Mata with Mihingarangi Forbes

Historian Scott Hamilton on Aotearoa's dark history of segregation, and panelists Tina Wickliffe and Shane Te Pou discuss opposition to affirmative action, the surge in anti-trans protests, the government's 36-point plan, and we rate our new Māori MPs.

Historian Scott Hamilton on Aotearoa's dark history of segregation, and panelists Tina Wickliffe and Shane Te Pou discuss opposition to affirmative action, the surge in anti-trans protests, the government's 36-point plan, and we rate our new Māori MPs.

Many people find it "hard to believe" segregation existed in New Zealand, but it was widespread for decades, a historian says.

Scott Hamilton told Mata many people were familiar with the policy of assimilation, which existed in the 20th century. One of its most infamous examples was of Māori only being allowed to speak English at schools.

However, New Zealand had a "blend" of policies of segregation and assimilation right up until the mid-1900s.

Some of the most severe segregationist measures were introduced amid the smallpox epidemic of 1913, which began in the Māori community and was blamed on Māori.

"People were limited to their villages, they were cordoned off, they were only allowed to travel if they had a vaccination pass - and it was very difficult to get vaccinated," Hamilton said.

"There was a beginning, really, during the smallpox epidemic, of a pseudo-scientific idea which linked supposedly low standards of Māori hygiene to disease... It becomes a justification for all sorts of restrictions."

Pākehā pressured local government and businesses to adopt segregationist polices, and Māori were banned from, or restricted in their use of, public toilets, pools, hotels, and bars.

Hamilton cited a famous historical photo of the King's Arms bar in Auckland, which put up a sign saying 'natives will not be served here.'

Tangata whenua were not the only group targeted - Chinese, Indian, and Middle Eastern communities were also the victims of segregationist policies at different times, as were Jewish refugees in the 1940s.

In 1918, Indian residents of Hamilton complained to their mayor because all the barbers in the city were refusing to cut their hair, saying they posed a hygiene risk.

Hamilton said the Māori and Pasifika students' spaces at Auckland University - which drew ire from Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and ACT leader David Seymour last week - developed out of segregation suffered by those groups.

"They were unable to use their language on campus, there was nowhere they could go to express their culture, they were barred from pubs where Pākehā students could go and drink."...

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Former Minister of Broadcasting Willie Jackson speaks to Mihingarangi about the state of the media landscape following the demise of Newshub. Then, Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson reacts to the review of the free school lunch scheme and the Government's transport plan.

Former Minister of Broadcasting Willie Jackson speaks to Mihingarangi about the state of the media landscape following the demise of Newshub. Then, Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson reacts to the review of the free school lunch scheme and the Government's transport plan.

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Green Party MP Teanau Tuiono explains his party's new policy to return land wrongly taken from Maori. Then Mihingarangi Forbes talks to Professor Ella Henry and Shane Te Pou about Kiri Allan's resignation from cabinet and her decision not to stand for re-election.

Watch the video version of the episode here.

Today on Mata, the Green Party's Teanau Tuiono spells out how Hoki Whenua Mai would get more land back in Māori hands. Mihingarangi Forbes also speaks to panelists Professor Ella Henry and Shane Te Pou about Kiritapu Allan's decision not to stand at the next election, and how we might support MPs struggling with their mental health.

Henry said a strategy in Parliament which allowed MPs to be given formalised support from the communities that had put them forward could help people struggling with mental health issues.

Two years ago Kiritapu Allan was given a 13 percent chance of survival after a cervical cancer diagnosis. She underwent months of treatment and returned to work.

Then recently she came under scrutiny from the opposition for alleged poor working relationships with some staff.

It came after her community was devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle.

As her relationship ended with her long-term partner, Allan recognised she was struggling with her mental health.

The former justice minister resigned all her ministerial portfolios on Monday after being charged with careless driving and failing to accompany an officer following a car crash on Sunday night.

Today Allan said she would not stand at this year's election, saying she had let her electorate down, her party down and all those who relied on her.

Prof Henry said if Māori people were going to be put forward to Parliament something needed to happen at the community level in terms of whānau, hapū and iwi who should be prepared to wrap around them.

Allan obviously had a break point that she was not able to cope with, she said.

"You don't know when you go into Parliament what your breaking point will be and so there's not only infrastructure needed around when that happens from within Parliament but also you know the broader community that she works with and she's a part of."

True Māori leadership was being able to stand behind those people, "it's not who's out the front, it's who's out the back supporting the paepae", she said.

A strategy in Parliament that allowed that support to happen would not just benefit Māori, Henry said...

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The mother of the three missing Marokopa children tells Mata Reports she believes a recent exchange between a pig hunter and her daughter was a cry for help.

Watch the video version of this story here.

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Labour MP Willow-Jean Prime discusses the opposition to 7AA and the Ngāpuhi hīkoi to Parliament, and Green MP Tamatha Paul shares her views on military boot camps.

On Monday, Ngāpuhi representatives led a hīkoi to Parliament in opposition to the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act.

Currently, 827 tamariki in state care whakapapa to Ngāpuhi.

Ngāpuhi walked out of the National Iwi Chairs Forum, attended by the Prime Minister and a number of other government ministers, on Friday.

Labour List MP in Northland, and spokesperson for children and youth, Willow-Jean Prime said Ngāpuhi are hōhā.

"They are hōhā with policies and legislation that this government is driving and the impact that that is having on Māori, and included in that is, of course, the repeal of Section 7AA."

"There are no Māori that have submitted to the select committee who have said, 'We support the repeal of Section 7AA', they are all opposed."

On 29 July, 10 youth offenders, aged between 15 and 18, began at the government's new boot camp pilot in Te Papaioea - Palmerston North. Nine are Māori.

Rangitāne Māori education expert Professor Meihana Durie, a descendant of Rangitāne from the hapū of Te Rangitepāia, was surprised about the lack of consultation with his hapū. Had consultation occurred, his hapū could have stated they believed other things could be done to better the lives of vulnerable rangatahi, he said.

Oranga Tamariki acknowledged it should have engaged with mana whenua earlier, but remains committed to the programme, despite damning findings into the Whakapakari boot camp, and others raised in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care...

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