Saturday 17 August 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
We cannot fool ourselves into thinking full prisons, full hospitals, and empty homes because the parents are both working two jobs is somehow sustainable.
Saturday 10 August 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Weekend
We are a country evolving, and evolving in our relationships with the 50-plus countries we have diplomatic ties with and especially the one we have free association with; New Zealand.
Saturday 3 August 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
Relevance, this was the question discussed at the Te Koutu Nui Conference this week with regard to our leaders and a question maybe, we can ask also of ourselves.
Saturday 27 July 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Weekend
As dawn broke at Mauna Kea to the north, and as dawn broke at Ihumatao to the south, sons and daughters of the moana gathered to fight for protection for their sacred lands.
Saturday 20 July 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
If you tell a lie long enough, people will believe it. That’s why we must take time to form informed positions on debates like chlorine.
Saturday 13 July 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
There were concerns Ariki were complicit in the loss of Cook Islands Maori self-determination, but in the second part in a series, Thomas Wynne says they played a critical role in improving their people’s health and education.
Saturday 6 July 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
As we celebrate yesterday’s Ui Ariki holiday, what role do they play in our society?
Saturday 29 June 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
As Maori we are caretakers not owners.
Saturday 22 June 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
My family and I marched against the apartheid-backed Springbok Tour – so what stand must we take on Israel Folau?
Sunday 16 June 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
// On the back road away from the sundrenched verandahs and swimming pools, many of our people are struggling from week to week
Saturday 8 June 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
The vaka is us, and we are the vaka.
Sunday 26 May 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
I DO wonder sometimes if Jesus had an Instagram account what he would post on that account. As he made his way through the heights and depths of humanity, his fight with religiosity, his speaking with the woman at the well and his trials with the twelve men he called to be his disciples ultimately knowing one would betray him, and that in fact they all would as he made his way to the cross – what would he have posted?
Saturday 30 March 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
I remember sitting at school in my 7th Form and going through our school’s constitution with my friend Robert Hucker (son of Auckland city Councilor, Bruce Hucker) and realising as we pondered through the rules and regulations that we could nominate each other to stand in our school board elections.
Saturday 23 March 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
I remember entering the mosque in the city of Antalya in Turkey, looking up at its vastness and space, as the men gathered for prayer. It had been a visit of schools in Turkey and of dialogue, run by a group called the dialogue society and it was to build just that.
Monday 18 March 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
Someone shattered the lens by which we see ourselves, the way we see our neighbours, those that are the same and especially those that are different last week. Someone took that lens and smashed it into 50 pieces with more pieces falling to the floor as we speak, as we ponder, as we gather our thoughts after the shock of what transpired in Christchurch last week.
Wednesday 6 March 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
A washing machine, microwave, bedding … the list went on as a plea for a mama in our community went out as she desperately needed what amounted to the necessities for living here in Rarotonga.
Sunday 17 February 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
We name our children, we name our vaka taurua -- in fact we name all the parts of a voyaging vaka. We name our villages, our tapere, and the land we build our homes on has a name.
Sunday 13 January 2019 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
On Sunday afternoons, I sit in the covered courtyard, looking around at the tables and chairs, and I see families reunited, fathers kissing children, holding their wives and partners as they sit down for a meal. This could be a scene at the Social Centre, the airport or anywhere around our beautiful paradise, but it is not.
Monday 10 December 2018 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
Sitting in my hot office with a fan gently blowing the heat further around my office, every Wednesday I would wait for her return so as we could sit and talk, pray and meditate together.
Monday 19 November 2018 | Written by Thomas Tarurongo Wynne | Published in Opinion
“Don’t comment on what’s happening here in the Cook Islands. “You’ve chosen to live somewhere other than the Cook Islands, so you don’t have a right to speak.”