Victory! Patricia Grace Stops the Government Taking Maori Land
The government has been defeated by the author Patricia Grace in the Environment Court and, seeing the writing on the wall, the government will not appeal. Patricia Grace owns part of a block of Maori Freehold Land in Waikanae that was once in a Maori village and is full of significance. The government tried to […]
ISO Hui-a-tau 2013 – Learning together, fighting for socialism
More than 40 members and supporters of the International Socialist Organisation met at Waipapa Marae, in the heart of Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland, last weekend for the revolutionary socialist organisation’s third national conference, and first-ever Auckland conference. A quarter of all children in New Zealand grow up in poverty. Austerity, cutbacks and exploitation remain the ruling-class agenda […]
The Criminal Injustice System: from Aotearoa to the USA
Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow (2011) has caused a huge storm of discussion, debate and controversy in the United States. It may well be a book that sparks a new social movement. Alexander documents the rise of mass incarceration in the USA, and link this to entrenched racism, poverty and injustice. The privatising […]
Maori teacher brutalised by police
We are sharing this story of police brutality from tangatawhenua.com . Without their pioneering work sharing this it would not have got the further media attention that has come in recent days. TangataWhenua.com was asked to share this story as few other mainstream media outlets felt it was “newsworthy” enough. What follows is provided verbatium, […]
Anti-Chinese rants won’t stop asset sales
There was an evening rally against asset sales in Wellington on February 13. As a gathering of the committed the attendance was quite good. Estimates vary, but 400 would be about right I think. The unions – which could potentially turnout thousands of members against privatization – are not able to do so in their […]
Treaty hides racist rip-off
For many New Zealanders, Waitangi Day is a time to celebrate the founding of New Zealand, a nation which we are taught to believe is born of a union of two peoples, Maori and Pakeha – “He iwi tahi tatou”. This national myth serves to obscure the true character of the treaty and the colonial […]
Militant Classics: Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou
Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou by Ranginui Walker (revised edition 2004) Ranginui Walker presents a history of Aotearoa/New Zealand from the perspective of Maori fighting for self-determination. In this way the book has a ‘bottom up’ or ‘people`s history’ feel too it – it is an indispensable resource for activists today. Walker has been an engaged intellectual, […]
Treaty settlements, Maori workers, and the corporate model
The wealth of Maori business is estimated to be around $37 billion but with 60,000 Maori children living in poverty, Mana MP Hone Harawira has suggested to iwi leaders that “maybe it was time we turned our corporate bus around and went back to get all the kids”. On the face of it, that’s just […]
Māori money: A giant awakes?
Iwi corporates, estimated to be worth $37 billion in 2010, are changing the rules of New Zealand’s economy and politics. Māori capital has been criticised from the red-neck right as rent-seekers, from the left as an iwi aristocracy, and from within Māoridom itself. But in two major battles this year, Māoridom’s elite weighed in on […]
Honouring Past Struggles: Whangamata Protest 2008
In July 2008, Hauraki Māori and other community members of Whangamata occupied the proposed car park area of the Whangamata marina. What led them to this point? Te Matatuhi (the marina site) is the ancestral name of tangata whenua for the specific lands subject to the proposed marina. Te Matatuhi is land of particular significance […]
