A PoO reader has drawn attention to two articles published in The Post earlier this week.
One was headed Former Māori fisheries chief executive sentenced over child exploitation material
The other was headed The Wellington teen charting a course to the stars.
The first article reported that Graeme Hastilow, who led Te Ohu Kaimoana until his resignation late last year, had pleaded guilty to five charges of copying child exploitation material and five charges of possessing it.
Te Ohu Kaimoana was once known as the Maori Fisheries Commission, handling assets such as quota shares and settlement allocations under the Māori Fisheries Act 2004.
The Post said:
The former chief executive of the organisation that manages Māori commercial fishing assets has been spared jail after police found 136 files of the worst kind of child exploitation material on his devices.
Graeme Hastilow, who led Te Ohu Kaimoana until his resignation late last year, was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention after pleading guilty to five charges of copying child exploitation material and five charges of possessing it.
His offending took place between May 12, 2024 and February 16, 2025, while he was chief executive of the Māori fisheries organisation.
Hastilow’s name had been suppressed until judge Andy Nicholls declined to continue the suppression order, subject to an appeal.
Police said Hastilow used social media, including encrypted instant messaging, to talk to other users about having sex with young girls, being paedophiles, and sharing images and videos.
A digital analysis of more than 307,000 files recovered from his phone identified 136 files in the worst category of child exploitation material and a further 1600 files in other categories.
Hastilow has a European-sounding name, but we may suppose he is Maori because Te Ohu Kaimoana typically appoints Maori as chief executive.
The second report focuses on a young man who also has a European-sounding name and (as pictures of him in the article suggest) European features:
The report says:
Jack Jenkins is aiming high: a place at a top US university, and eventually, a career reaching for the stars.
The push away from Earth feels “inevitable,” and the budding engineer wants to be a part of that leap, he says.
But for now, the year 13 student’s feet are firmly on the ground as he navigates a jam-packed final year at high school, and begins the work of applying for future study.
The Hutt International Boys’ student is aiming for NCEA excellence in subjects that include chemistry, calculus and technology.
The latter has involved the engineering skills Jenkins hopes to build on at university, and he’s crafted a motorbike, a remote control boat and is working on building a wooden bar.
The report refers to a raft of Jenkins’ admirable achievements and interests before noting he had been awarded a Te Ara a Kupe Beaton Scholarship.
This gives us a hint about his ethnicity:
The $25,000 education programme, awarded to Māori and Pasifika students, provides mentoring, academic support and admissions guidance for young people aiming for top universities.
And then:
Jenkins (Ngāti Mutunga), says his top choice of Harvard was cemented after a trip to Boston last year to visit friends. While there, he went for a run through the university grounds, taking in the stately campus beside the Charles River.
Ultimately, he would like to work for one of the major companies pushing the boundaries of space exploration.
“I’d like to work on rockets and the idea of moving away from Earth: it’s inevitable at some point.”
The two articles raise questions about newspaper policy on recording tribal affiliations – or whakapapa, if you prefer.
Earlier this year, I wrote to the Editor of the Post (then Tracy Watkins) after stumbling through a clumsily crafted introductory paragraph.
“My Loaves” is how Lynda McGregor (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Kuia, Te Atiawa, Te Whānau a Apanui) addresses her bakery’s customers.
I asked about the rationale for providing the information in bold type.
If those words were excised, to what extent would I be deprived of vital facts?
Whether Watkins saw my email is uncertain.
A terse reply came in the name of Kelly Dennett, who said:
“The iwi mention may not be of interest to you but it can be of interest to other readers. “
A stronger case for including tribal affiliations was made by a Maori friend of PoO who said The Post (as other media do) was attempting to recognise the fact that iwi/hapu identification of one another is second nature.
He said
“… it’s a pretty standard unselfconscious part of Maori life, something that even those with a relatively light immersion in Maori culture carry out without thinking too much about it”.
He further suggested that in recent decades Maori and Pakeha have developed a far greater common culture than previously and more and more Pakeha recognise the role that iwi identification plays for Maori.
It seems to me this is often overdone but most such changes tend to extremes in the initial stages. Who knows what the conventions will be in another 10 years.
On reflection, I appreciated that the problem with the article about Lynda McGregor was the inclusion of the tribal information in the opening paragraph in a manner which impedes easy reading.
I wrote again to the Editor.
I recently inquired about your policy on recording tribal ancestries after stumbling through an opening sentence which read:
Te Ohu Kaimoana was once known as the Maori Fisheries Commission, handling assets such as quota shares and settlement allocations under the Māori Fisheries Act 2004.
The Post said:
The former chief executive of the organisation that manages Māori commercial fishing assets has been spared jail after police found 136 files of the worst kind of child exploitation material on his devices.
Graeme Hastilow, who led Te Ohu Kaimoana until his resignation late last year, was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention after pleading guilty to five charges of copying child exploitation material and five charges of possessing it.
His offending took place between May 12, 2024 and February 16, 2025, while he was chief executive of the Māori fisheries organisation.
Hastilow’s name had been suppressed until judge Andy Nicholls declined to continue the suppression order, subject to an appeal.
Police said Hastilow used social media, including encrypted instant messaging, to talk to other users about having sex with young girls, being paedophiles, and sharing images and videos.
A digital analysis of more than 307,000 files recovered from his phone identified 136 files in the worst category of child exploitation material and a further 1600 files in other categories.
Hastilow has a European-sounding name, but we may suppose he is Maori because Te Ohu Kaimoana typically appoints Maori as chief executive.
The second report focuses on a young man who also has a European-sounding name and (as pictures of him in the article suggest) European features:
The report says:
Jack Jenkins is aiming high: a place at a top US university, and eventually, a career reaching for the stars.
The push away from Earth feels “inevitable,” and the budding engineer wants to be a part of that leap, he says.
But for now, the year 13 student’s feet are firmly on the ground as he navigates a jam-packed final year at high school, and begins the work of applying for future study.
The Hutt International Boys’ student is aiming for NCEA excellence in subjects that include chemistry, calculus and technology.
The latter has involved the engineering skills Jenkins hopes to build on at university, and he’s crafted a motorbike, a remote control boat and is working on building a wooden bar.
The report refers to a raft of Jenkins’ admirable achievements and interests before noting he had been awarded a Te Ara a Kupe Beaton Scholarship.
This gives us a hint about his ethnicity:
The $25,000 education programme, awarded to Māori and Pasifika students, provides mentoring, academic support and admissions guidance for young people aiming for top universities.
And then:
Jenkins (Ngāti Mutunga), says his top choice of Harvard was cemented after a trip to Boston last year to visit friends. While there, he went for a run through the university grounds, taking in the stately campus beside the Charles River.
Ultimately, he would like to work for one of the major companies pushing the boundaries of space exploration.
“I’d like to work on rockets and the idea of moving away from Earth: it’s inevitable at some point.”
The two articles raise questions about newspaper policy on recording tribal affiliations – or whakapapa, if you prefer.
Earlier this year, I wrote to the Editor of the Post (then Tracy Watkins) after stumbling through a clumsily crafted introductory paragraph.
“My Loaves” is how Lynda McGregor (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Kuia, Te Atiawa, Te Whānau a Apanui) addresses her bakery’s customers.
I asked about the rationale for providing the information in bold type.
If those words were excised, to what extent would I be deprived of vital facts?
Whether Watkins saw my email is uncertain.
A terse reply came in the name of Kelly Dennett, who said:
“The iwi mention may not be of interest to you but it can be of interest to other readers. “
A stronger case for including tribal affiliations was made by a Maori friend of PoO who said The Post (as other media do) was attempting to recognise the fact that iwi/hapu identification of one another is second nature.
He said
“… it’s a pretty standard unselfconscious part of Maori life, something that even those with a relatively light immersion in Maori culture carry out without thinking too much about it”.
He further suggested that in recent decades Maori and Pakeha have developed a far greater common culture than previously and more and more Pakeha recognise the role that iwi identification plays for Maori.
It seems to me this is often overdone but most such changes tend to extremes in the initial stages. Who knows what the conventions will be in another 10 years.
On reflection, I appreciated that the problem with the article about Lynda McGregor was the inclusion of the tribal information in the opening paragraph in a manner which impedes easy reading.
I wrote again to the Editor.
I recently inquired about your policy on recording tribal ancestries after stumbling through an opening sentence which read:
“My Loaves” is how Lynda McGregor (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Kuia, Te Atiawa, Te Whānau a Apanui) addresses her bakery’s customers.
Try reading it aloud to get an idea of my objection, although – true – I am a non-Maori reader with no interest in Ms McGregor’s genealogy.
I further said I had discussed the issue with Maori friends (former newspaper colleagues) who had given me many reasons for including tribal links of Maori who feature in media reports.
And then I made a suggestion:
I have also established that they would not be offended or deprived of critical information if “the iwi mention” was included in your reports without the flow of words in a key sentence being disrupted.
It could be done like this –
Intro
“My Loaves” is how Lynda McGregor* addresses her bakery’s customers.
End of the report:
* Lynda McGregor (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Kuia, Te Atiawa, Te Whānau a Apanui).
This time there was no reply.
Fair to say, in the article about Jack Jenkins his tribal affiliation is comfortably included in a sentence towards the end.
But a puzzle remains: why is that information provided in some reports but not in others?
As to the aspiring Harvard scholar, we wonder about Jenkins’ awareness of the history of his iwi. Ngati Mutunga (we are told) are also known as The Butchers of the Chathams after joining Ngāti Tama in attacking and massacring more than 260 Moriori.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE.
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