When someone, particularly a politician, does something wrong, why is it that we sometimes judge their actions harshly, and sometimes leniently? It seems to me that passing judgement implicitly involves considering questions like “is the action legal?”, “is the action socially acceptable?” and “is the action fair and morally justifiable?” And then we overlay an…
Continue reading →Who benefits most from Aotearoa New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi? It is those of us who are non-Māori, because it is through the Treaty that we have the right to be in this land. Furthermore, the treaty is an integral part of our collective identity. Earlier this year I was privileged to…
Continue reading →How many of us have a good knowledge of our history here in Aoteraoa New Zealand? November 2015 commemorated 150 years since the siege of a Maori village called Waerenga-a-Hika near Gisborne on the East Coast of New Zealand’s North Island. In the six-day siege, 71 Māori villagers and 20 colonial soldiers were killed. Its…
Continue reading →I have spent most of the last three months in Italy, France and Spain, which prompted me to reflect on our own culture and identity – a relevant topic perhaps for Māori Language Week. Our holiday was a kind of interlude between completing my role as Executive Director of Todd Foundation and starting my new…
Continue reading →Philanthropy New Zealand’s Philanthropy Summit 2015, held 15-16 April in Auckland, challenged us with nothing less than rethinking our philanthropic paradigm and embracing other cultural approaches to giving. And, in case that seems a little too ambitious for this week’s to-do list, we were also invited to consider impact investing and to take a hard…
Continue reading →The other day I witnessed a minor shopping-mall accident where someone reversed out of a car-park without looking and drove into the back of a passing car. The reversing car was a new 4WD; the car passing by was a beaten-up old sedan. The driver of the 4WD was Pākehā (white); the couple in the…
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