The current Black Lives Matter protests in response to
police violence have created a ripple effect across the world. New Zealand has
a history of violent colonialism, one of the legacies of which are institutions that
oppress POC, although insidiously this history is usually painted as less
violent than it actually was and these institutions downplayed as ‘not as bad
as in other countries’. This pervasive apathy creates barriers to protest.
However, with the protests in the United States, it seems as though personal
thresholds to protest in New Zealand have shifted—not only for protests that
are sparked from outrage at the situation in the US, but protests that are
about uniquely New Zealand issues. Debate has started up about various colonial
statues and whether they should still exist, as they represent white supremacy
and its institutional legacies.
Winston Peter’s comments that protestors are “mimic[king]
mindless actions imported from overseas” just miss the mark in their derision
of these activities. Protestors are not mimicking so much as they are responding
to an overseas event that has shifted these personal thresholds to protest long-existing
issues in this country.
As discussed this week in the course, people make decisions
on whether to protest based on who else is going to protest, how many others
will also show up. Former mayor of Hamilton Andrew King has complained that a
couple of years ago he made failed attempts to bring up these issues as “a lone
voice”, as a result very little coming of this. In light of the BLM protests
and the unrest this has caused worldwide, the controversial statue of Captain
Fane Charles Hamilton has already been removed after there were threats that it
would be torn down in protest.
Excellent point, Kayla!
ReplyDeleteI think this is really interesting to examine through the context of the week 11 reading on Velvet Revolution. One of the key points there was that change and revolution is much more likely to happen through mass movements and protests as opposed to more violent forms of rebellion. As much as I love to see the solidarity from New Zealanders on this issue, I don't believe we have reached the scale yet in which we can make progress on this issue. While taking down statues is a great first start, it is a symbolic move that creates no actual change on systemic racial inequalities caused by our colonialism. I believe there is a fine balance to strike between solidarity and co-opting a social movement for our context, but at the moment New Zealand's racial activism is too geared towards solidarity to create any type of change.
ReplyDeleteWhat I would love to see is this consciousness of racial issues taken from America, and applied to New Zealand to a large enough extent that the protests are larger and more energized. Trump, in a way, has ripped the band-aid of the status quo off the historical inequalities in America and revitalized this civil rights movement. In contrast, New Zealand's far more pragmatic governments can easily maintain the status quo and subdue discussion on these issues as there have not been any raised stakes to put energy into the movement.