Stories by Meriana Johnsen

Preparations in Gisborne are ramping up ahead of the Tuia 250 commemorations, as the East Coast region confronts its fraught colonial history.

The Tauranga City Council has broken its promise to gift or lease back a significant piece of land to local hapū, the Otamataha Trust has said.

A Tūhoe elder is elated the Government has begun to pardon the Tūhoe prophet, Rua Kēnana, but is also sad many are not here to see it. Audio

These are the questions that the Māori Language Commission, Te Taura Whiri, and their translators are faced with as they ensure that te reo remains a living language, that evolves as the world…

The government has come under fire for its lack of Māori suicide prevention strategy and its barriers to Māori mental health service providers getting funded. Audio

Te wiki o te reo Māori - The reo revitalisation has made its way to Australia, with Māori language schools popping up across Australia, including a kōhanga reo in the middle of the outback.

Te wiki o te reo Māori - More than two years on from when bilingual towns were first proposed, the small Kāpiti Coast town of Ōtaki is carving its own path to becoming reo rua (bilingual). Audio

A Māori man living in Melbourne has been turned away from a restaurant for having a full-faced tā moko, or mataora.

Māori midwives are too few and spread too thin across the country to handle rising Māori birth rates, and say a workforce strategy is desperately needed.

A Māori health leader is calling for equal representation within the new cancer agency but wants Māori to decide what that looks like for themselves.

Six women prisoners have emerged victorious after overcoming their addictions through a drug treatment programme at Arohata Prison. Video

Māori at Ihumātao say the land should be gifted back, and iwi should not have to buy back what was once stolen from them.

An iwi leader has lauded a new strategy to reduce the Māori prison population as heroic and brave, but warns it won't succeed if Corrections is left to do it alone.

A Rotorua-based polytechnic is trying to turn around the region's poor health outcomes by offering the first health science diploma with a Māori worldview.

The country's biggest iwi says the botched 2018 census has left Māori without accurate data which will affect how much government funding iwi can get.

A police-led domestic violence intervention programme has made inroads in stopping Māori victims being subject to further abuse, but it is struggling to find enough men to work with perpetrators.

Muslim leaders have come to pray with the people of Ihumātao, sharing the pain of having their sacred spaces attacked.

A generational divide is at the heart of the ongoing battle to stop a housing development at Ihumātao in Auckland.

Two Rotorua iwi have signed an agreement to end an historical dispute over the land where the Pink and White Terraces once stood.

A Tauranga kaiako taking part in protests at Mauna Kea in Hawaii has been moved by the peaceful approach of native Hawaiian demonstrators even in the face of their elders being arrested.

Research has suggested that poverty is not the reason Māori are being taken into state care at rates far higher than Pākehā children.

A Māori leader from the Far North is suing the government over its "failure" to act fast enough on climate change.

About 700 teachers have signed up for a $12 million programme to increase te reo Māori in all classrooms, and 150 of them are already beginning beginning their reo haerenga.

Local cannabis growers could miss out on what's predicted to be a multi-billion dollar medicinal cannabis industry because of expensive licensing fees.

A Wellington man is fed up trying to get Bunnings in Lyall Bay to keep their plastic in check, but the hardware chain has said it has been making efforts to stop its waste blowing away. Video