Carrie Stoddart-Smith

Guest writer

Carrie Stoddart-Smith (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Whātua) is a Principal Trade and Economies Consultant at Opinio Native Aotearoa, a consultancy she founded in January 2020, to honour indigenous knowledge by creating an environment that celebrates an liberates indigenous voices globally. She ran for the Māori Party in the electorate of Pakuranga in the 2017 general election.

Nanaia Mahuta: foreign affairs minister, associate minister for housing environment, and trade and export growth, and MP for Hauraki-Waikato. (Photo: RNZ/Dom Thomas)

Nanaia Mahuta’s appointment returns ancestral legacy to foreign policy

For many Māori, diplomacy is something learned at your grandparents’ knee. Nanaia Mahuta’s appointment as foreign minister just makes sense.

By Carrie Stoddart-Smith | 6th November, 2020

Māori Party co-leaders John Tamihere and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. (Image: The Spinoff)

My beloved Māori Party has let me down with its immigration policy

After meeting today to address their unpopular immigration policy, the Māori Party have made some concessions. It still isn't good enough, writes former candidate Carrie Stoddart-Smith.

By Carrie Stoddart-Smith | 3rd October, 2020

Te Kura Hourua O Whangārei

Let’s not sacrifice charter schools for Māori to an ideological war

An education system must work for all. Let’s deal with the issues rather than wholesale abandon the Kura Hourua concept, argues Carrie Stoddart-Smith.

By Carrie Stoddart-Smith | 13th February, 2018

The phrase ‘Māori tribal elite’ really tells you something – about the person using it

The phrase ‘Māori tribal elite’ really tells you something – about the person using it

The debate around concessions negotiated by the Māori Party in the resource management bill has seen the 'Māori tribal elite' slur rears its head again. It is part of a long history, writes Carrie Stoddart-Smith, of attempts to colonise tangata whenua.

By Carrie Stoddart-Smith | 19th April, 2017

PAIHIA, NEW ZEALAND – FEBRUARY 05: Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell and Deputy Leader of the National Party Bill English hongi at the Te Tii Waitangi Marae on February 5, 2015 in Paihia, New Zealand. The Waitangi Day national holiday celebrates the signing of the treaty of Waitangi on February 6, 1840 by Maori chiefs and the British Crown, that granted the Maori people the rights of British Citizens and ownership of their lands and other properties. (Photo by Michael Bradley/Getty Images)

On whanaungatanga, and how I startled myself by contemplating a vote for Bill English

The National leader's mana-enhancing approach was as impressive as the Labour leader's 'not kaupapa' outburst was depressing, says Carrie Stoddart-Smith.

By Carrie Stoddart-Smith | 28th February, 2017