Discarded 50 years ago, a handful of old trams have been pieced back together by enthusiasts, and have now become a feature of the city....
The sight and sound of a score of waka taua, war canoes, and their sweating, chanting crews will forever remain etched on the memories of those who attended the 1990 Treaty of Waitangi commemoration. The waka has become a symbol of Maori unity and pride in this year of remembrance. Some say it is the vehicle which will carry the mana […]...
A traveller through Northland who takes a wrong turn at Moerewa could stumble on Matawaia, and the verdict might be: this is a place God forgot to finish. There are no shops, just a school, a marae and a few dozen houses dotted around the valley. The corrugated metal roads are bounded by bracken fern […]...
There are more cautionary notes in Māoridom dealing with mana than you could shake the proverbial stick at. It is a source of both personal and collective strength, pride and identity. Mishandled, it becomes the bearer of shame, ridicule and embarrassment. If mana allows us to walk tall, then it also casts a long shadow—humility. […]...
I was born at Te Hapua, on the shores of Parengarenga Harbour, New Zealand’s northernmost village. Although poorly endowed, the parents in our village fought for their children to be educated. Even the old people who had missed out on schooling altogether were vehement about its importance. “Go and get the Pakeha clever,” they would say. […]...
Darkness. And the shuffling of the crowd around me. Excitement hangs over us, sparkling faintly in the whispers and coughs, the yawns and murmurs — soft, with the dawn. We wait. Then, begin to move. Forward, slowly, all of us, behind her. And behind the old man whose voice lifts and soars, lifts and soars, […]...
We shake hands. I say, “Kia ora,” you say, “Kia ora,” and, unless you’re Maori or we are in a Maori setting, this is usually followed by a conscious effort on my part to contain the urge to press noses with you. For a Maori, the hongi is a physical expression of our meeting on […]...
Maori art treasures are powerful links between past and present.Many are revered as living beings and cherished for the mana they embody. This article explores the legacy of Maori art and offers a tribute to a great photographer who sought to convey the vibrancy of these works....
Most of us have grown up without knowing much more about the Treaty of Waitangi than that it was signed last century by anaval captain called Hobson and a group of Maori chiefs. Yet today this piece of paper, regarded by some as a sacred covenant and by others as an obsolete reminder of our colonial past, is making its presence felt […]...
