Waatea News Update

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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Monday, January 29, 2007

Academic network for career support

A proposed Maori Academic Network across Universities in Aotearoa, or MANU-AO, might encourage academics to stay around longer.

That's the hope of Massey University Maori head Mason Durie, who is one of the people proposing the network, which has just won funding from the Tertiary Education Commission's innovation and development fund.

Professor Durie says while more Maori are seeking tertiary qualifications, few stick around and develop academic careers.

He says one reason is that most who try are in areas outside Maori studies, and they can get isolated.

“It will overcome some of the difficulty that Maori academics have that you get one or two working in isolation within a department which might be fine for their subject are, but something else seems to be missing for them, and they don't last very long,” Professor Durie says.

He says universities often lose highly qualified Maori academic staff to government agencies and private sector organisations, who can afford to pay much higher salaries.

WHANAU APANUI TAKES NEW APPROACH TO DISCHARGE

A mainly Maori health practice in the eastern Bay of Plenty has won funding to try out news ways of ensuring its patients gets proper care when they are discharged from hospital.

Rachael Thompson from Te Whanau a Apanui Community Health says primary health providers are usually not told when their patients are sent back home after hospital stays, and in rural areas this can cause major problems.

The money from the Ministry of Health's rural innovations fund will allow the practice to hire a person to manage the interface with the hospital and take over planning for what happens on discharge.

Dr Thompson says hospitals often don't take into account the time and effort it takes to travel from remote rural areas for outpatient treatment or follow up care, so appointments are often missed.

She says Maori are often too shy to express their concerns or ask questions, so the practice will be able to advocate on their behalf.

SHARPLES IN KAPA HAKA RAPTURE

Maori party co-leader and kapa haka expert Pita Sharples says he wants to die on stage.

Last night he turned out for Manutaki, as the 4 top teams from Tamaki Makaurau played to a packed house at Auckland Girls Grammar, in a fundraiser for the nationals in Manawatu late next month.

Dr Sharples says his son Paora is now the tutor of Manutaki, while he has assumed the role of on stage kaumatua.

He says the overall standard of kapahaka continues to improve each year.

Dr Sharples says he hasn't missed a national competition since they began in 1972, and has no intention of giving up anytime soon.

“I hope to die on the stage, not at this festival, but several later on. You just can’t give it up, it’s just so great and when you see the level now that kapa haka has reached, it’s just so exciting,” Dr Sharples says.

LEADERSHIP GAP IN THE ACADEMY

Massey University Maori studies head Mason Durie says the demand by government agencies and other organisations for qualified Maori is putting pressure on academic leadership.

Professor Durie says many of the Maori heads of department around the universities are nearing retirement age, and it is hard to finds replacements.

He says that is one of the resons behind Manu Ao, a proposed Maori academic network which has just received funding from the Tertiary Education Commission's Innovation and Development Fund.

“It happens over and over again,. A Maori gets a high qualification and is immediately put into a postioon of resoponsbiulty or a managerial position. They never write anything again. The PhD is the last thing they write. And as a result you do not get people coming through on the academic side to the level they should be. And that is one of the things we hope MANU-AU might be able to address,” Professor Durie says.

Manu-AO could include a virtual marae for Maori academics and a place to share ideas about teaching and research.

TUREI TALKS TREATY TO TAMILS

Many new arrivals to New Zealand are keen to know more about the Treaty of Waitangi and how it affects them.

Meteria Turei, the Green Party spokesperson on Maori Affairs, says migrant communities often feel out of the loop on Waitangi Day, which commemorates the signing of the treaty between Maori and the Crown in 1840.

She says in recent years, many ethnic groups have made efforts to learn more about New Zealand's founding document, and she will be talking to one such group in Auckland this week.

“The Senior Citizens Tamil Association every year holds a Waitangi event where they talk about the treaty, and as new people to our country, what their role is, so it’s really good that people who come here from similar backgrounds and situations in other countries recognise the importance of Waitangi Day and what it means,” Ms Turei says.

AOTEA MAORI SEEKING MATAITAI

Maori living at Aotea Harbour on the west coast of the north island, are keen to have a mataitai, or marine reserve established.

Davis Apiti, a kaitiaki at Okapu Pa, says they are concerned at falling fish stocks within the harbour and feel they can do more to protect the resource.

Mr Apiti says the harbour has long been a food basket for Maori, and if managed properly, will continue to be so for generations to come.

He says hui are being held at marae in the area, to discuss the logistics of managing the harbour’s fishery if the application for a mataitai, due to be heard next month is accepted.

“The actual maraes in the area will put their people in place to manage the areas they’re responsible for so that we can protect the taonga like the Maui dolphin, our customary fishing areas. This year hopefully will be a good year for us to battle these things out,” Mr Apiti says.

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