Issue 68 - editorial

Nga mihi mo te tau hou.

Tena ano tatou

It’s been a long and pretty hot summer and by now most of you, like us, will be back at work.

During the break many of you will have no doubt attended to those essential family matters, like hura pohatu. There will have been sad farewells at tangi, and some happy times too - the odd wedding and birthday. And by the time you read this, another Waitangi Day will have passed. We’ve got a story on the Aotearoa Star, which shone at its brightest in 1840 as the Treaty was being signed.

The year ahead promises to be an interesting one, especially politically, as the new Maori Party MPs begin to consolidate their position in Parliament. We profile one of those new MPs in this issue.

In a month or so we can expect to see the report from the UN Rapporteur, Rodolfo Stavenhagen. It will make interesting reading and is almost certainly going to be critical of the way in which Maori are treated by our society.

We’ve got a story from Moana Jackson commenting on the Stavenhagen visit. In fact in this issue we have a number of international and outward - looking stories which show just how much exposure Maori are currently having in the global arena – in politics, education, the arts and in sports.

For instance, we’ve got Moana Maniapoto reporting back from Russia where the people she came across appear to love Maori and are eagerly studying our culture. Linda Smith reports on the huge and very successful WIPCE conference run by Te Wananga o Aotearoa in Hamilton and reminds us of the huge strides we’ve made in education and the challenges we still face. We have a number of arts stories which feature Maori whose work is enjoying international success.

We also highlight the winners of the annual Maori sports awards, along with some of Maoridom’s international champions.

And then of course there’s our cover girl, the very talented Bic Runga with her huge international reputation. She talks to us with pride and sorrow about re-establishing her whakapapa links with the beautiful Mahia peninsula (I know I’m showing a bit of bias for my home here).

There are some wonderful images in this issue and we’re confident you’ll find plenty of good reading too.

Kia piki te ora kia koutou katoa.

Editor