E te Ariki, Ka inoi nei matou
tukua mai ki tau pononga ki a Kingi Tuheitia,
kia whiti atu ai ia ki te Kainga o te
maramatanga me te rangimarie.
Ma te Karaiti to matou Ariki. Amene

O Lord, we pray,
grant that your Servant King Tuheitia
may pass over to a dwelling place
of light and peace,
Through Christ our Lord. Amen

Souce

• NZCBC

We do so on behalf of the Catholic Worker Movement (Otautahi), a branch of a world-wide organisation of the same generic name.

Justice is built on love

We believe justice built on love to be the foundational essence of God and the teachings of Jesus. As Catholic Workers, our lives are dedicated to the poor by way of providing hospitality, advocacy and justice for them, giving them a voice whenever most needed.

Over recent decades considerable strides have been taken to address some of the structural discrimination enacted against Maori in the 184 years since colonisation and the signing of The Treaty of Waitangi, our founding document.

There is a long way still to go. It From a social justice and Gospel perspective, incremental steps continue to be essential.

Principles of justice contravened

We are very deeply disturbed by the current Bill before the House of Parliament which we believe contravenes basic principles of justice in that it will further marginalise minority groups, especially Maori.

Despite having a populist flavour, it contains content almost totally negative in relation to the place and state of Maori in Aotearoa, particularly in relation to guaranteeing their representation on decision-making bodies as a Treaty partner.

This Bill is deeply offensive by not having consulting Maori about its substance before it came to the House. This is yet another breach of the Treaty in which Article 2 guarantees Maori, as a Treaty Partner, the right to be represented and to participate in decision-making in good faith.

We can't think of any other freely chosen partnership where one partner makes all the major decisions without consulting the other. Imagine how long a marriage would last if one partner in the contract always had the controlling decision on major matters!

The divorce courts would be working 24/7!

Iniquitous polls

The most iniquitous aspect of this Bill requires polls to be binding.

Polls make sense to Pakeha who in this country have the majority of votes all the time.

Maori decision-making has never revolved around polling members and going with the majority. That is simply not their way. It is a very Euro-centric way of doing things, guaranteeing a favourable result against minority views.

Here at the Catholic Worker where we have met weekly to pray and reflect for more than 30 years, we fail to see how the already existing options, Sections 19H and 191 of the Local Electoral Act 2001, cannot be utilised if need be, to set out options for reviews and further debate if that is what is sought.

The re-introduction of polls will do nothing to improve race relations in Aotearoa.

Rather it will stir up a hornets next of discriminatory behaviour, racism and social unrest and further inflame already somewhat tense social relations. This we can well do without.

Strong Maori representation essential

We need strong Maori representation around local council tables. Justice demands this. Too often we have not had this in the past and as pointed out earlier, failed to enflesh Article 2 of the Treaty of Waitangi.

This is a structural matter that cannot be addressed through polls and popular vote, where public media, including huge amounts of virulent social media commentary, are already tilted to negate minority outcomes.

With respect, we urge the Parliament and this Committee to attend to the matters raised and discard the offensive content.

• Submission made on behalf of the Catholic Worker Movement (Otautahi)

The report, Nga Tukunga Iho - The Things We Inherit, offers an annual assessment of the country's social progress - this year especially -

• children and youth
• housing
• crime and punishment
• social hazards
• work and incomes

Lt-Colonel Ian Hutson, The Salvation Army's Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit director, notes the new government has inherited a mix of successes and obstacles from its predecessor.

He emphasises the impact current policies will have on future generations and the responsibility to foster a better living environment for all New Zealanders.

While the report acknowledges significant progress has been made in recent years - reductions in child poverty, an increase in social housing units, sustained low unemployment - it also points to worrying trends.

These trends include the deepening cost-of-living crisis hitting lower-income households hardest. Rising rental costs are outpacing inflation and there are overall increases in food insecurity and financial hardship.

The State of the Nation report is unequivocal in its call for the new Government to take decisive action.

Hutson stresses the need to build upon the progress achieved and to adopt successful strategies to navigate the challenges ahead.

Concerns for Maori wellbeing

One of the report's key findings pertains to Maori wellbeing.

Persistent inequities affecting Maori in education, housing, employment and the criminal justice system need to be addressed, it says.

To achieve this, the report advocates for the importance of resourcing kaupapa Maori approaches to enhance well-being for whanau, hapu and iwi.

Children and Youth

The report's Children and Youth section has both positive and negative news.

On the plus side, it rates child poverty reduction as a significant achievement.

However, it also notes poverty's disproportionate impact on Pasifika, Maori, and children living with disabilities. It stresses the need for targeted efforts to meet Government poverty reduction targets.

The report also states that young people continue to tell of high levels of mental distress.

Housing

The report's Housing section paints a grim picture of unaffordability and homelessness. This is exacerbated by a decline in new housing consents and a surge in inward migration, it says.

The report calls for an urgent increase in public housing supply to address the growing backlog.

Crime and Punishment

In terms of Crime and Punishment, the report indicates an overall increase in reported and unreported crime and notes that violent offences are increasing.

Enhancing access to housing, employment, education and social services would be more effective in reducing crime than implementing harsher punishments, the report suggests.

Social Hazards

The Social Hazards section notes a positive decline in alcohol and drug consumption.

At the same time, it points to rising gambling losses and signs of increased financial hardship. One such indicator is the increasing number of calls for early KiwiSaver withdrawals on the grounds of financial hardship.

Work and Incomes

Under the heading Work and Incomes, the Salvation Army State of the Nation report highlights the continued high levels of employment but raises concerns about the rising unemployment and the persistent wage inequality affecting women and ethnic minorities.

It says high inflation is putting pressure particularly on low-income households. Furthermore, food insecurity for households with children has increased.

Source

• Supplied: The Salvation Army
• The full report is available from the Salvation Army.

Published in Vaccine, the research estimates vaccines averted 4,000 to 12,000 deaths and 34,000 to 56,000 hospitalisations within 18 months from January 2022.

However, among the highlighted outcomes were the disparities in health outcomes for Maori.

The study pointed out that if Maori vaccination rates had matched those of Pakeha, up to 75 of the 292 Maori deaths could have been prevented.

Professor Michael Plank, a co-author and Covid-19 researcher, emphasised the importance of ensuring equal vaccination rates among Maori and non-Maori to save lives and lessen the pandemic's toll on Maori communities.

The authors say the Covid-19 elimination strategy meant most people were able to be vaccinated before being exposed to the virus.

New Zealand's early elimination strategy allowed widespread vaccination before widespread virus exposure, contributing to one of the lowest pandemic mortality rates globally.

This research reinforces the crucial role of vaccines in protecting health while also calling attention to the need for equitable health strategies in Aotearoa.

Source

• 1News

The number of Maori identifying as having "no religion" in the census between 2006 and 2018 increased from 36.5% to 53.5%. Maori affiliation with Christianity has fallen from 46.2% to 29.9%.

Are Maori simply rejecting Christianity? Or are they rejecting all supernatural phenomena, including traditional Maori beliefs?

Our research examined the apparent rise of Maori atheism. We found the colonial history of religion was a driving force for Maori who identified as atheist or having no religion.

We also found Maori atheists said they experienced discrimination for their lack of religion, and their "Maoriness" was questioned within their community or work.

The "no religion" category in the census captures a range of worldviews, including people who say they are spiritual but not religious; agnostics - people who are uncertain about the existence of a higher power; and atheists - people who do not believe in the existence of god(s).

Multiple reasons for leaving religion

As part of our research, we spoke with 16 Maori aged 30 to 65 who did not believe in god(s). All but four were raised in religious households.

Some emphasised lingering intellectual doubts as the reason for rejecting religion. As one participant explained:

Others said they left for moral reasons.

These included a perceived hypocrisy among churchgoers, immorality of religious leaders, and the role of religion in spreading harmful views about women and LGBTQ people.

Most participants, however, framed their rejection of religion as an expression of resistance against the colonial systems of belief.

In fact, participants' ideas of "religion" were primarily shaped by their experience of various Christian denominations and their knowledge of the Christian missionary history in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Accordingly, most of the people we spoke with viewed religion as a colonial tool for the oppression of Maori people and culture. Another participant noted:

Others argued that the God of the Bible is not indigenous to Aotearoa, but rather a creation myth from the Middle East and therefore inherently irrelevant to Maori people.

Dissatisfaction entwined with colonial history

The interview responses show Maori rejection of Christianity seems to be largely aligned with anti-colonial movements, Maori protest movements, and the decolonial feminist movement.

For most participants, "atheism" equated to non-belief in the existence of God and the rejection of monotheistic traditions, specifically Christianity.

In other words, being a Maori atheist did not necessarily mean the rejection of all supernatural beliefs.

While some individuals were confident in their non-belief in all supernatural phenomena, others were either ambivalent towards certain wairua (spirit, soul) beliefs or emphasised the need to understand Maori beliefs as metaphors for a way to live.

What it means to be Maori is changing

The emergence of "non-religious" as a growing sector of the Maori community poses both challenges and opportunities to the ideas of what it is to be Maori and the development of New Zealand.

If we see ourselves progressing as a "bi-cultural" Treaty/Tiriti-enhanced nation, it stands to reason we need to be able to identify the two cultures clearly.

But there is the opportunity to develop more quickly without identity "membership" based on religious affiliation or non-affiliation.

Within the community, there is a spectrum of views about the significance of religious or spiritual beliefs to Maori identity.

On one end, there are those who ask whether it is even possible to be Maori if one is not "religious" or "spiritual" in some shape or form.

At the other, there are those who distinguish between culture and religion, and argue Maori development can be more easily enhanced if one is freed from the constraints of religious belief.

The former speaks to a "traditional" and conservative view of being Maori; the latter to notions of changes in cultures, the impact of the colonial experience, modernisation, and different ways of being Maori.

Our research highlights the diversity of non-religion among Maori, which is neither reflected in representations of Maori (for instance in education), nor considered in Maori-Crown relations.

While there is little difficulty in identifying the Crown in Treaty negotiations, the emerging "no religion" sector of the Maori community adds new layers of complexity to who the Treaty partner is. Importantly, is being spiritual or religious a prerequisite to being a Maori?

• Masoumeh Sara Rahmani Lecturer Study of Religion, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
• Peter Adds Professor, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington.
• First published in The Conversation. Republished with permission.

The last time that occurred was in 1877 when the then Chief Justice James Prendergast proclaimed the Treaty was "worthless" because it had been signed "between a civilised nation and a group of savages" who were incapable of signing a treaty.

In one foul swoop iwi/Maori were last week transported back to the Jurassic period where the notion of colonial superiority moved from military to legislative treachery.

If the bombs raining down on Gaza sickens you then understand that is exactly what happened here in Aotearoa.

Last week we recognised 160 years since the illegal and unjust invasion of Rangiriri Pa.

As women and children tried to escape through the swamp, they were systematically shot one-by-one.

Children who could not swim without their mothers drowned in Lake Kopuera which turned red with the blood of their mothers.

Screams of terror and cries for mercy were quickly silenced.

Mothers who survived were raped next to - babies who were dispatched with bayonets and then shot - there was no time for prisoners because they would hold up the advance into Waikato.

That is the context that drives iwi like ours who continue to advance the notion of indigenous relevance in a contemporary world.

So, when this coalition Government proclaims the removal of mechanisms like co-governance from the delivery of public services, it is effectively saying prepare yourselves to die sooner in a public service that does not see you.

We have confirmation they will not recognise the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Peoples as having any binding legal affect in Aotearoa.

It actually means nothing because neither did any of the other previous governments moved much on UNDRIP either.

But it sounds great to the Hobson's Pledge brigade and their ilk.

Both NZ First and the National parties have agreed to support a bill seeking to define the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi to its first reading.

The day this is introduced to Parliament it will trigger an immediate response from Maori and many non-Maori from across the country.

I have spoken to a number of iwi over the weekend and the initial feedback has been overwhelming and they will mobilise in numbers

We must protect the Treaty of Waitangi rights and interests that we have negotiated in good faith at all costs.

Those rights and interests in practical effect are held in perpetuity and we will not allow that to be changed by stealth and at the whim of the other Treaty partner.

We have a clause embedded in our Treaty settlements that effectively commits the Crown to engaging with us. Continue reading

• Tukoroirangi Morgan is a former politician and broadcaster. He is the chairman of Tainui iwi and helped spearhead the Waikato River settlement claim with both the Labour and National governments alongside the late Lady Raiha Mahuta.

The mural had been fully covered in white paint.

The artwork veered away from traditional iconography and aimed to represent a more modern and inclusive image of Jesus Christ.

Novak of Ngai Te Rangi and Ngati Kahungunu descent guided the pupils of St Joseph's Catholic Primary School Dunedin as they designed and painted the mural.

"I don't mind about myself, but it's just the kids have put a lot of effort into that so that's not fair on them," Novak told the ODT.

She is labelling the Jesus mural vandalism as "really vindictive".

"No matter what people's ideologies are, they shouldn't be desecrating children's artwork, basically."

St Joseph's Cathedral School principal Jo Stanley was shocked when she arrived at school yesterday morning to find the new mural had been fully covered in white paint.

"When I first came in, I thought it was just absolutely unbelievable.

"I just thought - what? ... what have they done?"

Without being certain, Stanley told the ODT that she suspects the vandal wrecked the non-traditional, modern and inclusive mural because Jesus was depicted as Maori.

Commenting on the mural's unveiling, Monica Devine says "Shame about the rainbow background".

Stanley suggests the culprit is "very small-minded".

She has reported the incident to the police.

"We really wanted to have an accessible piece of artwork for everyone," Novak said, stressing the importance of stepping away from monochromatic portrayals.

Emblazoned with "Care like Christ", the Jesus in the mural wears a Korowai, has a rainbow-coloured halo and items that speak of the children's lives.

That was the pupils' idea, Novak says. Everything about the mural was designed and dictated by the pupils' choices.

The mural was unveiled less than a month ago and reflects modern, multicultural New Zealand.

At the time, Year 6 pupil Leo Innes said everyone in his class added something that was important to them and their culture. Leo, aged 11, chose to include a basketball motif in the artwork.

For Novak and the pupils of St Joseph's, their masterpiece is more than just a wall decoration; it is an affirmation that Jesus, a figure often associated with specific ethnic and cultural traits, belongs to everyone.

Indicating the children of St Joseph's Cathedral school are of resilient character, Stanley says they will design and paint a new mural depicting a Maori Jesus.

Sources

• ODT
• CathNews

The scheme forces polluters to offset their emissions by buying carbon credits.

Planting trees creates those credits, which can then be traded. It's led to the creation of an industry of carbon farming which many Maori landowners rely on.

They say the Government's proposals could jeopardise the local carbon credit industry, which is worth an estimated $16 billion to the Maori economy.

Among those flying out to the UN is Penetaui Klescovic (Te Aupouri), who will be representing Te Aupouri landowners in the Far North.

The iwi is heavily invested in the planting of pine trees to earn money from carbon credits.

"The majority of that land is what you call marginal land and if we can't plant trees on there and realise that economic light then essentially, we're going to be condemned to poverty because the Government is making those changes to the ETS," he said. Continue reading

As the late Moana Jackson commented, the meaning of Te Tiriti will be talked about in each generation because it is about a relationship between Maori and Pakeha and relationships must always be worked on.

Here, we focus on the learning of te reo Maori by non-Maori in relation to Te Tiriti and the Maori concept of whakapapa in the hope of continuing the conversation and the relationship.

For full disclosure, we are married. Pania is Ngati Porou and her father is a native speaker. Brian is Pakeha. We both learned te reo Maori as a second language as adults. We will come back to this later.

The learning of te reo Maori by non-Maori has become cool. Growing numbers of non-Maori are enrolled in te reo courses and there are many new resources to support their learning. It cannot be separated from Tiriti concerns and whakapapa.

Several authors have commented on this phenomenon of non-Maori enthusiasm for te reo Maori and Maori knowledge, highlighting the complex nature of the motivations involved.

Alison Jones, a Pakeha scholar in Indigenous education, notices how the demand by non-Maori to have te reo echoes the colonising demand to have Maori land.

Catherine Delahunty, a Pakeha activist in environmental and social justice, reminds non-Maori to "stay in our lane", and warns that if we don't, we effectively co-opt and attempt to control things that don't belong to us.

Nicola Bright, a senior researcher of Tuhoe and Ngati Awa descent at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER), tells us Maori should benefit first from the revitalisation of te reo Maori.

Georgina Tuari Stewart, a scholar who explores the nexus between culture and education, alerts us to the need to accept the limits of our ability to know in relation to Maori knowledge.

In our own work, as academics focused on Indigenisation and decolonisation of education systems, we talk of New Zealand and Aotearoa as two different countries occupying the same land. Te Tiriti is about relations between these two countries.

A whakapapa perspective on language

We see the learning of te reo Maori with a whakapapa lens. We refer to whakapapa as the emergence of new entities from their previous forms. Inherent in our understanding is an acceptance that entities have a natural right to have their whakapapa respected.

For most non-Maori, languages have been commodified and are available on demand. We liken this to having a language supermarket. Customers can buy various products "off the shelf" to allow them to learn any language they like.

These days, the supermarket is virtual and the products are digital apps. We see the dark irony in Maori having to shop for their own language in this supermarket.

In this commodified world, language is understood as a symbolic code that can be learned to express your thoughts. Learning a new language just means learning a new code. This is a distinctly colonising and capitalist view of language which cuts right across whakapapa, treating language as a disembodied entity, fixed through a vocabulary and a set of rules.

Viewed through whakapapa, a language is inherent in the worldviews and experiences of the people who emerge with it. Seen this way, languages cannot be separated from the people who speak them and who have inherited them from their ancestors.

Could non-Maori learning te reo be akin to colonisation?

The learning of te reo Maori, whether we like it or not, is already in the public domain. Anyone can learn it and we encourage everyone to do so. But if not done well and ethically, it could be another wave of colonisation.

If we go about learning te reo Maori as if it were a symbolic code or a commodified product that will provide certain (economic and self-investment) benefits, several things become apparent.

Since we learn a commodified version of te reo, we are not part of any processes of emergence alongside the people whose heritage te reo Maori is. This commodified form is in fact part of whakapapa for many non-Maori. It has emerged from our experiences and worldview and is a form of appropriation.

The taking of other people's stuff and refashioning it for our purposes is indeed colonisation. But there is also great potential for growth as people and as a nation because learning a language can change you.

In whakapapa terms, the presence of te reo Maori in your life has become part of the emergence of the next versions of you and your descendants. The bottom line is to understand and respect whakapapa.Read more: Learning to live with the 'messy, complicated history' of how Aotearoa New Zealand was colonised

Honouring te Tiriti

Non-Maori people must first acknowledge the right for te reo to emerge in the world along with the people whose own emergence is intimately entwined with it through whakapapa. That's iwi Maori.

This is a difficult task because many non-Maori are so used to believing that, in theory at least, they can know and possess anything (if they want to and put in the effort). Respecting whakapapa then involves non-Maori in a necessary self-limitation which runs counter to their own cultural development in a capitalist, exploitative and predatory culture.

Non-Maori must figure out how to acquire te reo Maori without possessing it. It might help to return to our idea of two countries overlapping in time and space - New Zealand and Aotearoa. Honouring Te Tiriti then asks those of us who live in New Zealand to honour what happens in another country, Aotearoa.

We would never say, for example, that we have claims over what happens in China, nor that because we speak Chinese we have some special insight or claim over China or Chinese people. Adopting a similar stance with respect to te reo Maori as the native language of Aotearoa will bring us closer to being able to respect its right to have natural emergence through whakapapa.

For us, even though we converse with each other every day in te reo Maori, one of us speaks Maori and the other doesn't.

• Brian Tweed and Pania Te Maro are married. Brian is a Senior Lecturer at Massey University and Pania is an Associate Professor also at Massey University.
• First published in The Conversation. Republished with permission.

The comments about parish sacramental celebrations come from Palmerston North's Bishop emeritus, Peter Cullinane, in an article published in Tui Motu.

Citing examples of the Church's mistakes, Cullinane says the lack of training for diocesan priests in ministry to Maori combined with the Church entrusting the ‘Maori Mission' to specialist groups ensures that most Maori do not feel 'at home' in our parish church celebrations of Eucharist.

He says that developing a sense of inclusiveness does not come about by running parallel Maori and European churches.

"The Church in our country is greatly indebted to the Religious Orders to whom the ‘Maori Mission' was entrusted," he writes.

Cullinane mentions the Society of Mary, the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion, the Mill Hill Missionaries and the Congregation of Our Lady of the Missions in particular.

"Their work continues to bear fruit, and any alterations to pastoral practices need to safeguard the right of Maori to continue to experience life and worship in the Church in ways that are natural to them."

Nevertheless, Cullinane says, running a Maori Mission parallel to parishes had serious unintended side effects.

He writes it is against that background that introducing te reo into parish Eucharists seems a tiny gesture - but it is about recognition of tangata whenua, inclusion and belonging.

"Of course, it would be mere tokenism if it were not to follow through in all the ways required by respect for the rights of Maori in wider society and Te Tiriti o Waitangi."

Our celebrations of the Eucharist are meant to feed into our daily lives, Cullinane points out.

"Eucharistic life involves the rejection of racial prejudice and discrimination wherever these occur.

"In this way, the use of te reo in parish Eucharists should whet our appetites for the kind of hospitality, listening, sense of community and inclusiveness we have been talking about on the synodal journey."

He suggests that the next step is to experience Eucharist on a marae and recognise Maori's warm and welcoming ways.

"This way, people can see how these properly belong to the gathering stage of coming together for Eucharist.

"Respect for the rights of the home people can be only a first step in our reaching out to the many others in our society who suffer from inequalities …

"It also involves our support for other ethnic groups who can be victims of racial prejudice. Anything less than a prophetic stand for all these is less than Eucharistic."

Failure to address prejudice or help people disadvantaged by personal, social or economic conditions, proves the Second Vatican Council's claim:

"The split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age," writes Cullinane.

Source

• Tui Motu

That review, released back in June, found Pharmac had issues on accountability, decision-making and responsibilities.

It also said the benefits the model brings need to be shared more equitably across Maori and Pacifika.Read more

That's got to be a good thing.

Economic commentators - myself included - can sound a bit clinical when we talk about the risk a tight labour market poses to the economy.

It does pose a risk. We do need to find workers to allow businesses to grow.

But must we kill off the strong jobs market? Should we cheer on rising unemployment in the fight against inflation? Read more

She lashed out in a tweet against "tokenistic" use of te reo by employees of DOC "as an attempt to show govt depts are culturally competent". She told Stuff she encouraged the use of the Maori language, but wanted it used "with integrity".

"You want to use te reo, you use it with integrity and use it responsibly," Stuff quoted Allan as saying. "This isn't a ‘everybody go out and use mahi and kaupapa' and say you have a deep and enduring relationship with te ao Maori."

Of course this shouldn't apply only to DOC, where Allan was in charge before this week's cabinet reshuffle resulted in her elevation to the justice portfolio. The same message could be directed at all government agencies where middle-class Pakeha public servants, eager to demonstrate their solidarity with the tangata whenua, indulge in an ostentatious display of virtue-signalling by using token Maori words and phrases. I wonder whether Radio New Zealand also got the memo.

Being Maori, Allan could get away with this rebuke. No Pakeha could; the cries of racism would be deafening. But to me it has always seemed patronising that many Pakeha liberals flaunt their cultural sensitivity with expressions such as "morena", "nga mihi" and "doing the mahi" (the latter a term practically unknown in the Pakeha world until a couple of years ago).

If they were truly committed to the use of te reo, they would take the trouble to learn the language. I think that's the point Allan was trying to make.

Many people do make the effort, of course, and good for them. The rest of us should stick to English, since it's our lingua franca - the language everyone knows and understands. And the primary purpose of language, as Joe Bennett reminded us in a recent column for which he predictably got caned, is to communicate, not to signal cultural empathy or indulge in a form of verbal snobbery.

I like what I've seen of Allan. She's Maori and lesbian, but she doesn't appear to play the woke card and deserves better than to be dismissed as someone who got where she is simply by ticking fashionable diversity boxes.

She's a former KFC employee who got a law degree - big ups for that, as they say - and who represents a real electorate (East Coast), so earned her seat in Parliament in the honest, old-fashioned way. She also impressed a lot of people with the gutsy, no-nonsense way in which she confronted a life-threatening cancer. And though I know we're not supposed to judge books by their covers, she has an open, honest face. We now know she's blunt too, a refreshing quality lacking in the majority of politicians on both sides of the House who prefer to play it safe.

I tested my opinion of Allan on Clive Bibby, a politically alert resident of her electorate. He largely confirmed my impression, saying that Allan had served the electorate well and National would have a hard job finding someone to stand against her (this from a retired Tolaga Bay farmer whose political inclinations are firmly to the centre-right).

Another good friend and long-term East Coast voter - again, not a natural Labour supporter - agreed that Allan was well-liked in the electorate. The fact that Gisborne's population is 50 percent Maori probably helps, although her tribal roots (Ngati Ranginui and Tuwharetoa) lie outside the district.

Clive noted that Allan had resisted any temptation to serve as a flagbearer for the radical rainbow movement, which he thought was a smart tactic in conservative Gisborne. But he wasn't sure that her impressive performance would be enough to save her in the event of the expected anti-Labour backlash in 2023, and he hoped she would secure a good position on the Labour list.

He thinks Allan is marked for higher office - a view shared by political commentator Tim Watkin, who speculated this week that she and Michael Wood, who were both promoted in the "minor" (ha!) reshuffle, might be a Labour leadership team of the future.

Wood strikes me as a bit too polished and smiley for comfort (I'm reminded of a politician from a former era of whom it was said, "Behind the thin veneer there's a thin veneer"), but Allan has an aura of authenticity - an impression reinforced by her obvious exasperation with the virtue-signallers. If we must have Labour governments - and history suggests they're the yin to National's yang - then we could probably do worse.

Then again, maybe I'm so desperate for something to feel positive about that I'm reduced to searching for promising omens on the Left. Certainly the picture is pretty bleak everywhere else.

• Karl du Fresne has been in journalism for more than 50 years. He is now a freelance journalist and blogger living in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand.
• First published by Karl du Fresne. Republished with permission.

He gave the assurance, Wednesday on NewstalkZB.

Singling out the elderly, Hipkins acknowledged that not all people have the required digital skills necessary to get the vaccine pass. He said they will be able to phone 0800 222 478 and get their vaccine passport sent to them instead.

The "My Vaccine Pass" will take the form of a QR code that can be shown digitally or on printed paper, allowing venues to check whether a person has been vaccinated against Covid-19 or not.

Vaccine passes will not be required at schools, supermarkets, or other "essential" businesses.

Once the Government's traffic light system is introduced, however, churches wanting to function without restrictions at orange and green levels will need to use vaccine passes - or suffer in-person limits on congregation sizes.

"Having the vaccine pass means people will be able to do the things they love", Covid Minister, Chris Hipkins told Stuff.

"We don't want anyone to miss out, so we're strongly encouraging those who've been putting off getting a vaccine to take that step now, as we prepare to transition into the COVID-19 Protection Framework."

Vicar for Maori in the Auckland diocese, Manuel Beazley (pictured) is concerned Maori vaccination numbers and Maori ability to access the vaccine passport technology.

The vaccine level is a trust issue, he says.

"For Maori, who is saying it is just as important as what's being said."

Maori have been let down by institutions in so many ways, he says.

"There is a deep mistrust by many Maori towards institutions and so, when the Government through the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education or any other government ministry or agency, starts to direct people to take up the vaccine, understandably, Maori are very dubious.

"Our vaccine booking system works when you have access to a laptop or smartphone and good Internet connection.

"Drive-through vaccination stations are good if you're not too far from it or if you have a vehicle that is registered and has gas to travel - or a vehicle in the first place.

"Many of our rural and isolated communities are predominantly Maori, [and] there are issues of access to vaccination centres in those places," he says.

"We need to listen to the reason why a person is not choosing to be vaccinated. In the Maori worldview, we have the elements of Pono, Tika and Aroha. This must inform and guide our interaction."

Beazley explains when observing Pono, one listens, not only to the words, but to "their heart - what they are feeling".

Responding with Tika means responding in a way that is respectful, providing accurate and reliable information, and not forcing one's opinion on others.

"When Pono and Tika have been followed, the result is always aroha - there is a new-found communion between people because they have heard each other, they have been free to interact without fear of judgement or coercion, and the product of that is aroha - communion, respect, compassion," Beazley says.

Sources

• CathNews
• Stuff
• Newstalk ZB
• Image: NZ Catholic

On Saturday, Labour's Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced the medications can now be prescribed by primary care practitioners, including GPs, midwives, and nurse practitioners.

She said the New Zealand College of Sexual and Reproductive Health will partner with Te Whariki Takapou, a Maori-led health organisation to deliver a new, "innovative" training package to better meet the needs of rangatahi, Maori, Pacific and disabled people.

Verrall said that by lifting some restrictions on Pharmac funded medications, more practitioners can prescribe them at low cost, improving New Zealanders' access to "safe, quality abortion services".

"These changes will improve access to early medical abortion, and will mean people can access the service from their trusted primary care provider and in a familiar setting," Verrall said.

Abortion in New Zealand was decriminalised in 2020.

Source: Stuff

Allegations made by lawyer Tony Ellis implicate New Zealand's two most senior judges in an affair that reflects badly on the judiciary and its handling of concerns about Hawke's Bay Family Court Judge Peter Callinicos.

What Ellis has disclosed will almost certainly serve to reinforce perceptions that Callinicos has been the target of a furtive - in fact you might say conspiratorial - gang-up.

According to Ellis, the case threatens judicial independence and has caused a major rift among judges.

Senior lawyers are scratching their heads trying to recall whether any judicial squabble has ever before been aired so publicly.

Figuratively speaking, the fire is in the fern and threatening to singe some illustrious names.

In an incendiary letter to the Judicial Conduct Commissioner, Alan Ritchie, Ellis has alleged that:

• Callinicos was "unlawfully lobbied" by Chief District Court Judge Heemi Taumaunu and Principal Family Court Judge Jackie Moran, together known as the Heads of Bench, over his handling of a case that was then still in progress.
• Ritchie, whose role is to assess complaints about the conduct of judges, "irrevocably compromised" his independence through the way he dealt with concerns about Callinicos.
• Callinicos was investigated without his knowledge and with no opportunity to defend himself.
• Callinicos himself claims he received "misleading and bullying" correspondence from the two senior judges, known as the Heads of Bench, and was the subject of "scathing" letters sent to Ritchie by the Heads of Bench and by the second-ranked judge of the Supreme Court, Justice William ("Willie") Young.
• Ritchie predetermined Callinicos's guilt without his knowledge and without giving him a chance to respond to criticism.
• Ellis quotes Callinicos as saying: " … the dumping of this unilateral crap into [the] public domain compounds the injustice as I have no recourse in the investigation, or in the public eye."
• Chief Justice Dame Helen Winkelmann and Young are implicated in the affair by allegedly failing to disclose that Young was involved in behind-the-scenes discussions about the case.
• Young reached conclusions about the case without giving Callinicos an opportunity to put his side.

According to Callinicos, 60 of New Zealand's 180-odd judges have contacted him expressing their support.

Callinicos is quoted as saying the actions of his judicial superiors have sent "shivers of fear" through the District Court, of which the Family Court is part.

Ellis accused Ritchie of kowtowing to senior judges and added: "A well-informed independent observer would ask the question: "Who are the bullies here, Judge Callinicos, or Justice William Young and the Chief Justice?"

Readers of this blog will be familiar with the background.

In the Family Court, Callinicos thwarted Oranga Tamariki's underhand attempts to remove a girl - whom Stuff named Moana - from a loving, stable home and place her with unfamiliar Maori caregivers on the pretext that her Pakeha foster parents weren't meeting her "cultural needs".

In a 145-page judgment, Callinicos tore into Oranga Tamariki social workers over their conduct in the case.

His ruling rapidly escalated into a dispute over judicial independence when it emerged that Taumaunu and Moran had intervened in the case, apparently at the urging of the then acting Oranga Tamariki CEO Wira Gardiner.

Callinicos protested that this action compromised his judicial independence - a point subsequently taken up by Ellis and other unnamed lawyers in complaints to Ritchie.

In a preliminary report issued last week, Ritchie inflamed the issue further when he found that the two senior judges had not acted inappropriately. Extraordinarily, he appears to have reached this conclusion without bothering to speak to Callinicos.

That provoked Ellis into lodging the further complaint implicating Winkelmann and Young.

In this latest complaint, a copy of which has been sent to Attorney-General David Parker, Ellis alleges that when Winkelmann and Young met lawyers acting for Callinicos, they failed to disclose that Young "had been involved in making a finding that Judge Callinicos bullied witnesses [in the Moana case] and that the Chief Justice concurred".

Ellis continued: "Justice William Young, in reaching a conclusion that Judge Callinicos had made comments that were disproportionate and inappropriate, [had] made gratuitous criticisms, and engaged in what appears to be bullying, following an investigation which did not seek input from Judge Callinicos, and taking no action to seek such input himself, this undermined judicial independence. The Chief Justice's concurrence compounded this error."

Ellis challenged Ritchie to recuse himself from further consideration of the case, writing: "Your approach has created not just actual bias, or its appearance, but worse created a scandal not seen since Edwards [a landmark case from 1892], and has now implicated not only … the Chief District Court Judge and the Principal Family Court Judge, but now also the Chief Justice, and Justice William Young, NZ's second highest ranked Supreme Court Judge as well."

What is now clear is that judicial concerns about Callinicos date back to his handling of a controversial unrelated case in April involving a woman named as Mrs P, whose cause was taken up by feminist academics and sympathetic journalists who claimed she was mistreated in Callinicos's court.

According to leaked documents published by Stuff last week, Young had been providing "advice" to the Heads of Bench about Callinicos, apparently without his knowledge, since then.

Young was reported as saying in a letter to Ritchie that there seemed to be a pattern of conduct by Callinicos and those on the receiving end "considered, understandably, that they had been bullied".

He had read transcripts from the Mrs P and Moana cases and saw the intervention of Callinicos as "excessive, partisan and demeaning".

Even from a non-legal standpoint, this seems an extraordinary way of going about things.

Callinicos appears to have been investigated behind his back by the country's second most senior judge and been given no chance to respond to accusations against him.

According to Ellis, that's a denial of natural justice.

Meanwhile, questions arise about apparent bias in the media coverage of the Mrs P case, which unquestioningly took her side and almost certainly contributed to the anti-Callinicos mood.

People familiar with the case say the coverage didn't fairly reflect a long and complicated history dating back to 2012 and involving multiple judges.

In fact, media coverage of the Callinicos affair by Stuff - the only media organisation to report the Moana case and its repercussions - forms an intriguing sub-plot to the main narrative.

While coverage of the Moana case by Stuff's veteran Hawke's Bay reporter Marty Sharpe has seemed fair, neutral and balanced, the same can't be said for the loaded reporting of the Mrs P case.

Kirsty Johnston, the Stuff journalist who reported the protest in support of Mrs P by women academics and "domestic violence experts" in April, wrote a story published last Friday which highlighted Young's claim that Callinicos had bullied Mrs P and subjected her to demeaning treatment.

To bolster the story, Johnston went back to the same "anti-violence advocacy group" she had quoted in April.

Not surprisingly they obliged by calling for Callinicos to be "made accountable" for the Mrs P case and others he had presided over.

No one reading the story would have been left in any doubt that Callinicos had behaved reprehensibly.

After all, even the country's second most senior judge apparently thought so.

Coincidentally or otherwise, Stuff gave that story far greater prominence than one published a day earlier by Sharpe, which took a notably more neutral (and therefore less condemnatory) tone in reporting Ritchie's preliminary finding in the Callinicos case.

Johnston followed her Friday hit-job on Callinicos with another the following day targeting retired Hawke's Bay judge Tony Adeane, who was in the frame for several cases in which his decisions were overturned on appeal because of faults in the way he had directed juries.

Two stories on successive days, both reflecting badly on ageing male judges?

It looked suspiciously like a pattern - an impression reinforced by Johnston's description of herself on the Stuff website as "an investigative journalist with an interest in inequality, gender and social justice".

An activist, in other words, who by her self-description inevitably creates doubts about the neutrality of her work.

But at least Stuff published the stories, which is more than can be said for its treatment of the latest disturbing claims by Ellis, which apparently warranted not a word of coverage, although a copy of his letter had been sent to Sharpe.

Put all this together and you get a very worrying picture.

Courts are supposed to prevent abuses of power and the media are supposed to expose them.

The worrying conclusion to be drawn from the Callinicos affair is that we may no longer be able to depend on these two vital institutions to guard our rights and freedoms.

• Karl du Fresne has been in journalism for more than 50 years. He is now a freelance journalist and blogger living in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand.
• First published by Karl du Fresne. Republished with permission.

While the government denies it, others clearly believe it is at least a possibility.

The uncertainty is troubling. If elimination fails or is abandoned, it would suggest we have not learnt the lessons of history, particularly when it comes to our more vulnerable populations.

In 1918, the mortality rate among Maori from the influenza pandemic was eight times that of Europeans.

The avoidable introduction of influenza to Samoa from Aotearoa resulted in the deaths of about 22% of the population.

Similar observations were seen in subsequent influenza outbreaks in Aotearoa in 1957 and 2009 for both Maori and Pasifika people. These trends are well known and documented.

And yet, despite concerns we could see the same thing happen again, there have been repeated claims that an elimination strategy cannot succeed.

Some business owners, politicians and media commentators have called for a change in approach that would see Aotearoa "learn to live with the virus".

This is premature and likely to expose vulnerable members of our communities to the disease.

Abandoning the elimination strategy while vaccine coverage rates remain low among the most vulnerable people would be reckless and irresponsible. In short, more Maori and Pasifika people would die.

Far better will be to stick to the original plan that has served the country well, lift vaccination coverage rates with more urgency, and revise the strategy when vaccination rates among Maori and Pasifika people are as high as possible - no less than 90%.

Least worst options

After 18 months of dealing with the pandemic, it's important to remember that Aotearoa's response has been based on sound science and strong political leadership.

The elimination strategy has proved effective at home and been admired internationally.

Of course, it has come with a price.

In particular, the restrictions have had a major impact on small businesses and personal incomes, student life and learning, and well-being in general.

Many families have needed additional food parcels and social support, and there are reports of an increasing incidence of family harm.

The latest Delta outbreak has also seen the longest level 4 lockdown in Auckland, with at least two further weeks at level 3, and there is no doubt many people are struggling to cope with the restrictions.

The "long tail" of infections will test everyone further.

There is no easy way to protect the most vulnerable people from the life-threatening risk of Covid-19, and the likely impact on the public health system if it were to get out of control. The alternative, however, is worse.

We know Maori and Pasifika people are most at risk of infection from Covid-19, of being hospitalised and of dying from the disease. Various studies have confirmed this, but we also must acknowledge why - entrenched socioeconomic disadvantage, overcrowded housing and higher prevalence of underlying health conditions.

More than 50% of all new cases in the current outbreak are among Pasifika people and the number of new cases among Maori is increasing. If and when the pandemic is over, the implications of these socioeconomic factors must be part of any review of the pandemic strategy.

Lowest vaccination rates, highest risk

Furthermore, the national vaccination rollout has again shown up the chronic entrenched inequities in the health system.

While the rollout is finally gaining momentum, with more and better options offered by and for Maori and Pasifika people, their comparative vaccination rates have lagged significantly.

Community leaders and health professionals have long called for Maori and Pasifika vaccination to be prioritised.

But the official rhetoric has not been matched by the reality, as evidenced by our most at-risk communities still having the lowest vaccination coverage rates in the country.

Te Ropu Whakakaupapa Uruta (the National Maori Pandemic Group) and the Pasifika Medical Association have repeatedly called for their communities to be empowered and resourced to own, lead and deliver vaccination rollouts in ways that work for their communities.

Te Ropu Whakakaupapa Uruta have also said Auckland should have remained at level 4, with the border extended to include the areas of concern in the Waikato.

As has been pointed out by those closest to those communities, however, their advice has consistently not been heeded.

The resulting delays only risk increasing the need for the kinds of lockdowns and restrictions everyone must endure until vaccination rates are higher.

There is a reason we do not hear many voices in Maori and Pasifika communities asking for an end to elimination.

Left unchecked, COVID-19 disproportionately affects minority communities and the most vulnerable.

"Living with the virus" effectively means some people dying with it.

We know who many of them would be.

• Collin Tukuitonga Associate Dean Pacific and Associate Professor of Public Health, University of Auckland.
• First published in The Conversation. Republished with permission.

Chris Finlayson was Minister for Treaty Negotiations (and Attorney General) between 2008 and 2017. (Alas, he was Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage for only six of those years.)

His record is reported in in He Kupu Taurangi: Treaty Settlements and the Future of Aotearoa New Zealand. It will be an invaluable reference book for those working in the area. But also in the course of the book he also indicates something of his political philosophy (later he cites Edmund Burke favourably):

The National Party is traditionally a liberal-conservative party in that it combines two great political traditions in one party. Both the liberal and conservative traditions value equality of opportunity, respect for the law and property rights, but the party's liberals have generally been more open-minded to social reforms. ... [m]y approach to settlements was always, consciously or not, centred on the two core National Party principles of respect for the rule of law and the sanctity of property rights. ... A 1993 judgement from the High Court put it well ‘... property rights are very strong rights.

They rank, in the hierarchy of law, just below absolute constitutional rights.

In more colloquial terms, on a scale of one to ten, constitutional rights are a ten, property rights are a nine.'

I am not sure that a social democrat would rank property rights as highly. Here is a fundamental difference between the Labour and National parties.

Finlayson says that he ranked property rights so highly enough that when he saw them seriously breached by the 2004 Foreshore and Sea Bed Act, it ‘tipped my decision in standing for Parliament in 2005.' Previously, ‘[i]f I had any aspiration it was to be a judge.' He was critical of National's position at the time: a ‘confused and frankly hopeless approach'.

When the book was written, the writers did not have Michael Cullen's autobiography which tells how, because it was a minority government, Labour's response to the Court of Appeal decision was blocked by a lack of parliamentary support.

They had to depend on New Zealand First, whose support came at a ‘heavy price' including the loss of ‘a lot of high moral ground'.

Ironically the two NZF negotiators, Dail Jones and Winston Peters, both lawyers, had been National MPs.

The irony is compounded because Cullen thought that National's replacement 2011 Takutai Moana Act (supervised by Finlayson) was closer to what Labour wanted in 2004 than what they could negotiate with New Zealand First. (A further irony is Finlayson conferred with Roger Kerr when fashioning National's policy. We lack Cullen's, not doubt witty, response to him being in the same room as Kerr.)

Finlayson admires Cullen's thirteen-month stint as the Treaty Negotiations Minister which settled the massive Treelords deal involving the Central North Island Forests.

He is more critical of Cullen's Labour predecessors, especially Margaret Wilson who, he thinks, was tardy and who completed fewer settlements than he did.

Wilson tells a different story in her recently published autobiography, Activism, Feminism, Politics and Parliament.

She suggests that the Bolger Government put a lot of effort into the huge Sealords, Tainui and Kai Tahu deals but that it had not really moved on to the next stage of numerous, and often contentious, smaller deals.

Speculating - Finlayson does not appear to have consulted Wilson - he suggests that Labour was more concerned with related but different issues.

The Labour Party is a social-democratic party.

When Labour Party ministers refer to settlements, they often do so in the context of social justice, a concept common in the Roman Catholic Church, which has become a feature of centre-left politics over the last fifty years.

Margaret Wilson said that settlement must be understood within the context of wider government policies such as the Labour-led government's ‘closing the gaps' policy. In my view, looking at the settlements as another ‘tool' in the economic and development ‘toolbox' does not reflect either the historical reasons for the settlements or the aspiration of most iwi who settle claims.

The two strategies were raised in the 1980s by Eddie Durie, then chair of the Waitangi Tribunal. Continue reading

• Brian Easton, an independent scholar, is an economist, social statistician, public policy analyst and historian. He was the Listener economic columnist from 1978 to 2014.
• He Kupu Taurangi: Treaty Settlements and the Future of Aotearoa New Zealand by Christopher Finlayson and James Christmas. (The Maori title means ‘A Promise'.)

Wiremu Hakopa Toa Te Awhitu began his life near Taumarunui on 28th July 1914. He was born into a family who became Catholic, Katarina (nee Bell, called Toia) and Tamakaitoa (called Toa) Te Awhitu of Ngati Haua.

He was one of twelve children!

Wiremu has been described as a true son of the King Country.

An accomplished footballer and athlete and a great singer, he also practised Maori crafts and was a skilled carver.

An English immigrant, Robin Watson, who was a teacher at the local Okahukura Maori school, won the respect of the locals who named him Te Miro Watihana.

Wiremu was given to him in sacred trust as a foster son and Robin took him with him to St Peter's Maori Rural Training School in Auckland.

Wiremu felt called to the spiritual through the influence of Mill Hill Religious who had been close to his parents and family. They found a place for him at St Patrick's College Silverstream (1932-1935) and if was from there Wiremu went to train as a Marist Religious and Priest within the Society of Mary.

Various appointments followed his ordination, beginning in Otaki (1945) then Hawkes Bay (1947-1958), where he was based at Pakipaki near Hastings. His ministry covered the large area from Wairoa to Dannevirke.

In 1958 he suffered a major stroke leaving him unable to speak. Moving to Hato Paora College, Feilding, it took him eight years regain his speech and basic health.

After a short time in Taranaki (1966-1968) the next twenty-one years of his life was spent at Hiruharama (Jerusalem) on the Whanganui River.

There he was closely associated with the Sisters of Compassion.

His daily routine included reciting the Rosary, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Mass in the little Church of St Joseph.

All this combined that with the maintenance of the church and its surroundings.

In 1989, in what turned out to be his final move, he went to live with his sister in Otara, and then to his home marae at Okahukura (just north of Taumarunui) where he worked to set up a family marae.

Wiremu named it after Mary, Whanau Maria (‘Mary's Family') with the intention to provide a place to strengthen family ties and faith. Each year this is the focal point of an annual celebration of his life which takes place on the last Saturday of July.

Pa Wiremu Hakopa Toa Te Awhitu died on 29th July 1994, aged 80 and in his 50th year of Marist Priesthood.

Pa Wiremu Te Awhitu SM with Bishop Takuira Mariu SM

Why is his life important?

His nephew, Wiremu Te Awhitu, captures his importance for us.

"Uncle bravely linked being fully Maori with being fully Christian".

"In an age that continues to search to be true to being indigenous and to Faith, Pa Te Awhitu provides a model", his nephew says.

His courage and determined patience enabled him to take up ministry again. He provides inspiration for those who suffer from some disability and gives hope to those who suffer a stroke or face some major setback in life.

What do people say about him?

The late Bishop Takuira Mariu SM described Pa Wiremu as a "prayerful, hard-working person, devoted to Mary, committed to his people, gentle, big-hearted and welcoming. He had a spirituality springing from someone at peace with God, the world and himself".

That conviction is echoed by the late James K Baxter. "Te Atua sends me a good instructor in Father Te Awhitu.His few words have the weight of wedges splitting timber. His soul speaks of God because it is at rest in God", Baxter said of Pa Te Awhitu's reflections,

Bishop Steve Lowe, Bishop of Hamilton Diocese, sees Fr Te Awhitu as a source of faith and inspiration for the country. "I like the picture showing Fr Te Awhitu smiling. He inspires us in that he could smile despite the cross he carried".

Robin Watson, his foster father and tutor, speaks of Pa Te Awhitu's love of Mary. "The Mother of God must have had something to do with this Vocation".

Father David Gledhill SM, who was his Marist community and ministry leader at Whanganui, notes, "When I attended Eucharist with Pa, he showed an awareness of the very special presence of God in the Eucharist. He had an extraordinary insight into the Eucharist".

What heritage does Fr Te Awhitu leave us?

Fr Te Awhitu brings us a challenge.

It took 100 years from the time of Bishop Pompallier's first Mass in the Hokianga to ordain a Maori as a Catholic priest. We need his example and intercession to discern and support other vocations among Maori.

Pa Te Awhitu is a person of whom tangata whenua can be proud.

He is one of their own.

He can call us to select and support Catechists among Maori and to seek candidates for religious and priestly life.

These personal characteristics along with his position as the first Maori pries were echoed by Archbishop Liston at Fr Te Awhitu's first Mass in 1944! "May many other Maori come to the altar of God..."

Bishop Lowe speaks of the legacy of "our own Pa Wiremu Te Awhitu.

A courageous priest and person of faith, a legacy deeply rooted in the soil of generations past, present and most surely to live on in generations to come".

Not least for his down-to-earth holiness, some argue Pa Te Awhitu is an Aotearoa saint waiting to be fully recognised.

Or from Pa Te Awhitu himself: "All I can say is that my whole life shall remain an act of thanksgiving to God who in his infinite mercy has chosen me to be his priest.. for His glory and for the salvation of my own dear people, the Maori race". (Pa Te Awhitu at his first Mass).

A proverb quoted by a kaumatua at the time of Pa Te Awhitu's ordination captures the heritage of Fr Te Awhitu for us.

To seek the peace that comes from sensitive and sincere meeting across cultures.
Te ihu me te rae tukuna

Houhia te rongo
When persons meet (hongi)

Peace holds sway.

See also: The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

Their campaign aims to fight against "echo chambers" of misinformation on social media amongst their communities.

"We know that 80 percent of Pasifika communities have some sort of affiliation with churches, church communities," says John Kleinsman, director of the Catholic Church's The Nathaniel Centre for Bioethics.

Kleinsman was talking on Newhub with Duncan Garner.

Using church communities to preach the good word about getting inoculated establishes a useful way to contact those who have not yet been inoculated, says Kleinsman.

"Our networks, we're able to use those to reach those people and get the message through to those people," he said, speaking of a combined church initiative in Newtown, Wellington.

Of concern is the possibility that vaccine uptake amongst Pasifika and Maori might be lagging behind other ethnicities, despite being more likely to be in a priority group.

Many older Maori and Pasifika as well as their carers were included in Group 2 for their COVID jabs (immediately behind priority staff like border workers).

Group 3 (the next cab off the rank) included people with underlying health conditions, which are typically more prevalent in Maori and Pasifika than others.

Just 6.1 percent of doses administered to date have gone to Pasifika, despite making up 7.4 percent of the population; and just 9 percent to Maori, despite being more than 16 percent of the population.

Whilst there might be other demographic reasons these numbers are lagging - such as the fact a high percentage of Maori and Pasifika are young, and still ineligible for the vaccine - Kleinsman suspects anti-vaccination misinformation and lies are creating hesitancy.

Kleinsman told Newshub that anti-vaccination activists have upped their activities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and while experts have repeatedly debunked the claims, the message doesn't appear to be getting through to some communities.

Source

• Newshub