Maori political and business delegation off to South Korea and Japan...

Te Ururoa Flavell heads a delegation off to key trading partners South Korea and Japan.

“While Māori businesses already have trading links with these countries, this cultural and trade mission is focused on strengthening those ties and initiating new links that put relationships first, before getting down to business.”

These ventures always namecheck the 'Maori economy' and its $42 billion price tag. I've posted on this before. While not wishing to completely toss the idea of a Maori subsector in the wider NZ economy, it is an economic model 'brought forth' to serve political ends, like most economic models.

Anyway, they'll all have a ball and their businesses will probably make some more money. The business that are represented are:

Tourism: Kapiti Island Nature Tours, New Zealand Māori Tourism, Te Puia  (New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute).

Forestry: Māori Investments Limited and Te Tumu Paeroa, Opepe Farm Trust.

Food & beverage: HoneyLab (food, beverage and cosmetics), New Zealand Manuka Group. Te Awanui Huka Pak, Te Pā Family Vineyards Limited, Zespri International

Seafood: Okains Bay Seafood and Ngāi Tahu Seafood, Kahungunu Asset Holding Company Board.

What is more basic than home?

What is more basic than home? We start most days in our own homes, we look forward to getting back to our own beds when we’re away, the walls and roof protect our partners, our children, our family taonga. Within this space we’ve forged relationships with not just whānau but furniture, kitchen utensils, the contents of cupboards and fridges and - not least - pets and pot plants. Simply put, our homes encompass the most fundamental physical, financial and emotional investments of our lives. 

And we know Indigenous Peoples are rapidly urbanising, with Māori perhaps the most urbanised Indigenous society of all (around 85% of us are now city dwellers). Our urban communities are often away from tribal territories and subject to socio-economic conditions that may increase their vulnerability.


This urban environment was never especially welcoming and for some it is now positively hostile with too many whanau lacking a roof over their heads (unless you count a car roof as robust housing...).

Ōtautahi (Christchurch) saw many Maori living in damaged homes but many others opening their doors to earthquake refugees in an open and spontaneous cultural expression of support. What we learnt was the concept of ‘home’ was challenged as the necessary safety – including that of the land beneath – could not always be guaranteed. 

There are more than just 'natural hazards' operating in Aotearoa NZ Inc. of course.

The wider issue is that we have restructured our economy according to quite perverse interpretations of what motivates people, in their engagements with each other and with the wider environment.

The market will decide. Blah blah blah...

Well the market continues to be supported by communal approaches such as those practiced by Indigenous Peoples since time immemorial. With marae now housing homeless citizens, we see again Maori cultural practices - manaakitanga, whakawhanaungatanga - continuing to hold this bloody bloodied country together...

I'll not make any comment on the Minister of Housing, a Maori woman who had benefitted from state welfare in the past but now seems one of the demonic apostates. Oh, I wasn't going to comment...read what others say:

Bomber Bradbury: Dear Paula...
Anthony Robbins: What now Paul?
Maiki Sherman: Paula Bennett grilled...

Maori home-ownership plummets...

The proportion of Māori owning their homes has fallen by 20% between 1986 and the last census, 2013.

This is compared to a total decline of just over 15%.

Pasifika communities have seen home ownership decline by almost 35%.

The figure below graphs the changes since 1991:

There are significant differences between regions, with Whangarei, Rotorua, Hastings, Tauranga and South and West Auckland seeing the largest drops:

Home ownership is a part of the Kiwi dream, what use to go under the proverb of a The Half Gallon Quarter Acre Pavlova Paradise. Yeah this has gone the way of the American dream and dinosaurs but it says something of this economy when Maori are increasingly excluded despite festishising the so-called Maori economy...

Full report and Spreadsheets by Statistics NZ available here

And some good news from Lincoln...

Our new DVC MAori and Communities...

Dr Charlotte Marewa Severne

Made Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit

For services to Māori and science

Dr Charlotte Severne has been a strong advocate and mentor for Māori students in science and a trail blazer in assisting Māori asset-owning entities to understand and better utilise science and research to sustainably manage and develop their taonga tukuiho.

Dr Severne has been elected to a number of Tuwharetoa entities. She chairs both the Lake Rotoaira Trust and its Forest Trust. She has been involved with the Opepe Farm Trust for five years, the first three years as an interim trustee working to bring the insolvent Trust into a consolidated position, and has been Deputy Chair of the Trust. She worked in senior management for the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) for 12 years including roles as Chief Scientist Ocean Research and Chief Scientist Māori Development. She was responsible for rapidly developing NIWA’s Māori Development Unit Te Kuwaha o Taihoro Nukurangi, which is still a successful model for integrating Vision Maatauranga in science institutions. She is currently Deputy Vice Chancellor Māori and Communities at Lincoln University. Dr Severne was a Ministerial Appointment to the MBIE Science Board in 2014 and was previously a Ministerial Appointment to the Bioethics Council.

Charlotte, front and centre, with whanau and friends after powhiri on her starting as DVC Maori and Communities at Lincoln University, 

Accusations of corruption

Ongoing accusations of corruption surround ex-Lincoln consultant Roger Pikia.

Seems Mr Pikia has woven a merry web of directorships and companies and has ended up in hot water....

Roger Pikia in hot water?

To be fair, this does seem to be the current modus operandi for Aoteroa NZ's politico-economic elites...

Evidence of Mr. Pikia's fraudulent past surfaced when he was employed by (now ex) Vice Chancellor Andy West. Lincoln has imploded since Dr. West's demise, with four of the DVCs of his error era having left or about to leave. Again to be fair Dr. West opened Lincoln's collectives eyes to the so-called Maori economy and he helped to launch the unfortunately still-stuttering Whenua Strategy.

We should not be surprised that a slew of Maori consultants appeared to suck at the teat of institutional largesse. Institutional racism means these institutions are poorly placed to collaborate with an economically growing and culturally distinct sector.

We can, however, be disappointed.

Very disappointed...