The Cutting Edge Conference provides an opportunity for the addiction sector to get together, to network, and to learn about and embrace innovative thinking and practice. This year’s theme was: 'It’s all about Connection'. The essence and meaning in our lives is found in the connections we share with each other, with our whānau and within our communities. These relationships have the power to build us up or to tear us...

A lot had happened since I last talked to Tāmati Kruger in 2013. Then, Tūhoe’s settlement had not yet been reached with the Crown. Te Urewera was still a national park. The legislation that enshrined Te Urewera as a legal person — owned by no one, owning itself — still lay in the future. So did Te Kawa, the document that lays out how Tūhoe will act as kaitiaki for Te Urewera. In 2013, when I was working on a book on...

Jared Hiakita (Ngāi Tūhoe) is one of thirty young leaders who is being recognised as top change-makers in environmental education by the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). The Environmental Education under 30 program recognises the diverse work young people do for the environment and their community. Hiakita is a waste education advisor for the zero-waste kaupapa Para Kore ki Te Hiku. He says he is pleased...

Respected Ngāi Tūhoe elder and educationalist Boy Thompson Biddle has passed away peacefully in Whakatāne. Biddle was a staunch leader of his marae, Te Rewarewa, in Ruatoki and was the oldest remaining elder of his hapū, Te Māhurehure. He was a loyal advocate for his hapū and wider iwi, and dedicated his life to the betterment of his people.   Born in Ohāua in 1930, the 88-year-old was a well-known and influential teacher in...

Every two years Te Hui Ahurei a Tūhoe invites Ngāi Tūhoe descendants to come together and celebrate their unique reo and culture. But how do urban Tūhoe express their Tūhoetanga when they live away from the lands of their tīpuna? Jason Renes attended this year’s festival to find out.   There is mist around Rotorua on the first morning of this year’s Te Hui Ahurei a Tūhoe. It isn’t the same dense and murky...

A leader of the Tuhoe people's drive for self determination, Tamati Kruger, will the 2017 Bruce Jesson Memorial Lecture on October 31. The lecture, at the University of Auckland, will be a historic opportunity for Tuhoe to explain their philosophy of Mana Motuhake to a national audience, and to report on how the approach is working out in practice since the iwi signed a settlement with the Crown in...