Aaron Smale

Contributing writer

Aaron Smale is a freelance journalist and photographer. In 2017 he is shortlisted in the Canon Media Awards for Feature Writer of the Year and Best Reporter - Maori and ethnic affairs. He is Ngati Porou.

Books
Aug 20, 2019

An inheritance of harm: Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys, reviewed

Colson Whitehead's latest novel follows two boys through the horrors of a real-life reform school in Florida. Our reviewer is Aaron Smale, whose reporting on similar schools in New Zealand led to a Royal Commission of Inquiry. 

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Ātea
Mar 30, 2019

Media, Māori and me

A journalist reflects on a career in which the media has felt like a hostile environment for Māori and other minorities.

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Ātea
Aug 29, 2018

The Criminal Justice Summit: a 'talk-fest' where Māori men went largely unheard

Journalist Aaron Smale went along to the Criminal Justice Summit hosted in Porirua last week, and discovered one crucial missing voice.

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Featured
Apr 2, 2018

The Wairarapa photographer whose kuia portraits capture a community

It started out as a love for the Māori women that had been part of her childhood. Photographer Kiri Riwai-Couch spoke to Aaron Smale about her exhibition of kuia portraits.

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Ātea
Mar 27, 2018

New Zealand’s problem with Māori boys

The success or failure of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into state welfare abuse will depend on how much attention it gives to Māori boys – and a change in New Zealand’s attitude, writes Aaron Smale.

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Ātea
Mar 19, 2018

Sorry means you don’t do it again

Ōtaki's Māoriland Film Festival, which kicks off this week, features a documentary about Australia’s apology for the Stolen Generations – and what’s happened since. Aaron Smale spoke to director Larissa Behrendt.

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Ātea
Feb 22, 2018

A perpetrator can’t be a saviour: the state abuse historic claims system must go

The announcement of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the abuse of children in state care has been met with praise and relief, but survivors may be worse off if the historic claims unit within the MSD is allowed to remain.

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Society
Jan 5, 2018

Summer reissue: The Kapiti Expressway, Māori road names, and the media outrage machine

The usual defence of stories about Pākehā enraged by Māori 'uppitiness' is that the media are simply reporting people’s views. And that's bollocks, says Aaron Smale.

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Ātea
Nov 17, 2017

Our stolen generation: a slow genocide

Indigenous peoples throughout English-speaking countries have had their children taken away by the state for generations. Most countries have faced up to this legacy but New Zealand has been in …

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Ātea
Nov 16, 2017

Our stolen generation: a nonchalant wickedness

Indigenous peoples throughout English-speaking countries have had their children taken away by the state for generations. Most countries have faced up to this legacy but New Zealand has been in …

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Ātea
Nov 14, 2017

Our stolen generation: a shameful legacy

With NZ committed to setting up an inquiry into state abuse within 100 days, Aaron Smale looks at stories from New Zealand, Canada and Australia, and ask what we can learn.

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Society
May 1, 2017

The Kapiti Expressway, Māori road names, and the media outrage machine

The usual defence of stories about Pākehā enraged by Māori 'uppitiness' is that the media are simply reporting people’s views. And that's bollocks, says Aaron Smale.

Read on.

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