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In the introduction to her journalists guide to reporting Māoridom, Pou Kōrero author Carol Archie, a Pākehā and a journalist, agonises over how to describe non-Māori and comes up with 'other New Zealanders'. "Pākehā" won't do,' she says, 'because it has come to mean New Zealanders with European ancestry. 'Non- Māori' is negative and says what we're not, rather than what we are... an tauiwi (meaning foreigner) can offend those who still aren't tangata whenua but who still feel we belong to nowehere else but Aotearoa New Zealand."

This article discusses the Maori construction of a national Maori identity by the Maori media, and by Maori radio in particular. It then suggests that this is creating a Maori nation within the state of New Zealand. This is an important development for Maori and for the future of New Zealand society. The article suggests that Maori are creating a fully developed identity as required by the radical democratic theories of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, and, as such, will provide a practical case study of their theories.

The NZ news industry—owners, management and education sectors—has long agreed that the news media requires more Maori journalists. The industry has long recognised an imbalance does exist, whatever its characterisation. But the solution is not as simple as it seems.