Māpuna

Rob Ruha is an award-winning musician, composer and kapa haka 'fanatic.' Julian Wilcox asks him about his latest work, TEIWA, for which he's collaborating with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

For decades Ngai Tahu archaeologist and historian, Professor Atholl Anderson, has explored the origins and historic migration of peoples around the Pacific, the first arrivals of Māori in Aotearoa and their early encounters with Europeans. His great, great, great grandmother married a sealer, and their first home was on Whenuahou, Codfish Island, and his father, John Anderson, was raised in the Scottish Highlands. Professor Anderson says his career 'chose me' and 'what you do in your life is determined by factors beyond your control.' 

The Māori Sidesteps salute the great Māori showbands of the past while mixing it up with modern comedy and skit routines poking fun at everything from culture to politics. Group members Jamie McCaskill, Cohen Holloway and Jerome Leota talk to Julian Wilcox about their upcoming show at Wellington's Circa Theatre which they say is a kaupapa of "joy as an antidote to division."

In a special extended interview with Ngati Tuwharetoa ariki, Sir Tumu Te Heuheu, he seeks the return of the Tongariro National Park and maunga to his iwi. Now aged in his 80s he also reflects on his aspirations for Maoridom and some advice for the ariki who follows him.

Tahito is a world first indigenous ethical investment company which invests in Australasian companies through its fund, Te Tai o Rehua. It uses Maori values, especially around the environment, to screen companies before investing in them. Tahito's managing director Temuera Hall says "initially we thought we'd be laughed out of the room" but the company has been a success with aspirations to expand globally.

Dr Arapata Hakiwai is Kaihautū at Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand and he's been involved in the repatriation of Māori and Moriori taonga from Australia, the United States and the UK. He says one estimate is that at least fifteen to sixteen thousand taonga are held by overseas museums.

Earlier this month Ella Henry delivered her inaugural professorial address at AUT Business School. Her background includes time at poet James K Baxter's commune, Jerusalem, on the Whanganui River in the 1970s, living up a tree in a Queensland rain forest, working on a prawn trawler and sailing to apartheid era South Africa where she was treated as an 'honorary white' person.

The world premiere for Mana Moana, Mana Tangata will be in Tamaki Makaurau tomorrow. It tells the story of how Maori fought to reclaim their fishing rights. Julian Arahanga, who starred in Once Were Warriors, also speaks about his other films and the possibility of taking on future acting roles.

First time author Neavin Broughton was a young man when tests discovered a brain tumour 'about the size of an orange' and his ensuing health problems almost killed him three times. Now he's written a book about his experiences, Everything I Am.

Professor Poia Rewi is the Tumu Whakarae-Chief Executive of Te Mātāwai the independent organisation established in 2016 with the mission to 'restore Māori as a nurturing first language within Māori homes and communities'. Professor Rewi will step down next month after almost five years at the helm. Is Te Mātāwai on track to achieve its goals?