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Tangi kau ana te ngākau ki ngā mate o te wā, tērā ia te ruahine o Ngāi Te Ruahikihiki me te rangatira o Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Whānau Tahi kua riro i te tirohanga kanohi i tēnei wiki…

Puaka kai rau. Ka hua ai ka pua, koia ko Puaka Ngā kai i Matariki nāna i ao ake ki runga Tēnā ngā kanohi kua tikona e Matariki     The dawn rising of Puaka (Rigel), the principal star of…

OMAKA MARAE MĀori women’s welfare league pink ribbon breakfast. 8am Monday 30 May 2016; Omaka Marae Helen Leahy, Pouarahi / Chief Executive,  Te Pūtahitanga o te Waipounamu   I want to firstly acknowledge the significance of being here today, as…

When I was in Timaru a couple of weeks ago at the South Canterbury Primary Health Care Symposium, I came across the most beautiful book, the Super Power Baby Project.   The book features the most dazzling portraits of children with…

  Māori females can do it This Friday night, we are accompanying Whenua Kura to the BNZ Māori Excellence in Farming awards dinner for the Ahuwhenua Trophy, in Hamilton.      This year, two of the three finalists for the…

Ko Hine-tītama koe matawai ana te whatu i te tirohangaYou are like Hine-tītama, a vision at which the eyes glisten The Roman statesman and scholar, Marcus Tullius Cicero, had a good point.  He once said, “The face is a picture…

I love hearing new words.   This week, at a hui of Māori entrepreneurs the phrase ‘Genetic Maorification’ was dropped into the conversation.   It draws from the concept of whakapapa;  genealogy being passed from one generation to the next and…

OK, I have to admit it, I do love the shimmering harbour of Whanganui-a-Tara.    This was our view on Tuesday this week, when I attended the meeting of the national council of Family Works; the child and family services…

There is a place I return to in my mind when I am looking for a direction. Punakaiki.   A place where the river meets the sea. It is the place we spent holidays in summer, floating on the lilo, swimming…

Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. (Neil Postman, The Disappearance of Childhood (introduction), 1982 Mānia Ieremia and Tamairangi Norton, members of the Omaka Honomai kapa haka at the anniversary of the marae…