Cultural Reports under Section 27 of the Sentencing Act seek to address the entrenched asymmetry or negative disproportionality in criminal justice outcomes for Māori offenders. Its complex. Justice Sir Joe Williams holds that “We tend…
KNOX The following sermon, a panegyric for William Knockers Allen, was delivered on 7th November 2022 by Denis O’Reilly from the mahau, the front porch, of the whare Taamaki Makaurau at Ihumatao, Auckland, to members…
In late June 2022 I joined many other New Zealanders in celebrating Matariki. Maori-led and defined Matariki has emerged as our first recognised indigenous holiday, or if you prefer holy day, seeing that it…
If we don’t learn from the past, we are doomed to unsuccessfully grapple with present and future social problems. The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern calls these problematics ‘wicked problems’. They are complex. Answers to…
It’s a man’s game. Jacinda Ardern should take over the Warriors. After what was looking like becoming a troublesome season for the Labour team, she has made some tough calls over positional play. I’ll…
In the year of my birth, 1952, a man from Timaru, and a student at the high school which I was later to attend, St Patrick’s Timaru, William Colin Mathew Durning (BDS, MDS, PhD),…
Last week I attempted to present to the Social Services and Communities Committee dealing with the ‘Oversight of Oranga Tamariki System and Children and Young People’s Commission Bill’. I am troubled by the intention…
Its Saturday. 24th July 2021. I’ve got other mahi to do but my soul tells me to write, if only briefly. I’ve got profound views on current worldly issues to share with you in…
Carl Bradley died suddenly last week. Just 52 years of age. He was a friend and colleague. Carl was an Aikido 4th Dan black belt and on an upward trajectory in his sport. He…
In the mid 1980’s when the Whakatu meatworks closed we ran a programme at Waiohiki to support workers made redundant by the extraordinary restructuring of our economy. Men and women who previously had been…
By Denis O’Reilly. Late last year I attended the unveiling for the late Hon. Parekura Horomia. Helen Clark gave a panegyric for her deceased acolyte. At the time of the tangihana itself, Helen was…
Denis O’Reilly is a New Zealand community leader and activist. This is his 91st essay for nzedge.com. My time as a bouncer on the door at Ali Baba’s in Cuba St Wellington, circa 1975,…
Dear Matua Craig, Late last evening I stood at the hospital bedside of my young Hawke’s Bay Black Power brother Petera Smith. He was in a coma and on life support. I whispered my nickname…
I’ve just returned from a full-on weekend in Auckland. I originally come from Timaru. My father used to say, on learning that I’d been in that city, “Did you call in on your aunt…
Mayor Phil Goff is correct that the dislocation of expelled, Australian-raised, criminally minded, New Zealanders, back to Aotearoa has acted as a violent force majeure on already marginalized communities of the poor, particularly in…
Recently announced United States Democratic Congressional Contender Richard Habersham enlisted New Zealander John Wareham, who splits his time between New Zealand and New York, to lead an oversubscribed weekend retreat for ex-offenders and ‘at…
Marilyn Waring’s forensic record of her Parliamentary career (Marilyn Waring: The Political Years Bridget Williams Books) is a layered work, a primer in the travails of Aotearoa’s parliamentary democracy. It…
Salaam Alaikum. Peace be upon us all. Aotearoa is experiencing an extended tangi. Like any such event emotions ebb and flow, sneak up on you, get you when you are not looking. A frightening…
Some years ago I had a ring from Saatchi & Saatchi chief Kevin Roberts, a man I’ve always found to be inspirational, generous, and unflinchingly courageous. Seems a New York friend of Kevin’s, a…
I nearly started to sob when Joe Walsh, Tim Schmit, and Vince Gill sang a waiata, acapella, at Hoani Waititi Marae Auckland, in support of the…
After the Hāpaitia te Oranga Tangata summit in August, Denis O’Reilly started thinking about how to address the wicked criminal justice problems we face. He turns to the past, and muses on community, from…
Last Sunday a group of around 40 people gathered for breakfast at Lola’s Café in Waipawa to memorialise the death of James K Baxter, Hemi, friend and poet, on 22nd October 1972. One had…
Mātua Zac (Anzac Wallace) made the news last week when he voiced his disapproval of the relatively low representation of Māori at the Hāpaitia Te Oranga Tangata criminal justice summit in Wellington. He had a…
Born 28-11-1958. Died 1-08-2018 Redemption Song On the second to last Monday…
It may have been the disconnection from his biological father that motivated Jim Anderton to champion the tribe of nga mokai, the fatherless ones. Then again it could have been a deep-seated instinct stemming…
My friend and leader Reitu Noble Harris, pensioner, was downed by winter pneumonia. Marshalled by Hine Nui Te Po he passed into the long night…
This coming week and especially the day of 12 October brings memories of war to the fore. It is the 99th anniversary of the worst day in our nation’s…
64 Shots- leadership in a crazy world. Kevin Roberts, Chairman Saatchi & Saatchi. New York: Power House Books. The locus of this new book by Kevin…
Social change activist and longtime NZEDGE columnist Denis O’Reilly weaves a multi-layered tale located on the social edge of Aotearoa. Last week I heard on RNZ a documentary interview with Rastaman Tigilau Ness
In Napier there is a certain smug satisfaction at the defeat of the amalgamation proposal. Another local proposal – the Ahuriri Deed of Settlement – that seeks to put right past wrongs – also…
In the week preceding the 2014 General Election I gave a speech to the AGM of the Council of Social Services in Christchurch. Whenever I’m in Christchurch I feel the spirit of my late…
Hello. Its been a while. My heart is full. I’m in the mood to write. In recent times Taape and I have been trying as much as is possible to live out at Ocean Beach,…
Once you put something out there you just don’t know who will pick it up and where it will go. Since its birth in 2004 Nga…
As I approach my 60th year (next month) I’m increasingly reflecting on times past and what the hell I intend to do with the time…
On Election Day I worked at the Waiohiki Arts Village with my nephew Lawrence Kingi-Miki, Nathan Rose, Gerard Gunn, and Tipu Tareha. We were digging…
If you believe that rugby is played in heaven then New Zealand is currently Paradise:…
It has been a quarter of a year since I wrote to you last. Arohamai. It’s a sign though that I’m otherwise flat out….
Each morning I go for a swim. When at home, and whilst the weather is still warm enough, I use the seawater ‘pond’ at Ahuriri, a remnant of what was once the inner-harbour, Te…
Nga mihi. It’s a bit late to be saying Happy New Year and all that, but take my best wishes anyway. Well another sparkling Waitangi Day has passed with the synergy sapping ‘Harawira factor’…
It is said that those gifted with foresight often observe ‘tohu’, signs, portents of things to come. Recently we have witnessed a raft of missed signals in a range of circumstances across Aotearoa. In…
I love this time of the year in Hawke’s Bay, although it’s been a little bit different than usual weatherwise. I don’t know if these are natural portents of times to come or results…
My apologies for such a delay between posts. I’ve been no more flat out than usual but for some reason the muse seems to have deserted me and I’ve been struggling with expressing my…
We are in what looks to be the last few weeks of a protracted ‘Indian Summer’ in the Bay. It’s been very dry. We’ve had a few ‘close to frost’ mornings which killed the…
It’s been one hell of a start to the year. I left you last in January at the gates of Parihaka and I feel like I’ve been foot down and motoring hard ever since….
I love Aotearoa, the land, its people old and new. I’m just back from the 2010 Parihaka International Peace Festival and I can still feel the grin on my face like reverse botox. About…
It’s been one of those years. I feel like I’m still in planning mode and woosh, its gone, done and dusted. These last few months have given me the worst of times and the…
Let’s pass through the flack cloud of the moment: Hone Harawira and white mofos! We’ll take ‘white mofo’ first. Don’t get too upset about the terminology. I agree that it’s inappropriate language for an…
It was a cold, swine-flu ridden winter when I last wrote to you, and now is the time of fresh morning asparagus, drooping rich coloured kowhai, full throated tui, the tintabulations of the bellbirds,…
Every now and then the various streams of our lives seem to conflate, one layer tumbling in on another, old times hurtling back from the past and crashing into the present regardless of how…
It’s been grim-times at home in Taradale, and that’s more than the recession or a bit of shitty weather. Last weekend, the first in May, a local bloke, Michael Meehan, was shot dead at…
What happened to March? My calendar accelerated and it just went. One minute I was planning for St Paddy’s Day and the next thing I know it’s been, gone, and done for. The ginko…
Welcome to 2009. May it go well for you and yours. I’ve had a great start. I was pretty stuffed at the end of last year, but a bit of time off and a…
The wonderful thing about those of us who enjoy democracy, we are currently told, is that we enjoy the fruits of an orderly and peaceful transfer of power between governing regimes. I’ve got to tell…
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