Stuff editorial director Mark Stevens reflects on the news company s role in its coverage of Māori.
OPINION: I’ve got a personal version of the
Stuff Māori mea culpa. It dates back 34 years and was unintentional yet lamentable in its ignorance of things Māori. It happened in my days as editor of the
Sunday Star, when on August 29, 1986, I dispatched a team to the East Coast by charter plane to cover the tangi of George Nepia (Ngāti Rākaipaaka), a 19-year-old sensation on the Invincible All Blacks’ tour of 1924-25. The photographer produced an arresting image showing George Nepia in his open casket, near enough for me to double-take. I asked him if we had permission.