Māpuna for Saturday 2 July 2022

Tangata Whenua Advisory group to combat family & sexual violence

Photo: Marama Davidson

The Government has announced a new Tangata Whenua Ministerial Advisory Group to support the government's 25-year strategy to end family and sexual violence. Known as Te Aorerekura, the strategy was launched last December and this week an 11-member group was unveiled to ensure mātauranga Māori is "at the heart of how we address violence in our homes and communities." Sometimes the statistics paint an alarming and depressing picture. Ministry of Justice data shows one in two wāhine Māori experience sexual harm and two thirds of the population who experience sexual assault are young people. But there are rays of hope. Last month the Family Violence Death Review Committee revealed 23-percent of deaths in 2021 were Maori, which is down on the 44-percent between 2009 and 2019. Mapuna talks to the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, Marama Davidson.

Awards recognition for kaitiaki of thousands of taonga

Chanel Clarke led the five-year Te Awe collections readiness project at Auckland War Memorial Museum which reorganised and improved the care of the 10,000-plus taonga in the Museum’s care. This week she was awarded the prestigious Museum medal .The project has left a lasting legacy and will enable the Museum to better serve those Māori communities whose ancestral taonga they hold, now and into the future.

Photo: Chanel Clarke