A large protest opposing the closure of remote indigenous communities in Western Australia yesterday shut down streets in central Melbourne.

Government ministers have upped the pressure on Ngapuhi to get on with their settlement in the lead-up to Waitangi Day - and even the Governor-General got in on the act.

Philanthropist and economist Gareth Morgan has set out two challenges to the Government at his first visit to Ratana Pa.

Pakeha nearly "exterminated" Maori and need to make good on the intent of the Treaty - including compulsory te reo in all primary schools, Gareth Morgan says.

But iwi group will not take its founding trustees to court to recover lost "Treelords" settlement cash because of cost and "ongoing damage to the reputation of the trust".

So far we've identified the achievements of the Treaty settlement and reconciliation process, and flagged that the process is now being pushed beyond the point of being useful.

Yesterday we saw how progress has been made on matters where both language versions of the Treaty say the same thing. Those areas are predominantly natural resources and cultural treasures.

Waitangi Day, New Zealand's national day, comes with controversy, robust historical debate and challenges to do more to address the grievances of the past.

'Look at the Earth sitting on top of itself," the Aboriginal man said to me in an Outback mining town, writes Lucy Lawless.

Last month, in the vast, remote Culgoa River region of New South Wales, the People's Council of the Murrawarri Republic assembled for the first meeting.

Fifty years ago, the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land presented two petitions framed by ochre bark paintings to the federal Parliament.

What distinguishes this cartoon is its effort to get humour from a caricature of Maori and Pacific people as fat, greedy, selfish, alcoholic gamblers, writes Toby Manhire.

Pacific health experts are calling for a quota on the amount of fatty food exported to the Pacific Islands, where heart disease, diabetes and obesity are the norm.

My jovial slip of the tongue about remaining the co-leader "until I die" was not what I intended, writes Dr Pita Sharples.

The departing head of the Maori Development Ministry says Maori business has transformed in the past decade and iwi are no longer considered a risk to the NZ economy.

I was surprised to read in Deborah Coddington's recent Herald column that the Treaty of Waitangi is New Zealand's founding document. Of course some New Zealanders mistakenly believe that is the case.

A group of Tainui women took the hint of their beloved Maori Queen Dame Te Atairangikaahu and began a movement to revive the art of moko in their tribe.