This anger is not going away
What should our considered response ... be to a standoff that seems pregnant with potential volatility?
To watch footage shot from high above Lambton Quay of the 20,000-odd participants in Sunday’s march through Wellington, in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, was to realise something deeply significant was taking place in our capital.
Not that it was an isolated demonstration. Some 5000 people also marched in Auckland on Sunday, hundreds more in Dunedin, while Hamilton had seen a similar event the previous day.
But the sheer size, and the noisy, impassioned fervour of the Wellington gathering truly captured the imagination. Twenty thousand people marching, at lunchtime on a Sunday. That’s roughly one in every 20 inhabitants of Wellington and its three adjacent cities.
We should not forget, in relation to all three of the weekend’s significant marches, that the death in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the catalyst for the current global wave of Black Lives Matter marches, had taken place three weeks earlier, on May 25. There had already been a series of New Zealand demonstrations on Queen’s Birthday Monday, June 1.
On Friday, as protests about the appropriateness of statues of historical figures, such as Captain John Hamilton, intensified, Deputy Prime Minister and NZ First leader Winston Peters decried a ‘‘wave of idiocy’’ from the ‘‘woke generation’’. ‘‘Why do some woke New Zealanders feel the need to mimic mindless actions imported from overseas,’’ he said, adding that those who felt the need to pull down historic statues should ‘‘grow up and read a book’’.
Not a particularly surprising response, perhaps, but one that, judging by the weekend, missed the strength of the mood for significant change around the country. It seems clear our protesters are not about to be fobbed off, while at the same time many are speaking out against what they see as attempts to ‘‘rewrite history’’. What should our considered response as a country be to a standoff that seems pregnant with potential volatility? How can we address this intelligently?
Ma¯ ori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer called on Wednesday for an inquiry into all the colonial monuments and statues around New Zealand, saying ‘‘we still honour some of the most racist and oppressive figures from our colonial history’’ through statues and place names.
It’s clear, however, that what many critics see as a one-sided process is unlikely to fly, at least not peacefully. There have been numerous calls to take into account Ma¯ ori slavery, particularly that of Nga¯ ti Toa chief Te Rauparaha, commemorated in an arena bearing his name in Porirua.
In an opinion piece for Stuff yesterday, indigenous rights activist Tina Ngata wrote: ‘‘As a bicultural nation consisting of multicultural communities, addressing our deficit in understanding race and privilege is vital for a just future.’’
It seems a reasonable call, requiring buy-in from across this bicultural nation, but what form should it take? Do we need, dare we say it, a royal commission on racism? Or should we look at something like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that South Africa held after the end of apartheid, led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu? It could travel the country and allow everyone who wanted the opportunity to speak.
The question of who should lead it would be key. In the New Zealand context, the race relations conciliator, or perhaps the Waitangi Tribunal, could be suitable options. Whether such a tribunal would get the required buy-in might be in doubt. Either way, these stories need to be heard.