WAITANGI DAY IS UPON US

Speaking from Parliament today JOHN KEY talked (cultural interpreted) about the horrendous and unacceptable behaviour (CULTURAL INTERPRETATION) by two women at Te Tii Marae at Waitangi.


KEYS Statement:

...most people (NAMELY PARKEYHAR PEOPLE) enjoyed Waitangi Day, (COZ WE IGNORE THE POLITICAL SIGNIFICNCE OF COLONISATION IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND FOR MOWEE AND ONCE I CHANGE THE FLAG I MIGHT TRY AND IT TO NZ DAY)...but it was "one or two" (MOSTLY THE HARAWERA FARNO AND THOSE WHO SUPPORT THEM - NOT NAMING NAMES BUT THERE IS A LAWYER AND SOME PEACENIKS AS WELL) who used the media platform (THOUGHT WE OWNED THAT) to push their own agendas (NAMELY THAT PROBLEMATIC PIECE OF PAPER THEY CALL THE TREATY OF WHYTANGY) .

"Most people (US CAUCASANS) go to Waitangi to have a great time (WATCH THE MAOWE DO CUPPA HAKA AND GOD CAN WE MOVE ON AND REALISE PARKEHAR ARE NOT 'RACISTS' WE LET THE MOWES HAVE A PIECE OF THE PIE - SO LAX OUT - DO A HAKA OR SOMETHING)...

...but regrettably, (THANK GOD I HAVE THE POLICE BUT MOSTLY THE COUNTRY PAYS FOR MY BODYGUARDS) there are one or two people who go there to cause trouble (AGAIN IT'S THE HARAWERA FARNO AND HOW THE HELL DID HONAY GET INTO PARLIEMENT - MIND YOU IS HE REALLY EVER THERE? I NEVER SEE HIM, MOSTLY COZ I AM NEVER THERE BUT ANYWAY JUST SHOWS HOW FAR THE MOWIES HAVE COME THANKS TO US) and use the media (AGAIN DON'T WE OWN IT) as a way of advancing their own cause or their own issues, (AGAIN THAT PISKY PIECE OF PAPER I HAVE NEVER READ)" he said.
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Cocacolonisation* of Queer

This year’s theme for the Auckland Pride Parade 2014 is ‘TIME’. The organisers state that the

New Zealand's Rainbow Community is the product of our collective histories, which we need to understand, honour and celebrate in order to move forward. Where did we come from? What did we feel and want? When and why were our community organisations founded? Where are they headed in 2014 and beyond? Who are we now and what do we want to become?

I wonder who exactly they will be celebrating, honouring and understanding?  It is certainly not the shared history of this country’s bicultural or lack of bicultural history – as is apparent in the use of this nation’s colonial term ‘New Zealand’. Being Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, intersex and bisexual peoples, you would think that 'we', of all peoples would understand that identity is imperative to inclusion. In saying this it is refreshing to see takatāpui guiding much of this year’s celebration (correct me if I am wrong).  Nevertheless, over the 10 years of Hero Parade, aka Gay Pride and the Big Gay Out, how representative will Auckland’s 2014 celebrations be? And is it perhaps TIME to stop trying to be a 'community' of likeminded, classless homosexuals?

Recently, much of the LGTB communities ‘celebrated’ the legalisation of same-sex marriage. Many purporting this to be apex of LGTB equality. Whilst it cannot be argued, ensuring that 10 percent of the population’s relationships be legally recognised, I question exactly what this has offered many of the queer communities in Aotearoa New Zealand.

In my 36 years out and proud, I have witnessed the rise of what I term ‘Gay Cocacolonisation’. This gay cocacolonisation, is founded on a loss of status for the middleclass homosexual. Since time memorable middle-class homosexuals have lived in a state of conflict about their position as (white) middle-class and homosexual.  Endowed with a sense of entitlement, the middleclass found themselves scorned and banished to working class bars and seedy nightclubs. Whilst this banishment has seen many fashion a political riposte, it is one infected with a desire to return to the lost opulence that is understood to be rightfully theirs. This was seen in the midst of the centre-left push for marriage rights.  As middle-class lesbians and gay men roared ‘we are just the same as our next-door neighbours’, you could feel the jubilation of the middle classes as they were welcomed back into the fold.

There has and never will be a ‘collective’ history of queer communities in Auckland’s Rainbow Community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Takatāpui, Intersex, Fa’afafine) or in Aotearoa New Zealand. There is however copious herstories/histories of colonised takatapui, working-class bull/stone/butch dykes, South Auckland's gay Pacifica and dawn raids. Poverty, addiction imprisonment and Auckland’s rent boys. Sadly, these herstories/histories will be masked by sumptuous advertising and hidden tacitly behind well-groomed queer chars, unemployed rent boys and castigated queer beneficiaries.  

Over TIME there has been more inclusiveness of our herstories/histories, however much; much more can be done to show diversity. So for now I will take TIME out and share with anyone interested the herstories/histories of the many communities I have been part of and remember that Auckland’s Rainbow Community is not the full story.


* Term borrowed from Annette Sykes 2013 Waitangi speech.

Why I am 100% a MANA Movement Member

Yes the following is an emotional piece because this morning I woke up feeling very emotional about some of the experiences I have had recently with various Pākehā.

I am frustrated with how people who do not understand how racism operates in this country call me either a white women gone native or a deluded apologist with no backbone. I know what racism is, I was on the wrong side of it as a you...ng unaware youth. As an adult I learnt about the other side of racism, firstly, through the Springbok Tour and then through the second occupation of Takaparawhau Bastion Point. This lead to years of reading and participating in action that I hoped would bring about Māori sovereignty. On entering university I moved away from politics all together and concentrated on my studies, finally receiving my doctorate in 2010, a year after Jordan Robert Herewini was murdered.

Jordan's death and the trail of the man who killed him brought me back to the realities of racism in this country. At the time some ignorant Pākehā wrote that such a death was bound to happen to such places as Mururpara. Later I watched as Pākehā judges and lawyers, journalists and tv presenters spat their institutionalised racism across the lives of Jordan, the witnesses and Quentin Pukeroa. It was here that I tasted some of the racism that Māori experience every bloody day in this country and it tastes like burning flesh. I smelt and tasted it in every word spoken in that courtroom, in every inference made about places like Mururpara and those who live there. I lived it intensely for 4 weeks in that Pākehā dominated courtroom and because I am Pākehā I was given the choice to walk away from it when the trial ended.

Well I didn't walk away. So I want to say to all those people on pro punitive justice sites, anti treaty sites and all those who feel for our story but cannot look beyond the 'oh that is sad but...' comments and especially to those who believe that institutional racism is somehow an excuse for allowing Māori get away with murder and all other imagined crimes - IT IS NOT. I have not meet one single Māori who believes that racism is an excuse to kill or maim people. What they - what we argue is that racism underpins our whole system, placing all that is 'white' - right (simplistic analogy but if I tried to explain this would be way to long).

Well the tide is turning people, because people like myself are no longer sitting back an leaving it to Māori to bring about sweeping constitutional and attitudinal changes. We are uniting under the banner of tino rangatiratanga and under the kaupapa of MANA to ensure a more progressive country. we are working help Aotearoa is a place where we can all hold our heads high and be accountable of our shared history and ultimately proud of our beautiful country. That's why I encourage all Māori in Ikaroa Rawhiti to VOTE and especially VOTE for MANA's representative Te Hamua Nikora. Please do it for Jordan Herewini and all those people we have lost to institutional racism...do it for our past, our present and our future.

Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou
ka ora ai te iwi

Another year is about to come to an end...on the 27^th Jan 2013 it will have been 4 years since Jordan Herewini’s life was horrifically taken from him. My beautiful friend Anita has not been in the world for two years. I still grieve intensely for both of them. I stopped posting on my blog a while ago and haven’t really returned to it until today. Mostly because I felt that there was nothing to say. Being me I questioned what I was saying, believing that what I was wrote about was already being said so why bother? I have felt for a while that I was pushing shit up hill. Still do not feel amazing so much pain and sadness in the world and so much work to be done to change it…but I have meet some amazing people over the past year. People committed to a different way of living and being in the world. So I will start writing again because it takes all our voices to bring about change…

McVicars Your are either with us or against us

Garth McVicar’s is a baboon there is not other way to say and it is great that he and his ‘ghost writer’ produced a book that reiterates this.

One of the things I have learnt about this man is his inability to think outside the square – everything is black and white and those in the black are criminals and according to him predominantly Maori or Pacific Island peoples as the following shows.

“Mr McVicar also took a swipe at Green MP Keith Locke and Mana’s Annette Sykes who said Tasers were being used disproportionately on Maori and Pacific Islanders. Mr Locke and Ms Sykes seem to conveniently overlook the fact that a corresponding 'disproportionate' number of Maori and Pacific Islanders are also committing the crime."

McVicar is also unable to take on challenge from anyone – in his book he argues that he has had to take develop a thick skin to cope with insults from those who oppose him – this is funny really as McVicar has no problem about throwing insults round when he wants – calling people who want different outcomes from him the  ‘P C brigade’ and arguing that “Their stupidity knows no bounds!!”

In another discussion McVicar argued that people like me “turn everything into a race issue!”  When challenged to read articles that showed how indigeneity influences sentencing McVicar vanishes into his redneck hole.

Another display of McVicar’s far right opinions involved the event which saw a 15-year-old schoolboy stab a 17 year old intruder in Auckland earlier this year. He argued that the boy should be given “a medal not being threatened with prosecution, these crims need to learn if they are going to comit crime they might pay with their life! I have no sympathy for the crim!”

This of course opened up a huge debate fueled by similar hurtful and racist comments he made about the killing of Pihema Cameron. Remember McVicar supported Bruce Emery stating that he was “a decent hard working citizen [who] is facing a murder charge because of his frustration…” and that “The Sensible Sentencing Trust ... wanted to see the killer of a teenage tagger set free, because he was forced to take the law into his own hands”.

This is in fact wrong many in SST did not and still do not support McVicar’s comments about Pihema or in fact about the young man who stabbed the 17 year old intruder.  As the discussion and challenges unfolded McVicar came out screaming and told members of Justice Hot Tub who had challenged him that

“… if this low life wasn't terrorising some innocent citizen he wouldn't have got stabbed, is that so dificult to understand? My family, my home is MY castle and NOBODY has the right to trespass. Don't make excuses, don't tell me he was on drugs or didn't get his mothers breast milk or some other pathetic excuse. If you don't understand that go start some pathetic 'loosers' group”.

This on a site where discussion and debate is encouraged by the administrators and most importantly by a man (McVicar) who wants to bring a halt to murder in New Zealand.

Another worrisome aspect about McVicar and the objectives of SST is how they reach their objectives. One would think that a lobby group that wants to influence policy changes on crime and punishment would do so with robust discussion and sound information. Instead it appears that McVicar was more interested in taking a leading court case as his starting point and demand changes from here. This of course involved the provocation law which he points out that he and Gil Elliot

“…successfully harangued Justice Minister Simon Power to have the provocation law removed from the statute books. A win for SST, then…even thought we wanted to get rid of provocation as a defence, and have done so, I now understand the need for its actually being in the law…I’m not 100 per cent sure that getting rid of provocation was the answer…”

This from a man who harangues the left or anyone that does not agree with him for ill thought out policy on crime and punishment.

Worse still that after making this statement in his book he goes on to congratulate the government for ridding the country of the ill thought out law that allowed the Waihopai protestors to defend themselves against prosecution with the “greater need” defence. He goes on to state that “the judge erred by allowing it to run, so we get a law change. Immediately, the opponents were saying “knee-jerk reaction”.

So should I leave this site and leave McVicar to carry on lording his racists views – NO I will not allow this man to blather on with his bullshit – I might not be changing minds but I will continue to poke this idiot with a long sensible stick!!!!! Hell its sport really!!!!

Gangs and Restorative justice

This is written by Jordan's mum  February 18, 2010
Its public so I think it's ok to share it again - personally i do not want her words lost in the internet highways and byways so this is what Jordan's mum has to say on gangs - restorative justice -and the murder of her son Jordan Herewini.

After losing a son, barely 16, to senseless, brutal murder (murder is mostly senseless and brutal), a lot of things that were once ‘political’ are now intensely personal. Restorative justice? There’s nothing to restore. Can it bring back my son? Jordan’s murderer was not part of my ‘community’ and I have no wish to be around gang members. Of course he has shown absolutely no remorse – quite the opposite. He and his supporters have shown nothing but contempt. The comment by ahurewa is right. They are laughing at us. They think it’s funny that my son is dead. According to one of them he “shouldn’t have got in the way”. In the way of what? A murderous rampage? They brag about it in the public gallery in court. But of course the murderer is pleading not guilty. They are pathetic. They do act like children – extremely dysfunctional children – and their mentality is just staggering.

The ‘justice’ system won’t be able to punish this man, or the others involved in Jordan’s murder. Prison is part of their lives. A second home. So yes, use all the forces available to wipe them off. Let’s start again with some decent social policy so the children of today don’t become the gangs of tomorrow. It’s too late for the seasoned gang members now. Especially the ones of this particular gang who thought nothing of cruelly taking a young life they knew nothing about.

Are some gangs ‘better’ than others? Maybe there are degrees. But a gang can’t exist without a rival, a ‘demonic other’. So red is pitted against blue and yellow. Good grief, save us all. It is more understandable when you see children acting this way. But these grown men? Why do we have to wait until they’re in their 50s or 60s and too tired and jaded to fight anymore or until they find god? They need dealing with now. And so do the teenage boys who are heading to join their ranks.

But no, we’ll have to wait until there’s another murder, where there will be more hand-wringing by politicians and members of the public who don’t have to live anywhere near the spectre of gangs. Then nothing will happen. Where are the new policies? Why aren’t the police using the powers they already have? Too hard basket.

Actually, there was another gang-related murder. A 17-year-old was murdered in Murupara in October last year, in the name of ‘red’ and ‘yellow’. Following that there was an attempt at the local level to send a message that violence was unacceptable. Anything at the governmental level? Still waiting. Are these boys’ lives not valued because they happened to be in small, seemingly ‘dysfunctional’ towns that just don’t register with the nation until something bad happens? Because they happened to be Maori and were seen to be involved in gangs themselves, therefore, hey, sad, but was to be expected? Jordan was not a gang member, nor a prospect. As far as I know, neither was the other boy who was murdered. They had futures – ones that didn’t involve gangs. Now they’re forever consigned, in the public imagination, to ‘gang-related fatalities’.

Living through murder

Agony from the Greek agon – to struggle

And struggle we do as Dylan Thomas says “We rage against the dying of the light”. And we loose. We all loose.

 It is estimated that 80+ people will be murdered each year in Aotearoa New Zealand. For each murdered victim there could be up to 240 mothers, fathers, co-parents and siblings who will be directly affected. Then there are all the other family’s members who will be affected. There are also impacts on the communities that the victims mixed in. Local and wider communities and society as a whole will feel the force of these murders. The victims themselves will come from various communities: Maori, Pakeha, Pacifica, Chinese and Indian to name a few. The murdered will be our sons’ daughters, mothers, fathers, caregivers, aunties, kuias, koros, lovers, and friends, the list is endless. And for many family and friends the grief will not ease, it will shift and change but for many of us the very fabric of our lives has been ripped asunder and little will repair our worlds. Some of us will try and forget, some will write, others will turn their grief into a campaign, others will go back to work and watch as their relationships fall apart unable and unwilling to repair the damage. Others still will embrace the grief discourse and find hope and something good to hold onto so as to stay alive and functioning.  Whatever survivors of homicide do to survive their nightmare, each and every one of them will wake, each and every day feeling a loss that can never fully be understood by others who have not experienced this particular pain.

On the 27^th January 2009, a beautiful warm Kapaiti coast Tuesday evening, I became part of this group of people. On that evening in a small rural town called Murupara in the Bay of Plenty, a 32 year man, which under normal circumstances we, my partner, her daughter and I would never have met, in fact who we never have known about, took the life of my partner’s son Jordan Robert Herewini. On that night Jordan’s life was horrifically stolen, destroyed, and the gates of Hades were torn open and our lives changed forever. This is my story about experiences and understandings of Jordan’s murder and the life that Quentin Pukeroa the murder has forced us to live. This is not a Jordan’s story nor is it Natalie’s story, that story is for Natalie and Natalie’s daughter to tell. Whilst I will talk about Jordan, it will be information that can be found on the internet or from interviews that Natalie did.

So this is my story about how Jordan’s murder and living with such intense grief has changed my life.

A little about me:

I have always seemed to identify with the tarot card the ‘fool’. Whenever I see that card I see myself stepping of the precipice unaware – unafraid of what exactly is below – ignoring the warnings of those beside me. Head in the air I embraced the adventure of life chaos over order – impulse over rationality. Yet like the fool card there was my hidden side the side I shared only with partners this was the reverse of all that I was as the fool. Secretly I feared the unknown, took way to many risks and often had little clarity to the point of being impulsive and reckless and some times I was completely irresponsible – at the age of 47 I was far more aware of the diversity the constant flux and conflictual nature of my personality. For this reason the small dog stayed beside me as a reminder of the possibility of the outcome of stepping over the precipice no matter what excitement there was to be had and how spontaneous I wished to be I never shun the reminder. Life up until Jordan’ murder was a journey not always a pleasant one and never a straightforward one. Many of my friends and ex-partners would give testimony to the kaos that is Kyro. But mostly they would do it lovingly. Born in 1960 I was the end of the baby boom. An illegitimate child I grew up in a regimental closed family who put religion and hard work over and above all other things. I know there was little hope for me from and early time in my life – I was tainted with ‘bad blood’ and this in turn would lead me into temptation. I suffered at the hands of abusive parents and at the age of 16 ½ left home to begin my journey. And journey it has been over the last 33 odd years I have wandered New Zealand making my mark – leaving behind kaos and forging a life that at the age of 47 would lead me safely into new era. I was happy free educated and on the road – less foolish more aware but still looking for adventure. My partner was beside me and whilst our relationship would not have been given the harmonious award of the year – it was a solid and exciting relationship – two educated working-class women on a journey to new new possibilities.  Again like the fool card that followed my every step I was looking for new opportunities following my heart and being somewhat spontaneous. 

So meeting Nat and moving into her place within a week of knowing her was my spontaneity taking over gain and again I loved it.