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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Drunk off your face in A&E

A new report on facial injuries is being seen as a reminder of the harm alcohol abuse is causing.

Tuari Potiki, the strategic operations manager for the Alcohol Advisory Council says analysis by two Christchurch surgeons indicates alcohol was a factor in half of the facial injuries treated in the city over the past decade.

Most of those affected were men aged between 15 and 30.

Mr Potiki says hospital accident and emergency departments see the results of the country's binge drinking culture.

“Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, upwards of 80 percent of all of the people they see are affected by alcohol. Within that group, Maori are hugely over-represented, injusties often from fighting, car crashes, falls, the whole range of alcohokl-related harms that people experience,” Mr Potiki says.

He says A and E departments may get hoha and stick drunks at the back of the queue.

NGATA’S DEATH REMEMBERED ON ANNIVERSARY

Yesterday was the 58th anniversary of the death of Apirana Ngata, and one those going for his old seat says the Ngati Porou politician still has a strong influence on East Coast people.

Derek Fox from the Maori Party says growing up on the coast, he couldn't help but be influenced by what Ngata achieved.

His work in land development and the revival of Maori culture shaped not just Ngati Porou but other tribes.

“He's one of those iconc figures, and iu think he’s one of those guys that it wouldn’t mnetter where he grew up, or where he was born, he just had something about him that was always going to be great,” Mr Fox says.

His father was one of the ringawera at Apirana Ngata's tangi in Ruatoria in 1950, and used to talk about so many people needing to be fed that bulldozers were used to cover the hangi pits.

CLOAK OF TUA’S SON PART OF WHAKATANE EXHIBITION

Some extraordinary links with Tuhoe history have gone on display at Whakatane Museum.

Hihita and Hoani features items collected early last century to two Presbyterian missionaries, Annie Henry and John Laughton.

Carl Chittam, the curator, says the pair earned the trust of Tuhoe people though their work in Te Urewera, and many valuable taonga were entrusted to them.

They included ancient items, such as a belt believed to have come on the Mataatua waka, and a more recent item of clothing known as Toko's cloak.

“Toko was Rua Kenana's son, and he was shot in a police raid on Maungapohatu in 1916, so we’ve got that cloak which belonged to Reverend Laughton and we’ve also got a cloak that is thought to have belonged to Te Kooti as well,” Mr Chittam says.

He says a cooking pot in the show is believed to have come from Captain Cook's ship the Endeavour.


AIR NEW ZEALAND SIGNS ON TO MAORI LANGUAGE WEEK
The Maori Language Commission has signed up Air New Zealand as its major partner and sponsor for next week's Maori language week.
Erima Henare, the commissioner, says airline staff are already extending the range of Maori greetings and explanations they give.
He says it fits in with Te Taura Whiri's aim to that te reo is not just spoken by Maori.

“So I think the great thing with Air New Zealand and the large number of people It carries will help the process of normalizing the language by allowing people to hear it, by allowing an English translation to follow with it, and therefore bring greater enlightenment to those who listen to it, and hopefully to encourage those who listen to it to use it,” Mr Henare says.

Air New Zealand is making a significant contribution in money, time and mana.

IDENTITY A CHALLENGE FOR MIXED RACE YOUNG

A new book on people with both Maori and Pakeha heritage concludes that identity can be a treacherous thing.

Melinda Webber, of Te Arawa, Ngapuhi and Pakeha, called her book Walking the space between: Identity and Maori/Pakeha.

She says people of mixed descent are often challenged about whether they are authentic or artificial, and Maori society uses language and tikanga to both include and exclude people.

That leads many rangatahi are chose their own ways to identify as Maori.

“Young Maori are finding other ways to represent their Maoriness. I’m often amazed at the number of tattoos young people have on them and finding other more subversive ways of indicating I am Maori and this is how I choose to chose to identify as that,” Ms Webber says.

ARCHITECT REMEMBERS LEARNING FROM MAORI MASTER

One of the country’s most renowned architects has paid tribute to a Maori master carver who helped him understand the complexities of marae construction.

Ivan Mercep has been awarded the New Zealand Institute of Architects Gold medal in recognition of his contribution to the profession over more than half a century.

The Taumaranui raised architect says he was privileged to work with Pine Taiapa, a renowned East Coast kaumatua and tohunga whakairo, on Whaiora Marae in South Auckland.

“And that led to Hoani Waititi with Mavis Tuoro and Lettie Brown and then Pita Sharples, and that took a long time. First they had to acquire the land and then develop it, and that was probably the first urban marae. Being pan-Maori was a bit of an issue for a while. A lot of people thought it wouldn’t work, and so that was pretty exciting, and that was the first real marae I started from scratch,” Mr Mercep says.

More Maori architects are needed to put a unique cultural perspective into New Zealand design.

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