Waatea News Update

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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Ngai Tahu develops university town

Ngai Tahu and Lincoln University are to build a $130 million town on surplus land next to the Christchurch campus.

Over the next 12 years up to 1000 residential sections will be developed on the former dairy farm.

Mark Solomon, Ngai Tahu's kaiwhakahaere, says the joint venture builds on the relationship the iwi has with Lincoln's Taumutu Runanga Marae and with the university itself.

He says the Lincoln's surplus land helped further Ngai Tahu's vision for education.

“And it's something that Ngai Tahu’s promoted quite a bit. Institutions like the universities, like local government, they’re long term players like iwi, they’re here for the long haul, and we think they make perfect partners,” Mr Solomon says.

Ngati Tahu is also working with the university to get Ngai Tahu and other Maori in the South Island into tertiary education.

YOUNG MAORI BOOSTING TELEVISION SECTOR

The new Broadcasting Minister is welcoming the emergence of younger Maori in film and television.

Trevor Mallard told the Screen Production and Development Association's Conference in Wellington today that the launch Maori Televisions new te reo channel on the Freeview digital platform is a significant change.

He says local content has grown fivefold over the past two decades, with 10 thousand hours broadcast last year across six free to air channels, compared to 2000 hours on two channels in 1988.

That has created opportunity for Maori broadcasting.

“There is a lot more, and probably because there is a lot more there are a lot more young programme makers involved, young producers, young directors, and it’s meant the quality has really improved over a period of time and the best stuff is absolutely excellent,” Mr Mallard says.

He says Maori Television's two Anzac Day specials and its coverage of the tangi of the Maori queen helped earn it widespread public support.

MARAE INVITED TO KAPA HAKA COMPS

Organisers of the Pare Hauraki kapa haka competition want more marae to join the annual event.

11 secondary school teams from Hauraki, the Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Auckland competed last weekend at Ngahutoitoi Marae in Paeroa.

Organiser Kiri Karu says the competiton started in 1972 as a way to raise funds for marae in the rohe, and it was only opened up to school teams in the 1980s.

She says many whanau are concerned marae no longer enter.

“A lot of whanau said yes it’s timely we do go back and look at how we’re structured and we review it and bring back our marae groups, even if we have our koros with out mokos and our pakeke standing in - it could be a small group of 10, 15, 20,” Ms Karu says.

Mount Maunganui College confirmed the dominance it has shown over the past six years, taking 12 of the 13 trophies available, leaving one for Te Aroha College.

DRAFT MAORI CURRICULUM LAUNCHED

Whanau and kaiako at Maori immersion schools will have more say in what students are taught under a new draft curriculum launched today.

The draft is being put out for six months of consultation.

Laures Park from the primary teachers union, Te Rui Roa, which has been closely involved with the development of Te Matauranga o Aotearoa, says it's a fresh approach rather than a translation of the mainstream curriculum.

“This one here is very much based on Maori medium. Doesn’t stop anyone else from the rest of the sector using it if that’s what they choose to do but it’s very much from an indigenous framework,” Ms Park says.

It could be 18 months before the 17,500 students in kura kaupapa Maori see any changes.

MAORI SCIENTIST HONOURED BY SCIENCE

A Maori scientist has been recognised internationally for his work on animal navigation.

Michael Walker from Auckland University's school of biological sciences is profiled in the current issue of Science, one of the world's top science journals.

It says his findings on how birds and other animals use magnetic fields to find their way over vast distances has shaped research in the field.

The journal also reported on how Nga Pae o te Maramatanga, the Centre for Maori Research Excellence headed by Professor Walker, is creating a home for Maori science.

“It's about as good as it can get. In essence it’s a great international endorsement for the work that is being done through the centre and for me personally, it’s a real honour to have a spread like that written on the work of an individual,” Professor Walker

SEA ORDEAL SUBJECT OF BOOK

Rob Hewitt has turned his 75 hours lost at sea into a book.

Treading Water follows the 38-year-old Ngati Kahungunu man from childhood, through his career in the navy... to February last year when he went missing while diving off the Kapiti Coast.

He says choosing a Maori publisher seemed the right way to get the story out.

“It was about whanau. It was about family. I had gone to several other publishers but as soon as I walked in the door at Huia, you just felt that whanau, felt that sense of belonging, and talking to Brian and Robyn Bargh, they are both water people, they are fishermen, so they have that understanding and connection to the sea,” Mr Hewitt says.

National Geographic is working on a documentary on his ordeal.

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