Waatea News Update

News from Waatea 603 AM, Urban Maori radio, first with Maori news

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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Monday, August 20, 2007

Ngati Hine picks up phony bookwork

A former staff member from Ngati Hine Health Trust is due to appear in court this week for alleged theft.

Trust spokesperson Mike Kake says it involved diverting funds due to the trusts from clients living in residential care.

He says none of the clients will suffer any personal financial loss.

Mr Kake says it was picked up by internal management systems.

“Through our normal monitoring we picked up on something and found she’d got access to clients’ bank accounts and went around picking up money as if she was collecting rent. It was money for services owed to the trust, but she was picking it up and putting it into her own bloody bank account,” Mr Kake says.

Ngati Hine Health Trust informed its residential clients about the alleged fraud, and all are happy to continue using its services.

HIBISCUS COAST MARAE STEP CLOSER

Te Herenga Waka in the Hibiscus Coast finally has a home after 20 years of searching.

Chairperson Richard Nahi says the community organisation has secured a lease over the former Silverdale primary school for a year.

With no marae between Northcote and beyond Warkworth, Te Herenga Waka provides a point of contact for those seeking to learn more about Maori language and culture.

Mr Nahi says the search is now on for land for a marae.

This particular facility now offers us a chance to have a resource centre for the area, and it’s an opportunity also for Te Herenga Waka to promote te reo and culture and also to help to deliver programmes relating to the Treaty of Waitangi,” he says.

DIRECTION OPPORTUNITY FOR HOUSE

Part time Auntie Rachel House has been given a chance to learn from some of the world’s best theatre directors.

The Kai Tahu actor and director is to spend the next nine months at the Prague Centre for Further Education and Professional Development.

Her acting credits include Whale Rider and Eagle vs Shark, and she directed the award winning drama Have Car Will Travel … as well as appearing as an occasional panelist on Maori Television’s Ask the Aunties.

Ms House says she wants to use what she learns to find new ways to bring Maori stories to life.

“We've got fantastic Maori directors around. We’ve got Mereta Mita and Taika Waititi, Peter Berger, but there’s still not that many of them and I think what we’re still finding is a lot of our stories are being directed by people who aren’t Maori and that’s all good and well and it’s absolutely fine but I’d like to see our stories be told by us,” Ms House says.

There’s be a special Send Rachel to Prague gig at Auckland’s Galatos Theatre next Sunday to raise some of $40,000 cost of the course.

CLIENTS PROTECTED FROM NGATI HINE FRAUD

Ngati Hine Health Trust is assuring its clients that none will be out of pocket as a result of an alleged fraud by a former employee.

A woman is due to appear in Whangarei District Court tomorrow on charges of stealing from the community services provider.

Trust spokesperson Mike Kake says a staff member allegedly took money which was supposed to be paid by clients in residential care for services from the trust.

He says it was picked up by internal management systems, and the trust had acted quickly to uphold the integrity of its service and maintain public confidence.

“We go on the front foot with it. We didn’t want any ‘Oh, what’s happening with the Ngati Hine Health Trust. We want to be up front with it and say it won’t cost the clients anything and the due process of the law is going to take place. We wanted to make sure people knew that particular area of our services, the health trust services, was going to continue,” Mr Kake says.

Ngati Hine Health Trust has served the Northland Community for over a decade and has more than 100 staff.

YOUNGER BREED OF TRUSTEES EMERGING

A new breed of Maori trustees is emerging.

That's the view of accountant Heta Hudson, whose latest trustee training programme wrapped up in Manukau yesterday.

He says it’s usually a mahi people are thrown into by their whanau, so they often need a crash course on their roles and responsibilities.

People are getting involved in the financial affairs of their hapu and whanau at a younger age.

“What we notice with people we take through the trustee training, there seems to be a generation of younger ones – when I say younger say between mid-20s to 45 – who are either looking to become trustees or are trustees now have notices that a lot hasn’t happened with the assets or the shares that they have in their whanau trusts and they’re really looking to step things up and move forward,” Mr Hudson says.

The courses were backed by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.

MAOIR ARTISTS LOOKING OVERSEAS FOR AIRPLAY

A Maori songwriter says artists are having to seek audiences overseas because songs in te reo can’t get played on mainstream radio here.

Andrea Tunks is a finalist in the Maori language section of the next month’s APRA Silver Scroll awards.

She says while Maori radio is giving Maori artists confidence and an audience, they also want to reach listeners who don’t speak the reo.

“No matter how good the music, because look at Whirimako and Ruia and Moana and Hinewehi, who good the music, it’s very hard to get that material played by mainstream New Zealand radio which is why they skip here and go straight overseas to try to create their demand,” Ms Tunks says.

She says fans should trying ringing mainstream music stations so they can create demand for their favourite songs to be playlisted.

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