The Struggle at Shelly Bay and Memories for Future Fights
Shelly Bay, Miramar Peninsular, Wellington City: a land occupation is heating up. Last Wednesday, a call for support went out; on Thursday, developers stood off against a line of protestors. Arrests have been threatened, but the cops have held off while numbers are strong. What’s it all about? The management of assets from a treaty […]
Shelly Bay Update – 9th November, 2021
On Monday morning 8th November 2021, news website Stuff reported Motu Kairangi Shelly Bay occupiers were served with an eviction notice from Shelly Bay Taikuru by Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust (PNBST) chief executive Lee Hunter, PNBST chair Holden Hohaia, and development manager Earl Hope-Pearson. The eviction notice apparently stated Shelly Bay Taikuru had exclusive […]
An Interview with Mau Whenua member Shamia Makarini
In 2016, a vote among people of Te Atiawa, Taranaki, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Mutunga vetoed the sale of jointly held iwi land at Shelly Bay to property developers. The land in question, at Shelly Bay, was held by the Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust, a body formed by the Crown to be […]
A review of Tina Ngata’s Kia Mau: Resisting Colonial Fictions
Tina Ngata of Ngāti Porou has recently published Kia Mau: Resisting Colonial Fictions. At the launch of this book on 28th November 2019, Tina Ngata described how she had started with a blog called The Non-plastic Māori, exploring “the experience of living for a year without purchasing any new plastics”, which quickly developed to explore […]
Land is the Price: colonialism then…and now
Throughout history capitalists has searched the world for profitable exploitation. To create a paradise for capital, lands were sought, claimed and the people that lived there forced off their communal property. Those commoners then became the pool of labour that the industrial revolution was built on. From the enclosing of the commons in Britain to […]
Ihumātao: a Struggle for Justice
The fight for land rights in Aotearoa is the essential question for radical social change for both mana whenua and tau iwi. To resolve this question requires challenging some of the most fundamental aspects of capitalism in New Zealand – the rule of private property. Property held purely for profit, for factories, for land farming […]
State ‘care’ and stolen generations
“Oranga Tamariki told me I had five minutes to say goodbye to my baby and then they were going to take it… I hung onto my baby but I was worried they were going to hurt me and the baby.” These are the words of a young mother who in May resisted multiple attempts by […]
From Ōtepoti to Ihumātao
We’re at opposite ends of these motu, but the kaupapa is the same: protect Ihumātao. 26 July, an estimated 300 people marched in Ōtepoti in solidarity with the occupation of Ihumātao. The ISO was proud to be among those marching the streets of Dunedin, blocking intersections, and showing that there are people all across our […]
Ihumātao: Interview with a Protector
In the wake of group arrests and galvanizing protests over securing mana whenua rights to one of Aotearoa’s oldest settlements, Socialist Review spoke to a young protector on her personal experience as part of the ongoing occupation on the land, and the socialist conclusion that must be drawn from this struggle. The Occupation: A Personal […]
Criminal Injustice: Racist Cruelty
Nine years of National rule has left a cruel and brutalising legacy in New Zealand’s criminal justice system. Last year the prison population reached 10,100, an all-time high. The number of people incarcerated has increased by 364 percent in the last 30 years, according to researcher Roger Brooking. The system is racist. Over half of […]
