Latest news with #Tūhoe
NZ Herald
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Tatsiana Chypsanava's award-winning Tūhoe series showcased in World Press Photo Exhibition
Chypsanava's aim was to offer a more authentic perspective on Tūhoe than the images of conflict and hardship she'd often seen depicted in the media. As she spent more time in the community, she became increasingly aware of how colonisation had impacted the Soviet Union's indigenous populations in a similar way. 'I knew we came from the Komi people because my surname is in the Komi language, although I had to learn Belarusian at primary school,' she says. 'We were cut off from that family history. 'There were so many parallels. At the same time as I was learning about Tūhoe, I was also learning about myself. It became a journey of self-discovery for me.' Tāme Iti, a prominent Tūhoe activist, stands at the 2014 Tūhoe-Crown Settlement Day ceremony where the Government formally apologised for historical injustices. Photo / Tatsiana Chypsanava, NZ Geographic A series of Chypsanava's images, titled Te Urewera – The Living Ancestor of Tūhoe People, won the Asia-Pacific and Oceania region's long-term project category in this year's World Press Photo Contest. The jury described her entry as 'a powerful, detailed look at the Ngāi Tūhoe people's fight for the return of their ancestral lands and indigenous rights'. First held in 1955, the prestigious annual awards recognise the world's best photojournalism and documentary photography, culminating in a touring exhibition that opens in Auckland next Saturday. Alongside this year's 42 international winners, a selection of images from the archives will also be on display to mark the contest's 70th anniversary. Chypsanava came to New Zealand in 2008 after spending three years in Brazil, where as an amateur photographer she documented the indigenous Tupinamba people who live in an isolated rainforest community. While working for the digitisation team at Archives New Zealand, she met a group of Tūhoe researchers preparing for a settlement hearing. Learning of the 2007 Urewera raids conducted as part of an anti-terrorist operation, and the 'state-sanctioned violence' that accompanied them, shocked her. (Police Commissioner Mike Bush later formally apologised for the way the raids were handled.) Horses roam freely in Te Urewera, serving as crucial transportation in the rugged terrain. Maungapohatu, 2024. Photo / Tatsiana Chypsanava, NZ Geographic 'A police raid is something that I would imagine happening in a dictatorship, like the country I come from, so that resonated with me,' she says. 'I was in disbelief that this was happening in New Zealand, which was portrayed to the world as a perfect country with a perfect relationship with its indigenous people.' When one of the families was raided again, by mistake, in 2014, Chypsanava was invited to Rūātoki to photograph them. Over the next decade, she and her daughter were welcomed into the Teepa whānau, which forms the heart of her Tūhoe series. Children from the Teepa family after a swim in the river. Photo / Tatsiana Chypsanava, NZ Geographic John Rangikapua Teepa and his wife, Carol, are parents to six children and have whāngai adopted and raised many more. After returning to John's ancestral farm, which had been abandoned, they're now part of an award-winning organic dairy co-operative managed by the Tataiwhetu Trust. Soon, Chypsanava began spending all her daughter's school holidays in Te Urewera, which in 2014 had become the first ecosystem in the world to be designated as a legal entity. No longer a stranger looking in from the outside, she was able to photograph the community almost without being noticed, giving her images a candid authenticity. Later, she extended her project to encompass Ruatāhuna, another remote Tūhoe settlement, and completed the Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk. Chypsanava's daughter was 8 when she first accompanied her mother to meet the Teepa family. Now a teenager, she's grown up 'completely mesmerised' by the Māori world and the way she's been accepted into the whānau. 'It's had a huge influence on her life; she always wants to go back.' Nelson-based documentary photographer Tatsiana Chypsanava, whose "Te Urewera – The Living Ancestor of Tūhoe People" series won the Asia-Pacific and Oceania region's long-term project category in the 2025 World Press Photo Contest. After losing her mother early, Chypsanava grew up immersed in nature with her father, whose stories she would later discover drew on Komi myths and legends. In recent years, she's begun to piece together that side of her family's story, reconnecting with her cousins and taking a DNA test. Chypsanava's work has featured in the New York Times, accompanying stories as diverse as New Zealand's feijoa obsession and the North Canterbury Hunting Competition's controversial inclusion of a category for children hunting feral cats. Her award-winning Tūhoe series has been published in New Zealand Geographic magazine. She's concerned that the current lack of funding for documentary photography in New Zealand will leave significant gaps in our archives unless the situation is addressed. In the decade she's been so intensely involved with Tūhoe, she's witnessed the hard work being put in to create new business initiatives, restore the rainforest in their guardianship role as kaitiaki, and provide a pathway for the next generation. 'I see a lot of will and action from Tūhoe to succeed,' she says. 'There's so much effort and so much passion. 'By doing this project, I'm hoping to shine a light on something that is not really visible from the outside – the people who live there. For me, it's the most incredible and interesting story.' The World Press Photo Exhibition is on from July 26 to August 24 at 131 Queen St, Auckland, then moves to Wellington's Takina Wellington Convention and Exhibition Centre, next to Te Papa, from September 5 to October 5. Joanna Wane is an award-winning senior lifestyle writer with a special interest in social issues and the arts.
RNZ News
07-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Former broadcaster Oriini Kaipara puts name forward for Te Pāti Māori's Tāmaki Makaurau candidate
Former broadcaster and journalist Oriini Kaipara Photo: Screenshot / YouTube / Newshub Former broadcaster and journalist Oriini Kaipara is putting her name forward to be Te Pāti Māori's Tāmaki Makaurau candidate. It comes after Takutai Tarsh Kemp died, triggering a by-election in the Tāmaki Makaurau Māori electorate. The former Māori Television and Newshub presenter posted a "special announcement" on social media, calling for people to vote for her. It outlined the process to register as a member for the Māori Party and attend a hui at Hoani Waititi Marae this Thursday to vote in the candidate selection. Kaipara, of Ngāti Awa, Tūhoe, Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Rangitihi descent, said "Tāmaki Makaurau is more than a city. It's a heartbeat." "A place where mana whenua and urban Māori rise together. Where our struggles are real - but so is our strength. "Tō reo. Tō tāua anamata. Kia matike tahi tātou. "I see you. I hear you. I am you. We are the movement." Kaipara, currently working as NZ Olympic's Pouwhiringa Māori culture lead, told RNZ she'd long watched parliamentary politics play out, but putting herself forward for selection was the first time she was getting involved. She said she was responding to the call from her community, including that of Hoani Waititi Marae based in west Auckland where she was a former student, and standing alongside the current Te Pāti Māori MPs.
RNZ News
30-04-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Iwi-Crown relations on the line after scathing audit
Tūhoe arriving for the final reading of the iwi's Treaty Settlement in Parliament, in 2014. Tūhoe's Treaty settlement was one of the focuses of the recent audit. Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski The auditor general has put public agencies on notice to do a better job of ensuring iwi and hapū get what they are legally entitled to in their Treaty settlements, after a scathing report on their performance. The agencies, from local councils to government departments and state owned enterprises, have been given a year by auditor general John Ryan after his audit showed that many public organisations are failing to fulfill their commitments on Treaty settlements. Ryan says that is unacceptable and he warns that the public sector and the government face a greater risk of legal action because they have failed to fulfill the settlements. He tells The Detail why this audit is one of the most significant projects in his time as auditor general. "It's significant financially, it's significant constitutionally, and it's a big accountability question for the public sector to deliver against its commitments. And it's about resetting its relationship with iwi and hapū," he says. Many people think that when a Treaty claim is settled with an iwi or hapū and the government has made its apology, it's done and dusted, but the settlements are actually "massively complicated and span a number of years". The report makes it clear that since Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed, the Crown has not met its obligations. It says that about 150 public organisations have about 12,000 individual contractual and legal commitments under about 80 settlements, with about 70 groups. To date, $2.738 billion of financial and commercial redress has been transferred through settlements. The public organisations that it audited are responsible for 70 percent of individual commitments - more than 8000. The audit found that every one of the public organisations had difficulties meeting some of their commitments as the settlements intended. "The types of things we've seen and pointed out in our report is that the government may have committed to relationship agreements and those are not being put in place [and] to letters of introduction which have not been put in place. "But probably the more significant ones we talk to are things like rights of first refusal on particular properties where either they were not put in place and they should have been. Some properties we saw had been sold even though they should have had a right of first refusal given to iwi. "We also saw Crown forest licensed land not being transferred within the timeframe that was given, which is five years." Ryan says the public sector started late on the transfer and did not meet the five-year windows. Once the deed is signed, a new phase begins, says RNZ Māori news editor Taiha Molyneux. "It shifts iwi from one phase of navigating a system that wasn't created or designed by them to another phase of navigating a whole other series of processes, policies, acts to start progressing forward." Many of the problems highlighted in the report stem from the leadership of the government agencies, most of whom are non-Māori and do not have key performance indicators (KPIs) or responsibilities that align with meeting the requirements of the Treaty settlements. Molyneux says iwi and hapū leaders are pessimistic about the system changing, but the younger Māori are giving them hope. "There is a much more powerful voice coming up because there's these young ones that are coming up through the kōhanga that are confident in te ao Māori and te ao Pākehā that are using tools to reach more people. That's definitely something I haven't seen of this magnitude before." Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here . You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter .
NBC News
31-01-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
New Zealand's Mount Taranaki is now legally a person
First a sacred forest, then a river, and now a mountain. Mount Taranaki, a towering 8,261-foot stratovolcano popular among skiers and snowboarders, was recognized as a legal person in New Zealand on Thursday. Known by its Māori name Taranaki Maunga, the mountain is the latest natural feature in the country to be granted the rights, powers, duties, responsibilities and liabilities of a person. The government has effectively ceased ownership of the mountain, which the indigenous Māori people consider among their ancestors. Its legal name is Te Kāhui Tupua, and is viewed by the law as 'a living and indivisible whole.' It includes Taranaki and its surrounding peaks and land, 'incorporating all their physical and metaphysical elements.' Now, members from the local Māori iwi, or tribe, and government officials will work together to manage it. The mountain will also no longer be called by its colonial name, Mount Egmont. New Zealand became the first country in the world to grant living rights to natural features in 2014 when it recognized the personhood of Te Urewera sacred forest in North Island, with guardianship handed to the Tūhoe tribe. Then in 2017, the Whanganui river was deemed human and turned over to the care of its local iwi. The Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passed Thursday also acknowledges the injustices and land confiscations against the Māori in the Taranaki region. 'The mountain has long been an honored ancestor, a source of physical, cultural and spiritual sustenance and a final resting place,' Paul Goldsmith, a government official involved in the negotiations, told Parliament in a speech on Thursday. New Zealand's colonizers first took the name, then the mountain itself, which the bills states was in breach of a treaty the Crown signed with Māori representatives. "The Crown failed to create most of the reserves it had promised," the bill reads. "After further protest by Māori in Taranaki, the Crown eventually returned some reserves, but refused to include most of the mountains in those reserves, instead proclaiming them as a forest reserve, and later a national park." The legal rights provided to the mountain are meant to be used for its preservation and the protection of its wildlife, and public access will continue.
