Waatea News Update

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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Friday, October 12, 2007

Broadcasters facing the Facebook future

Te Puni Kokiri is planning for a world where kanohi ki te kanohi means logging in to Facebook.

The Maori development ministry is today holding a hui in Wellington for broadcasting licence holders, iwi leaders and language planners, to discuss the future of Maori broadcasting and electronic media.

Paula Collins, the ministry's policy manager, says preferences are changing, with many rangatahi getting their information and entertainment from Internet channels.

“They are more and more turning away from radio. Television remains their number one option. However that may not always be the case. So we don not want to leave it up to chance. We want to make sure that Maori language and culture and Maori stories and a Maori voice is going to be heard,” Ms Collins says.

Even the veterans of iwi radio are saying they need to have options so they're serving the 16-year-old rangatahi as well as the 100 year old kaumatua.

MOU SHOULD IMPROVE POUTINI HEALTH

Maori on the West Coast should enjoy better access to health services as the result of an understanding between the coast's two runanga and the district health board.

Richard Wallace, the chair of Maori health advisory group Tatau Pounamu, says the memorandum spells out cultural values and the board's obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi.

He says it gives Poutini Ngai Tahu a voice at the board level, and will lead to better outcomes for all Maori on the Coast.

“We're going to see how we can address inequalities of health that is supplied to Maori, and also it’s a way of us getting out there to reach those Maori who are not accessing the health system,” Mr Wallace says.

Historically Maori on the West Coast have often waited too long before they sought treatment for health problems.

INDIGENOUS TRANS TASMAN CLASH

A clash between the best young Maori and Aboriginal league players is long overdue ... and should make for a great game.

That's the view of Tony Kemp, the New Zealand Rugby League's high performance director, to the curtain-raise for Sunday's Centenary trans-Tasman test in Wellington.

He says tangata whenua from both countries have been major contributors to the code over the years, and deserve centre stage

“The indigenous families from both Australia and New Zealand need to be recognised at international level. There should be at some stage curtain raisers for this game, and this (being) the main game, but I think we’ve got to start somewhere and to get it recognized on the main stage as a curtain raiser to the Kiwis is a stepping stone to what hopefully has got to be part of our calendar in future years,” Mr Kemp says.

KAHUNGUNU BRINGING UN DECLARATION HOME

Ngati Kahungunu is inviting New Zealanders to endorse the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Ngahiwi Tomoana, the chair of the Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa iwi, says the government is playing up New Zealand as a multi-ethnic society, while downplaying the rights of tangata whenua.

Mr Tomoana, who was part of a Maori delegation to last month's UN Human Rights Committee session in Geneva, says that's not good enough for Kahungunu.

“We've adopted the Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We’re going to invite every other New Zealander, organisation to adopt it, including the Ethnic Council, including the Pacific Island peoples, and we’re going to move it that way,” Mr Tomoana says.

Ngai Tahu, Hauraki, Ngai Tamanuhiri and other iwi will join Ngati Kahungunu at Ruahapia marae in Hastings tomorrow to adopt the declaration as a group.

DIGITAL ONSLAUGHT COMING

The Maori Development Ministry wants Maori to be ready for the oncoming digital onslaught.

It's holding a hui in Wellington today on the emergence of new media technologies which are changing the nature of broadcasting.

Paula Collins, Te Puni Kokiri's policy manager, says Maori have made a huge investment in broadcasting as as way of preserving language and culture.

But she says more investment in information and communications technologies is needed to maintain and grow the Maori audience.

“By sort of 2030, most of the world’s economy is going to be driven by things like ICT, nanotechnology, biotechnology, neurotechnology and of that, ICT will make up 80 percent of the world’s economy. From an economic perspective it’s important that we ensure Maori are right in the middle of all that and have the necessary skills and infrastructure to participate well in that environment,” Ms Collins says.

She says rangatahi Maori are increasingly getting their information from Internet sources like social-networking sites, and iwi need to respond.

CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS GET SHARP FOLLOWING

A veteran curator believes interest in contemporary Maori artists is outstripping that for their more traditionally-minded colleagues.

Helen Kedgley from Porirua's Pataka Museum and Gallery, is giving a lecture tonight in Napier's Century Theatre on emerging Maori artists.

She says while artists working with traditional materials and themes have an audience, the more urban artists are winning critical and market success.

“Shane Cotton, Michael Parekowhai, Reuben Patterson, Peter Robinson, Darren George, Kelsey Taratoa. There’s a significant group of young Maori artists who are having tremendous success, not only in New Zealand but internationally’” Ms Kedgley says.

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