Name change for Massy Univesity – historical racism against Māori

New Zealand is made up of numerous colonial place and street names, as are organisations and brands. Likewise, there are many place, street, educational institutions and government organisations with Māori names. A Massey academic is suggesting a name change for Massey University – Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa as his research has revealed that its namesake was racist against … Read more

Google Translate and NZ society’s stereotype of Māori people

The media article on the blunder of using Google translate by a mayoral candidate created lots of social media discussions that focused only on the tool and its te reo Māori issues and not the subtle racism in the story.   In summary: Hamilton mayoral candidate James Casson wanted to appeal to Māori voters and thought … Read more

Social media censorship of traditional moko images

Media reports censorship of moko images on Facebook and Instagram but some misunderstand which organisation can assist. In one article by Māori Television it states that the Ministry of Culture and Heritage have been approached for comment and it states: Te Kaea is awaiting a response from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage to see whether they will … Read more

Disney releases Polynesian skin kids outfit

Labeled as a Maui Costume for Kids based on the Disney movie Moana. The costumes are made to look like brown skin with Polynesian tattoos. UPDATED Disney pulls Maui costume 22/09/207  There are a number of issues for Polynesian cultures and for Māori special considerations will need to be considered around the Ta Moko (tattoo) as each ta mako is … Read more

Kauamatua threatened with arrest

Kaumatua Kura Moeahu parliament’s Senior Māori Advisor was threatened with arrest for speaking te reo Māori after a traffic stop in Lower Hutt MāorTV has reported. It is only when the officer noticed Kura’s jacket had a Police related logo on it that the officer was informed by Kura that he is a Police Māori advisory board … Read more

Word list of te reo Moriori

This is not an academic or linguist publication, but a compilation of several historically published sources that contain word lists of Moriori. For full details including sources and an analysis download the publication here. My intention as a researcher was to compile and publish this material which is scattered among many historical publications that are … Read more