NGA TUHITUHI

Tu Tangata, Issue 32, 1 October 1986, Page 29

NGA TUHITUHI

Na HAARE WILLIAMS

na DAVE SIMMONS

na MONTY OHIA SNR

Dear Sir,

Once again, Mr Derek Fox has allowed his prejudices to run away from the facts. I refer to his comment reported in a recent issue of Tu Tangata, when discussing his media career: “While our people have flocked to work in the Post Office or take up teaching posts, they’ve shunned newspapers, radio and television. They’ve done so for all the right reasons, those organisations have never been very ‘hospitable’ to Maoris.” This comment is no more than an example of reverse racism. I have been in the newspaper business for the past 25 years. For a number of these years I was privileged to work alongside the late Gilbert Franks, one of the finest young journalists to enter the profession. For several years I was also privileged to be a colleague of Mr George Koea, editor of the Taranaki Herald. Both of these men, I am sure, would be disinclined to agree with Mr Fox’s comment that newspapers have never been very “hospitable” to Maoris.

In all the years I have been in this business on four daily newspapers in both islands, as an ordinary reporter and as a newspaper executive, I have never once witnessed or heard of any example of editorial managers being “never very hospitable to Maoris”.

Indeed, I have been at many meetings and conferences where newspaper executives and others in the industry have complained vociferously about the miniscule number of young Maoris seeking to enter the journalism profession precisely Mr Fox’s complaint, without the added racist remark.

As both a hirer of journalists and a trainer of young journalists, I would dearly like to see more young Maoris applying for positions on newspapers. I have no doubt of their potential, having seen at first hand the success and energy generated at the Rotorua experiment the Maori Journalism Course at Waiariki Community College. In talking to these young people last year, I tried to encourage them to apply for jobs on the daily press. None applied to my newspaper.

If they had, they would have received precisely the same consideration as does any other applicant. We do not hire journalists on the basis of their race. We hire them on the basis of their skills, real or potential. I know of no other newspaper where the criteria is any different. May I respectfully suggest that Mr Fox’s remarks do Maoridom’s cause and the cause of young Maori journalist aspirants no good at all. Yours faithfully BRYAN JAMES Chief Reporter Otago Daily Times Ed: Kia ora Bryan, here’s hoping you get a batch of job seekers this year.

Ao Marama

Tena koutou me nga ahuatanga whakakorero i te pene hei ta i nga whakairo o te wairua o taua matua tupuna ki nga pakitara o nga whatumanawa o te hunga ora, kia tutuki ai te whakatauaki: Toitu te whenua Toitu te mana Toitu te reo. Following the success of “Into the World of Light”, Heinemann are now in the process of preparing for a similar publication focussing on the 1980 s, provisionally entitled “Ao Marama”. I have been asked by Heinemann Publishers to get in touch with contributors to “Into the World of Light”, and other Maori writers, to invite them to submit work.

I expect “Ao Marama” to be launched at the end of 1988 and, like the earlier volume, to include material in both Maori and English. We should be grateful if all contributions could be sent to us by 31 January 1987.

I have no doubt that the material selected (prose, poetry, biography, essays, waiata, etc.) will reflect the wide range of Maori activities and concerns cultural, social, educational, urban and rural, land and language alienation, Maori women’s issues, traditional and contemporary issues, achievements, Maori humour, and other features of Maori oral tradition that owe their significance to te ao Maori.

You will, I’m sure, know other poets, authors and composers whose work merits inclusion in this publication. I’d love to hear about them too. I look forward to your awhina i tenei kaupapa, which has cultural as well as literary significance for us, and for other New Zealanders. Please send, and keep sending, your work from the 1980 s to us at this address, and encourage others to do so too, including translators or those interested in undertaking translations in either direction. Note that in all cases you will retain copyright and you will be able to have the same work published elsewhere. As with “Into the World of Light”, a fee will be paid to all contributors on publication. When the final selection has been made, we shall send to each contributor a list of the work we wish to include and ask for up-to-date biographical details and a few further unpublished or just-completed pieces. We need your help to survey your work from the 1980 s, so please begin sending in material from now on. He oi ano ra, mau, ara ma koutou katoa e atawhai tenei kaupapa kia puawai ai te maramatanga o Tane Whakapiripiri.

(for editorial team) PO Box 36064 Auckland

Tena koe, Ka hinga nga roimata mo nga tini aitua o nga tau, o nga marama, o nga wiki tae noa kite wiki nei. E nga mate haere, haere, haere, haere kite Po, moe ra moe ra. Ete rangatira mete kai titiro oTe Tu Tangata, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa. Mo te tuhituhi i roto i to pukapuka ra mo taku pukapuka ko te Whakairo. Ka pouri au no te mea kaore au he tangata kia whakaitiiti te mana o ia iwi, o ia iwi o ia waka, o ia waka. Ko te tuahuri o taua pukapuka he whakaahua o te tuara o te taonga no namata noa atu no Kaitaia he taonga ra tukua iho na nga tupuna o Te Rarawa. Ko te kaupapa mo tera mahi te whakatauki “ki mua ki muri”. Ko nga taonga o nga iwi katoa, o nga tohunga whakairo o mua ki roto kite pukapuka ra. Ko nga mea i muri, kei te haere mai, kei waho. Waiho mo te wa kia whakaatu te ahua, he mea miharo pea No reira, ka mutu te korero mo tenei take. Ko te atua e manaaki kia koutou katoa, heoi mo tenei wa. Naku

Auckland

Dear Sir,

I have read (again) of the achievements of Greg Matahi Whakataka Brightwell and his team, also his father (a family affair I presume). I am wondering if there has been any recognition of these great events the crossing of the Pacific for the first time since the great migration. Perhaps the Government will look at it now since they didn’t see fit to finance the venture. This had to be one of the greatest ever total Maori achievements? Kia ora ano tatou katoa.

Tauranga

Dear Sir/Madam,

We wish to subscribe to the magazine Tu Tangata. One of our members who was visiting New Zealand last year mentioned that one of your copies made a mention of our club. We would be very pleased if you could send us a copy of that magazine for our records. We are a small club of about 30 financial family members. We have started a cultural group, but sadly lacking in people with knowledge as far as hakas and action songs go. Would you be able to put me on to someone or some group, whereby we could purchase piupius for our cultural group. Would be glad of any info on that and may be some video tapes of groups performing. Thanking you M NEWMAN, SEC Gladstone Kiwi Club P.O. Box 629 Gladstone Queensland 4680