Māpuna for Saturday 4 November 2023

Chief executive for the Kaupapa Māori and Cultural Communities at FENZ, Piki Thomas

This week on Māpuna we speak to Piki Thomas, the newly appointed deputy chief executive for the kaupapa Māori and cultural communities branch of Fire and Emergency NZ.

In his 35 years as a career firefighter, he's done pretty much every job in the service, from answering the phones as a 111 operator, to being the first Māori liaison officer. 

He joins Julian Wilcox to discuss what this new role means, Māori being over-represented in the number of fire-related deaths and injuries in Aotearoa, with many Marae not fully prepared in the case of a fire, and why taking a kaupapa Maori approach to day-to-day work will help improve outcomes for all. 

Fenz deputy chief executive Kaupapa Māori and Cultural Communities Piki Thomas. Photo: FENZ

Architect and author, Jade Kake, decolonising through design 

Māori architect Jade Kake (Ngāpuhi, Te Whakatōhea, Te Arawa). Photo: Hannah Baker

Up and coming Māori architect, Jade Kake, has been making waves in both the architecture and literary worlds.

She's the director and founder of Matakohe Architecture and Urbanism, a kaupapa Māori architecture studio, and a part-time lecturer at Huri Te Ao School of Future Environments at Auckland University of Technology.

She specialises in designing communities and housing based on papakāinga (communal villages).

She's also a published author, with not one but two books having been released this past month. One is a fiction novel, while the other is a tribute to the late architect Rewi Thompson (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Raukawa), who was an internationally-renowned indigenous architect.

Jade spoke to Julian Wilcox.

Waiata played on the show today:

Whirimako Black - Wahine Whakairo