Stories by Meriana Johnsen

Cannabis campaigners say fewer Māori will get a criminal record if New Zealanders vote yes in the referendum, with research showing a reduction in arrest rates for African-Americans in US states where…

An Auckland company helping indigenous businesses get local government contracts has generated $45 million and over 300 jobs for local Māori and Pasifika-owned construction and trades in the last…

Some Ngāi Tahu voters in Canterbury are set to break their long-standing tradition of giving two ticks to Labour and instead giving their electorate vote to the Māori Party. Audio

Whānau are being forced to stay up to a year in emergency housing, a housing charity in the Far North has said.

The fear and intimidation Waikato University professors have experienced when calling out racism has been putting prospective students off from going to university, the Māori Tertiary Student's… Audio

Some of the minor parties have united to break the stalemate over who owns freshwater, which they all agree is tangata whenua.

An increasing number of te reo Māori phone apps have been developed to help second-language learners use it everyday, and creators say digital technologies are crucial for the language to thrive.

With the Māori Party and the Advance Party both vying to push out Labour's Kelvin Davis from the northern-most Māori seat, RNZ asked Te Tai Tokerau voters who they would vote for.

Those working to make te reo the first language of tamariki Māori are pushing for it to be spoken routinely at home, but say the biggest challenge is that many of the parents of kōhanga reo and kura…

More than one million New Zealanders took up the challenge today of using te reo Māori for the single, largest celebration of the language in history.

More than 700,000 people across the country will speak, sing or listen to te reo Māori at midday today as part of a Māori Language Week initiative, Te Wā Tuku Reo Māori. Video

Māori bowel cancer patients are disappointed the Ministry of Health will not drop the national screening programme eligibility age to 50 for Māori and Pasifika.

An iwi health provider in the Far North has been forced to relocate its practice, after a deliberately lit fire destroyed part of its building.

A researcher modelling Covid-19 death rates says 1300 Māori and Pasifika would die in the Counties Manukau district alone if community transmission was allowed to run rampant.

A Canterbury Māori health leader is outraged the region's deficit-laden DHB has built a new emergency care unit for children but cannot afford to staff it.

It is only a matter of time before a Māori person is wrongfully arrested because of a false match on facial recognition software, a Māori technology expert says.

The Supreme Court has allowed the appeal by Peter Ellis against charges of sexual offending to continue after his death. Audio

Sentences for isolation escapees should take circumstances into account, a law academic says, after a woman was jailed for two weeks for escaping with her children to attend their father's tangi.

Representatives from the two Wellington mana whenua groups sit on the Strategy and Policy Committee and Annual/Long Term Plan Committee but are unpaid and unable to vote.

A number of kaumātua living alone in South Auckland who have no phone or internet access are reliant on a network of community groups and volunteers for support during the lockdown.

Tauranga City Council has voted in favour of establishing a Māori ward at the next local elections in 2022.

A report by the Māori Land Court has found thousands of iwi members did not get a say in the sale of iwi land at Shelly Bay in Wellington due to failings of the iwi membership system.

A Māori electoral expert wants assurances workers at voting booths will be properly trained in how the Māori roll works after mistakes at the last election.

The Māori Party is calling on the government to move to alert level 4.

Whangārei Mayor Sheryl Mai says business owners in Northland are already bracing themselves for another lockdown.