Pussy Riot: ‘Racist movement’ growing globally

‘‘For us it become apart of us being here,’’ Pussy Riot lead member Maria Alyokhina says about the Christchurch mass shooting prior to their concert in Invercargill.

The Russian activist pop/punk band were in Southland yesterday, ahead of their last New Zealand show at the Tuatara Cafe in Invercargill last night.

The group is a globally recognised act for their role in activism on topics of feminism, LGBTQ+ rights and anti-Vladimir Putin sentiments. Two members, Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, were charged with hooliganism in 2012.

The group visited Te Tomairangi Marae yesterday and were greeted with a powhiri and a waiata.

‘‘It [New Zealand] is extremely beautiful – one the most beautiful places I have ever seen,’’ Alyokhina said.

She spoke of the unexpected circumstances that led them to visiting Oreti Beach. ‘‘We should be in Brazil but that was cancelled due to political circumstances, and the second with was the situation in Christchurch. We know that for New Zealand it’s the first time you have a mass shooting.’’

Alyokhina talked about visiting Australia and that each time she went there she had felt racism had increased.

She believed racism was getting worse globally. ‘‘This racist movement is appearing around the world bigger than before,’’ Alyokhina said.

She also talked about how little she knew of New Zealand history but had been reading a lot since she arrived. ‘‘I didn’t know New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote,’’ Alyokhina said.

Pussy Riot’s show combines theatre and live music based on Alyokhina’s new book, Riot Days, which depicts her time during incarceration.