Latest news with #Ōpōtiki
RNZ News
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Photographer wins 2025 Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award
The winner of the 2025 Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award Jazmin Tainui Mihi Paget-Knebel with her winning photo Taniwha Chasers. Photo: RNZ/Pokere Paewai Photographer Jazmin Tainui Mihi Paget-Knebel is showing her community of Ōpōtiki in a positive light by using her camera to document the mana of rangatahi. The 22-year-old of Te Whānau a Apanui, Whakatōhea, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine descent, won the 2025 Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award and a $20,000 cash prize. Paget-Knebel's work Taniwha Chasers was chosen from 41 finalists with the Award being announced in the presence of the Māori Queen Nga wai hono i te po at Pipitea Marae in Wellington on Wednesday. She said it was a surreal feeling to win the award and that she was already accomplishing one of her 2025 goals by meeting the Queen. "I just feel so grateful to be representing my community for such a prestigious award and just carry my whakapapa in this exhibition." Taniwha Chasers was her first project working in Ōpōtiki and she said getting to go home and shoot it has been her most fulfilling kaupapa. She focussed on photographing the horse culture that rangatahi (young people) have been practising in the town. "My cousin helped me gather a bunch of rangatahi and we went out to Hikuwai Beach which is just outside of Ōpōtiki, we had about ten maybe twenty kids on their horses and I was on the back of a ute going a bit too fast down the beach with them running behind us," she said. Taniwha Chasers winner of the 2025 Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award Photo: Supplied/Jazmin Tainui Mihi Paget-Knebel Paget-Knebel said she can't wait for her cousins back home to tune in to the award ceremony on Wednesday. "Ōpōtiki doesn't have the best reputation and to be showing my community in this light and bringing positivity and showing the mana of rangatahi and showing how they carry their mana motuhake is so important to be represented in the media and I'm just so grateful that I get to share this story." Paget-Knebel began taking photographs when she was 12, but became really invested at around 16 when she began to capture Māori practices with her camera. Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po is known to have a passion for photography as well and even took photos the Kiingitanga's social media pages before her accession as the Māori Monarch. "I was really nervous about talking to her, so now I have a topic of discussion," Paget-Knebel said. The Judges of the 2025 Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Awards, from left John Walsh, Dr. Areta Wilkinson and Renata Te Wiata. Photo: RNZ/Pokere Paewai The shortlisted artworks were chosen by a distinguished panel of judges, including contemporary Māori artist Dr. Areta Wilkinson (Ngāi Tahu), Head Carver for Waikato-Tainui Renata Te Wiata (Waikato-Ngāti Māhuta, Te Arawa - Ngāti Kea Ngāti Tuara), and leading painter John Walsh (Aitanga a Hauiti). Walsh said when he first saw Paget-Knebel's photograph his first thought was "that's a winner." "We all were basically thinking the same things.. it's so youthful and so energetic and hopeful," he said. Wilkinson said seeing the diversity of vision among the entrants is also important. "We really enjoyed the diversity of the media, we still look at them as images whether they're two dimensional or three dimensional [or] moving, and just how people are expressing their vision through that medium." The Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award was originally set up in collaboration between the Kiingitanga and the New Zealand Portrait Gallery as a competition to encourages young Māori artists to create portraits of their tūpuna (ancestors) in any medium. Te Wiata said it was a privilege to be involved with awards and he hoped that the memory of the late King is carried on through future Portraiture awards. "Our Kiingi he was a future thinker, he was a big advocate for the arts and this is just proof of that," he said. Jaenine Parkinson, the director of the NZ Portrait Gallery said the criteria for this year's awards were changed to reflect who Kiingi Tuheitia wanted the award to be for, that is young artists. They were saddened by the loss of Kiingi Tuheitia, but she said they are excited to work with the new Queen Nga wai hono i te po, who saw the award as an opportunity to carry on Kiingi Tuheitia's good works into the future. "So it carries his legacy, his hope and his aspirations for rangatahi Māori and it's meant that we have now an opportunity to work with Kuini Nga wai hono i te po herself and we're so excited to be welcoming her here," she said. Parkinson encouraged people to come down to the Gallery on Wellington's waterfront to view the portraits 'face to face with the tūpuna'. The public also has the chance to vote for the People's Choice award that will be chosen at the end of the exhibition. The exhibition will open at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata at Shed 11 on Wellington's waterfront from Thursday, 22 May to Sunday, 17 August 2025. Entry is free. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
07-05-2025
- Health
- NZ Herald
‘We are the descendants of giants – let's act like it' – Meth crisis tales of woe fire up Ngāpuhi leader, action plan soon
Kaikohe locals believe that methamphetamine is an 'epidemic' in the town. Tahere said the rūnanga is taking a bold stand in the fight against the pernicious and addictive Class A drug and was determined to work with the Government and other agencies to win the fight. He said the iwi will continue to raise consciousness around the devastating impact meth is having on whānau and hapū (subtribe) within Te Whare Tapu o Ngāpuhi. Tahere said in a recent meeting with Government ministers and agencies, he came away convinced that these matters are being taken seriously. Tahere met with Mitchell, Māori Affairs Minister Tama Potaka, Resources and Regional Development Minister Shane Jones and other senior departmental officials in Wellington earlier this month to discuss the issue. Mitchell said there will be targeted gang busts in Northland, similar to last year's Ōpōtiki raids, in an effort to crack down on methamphetamine use in the region. He said the meeting resulted in a clear path forward and police would work with iwi and other local leaders to address the problem. Northland has the highest methamphetamine usage rate in the country. 'It was a positive meeting with strong commitment around the table to work together,' Tahere said. The iwi leader's message to anyone involved in this destructive habit is clear and uncompromising. 'We all come from rangatira whakapapa [noble genealogy] – meth is not a rangatira kaupapa [noble pursuit]. If you're on the gear – get off and seek support. If you're involved in distribution – go get lost. This is Te Whare Tapu o Ngāpuhi and meth has no place here.' There were organisations out there that would help people get off the drug and more work was being done in that area. Tahere said the partnership between the rūnanga and various Government ministers and their agencies signals a unified approach rooted in both the reality of what's happening and community-based action. There is a shared understanding that tackling meth requires more than enforcement – it requires community leadership, healing and restoration. 'Working alongside communities is how we begin to create meaningful change. Police cannot do this on their own was the affirmative theme of the hui [meeting].' Tahere emphasised the importance of Ngāpuhi leading the solutions from within and holding firm to the mana and tapu (sacredness) of Ngāpuhi spaces. At his local takiwā (cluster of local marae) hui, marae representatives shared more horrifying stories about the impact of meth in the area's valleys and on marae. 'I sat there listening to an 80-year-old kuia explain her eight-year struggle with local users constantly causing trouble with her and her whānau, it is so sad. Meth is desecrating our whakapapa, our homes and our sacred spaces. It's time to stand up, speak out and reclaim our future. We are the descendants of giants – let's act like it. We need to use every tool available to us in a strategy that is real." He said the rūnanga and the Government remain committed to continuing their kōrero (discussions) and will provide further updates in the coming weeks as plans are developed and actions begin. 'This will be followed by a visit from the police and other ministers to some of our marae and community to hear first-hand some of the struggle but, more importantly, some of our solutions.'
NZ Herald
26-04-2025
- Sport
- NZ Herald
On The Up: Rotorua school bus driver Te Arohanui Hira competing in his 40th Rotorua Marathon
Hira told the Rotorua Daily Post he had joined a walking group to bolster his training efforts. 'The handbrake's come up,' he said with a laugh. Hira said the people kept him coming back each year, including some he played rugby with 'back in my old days'. He also wanted to keep going for his friend Mason Tuhakaraina, who he used to run cross country with but died a couple of years ago. Hira said Tuhakaraina was buried at Ōhau, which was along the marathon course, and he normally stopped there 'for a couple of seconds'. Asked how many more marathons he would do, Hira said: 'I'm not going to stop. I think I'll just keep going.' He shared the same sentiment for his work and said he was 'not in a hurry to retire'. 'Definitely got the endurance' Ōpōtiki runner James Crosswell, 75, was training for his 48th Rotorua Marathon this year, running between 70 and 80km per week. Crosswell's goal was to run 51 Rotorua marathons after he made a promise to his friend Colin Smyth, who ran 50 Rotorua marathons before he died in 2015. Smyth holds the record for running the most Rotorua marathons. 'I promised him I would catch him.' Crosswell said he and Smyth were plumbers and drainlayers. 'We maintain there's something in the water – it's most unusual that you've got two plumbers running that many marathons. 'We've definitely got the endurance there.' Crosswell said the pair formed the Rotorua Marathon Survivors Club in 1993 for runners who had completed 15 Rotorua marathons. The club now had between 600 and 700 members, he said. Members would celebrate with a meal after the marathon, talk about the run, and give out spot prizes, he said. Crosswell said he ran 30km on Saturdays, 10km on Sundays and about 8km every second day, equating to between 70 and 80km every week. After a heart attack in 2019, he started wearing a pacemaker. 'All that you've got to do is just listen to your body. So I walk and run – I run a km and then walk 50m and then away you go again.' Crosswell said he worked as a plumber 'semi-fulltime' but after a shoulder injury a few months ago, he had not been able to work 'full on'. 'I'm too young to retire,' he said with a laugh. Te Arawa Marae to Marae relay returns A statement from the Red Stag Rotorua Marathon said it was bringing 'new energy' to this year's finish line. 'Runners will experience the energy and crowd support of running down the iconic Eat Street before concluding their journey at the new Red Stag Rotorua Marathon's finish line on Tutānekai St, in front of the Novotel Rotorua Lakeside.' The new Go Media 12km track would start at Te Puia, pass the Pōhutu Geyser and through the Whakarewarewa Forest before finishing at Novotel Rotorua Lakeside. A Rotorua Marathon press release said the Te Arawa Marae to Marae relay would return to Rotorua on May 3 for the first time since the mid-1990s. The relay would host registered Te Arawa Marae teams and their descendants. It would start from the Te Papa-I-Ōuru Marae in Ōhinemutu Village, with all teams finishing alongside marathon participants at the marathon's finish line. The relay 'in its evolved form' included 10 culturally significant stages, including visiting a minimum of 13 marae and two rivers situated around Lake Rotorua along the marathon course. More than 900 participants had registered. Te Papa Tākaro o Te Arawa chief executive Stevie Te Moni said the relay was a unique and Te Arawa-centric event that celebrated Te Arawa Iwi health and wellbeing. It also highlighted and reinforced Te Arawatanga with its people, Te Moni said.
