we disagree, even when they fall short.” — Shonelle Wana.
- “It’s spiritually powerful music, and that’s why I gravitate to it. We hear the music, and we feel it. And then we hear the social commentary, and it just tops it off and validates our feelings.” — Katchafire’s Logan Bell on reggae’s appeal.
- “Every movement that changes the world depends on two kinds of energy. One pushes from the outside, demanding transformation. The other works from the inside, turning vision into practical steps.” — Sacha McMeeking.
- “If a ‘knowledge-rich’ curriculum isn’t grounded in te ao Māori and the very people and things that make Aotearoa unique, who is determining the knowledge and where does it come from?” — Jessie Moss on the ideology behind education reform.
- “The idea that people educated in this country should devote a small fraction of their undergraduate study to understanding our history and its relevance to all citizens today ought to be unremarkable.” — Emeritus Professor Alison Jones on Auckland Uni's decision to drop proposed compulsory courses.
- “For many, he is the face of Tūhoe, of resistance, of the resurgence of te reo, of the return of mataora.” — Eugene Bingham on Tāme Iti’s memoir, ‘Mana’.
- “A new modus operandi for Māori and Pākehā relations in the 21st century may draw at least in part on some of the lessons learned from the encounters that took place before 1840.” — Vincent O’Malley, from his new book The Meeting Place.
- “Māori are lagging in every social and economic indicator, and the rest of the country seems to think that’s an acceptable status quo. But you won’t read about it when Te Pāti Māori are busy hogging the headlines.” — Aaron Smale.
- “Brain injuries are invisible, so it was very difficult to explain the mumbled words, or the incorrect word for simple items and activities. Today people still laugh at me when I get a word wrong.” — Aroha Gilling.
- “Our tūpuna navigated vast oceans with no modern instruments, guided by the stars, the winds, the currents. If they could find calm in the uncertainty of the Pacific, surely, we can find it in the uncertainty of our inboxes and calendars.” — Nathan Hira.
- “We are a people who have endured land theft, blackbirding, nuclear testing, deportation, and exile . . . Yet again and again, we align ourselves with those who uphold the very systems that shrink us.” — Marli Olive Wesley.
- “We shoulder the burden of ensuring that Te Tiriti lives in our classrooms, even when government policy tries to erase it.” — Rongopai Kira, deputy principal of Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga.
- “For those of us who’ve been pressured to assimilate into Pākehā culture, it’s tempting to think that assimilating into Māori culture is respectful. But this is not what’s being asked of us.” — Mengzhu Fu.
- “When people are empowered to self-heal, they reclaim their mana. They are no longer passive recipients of care — they are active creators of their own wellbeing.” — Rebecca Collett on creating a mental health support programme in Ohakune.
- “In this 50th anniversary year, the Tribunal and Te Tiriti are under a sustained attack from perhaps the most anti-Tiriti government that we’ve seen since the Tribunal was established.” — Carwyn Jones.
- “For Māori, the strongest interest isn’t usually in the suburb where we rent or own a house — it’s in the rohe of our awa, marae, whenua, and the decisions made there that most deeply affect us.” — Mike Smith.
- “The recognition of tikanga strengthens the rule of law. By contrast, rhetoric from the executive that disparages judicial engagement with tikanga undermines the separation of powers at the core of our constitutional order.” — Natalie Coates and Tai Ahu, Te Hunga Rōia Māori.
- “The sands here are not just matter, materials, or commodities. They are alive with the energy of our mountain and moana. They carry whakapapa. They are not for sale.” — Kate Paris in Pātea.
- “Tākuta Ferris was off course in so many ways. ‘Asians’ have their own history of subjugation to white supremacy and British colonial rule.’ — Kim Webby.
- “Even the most skilled school leader is constrained by the ongoing failure of the state to address the deep inequity in our education system. New Zealand ranks 33rd out of 38 developed countries for its overall equality in education.” — Rebecca Macfie, author of ‘Hope and Hardship’.
- “New Zealand would do well to pay close attention to understand just how far it has moved towards the fringe of international political thought.” — Professor Dominic O’Sullivan.
- “We want them to be champions, but more importantly, we want them to be good human beings.” — “Champion maker” Lolo Heimuli, who coached 10 world champions and more than 100 national champions in combat sports.
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- We're saddened by the passing of Dame Joan Metge this week, at the age of 95. In 2015, we had the privilege of sitting down with Joan to discuss her remarkable journey helping shape how New Zealand talks about race relations. Our condolences to Joan's whānau and the many lives she touched.
- “This year has been about navigating the surprising layers of grief for a language I never had until now, and envying anybody who grew up with it.” — Michelle Campbell.
- “Kids’ homes and schools are the top exposure zones for junk food marketing in Aotearoa. That’s not passive exposure, it’s precision targeting.” — Vinetta Plummer.
- “We should not underestimate the capacity of our children’s brains, but should be celebrating and supporting all the benefits of their potential bilingual superpowers.” — Linguist Hilary Smith.
- “It was a way for me to let out my frustration and to feel like I was doing something, even if it was just a little part. Chanting genuinely gave me a purpose, a way to keep going.” — Nadine Mortaja, who led last week’s March for Humanity in Auckland.
- “I wanted to share something that the world could hear and see, so they could start making a better judgment of who we are. That's the goal, to basically reintroduce ourselves to the world.” — Thomas Pa’a Sibbett, co-creator of Hawaiian historical drama series ‘Chief of War’.
- “It was a thrilling cacophony of joyous birdsong. A jostling, prancing throng of utterly diverse tangata whenua giving vigorous and unified voice to a new māori era.” — Tainui Stephens on the response to Kuini Nga wai hono i te po’s first speech.
- “We want the best for our children. We want to be loved. And we want the best for our parents as they age. It doesn’t matter what your socioeconomic status is — we have these things in common.” — Rachel Karalus, mayoral candidate in Kirikiriroa Hamilton.
