nau mai haere mai - welcome to the fridge..
Subcommandante Marcos: "We are an army of dreamers, that’s why we are invincible"Ko te kai a te rangatira he korero no reira nau mai ki to tatou pataka korero. Welcome to The Fridge our pataka of political korero where no issue is to hot or to chill for our collective of rioters, writers, poets, activists, streetkids, and dreamers. We need an outlet for radical indigenous voices here in Aotearoa. The Fridge will focus on the pacific region recognising the historical and cultural connections with what is happening in the pacific with the struggle for indigenous self-determination here in Aotearoa.
Comrade Kiritapu speaks at the UN
Jump for Justice - Tia Taurere
Jump for Justice
When Transit NZ declined the application to fly the Tino Rangatiratanga/Maori Independence Flag on the Auckland Harbour Bridge during Waitangi Day Commemorations this year, some people just wanted to throw themselves off it.
"Creative Resistance is one way to raise awareness to our struggles" Tia says. "The Maori Flag is banned yet we are constantly seeing other flags flown on this bridge, it is out right racist".
Indigenous peoples rights, independence and self determination are just some of the reasons Tia Taurere and Mera Penehira are draping themselves in their beloved Tino Rangatiratanga flag to bungy off the bridge.
Just recently Maori MP Hone Harawira was also appalled that Transit allowed the the European Union Flag to fly in recognition of European Day.
"The flag has long been recognized as broadly representing Maori aspirations. It has been flown at Waitangi, and in all the hikoi, both church and iwi based, for almost two decades"
Keep your eye on the skies, we intend to keep organising on this kaupapa, there is obviously a real need for our symbols to receive due recognition, because these are the things that remind us of who we are and the obligations and responsibilities that we have for the next generations, even if it means that we have to take it to the bridge" said Tia Taurere spokesperson for Te Ata Tino Toa.
All welcome to come in solidarity for the rights to fly our Indigenous Flag. Sunday 27th May 12.00pm at Westhaven Reserve (cnr Westhaven Drive & Curran St, Herne Bay) Auckland City.
This jump is a koha from Potiki Adventures specialists in contemporary Maori experiences, interactions and adventures.
http://www.potikiadventures.com/
END
[
Submitted by Tia Taurere]
Ask the simple questions by Helen Te Hira
In two days time an elderly couple will leave a suburb of Auckland, to return home to their country the Philippines. For a short time they have stayed with whanau, and enjoyed the birth of their first born mokopuna.
In returning they will leave whanau and a new network of friends gravely concerned for their lives. The fears are well founded as the man is a union leader, a person who has worked and lived amongst the poor of his country and province, for over 30 years.
They will take the 11 hour trip home with the knowledge that just two days ago another of his colleagues was shot and now added to a list of over 800 people they call 'salvaged' - a person from the community kidnapped, tortured and murdered for organising against poverty, for challenging the US backed puppet regime of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
When asked 'Why go home when you can become a refugee here?'
He speaks of the need 'to get home' that he and his wife have their own responsibilities to their whanau, to earn their living. I reflect that this desire for independence is held up against the risk of loss of life. Further discussion about the understandable fears of his children and wife for their safety, lead him to ask me directly - 'if not me, then who ? I join with the Filipino people in fighthing. Do we look to someone else to do it for us? No! I am part of the longest ongoing revolution in the world'
I knew that he at least referred to the freedome struggle of Filipino people from Spanish rule, the year 1896 flashed before me....the time they kicked out the Spanish in a war of independence, I also knew that he had survived the Mendiola massacre, the Marcos dictatorship and various pupper regimes since.
As he spoke, I thought about our tupuna around the country when they went to war and had to seek refuge in each others territories as they were pursued by the Crown. Who was left at home to tend their lands? Their concerns would have been always to return, to take care of their daily responsibilities, as part of their struggle for mana motuhake, tino rangatirtanga, to maintain the individual integrity linked inextricably to the collective fight for sovereignty.
In this particular discussion, there are quiet moments. In spite of all the solidarity forums, the conferences, the hui I have attended, when you are one - one with someone in this situation, what do you do?
I felt words were of little use, to say I am with you, we are with you, we will sign a petition, it all seemed just a little insignificant. So instead of debating inside what was useful or appropriate to say. I simply asked ' what can I do, what can we do'
The answer was clear - 'raise your voices and let our governments know that you know what is going on and that you want it to stop. Think also, that we have a lot in common as people. Our languages are even the same!' We grinned, he had spent several weeks in front of the computer when he first arrived in Aotearoa, scanning Maori word lists, finding similarities with his own reo. Yet what he also referred to was our experiences of opposing globalisation. The exploitation of our precious lands and people for the profit of someone else, the shared suffering of colonisation.
We ended our korero with a discussion about the news that the Philippine president would be welcomed next month by Helen Clarke for an 'interfaith dialogue' in Te Taitokerau.
As we make our efforts to support this kuia and koro and the Philippine struggle, I know that in asking the simple questions he has voiced the challenge of each generation to take action, for if not me, or you then who ?
Helen Te Hira
Like a bridge over troubled waters.. by Teanau Tuiono
Like a bridge over troubled waters by Teanau Tuiono
Teanau Tuiono [ngai takoto , ngapuhi ] was one of the spokespeople for te ata tino toa / te tino toa a group that put an application into transit to fly the
Tino Rangatiratanga / Maori Indpendence Flag on the Harbour Bridge.
When we put our application into
Transit to fly the flag on the Harbour Bridge on Waitangi day, we thought, now that would look nice, (
hey it looked good photoshopped) it is 2007 after all, surely the people living here in anti-nuclear godzone would let something as non-threatening as a flag fly on a bridge.
[ image disabled ]
Flags are symbols, now we're not unlocking the da vinci code, because there is a lot misinformation out there, maybe its to much playstation or just to much beer and rugby, i can't be sure, because for me Tino Rangatiratanga is a postive idea, it encapsulates our aspirations for indigenous self-determination, the revitalisation of our language and culture and the right to control what is ours, it is the unique and collective expression of what it means to be Maori in this country.
In fact I would go so far to say that indigenous self-determination is good for pakeha as well, and i am often curious why pakeha are so confronted by the idea. In this brave new world which is becomming more culturally homogenised, more american even , it is those unique things that are born of this land which will stem that trend stopping us from becomming another McCountry, another consumer plantation on the edge of the empire. I mean take the
seabed and foreshore thing for example, for a lot Pakeha the idea that Maori might actually own something is sooooo catastrophic that there was in this case an avalanche of opposition, but let say for arguments sake that when the Governemt says 'all new zealanders' own the seabed and foreshore that actually what they really mean is that .... ahhhhh we're going to
flog it off to a multi-national mining company, you dont get anywhere near the amount of noise the silence is deafening. (foreign ownership good??, indigenous ownerhip bad??)
Anyway I digress ....
in short, a flag on a bridge, is no brainer and as
one punter put it "If it's acceptable to fly the flags of such remote and democratically challenged countries as Albania and Lebanon atop the bridge to mark their national days, then how can flying the de facto Maori flag alongside the New Zealand ensign on Waitangi Day be deemed inappropriate?
Transit bureaucrats put their heads in the sand and the request was refused
banning the flag from the bridgeTransit New Zealand claimed the Maori flag did not fit their criteria, that flags flown must be from a country recognised by the New Zealand government and the United Nations.
(Yeah Right)
What about the
Loyal Flag that had flown on the Bridge we asked, I mean was that a country flag recognised by the UN?
As
Matt McCarten put it "When a number of international billionaires were in Auckland for the America's Cup, Transit grovelled before them along with the rest of New Zealand's elite. The silver fern was proudly flown from the bridge for the duration of the races. While some of the yacht sponsors may have more wealth than a small nation they aren't sovereign states just yet.The irony of Transit waving the flag for the world's wealthy elite and refusing to do the same to recognise the other
Treaty partner on Waitangi Day won't be lost on Maori."
We pointed out that Australia was more progressive on this point ( yes thats right NZ bested by, backwards and
condemened-by-the-UN-for-mistreatment-of-indigenous-peoples-Australia), this was supported by an aboriginal leader who was visiting the country.
A former Australian commissioner for Indigenous Affairs and a Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation member, Kerry Blackman, said he was surprised Maori were not afforded the same rights as Aboriginals.
"They must let the flag fly. The Aboriginal flag is flown on local government buildings and federal Government buildings at certain times of the year. "It has become an acceptable symbol for Aborigines. I am surprised there is not the same recognition for Maori in New Zealand."
Reaction across the country was mixed it seemed
everyone had an opinion, there were the predictable reactions, the usual rednecks like
Aidrian Work who wrote"..The black, white, & red rag is deeply offensive, as the colours are the same as the Nazi German flag,which is why it should be permanently proscribed! I saw this racist rag at Moutoa Gardens back in 1995, which is another reason why it should be permanently banned from public display"
The media feeding frenzy was predictable, it was Waitangi day after all, and angry natives make great news fodder, (ratings are up and papers are sold). The Nazi thing came up again when Radio Live presenter James Coleman asked me about the National Front ( the local Nazi group ) wanting to fly the flag on Harbour Bridge. He really should have done his homework. I mean was this guy serious, asking this question in 2007? There's like 3 of them or something, hey i've had pets with more friends than those guys, yeah id seen those knuckleheads around before, I had facilitated an
anti-racist rally organised by my mate,
Tze Ming and a cadre of other angry ethnics, in reaction to racist attacks in the capital. So people who perpetuate the idea that indigenous self-determination is a form of Nazism are seriously misinformed. If this is you, pretty please with paua cream ontop unplug from the matrix, go to the library and get some books out, those of us in the thinking world call this process 'reading'.
there were also the usual apologist Maori who as (my friend Maioha calls them 'wounded' Maori) who are continually embarrassed by their 'uppity' cousins doing silly things like standing up for their rights,
Paul F is a case in point when he wrote"..Their flag represents little more than a group of aggressive, lawless, lazy and anti-social misfits who do little else except bring shame to Maori like myself who actually stand on their own two feet and get on with life, make positive contributions to New Zealand society, and manage to successfully keep their kids off the streets. The New Zealand flag represents all."
Luckily for for this great country of ours there were more enlightened souls I like what
Nicole Roughan had to say"Why should public policy then care so much less for those whose land we now share and whose goodwill and hospitality is so frequently on display even where it is undeserved. The State has not often been the bigger person in this relationship it is the most powerful, but very seldom the most generous. Flying the Tino Rangatiratanga flag over the bridge would be just another symbolic step in the continuous process of respecting and relating the diverse peoples of Aotearoa."
The
Greens also came out in support, there was a
flag competition where people flew the flag in creative ways it even flew in the deep deep south of Antartica.
.... and yes it seemed this time
we even had God on our side,
“The Anglican bishops of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia endorse and celebrate the wish of Maori to request Transit New Zealand to allow the tino rangatiratanga flag to fly alongside the New Zealand flag on Waitangi Day.
“The flag has long been recognized as broadly representing Maori aspirations. It has been flown at Waitangi, and in all the hikoi, both church and iwi based, for almost two decades"
Keep your eye on the skies, we intend to keep organising on this kaupapa, there is obviously a real need for our symbols to receive due recognition, because these are the things that remind us of who we are and the obligations and responsibilities that we have for the next generations, even if it means that we have to take it to the bridge
[
Submitted by Teanau]
Aaka's by Cathy Rexford [inupiaq - alaska ]
Aaka’s
[ image disabled ]
The TV was always on at Aaka’s, from the moment she first awoke in the morning and her plastic bottomed Isotoner slippers swished past my room, to the late evening when she again shuffled the unusually long hallway back to her bedroom to fall asleep on her side of the bed despite the fact that she was the only one to occupy it. After 60 years of marriage, old habits are hard to break. Aaka’s arthritis confined her to the first floor of her beautiful brown two-story that Aapa built her in his younger days. He bought the new house where she moved about with ease, and after he passed away, lawyers in big city Anchorage transfered the legal guardianship of the modern one-story to Mildred Sikatuaq Rexford. My uncle Edward Rexford, her third child, was given the quirky two-story; an inheritance which left my father and aunt with no home equity, and perhaps a few wrinkle apparitions between their eyebrows. They would have to make it on their own in the arctic. However, my grandmother remained in her pre-fabricated, three-bedroom home on First Street of Kaktovik, Alaska, for the rest of her days.
Her government-issue house was painted gold, which faded over the years to a muddy cream. Built on top of wood pilings, about five feet off the ground, as all houses are in Northern Alaska so as not to melt and sink into the permafrosted tundra, this house spent most months draped in a skirt of snow. White drifts butted up against the windows and hardened with the telling footprints of younger cousins escaping from the house at night to meet boys—until they got caught or moved away to college. As spring melted away the snow and ice, Aaka liked to open the windows to extend the view of her world, which—during the winter months—was limited to her house, her telephone, and her citizens band radio.
The living room and dining room, the heart of Aaka’s house, were always filled with sound, always filled with people. Only in the small hours of the morning could you actually hear the bzzzz of the refrigerator mixed with the sound of the natural gas furnace. I admit, it was soothing to wake each morning to “The Price is Right�, interrupted by Aaka yelling prices of canned asparagus, dishwashers, and cars to the helpless contestants. To this day, I turn on the TV for background noise, unable to think or concentrate in silence.
There were four freezers in her house. All but one was stuffed with traditional foods: caribou, seal, whale, walrus, ducks, fish. I don’t think I ever saw the bottom of any freezer at Aaka’s. The small fridge and freezer that stood in her kitchen was filled with TV dinners, ice cream, seal oil and berries. There was always something to eat at 105 First Street. Guaranteed. You walk in that house at any time of day or night and you would find pilot bread, cookies, a plate of leftovers, and cold Lipton tea on the large, oval, formica kitchen table that sat next to a double-paned, arctic-sealed window. Aaka’s seat, stripped years ago of the orange pleather upholstery, was a prime location for watching the comings and goings of all the boats in the lagoon in the summer and the snowmobiles in the winter after the water froze over. She was the kind of woman who would notice a boat launching and immediately run to the telephone to find out who was going, where they were going, what they packed for food, and what time they would return. She would mentally keep a log and if they returned one minute late, she would be back on the phone calling all relatives concerned. I would sit close, assuring her that the departed would surely survive as she paced the length between the two windows in the living room to keep her eye on the clouds, the wind, and the large round clock. I hope that as I age, I can be an old lady like Aaka—who absolutely made it her business to be nosy.
Aaka’s house would never have made the Better Homes and Gardens’ magazine standard of a beautiful home, but, to me, there was no other house quite as striking. Her furniture, bought in the 70’s, duct-taped together in the 80’s, had blankets or clothing draped over it in the 90’s, officially qualified as ‘antique’ after Y2K. Her walls were covered with a summer-ale-brown wooden paneling which peeked out beneath pictures, some framed and some curled from the dry air, plaques of appreciation and at least five calendars each with green bingo dabber ink that covered each day gone by.
After she died, lawyers in big city Anchorage again transferred the legal guardianship of half an acre of land ‘somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Alaska’ to my father, Fenton Okomailak Rexford, an inheritance fully expected and accepted by his older sister. Everything within the house changed when it became his. Four decades worth of knick-knacks disappeared. The furniture wound up at the dump. The kitchen was remodeled and the pictures were replaced with Jesus posters and cross-stitchings.
While the kitchen table is now cleared and clean, and the coffee table is no longer cluttered with ziplocs of medicine, bibles, and Aaka’s electric-orange-plastic water cup, if I think hard enough, I can still feel the floor creak underneath my socked feet, can still smell the sweet, hot bread rising in the kitchen, can feel the warmth of the exposed copper pipes running with boiling hot water along the ceiling. I can still see Aaka sitting, laughing, and humming, and working on her Fill-It-In crossword puzzles.
A Movement Moving by Kiritapu Allan
Still a recent memory in the minds of mainstream New Zealander’s is the uprising voice of indigenous activism in Aotearoa of the 70’s and 80’s. People remember the late Whina Cooper and the land march, watched the Treaty and Te Tiriti dialogue go from zero to hero then infuro. Fiscal envelope, Seabed and Foreshore, Maori Party, Waitangi Settlements leave different tastes in a baby nations mouth. And we, the rangatahi of today, step into this legacy of our history and forge into continuing a movement that has long begun.
I remember being 16 when I first stumbled upon the Tino Rangatiratanga movement and being inspired by the articulation of colonization and its injustices. Seven years on and at the ripening age of 23 I now realize that the conversations that once were so fresh have become stagnated and our movement is in desperate need of new energy.
The Maori Party, capturing on abundant energy during the time of the Seabed & Foreshore battle promised movement but sadly questions must be asked, namely how has the Maori Party contributed thus far to the Tino Rangatiratanga kaupapa?
Commendations must be made on creating a retirement plan for worn out Tino Rangatiratanga activists, confusing policies if any at all and then not to mention revitalizing a dormant hope in a colonial political system. Further to that there was the initial blatant blow to our takataapui community when the Maori Party refused to endorse the Civil Union Bill but most recently Pita Sharples advocating for all beneficiaries to be working for their dole.
One must ask questions as to whether capitalism has become an entrenched value within the Maori Party’s constitution to the degree that it is valued over the roles of whanau and Marae. It takes a lot of work to get that Marae sparkling, to ensure your whanau is supported and people will be at the powhiri, at the school opening and at the kids kapa haka practice. That’s a full time job but who wants to pay our folk for looking after whanau.
Our brothers and sisters who are artists, dancers, weavers, singers, some of the hardest working peoples I have ever met but few break through to make enough money to survive. Of any parties, and perhaps my expectations were too high, but I thought that surely the Maori Party would understand.
These issues can be debated either way but one of the most integral matters to Tino Rangatiratanga is that we, the Tangata Whenua, determine our destinies and we get to the core of how colonization infects and is festering amongst our peoples. What we should never do, and it seems the Maori Party has done, is expect the colonial Government and its infrastructure of power to be the mode through which our peoples obtain self-determination. Decol 101.
Making people work for their benefit is not empowering and transformational. When Maori make up 31.5% of all beneficiaries it is blatant that there is something going on. However making everyone ‘work’, whereby there is an income, is a mere plaster to the fact that our peoples are still suffering at the hands of colonization and no-one is daring to look at the core issues of how we can move.
The Seabed and Foreshore. Government moves to legislate against Maori having access to the courts to determine native land titles and Maori respond. But how? The lawyers who were already have a field day in the courts upped the anti, applied for a special Waitangi Tribunal hearing and voila, we have a hundred or so Maori lawyers writing submissions preparing for a hearing that ultimately would have no effect on a pre-destined outcome. LAWS101, Parliamentary sovereignty underpins the Pakeha constitution. Waitangi Tribunal has mere recommendatory powers.
So whilst the lawyers are typing away, so too is Moana Jackson who combines forces with Mereana Pitman and they road trip around the country for a good few months preaching Tino Rangatiratanga and educating about what the heck the Seabed and Foreshore is all about.
The plan was two part, grassroots and the courts.
The lawyers attempts at getting a decision from the Tribunal that would effect the Crowns later confiscation failed. So phase two was to take it to the Unite Nations, get some international law action.
Grassroots mobalising sent 40 000 people to hit the streets on May 5th 2004. No action was planned for grassroots mobalising at phase two. The Maori Party at that moment did however emerge from the ashes valiantly led by a teary Tariana Turia.
As for the Seabed and Foreshore? Well it was confiscated in one foul legislative swoop.
The UN CERD committee put out some nice recommendations saying that the Crown was bad and they got their 500 word Herald write-up-smack-on-the-hand. The Maori Party got some votes, enough to secure four seats in Parliament. But as for the Seabed and Foreshore, that got a number of multi-national companies applying for prospecting permits off our West Coast. As for Maori, we now have been allocated new special customary rights that on application we may be recognized as having some cultural and spiritual connection to the taha moana.
Access to courts denied, land confiscated, political party created, lots of people marching and a new special kind of customary right… In my opinion, a major campaign fought valiantly but violently lost by our side. Fiscal Envelope, same thing, we are still operating with a capped 1 billion dollar budget on all Waitangi grievance related claims - Our generation needs to do something differently.
We will have the arduous task of protecting our waterways and water rights. West Coast mining will be a major issue if those companies find anything and there are murmurs that they already have. We have to look to the eminent extinction (again) of the Treaty and how that will effect us. Perhaps a major look at how Corporate governance structures at Iwi and Hapu level are effecting our traditional styles of governance. And then all the usual stuff like the negative social and economic statistics that every man and his dog loves to wipe consistently in our faces.
How are we mobalising and organizing? Recently I spent some time in the Navajo Nation in North America and I remembered that there are indigenous peoples actually winning campaigns. I was reminded of the Te Reo Maori revitalization Movement which I was too young to bear witness too but embraced the fruits of.
It takes structure and consistency. It takes multiple levels of phase planning so then when you get one door slammed in your face you already have 5 other backups. It takes partnerships with collectives of our peoples that have a similar vision even if that is for different reasons. And it takes looking at things at the micro and macro levels always.
I still recognize myself as rangatahi (I have really only got another two years max at capitalizing on that term) and I look to the next 50 years which will be my lifetime and know I do not want to become complacent being in a state of loss. There have been many who have held the Tino Rangatiratanga flag high and have caused movement however I turn to the generation of my time and ask, where are we moving too?
Perhaps we don’t need to identify an answer but I think we need to be thinking strategically. We are no longer babies that need our asses wiped so lets stop asking anyone and everyone if what we think is legitimate. I encourage all of us to act and act with confidence, strategy and analysis.
For if we do not move from the places of the 80’s and 90’s we will become constipated, exhasperated and leave the next lot of flag bearers even more disheartened and frustrated than we are. Let’s move this movement and step into our shoes as strong peoples. Can we move beyond the history of our oppression and own our own liberation? Perhaps that is the most arduous task of all.
ENDS
[Submitted by Kiritapu_Allan]
Pasifika Rants from the streets - Tony Fala
Kia Ora friends
As brown left oriented activists and community workers, we are usually locked down in day to day political struggles, campaigns, protests. On down time between events, people are involved in media work, maybe practical day to day work for they own organisations, some leafletting, Union organising on job sites, maybe writing policy pieces arguing against local or central government policy. Sometimes politico's are writing articles for left wing and radical or revolutionary journals or papers, arguing the toss over issues, trying to organise groups of people through their ideas founded out of practical struggles.
At other times they are just hardworking kiwis just trying to hold down a fulltime job and look after they own families and communities. There is a lot of pressure put on relationships with loved ones and family by the nature of activist work, where you are always on call, where there is always something else to fight against. Activist and community working niggas is busy, tired, stressed out and broke much of the time. Niggas are run of they feet. We do everything on the run, improvising from one meeting, to another picket, to yet another protest march, across lots of different, and sometimes intersecting issues, learning and improvising, making mistakes then learning from them as we go, mixing and mingling with our peeps at the markets, or on marae, or in community projects. Its the belief in a better day for poor folks, indigenous peoples in this corporate controlled 'generation' that drives good people from all walks of life to live hand to mouth and on the bones of they asses much of the time. The name of the game in activism for brown folks is always being mobile in fighting the system, being flexible in how we work, and how we have to constantly react to capital, big business and their machinations by the way we organise, choose tactics of protest, strategise to react against a law, or a big business initiative, or government policy. Brown activists bring in their own community centred values into the way we look at issues, the principles we situate ourselves in, the approaches we take in how we organise anything, and what outcomes we want. All the while peeps are organising, organising, organising some mo', because if you don't, big business and govt policy will organise poor folks out of even the very crumbs they now have, in terms of housing, jobs, wages, conditions. Even in down times of practical struggle the war over information, news, policy goes on betwen big business, capital govt large scale newspapers, and activists. Brown activists have so many practical skills. We learn, from scratch how to organise, set up, and operate sound systems and P.A shit, so people can give speeches, and can be heard above the noise of large audiences at rallies. We organise and coordinate events so set speakers can agitate at an event around a variety of positions on an issue that brings everyone together. We organise routes set up for demonstrations and marches, we negotiate with city councils for marching permits, and we liase with Police in order to ensure the safety of marchers, especially the old, and the young. One person can teach a hundred and so on and so forth so these skills can come back to our communities as well. The brown artists exert leadership in struggles also, they paint, draw, amazing banners, flags, images, slogans for demo's and rallies, highly imaginative work, work that adds to our Pakeha or Palagi comrades own fine art contribs. Brown Film makers and video cam operators film events, protests and rallies, so we are developing our own protest imagery, stories, and artistic directions as well. All poor brown fullas/ fulleses too. The point is, this art ain't just art, you can use a film to inform people, organise a film nite, you can use it as an educational resource for activists, by pointing out how a demonstration up the road on film is like a Coltrane live Jazz solo, it has a 'harmonic' life of its own, changes, improvises, develops its own energy and dynamics, even as the 'melody' the kaupapa of the march, and the route of the march are already predetermined.How people as a whole mass get to the end point ain't predetermined, people 'harmonise' new directions in the march, maybe a sit down at the traffic lites here, maybe an impromptu flying picket at an Multinational office building there, on the way, maybe even a change of direction there, before returning, out of the 'harmony' back to the 'melody' and the end point of the march. Life can be beautiful in the middle of all this, and a film nite of such a demo can be not only be educational and informative, it can also be an opportunity to witness the 'art' of a demonstration and watch it unfold before you even as everyone cheers when they see a friend or family member appear on camera. Community gets build out of such events, and bonds of true loyalty and solidarity. Brown folks is always busy on activist printing presses getting agitational leaflets, posters, newspapers or PDF's out to the public so they have alternative news sources, stats, and analysis in hand in an accessible form to counter mainstream media's corporate driven propaganda. Fuck, some of the P.I and Maori designs on some of this agitational shit is fly too, adding that brown flavour into the mix to add to our Palagi comrades and brother and sisters contribs, with each political set favouring its own choices in styles, language, imagery, even colour scheme in design of leaflets and shit. Musicians bring in their resources to demo's, rallies and marches themselves, to keep the spirit up, keep people together, and keep everything loud. Brown muso's will give you some fine reggae or dub too, Palagi bands play some fine punk, thrash metal, rock you name it you can get a strong appreciation for Kiwi music of lots of different styles by listening to music that comes at you at demo's. In other words you get an education, but also inspiration and enthusiasm from these artistic leaders. All of this work is given for free, out of committment, and its all self schooled labour, where peeps learn how to do shit little by little over time. Everywhere activists are people centred, (the really important work), trying to win people around to our arguments, trying to win committment of people to issues that affect us all by talking to them about the human side of issues, how real people, poor people are affected by decisions big business, or the govt takes. Everywhere activists try to ground their work in communities of people, so it is the communities not activist who lead struggles forward. Activism on the left, in the best sense is about empowering people to understand, activists ain't special, above people in the community, or outside community as alienated souls. Nah man. We as activist are part of the communities we come from, and we exist to serve their needs. Every person of any background, is equally valuable to an true activist. Everybody in the community, where they have space and time, can do activist work and take power back over parts of their lives. For me activism has to be humble, an activist cain't have no romantic notions about themselves or the work they do, otherwise they are saying they diss the common people, and are setting themself above the poor people by asking the poor fullas to look at how 'romantic' and 'revolutionary' they is. Much later for all that simple shit. Romantic ideas and vanity are for the ruling classes not us in the shit up to our necks. For me, this is a Pasifika thing, empower the people, not the rulers, and serve the people. Brown people, we can fight and be humble at the same time, so we got lots of ammo to pass on in struggles to communities on the ground, and our other activist comrades brothers and sisters who are fighting capitalism who come from other peoples and cultures. This human side of activism is about empowering other people in other ways as well, giving them arguments and information to empower them to understand issues themselves, so they can come to their own conclusions about concerns. Thats the democratic thing you know, give people information but don't jam it down they throats. If they want to come into an awareness of Babylon and this 'shitstem' they will come to those conclusions. For brown activists, coming from the hardships our brown communities face everyday, we have something special to offer activism and communities in struggle. Because we are born into these struggles, and likely die in them as well. This is the heart of activism on the left, our concern and respect for indigenous peoples, poor people and the hardship brought into their lives by low wages, ratshit conditions of work, corporate business decisions that degrade the environment they live and work in. Without this concern we have for poor folks, all the work, organising and rallies mean little. It is common people power, common people of all colours, cultures and creeds that can change things as they stand. For me, as an activist boonga broke on my ass, its about values of community, of poor people, of a better day for indigenous peoples, with a strong anti-capitalist analysis at the centre of what i have done that makes activism, and community empowerment, activity that means something. Why? Because you get no thanks, not even from your own community elders sometimes. But you exist to serve the people in a humble labour, and you get to see change happen. Look at the Springbok Tour protests of 1981, they helped propel South Africa to a society beyond Apartheid, look at Takaparawhau, Bastion Point in 1977, and how it lead to Ngati Whatua getting a financial settlement and land back from the Crown. Things can change but people got to fight for change collectively. Brown activists of older generations have done their bit, its up to the younger ones now to carry the process forwards.
peace out
Tony Fala
Water under the bridge? By Maria Bargh
Water under the bridge? By Maria Bargh
Wellington still has a few posters up.
“4 Million Careful Owners�.
A man.
He’s waist deep in water.
Apparently the government’s Sustainable Water Programme of Action campaign is not about ownership. Apparently the issue of ownership is specifically excluded from the whole Programme. Then why does the billboard say “OWNERS?� Apparently the advertising agency was mis-briefed and it should have been ‘users’.
And that is exactly where our story comes to the heart of the problem; divided thinking and a distinction between ‘owners’ of water and ‘users’ of water. The government claims that they have the exclusive rights to determine who uses water; who pollutes it, who takes water out of waterways and who delivers it to homes and businesses. They also claim that no one really owns it. ‘Water’, they say, ‘is like air – it’s a common good therefore no one owns it’.
Yet strangely under the international trade deals that they have signed up to it is clearly defined as something that can be bought and sold – its defined as a ‘good’ (like a bottle of water) and/or a service (like someone putting in a pipe of water to your house). Well, I don’t know about you but I think that usually (but not always) when someone sells something and gets money for it- they actually own it.
Hmmm so lets recap:
* the Crown has a Sustainable Water Programme of Action which they say is all about better looking after water, thinking about who should be in charge of water and making sure it isn’t all polluted
* and they have signed international trade deals which make water into something that can be bought and sold (which implies someone might own it)
* but they’re also saying they won’t talk about ownership because water can’t be owned
* A conundrum!
* Or is it?
What are MÄ?ori saying about all this?
Hapū and iwi all have their own positions but many are saying that water, the river and lakes beds and the banks of rivers and lakes are an undivided entity: a thing which can not be divided. To talk about water as separate from the bed upon which it sits and the soil or rock banks which cradle its path is just weird!
If it is an undivided entity then have MÄ?ori given up their rights to all of it? There is no evidence that MÄ?ori have given up customary rights to water ways. And Te Tiriti o Waitangi stated that MÄ?ori could retain their whenua, kainga and taonga for as long as they wished to keep them. Water is clearly a taonga for MÄ?ori.
The Crown has breached Te Tiriti, amongst other things, by:
* Assuming they own waterways and passing laws based on that assumption
* Imposing their rules, which say that, the person who owns the land next to a river owns to the middle of it – which according to the Crown, means MÄ?ori lost rights when land next to lakes and rivers was no longer in MÄ?ori ownership.
These are breaches of MÄ?ori Law and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Lets re-cap:
* Many hapū and iwi consider water and the bed and the banks to be an undivided entity
* There is no evidence that MÄ?ori willingly gave away rights over this undivided entity.
Then don’t MÄ?ori still have rights over the undivided entity and water in particular?
Or at the very least shouldn’t the Crown be responsible for have an honest conversation with hapÅ« and iwi about compensation and how the Crown fits in with MÄ?ori plans for water? Wishful thinking!!!
The Crown is happily moving along with their Programme and other plans for making profits as the world’s water supply gets scarce.
Ok so why should you care?
Well firstly an injustice has been done- and that has to be fixed.
Secondly, a plan for sustainability is fundamentally flawed and will not work if it doesn’t address the issues of MÄ?ori ownership and MÄ?ori plans for sustainable and clean water.
Thirdly, if the government has limited control over water supplies- and that control is moved to transnational companies (who already manage water supplies in parts of the country) then the experiences from overseas are that:
* prices go up and
* those who can’t pay get disconnected.
That’s bad.
So what are people doing about water?
* Meetings and information workshops have been held in Wellington and other places about water and the questions of ownership and how to stop privatisation.
* Several Action Groups around the country have long experiences with reconnecting pipes when people are disconnected for not paying and they have been educating people about their experiences.
What can you do?
* Get informed some resources appear on: http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/water.htm
* Or watch a movie on:
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/movie/wfa_start.swf
* Get out there and learn about current MÄ?ori sustainable practices and maintenance of river and lakes and the history of those areas.
* Get out there and learn about how people are saving their own water supplies for their own homes.
* Talk to whanau, hapū and Runanga about the issue.
* Ask your local MP what they’re doing about this (or indeed any issue).
Do you know who’s water you’re drinking? Who owns what?
Nestle:
* Perrier, Vittel, San Pellegrino
Coca Cola:
* Pump, Kiwiblue.
Frucor/Danone:
* Mizone, NZ Natural, H2GO, Evian.
News Categories
