Remember Parihaka: colonialism, dairy and climate change
Webinar – Wednesday 3 November 7:30-9pm
An important kōrero to understand the history, contemporary situation and the solutions we have right now. The first of two Rise Up for Climate Justice webinars and local actions.
Colonialism is often talked about as one of the roots of climate change, but how is that actually happening and what kinds of solutions do we have to address it? The Parihaka peace community in Taranaki sits in the middle of vast industrial dairy farms at the centre of New Zealand’s fossil fuel extraction. Agriculture accounts for more than 50% of New Zealand’s emissions, natural gas from Taranaki’s gas fields is used to produce industrial fertiliser, while onshore and offshore fracking and conventional drilling continues across the region, and expansions and new drilling consents are still being granted. Taranaki hapū resisted colonial land grabbing for many years but were eventually pushed back to the bush edge where they joined forces at Parihaka using non-violent tactics of resistance. Despite invasion, imprisonment, abuse and massive land and resource thefts the Parihaka community and many hapū have held fast and are currently rebuilding their communities and rangatiratanga. Meanwhile, Taranaki climate justice activists are advocating for a fast and just transition by 2030 to bring about the changes essential to protect our ecosystems and keep temperature rise at or below 1.5C.
Join us for this important kōrero to understand the history, contemporary situation and the solutions we have right now to transform to a regenerative existence based on Tino Rangatiratanga and Kaitiakitanga. Facilitated by Te Ao Pritchard.
Register HERE to help with planning and receive the zoom link.
SPEAKERS
- Dr. Ruakere Hond is a longstanding advocate of reo Māori revitalisation and a key supporter of the Parihaka community. He was instrumental in working to achieve reconciliation between Parihaka and the crown, and he has held several leadership roles in Māori language organisations, including Te Reo o Taranaki, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, and Te Ataarangi. He is also a member of the Waitangi Tribunal and a Board member of Te Mātāwai (charged with leading Māori language revitalisation on behalf Māori).
- Emily Tuhi-Ao Bailey, is a mum, ecologist and community organiser. She spent many years as an activist based in Wellington, and documented environmental problems and solutions across four continents which convinced her that indigenous communities held the solutions to current environmental problems. For the last 14 years she has been working with Climate Justice Taranaki and helping with community gardens, environmental monitoring and papakainga revitalisation at Parihaka. She led the writing of the just transition plan ‘Toitu Taranaki 2030’.
Why Bother? Direct action and the climate movement
Webinar – Thursday 4 November 7:30pm-9pm
Does activism and direct action really change anything? All those young people marched a couple of years back and what happened? Have we really achieved anything in our decades of climate movement? Why take the risks involved and put our bodies on the line?
It’s easy to get despondent and hopeless when our mahi is for environmental and climate justice. The problems are structural and vast, and sometimes our wins seem inconsequential. But despite all that stands in the way, direct action activism has contributed to some massive changes. Amazing people all over the world continue to put themselves in the way of climate and ecosystem destruction. Join climate activists as we discuss the role of direct action in the movement for climate justice, past and present, and why we put ourselves in the streets and on the blockades in struggling for a better world.
SPEAKERS
- Pania Newton – a New Zealand lawyer and activist for Māori land rights; she is a member of the Ngāpuhi, Waikato, Ngāti Mahuta and Ngāti Maniapoto tribes. In 2016, Newton alongside her five cousins, and other supporters, formed the group Save Our Unique Landscape (SOUL) to protest the development of land at Ihumātao in south Auckland. In 2019 thousands of supporters came to support their successful land occupation.
- Siana Fitzjohn. Her activism grew from doing a lot of volunteering and working in the climate movement from her late teens. She has spent ten years with groups like Oil Free Otago, XR and Greenpeace working to stop deep sea oil and gas exploration – which has involved direct action such as jumping onto and attaching herself to a moving drilling rig off the Taranaki coast in 2019. More recently her direct action has been directed at the coal industry.
- Rosemary Penwarden. Her plunge into peaceful direct climate action came with the birth of her first grandchild in 2011, the same year Dr James Hanson visited Dunedin and convinced her of the urgency for change. She knew direct action worked from years in the union movement as a medical laboratory scientist. Her work in the climate movement has included supporting groups like Oil Free Otago, CANA (Coal Action Network Aotearoa) and others. She kick-started VCW (the Valley Community Workspace in Dunedin), converted her own electric car, lives off-grid and helps grow heaps of yummy local food in between helping stop the biggest polluters and supporting positive change.
- Nate Rew is a Papua New Guinean and Pākehā student, academic, and activist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. When he’s not teaching, gardening, or playing boardgames, Nate is a doctoral candidate at the University of Auckland, working on colonial and Pasifika philosophies of water and their respective consequences. As a part of Te Ara Whatu, Nate attended COP 25 in Madrid in 2019, working as part of the Indigenous People’s Caucus to respond to the IPCC’s Special Report on Oceans and the Crysophere. Nate is committed to fighting for our waters, for indigenous sovereignty, and for a Free West Papua