Wellington protest report

About 30 people attended a solidarity demonstration on Manners Mall in Wellington today in support of the 'Urewera 20'. The demonstration was called earlier this week following additional raids by the police in Ruatoki and Maketu. Three more people were arrested, bringing the total of people charged to 19 (one person was arrested and subsequently released). We understand that two additional people were taken in for questioning this week but as yet, not placed under arrest. This suggests that more raids and arrests may be yet to come.

Two of the arrestees spoke at the demo, which attracted a good crowd of at Manners Mall. Following a brilliant duet of 'Safer communities together' by Don Franks accompanied by a local clarinet player, the demo did a lap down to the local police station.

While the demo did get lots of support for the tino rangatiratanga message, it is clear that there is still little broader understanding of the political nature of the arrests. The on-going colonisation of Aotearoa is so pervasive and the ruling white-supremacist paradigm so all-encompassing, many people fail to see the ugly racist reality driving 'Operation 8' and indeed, much of the so-called 'policing' that goes on in this country.

The Poneke solidarity crew will be meeting again to discuss further campaigning.

Tame Iti on Mana Motuhake (Video)

“The most important thing for me really to talk about is the issue about Mana Motuhake - Tino Rangatiratanga. It's an issue that we need to process in the year of the election, more important than the election. The issue of Tino Rangatiratanga and Mana Motuhake is an issue that we all need to talk about. It's a take (‘cause”)… I'm not going to talk to you about it today. But it's a take that every whānau (‘family’) and hapū ('subtribe') need to take it back to their whānau, to their hapū. He aha tērā? He aha te Mana Motuhake? (‘What is that? What is Mana Motuhake?’) It's not something that we should be scared of. It not be something that people ought to be to the point that what happened last year that they had to send their spy there to kill me and many others. Not very nice when something like that happens to you. But Mana Motuhake is about freedom. Free to be a Tūhoe and free to be Ngā Puhi and free to be a Waikato. To me Mana Motuhake is about that. And free to be a Pakeha. And free to be anyone of those things.
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I'm not here to preach about it. […] We need to take that take to your whānau, to your children, to your kohanga reo, and we gotta do it! We gotta do it.
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And so we need to open our eyes and our ears… and see Mana Motuhake as something that's beautiful. And it's for you, for me and for the future. And don't get locked up in this hype about nothing.”