Tina Ngata: Waiting for the fox to give the henhouse back
“Those in power are so accustomed to extreme privilege that anything less than maintaining that feels like oppression.” — Tina Ngata.
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Tag: racism
Putting Pākehā in the shoes of a colonised people
“I wanted to write something that puts Pākehā in the shoes of a colonised people. I want them to imagine a world in which their principles and values are routinely laughed at.” — Tīhema Baker, author of ‘Turncoat’, a satirical sci-fi novel.
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Lies with our breakfast
“It’s easy to laugh at these cereal lies, but the truth is that these stereotypes and racist assumptions still exist — in my classes, in debates on social media, and in the community where I live.” — Catherine Delahunty.
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How we talk about race
“Race is a socially constructed structure of power that we are part of, even if we refuse to acknowledge it, and one’s ethnicity is about personal ethnic identifications, whakapapa and ancestries.” — Dr Lana Lopesi.
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Something is broken in our universities
“Something happens at graduate school to make people leave — and we believe a lot of it has to do with the racism you experience in the university system.” — Dr Leilani Walker & Dr Sereana Naepi.
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The ‘unexplained’ reasons for the Pacific pay gap
“We’re a community contributing to the economy but not getting the same contribution back.” — Dr Sereana Naepi on the Pacific pay gap.
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A university where we can see ourselves
“I still remember the Year 13 dean who decided I didn’t need university pamphlets because, in his eyes, I wasn’t university material.” — Jemaima Tiatia, Pro Vice Chancellor Pacific at Auckland University.
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The Salesman Beast
“Although his books are considered classic studies based on rare first-hand knowledge, Elsdon Best was a structural racist whose bigoted beliefs help explain a lot of the shit we’re still dealing with today.” — Connie Buchanan.
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A day in the life of a Māori academic
“While the hijacking had taken things to another level, this was also just another day in the life of a Māori academic working within a colonial and patriarchal institution and society.” — Dr Elana Curtis.
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The N-word, hip hop, and anti-Black racism in Aotearoa
“When we encounter racism from communities of colour, it’s harder for us to understand and reconcile — and sometimes it hurts more, because many of us have found solace among brown faces in the absence of Black ones.” — Guled Mire, Rita Wakefield, Mazbou Q.
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Waikaremoana Waitoki: Don’t let your mana be trampled
“I’m well if my family is well, and my family is well if I’m well. Also, as a people, we are all well if the land is well.” — Dr Waikaremoana Waitoki, clinical psychologist.
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Moana Jackson: ‘I’m absolutely sure transformation is coming’
“If there’s anything that has marked the survival of our people and the flourishing of our people, it’s that we have been brave.” — Moana Jackson.
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‘You been playing up, boy?’
“I wouldn’t say the school was racist, as such. There were Māori staff, a makeshift marae on-site, Māori students excelling in pockets. It was, however, uncomfortably tolerant of racist rhetoric.” — Airana Ngarewa.
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Wāhine, White Women, and Waitangi
“New Zealand is steadfastly committed to drinking its own Kool-aid when it comes to race relations. We have stitched-in blinders when it comes to convincing everyone that we are kind, and just and equitable.” — Tina Ngata.
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Fighting Poison
“The story of SWAP (Sawmill Workers Against Poisons) is more than the terrible and the tragic. It’s also about racism, class issues, and a kind of leadership that’s so often ignored and underestimated.” — Catherine Delahunty.
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Here we go again: Covid and racism
“It’s been a whole year since we went through this, and yet, here we are again, with mainstream media ignoring, or perhaps not even seeing, the very real damage done by this type of clickbait heading.” — Emmaline Pickering-Martin.
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A challenge not a threat
The recent attacks on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) are not just ill-informed — they’re “dangerously provocative”, writes Moana Jackson.
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National’s use of race as a political tool
“On one hand, National wants Māori votes. On the other, National MPs criticise Māori initiatives and shoot themselves in the foot when they use race as a political tool.” — Dr Paerau Warbrick.
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Policing the Dawn Raids
“The attitudes of the special squads which had been formed to do this work was appalling. The latent racism, usually judiciously concealed, was blatant and paraded for all to see, with constant talk of ‘getting the coconuts’.” — Tā Kim Workman.
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Racists Anonymous — a reflection of ourselves
“A man stood up and said: ‘I thought this was the group to come to when you want to be racist.’ And then he left. I’m still hoping that was part of the show.” — Emmaline Pickering-Martin on ‘Racists Anonymous’.
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Truth, lies, and stereotypes
“Stereotypes affect, and infect, all of us — including those of us who suffer because of them. They don’t just live in the heads of those who use them to hammer us, but in ours as well.” — Shelley Burne-Field.
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Colonisation has always been separatist
“Colonisation has always been a separatist process in which the colonising states imposed their own separate institutions in places that already had their own.” — Moana Jackson.
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Moana Jackson: Decolonisation and the stories in the land
“In this country, the potential exists to develop a different and unique decolonisation discourse because there are already stories which express the power of a different truth.” — Moana Jackson, from ‘Imagining Decolonisation’.
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Flies in milk
“The reason this female ancestor of mine is a mystery is simple. She was either Indian or what was then called Eurasian.” — Catherine Delahunty.
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Shut the border, open the dialogue
“The racist decision was not warning us before the suspension happened. The racist decision was not directly addressing the community after announcing it.” — Dr Sapna Samant & Professor Mohan Dutta.
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When inclusion means erasure
“It’s deeply painful to consider just how poorly Pacific Islanders are being served by public health agencies here in the US, especially in states where their health data isn’t separated from Asians’.” — Ema Hao’uli.
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White supremacy is still the standard
“I often get asked: ‘Do you hate white South Africans?’ The answer is simple, but you must understand my story.” — Gregory Fortuin.
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‘Clowns wear suits, too’: the look, feel and taste of systemic racism
“Whiteness is a dance whose rhythm we all know. And our missteps invite derision and censure, as Anantha and I found in stepping out of line at this particular dinner.”
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New Zealand universities are lucky to have us
“Even though I studied at tertiary level for 10 years, I’ve never had a Pacific lecturer, and there were no Pacific academics who could supervise my PhD in my school.” — Jess Pasisi.
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The grind of racism
“Racism is wearisome. Literally tiring. It does not create a pearl after years of grinding. It creates sickness, fear, anxiety, sadness, resentment, and worry.” — Shelley Burne-Field.
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