MEDIA RELEASE – For immediate use

The Pacific Panthers and Auckland Peace Action celebrated the peaceful resistance of Parihaka today.

In an event that decolonizes the peace movement, the Pacific Panthers first action since their formation in June this year saw a number of pacific, indigenous and peoples of colour come together to affirm their commitment to peace.

The Parihaka Peace Conference had a number of speakers on a range of topics. Following the pōwhiri, which acknowledged Ngāti Whātua as mana whenua, filmmaker Paora Joseph, who produced Tatarakihi: The Children of Parihaka, started the kōrero and a number of people who had been raised at Parihaka offered their stories as well. Sina Brown-Davis followed with an analysis of contemporary injustices and Emilie Rākete then spoke about the connection between racism and class.

‘I think we were really honoured and privileged to have people from Parihaka speak today about their resistance to colonial violence and militarism, and that shows the strength and beauty of our culture to survive. That provided the link to hear stories from all around the world where we heard stories like Parihaka repeated’ says Sina Brown-Davis, organiser for Pacific Panthers and Auckland Peace Action and speaker on the day.

Keala Kelly, Craig Santos-Perez and Teresia Teaiwa offered their stories about U.S military occupation in Hawaii, Guam and Fiji. Faisal Al-Assad and Muslim feminist Khayreyah Amani Wahaab spoke on Islamophobia and refugees. Jane Kelsey and Valerie Morse gave insight on trade deals and the arms trade, with consideration to the upcoming Weapons Conference.

Marama Davidson spoke about her recent experiences on the Women's Boat to Gaza and the injustices Palestinian women and children face everyday. She left the conference with the challenge to speak up about these issues, ‘silence scares me, and for that I will never stop talking’.

Pacific peoples have had a long history of military violence and occupation in their lands, which continues today. Resistance to that violence has consistently been peaceful and in line with their own tikanga. That was the way in which today’s conference was conducted, in the hope of opening the floor to discussion, and making a commitment to continue the peaceful resistance to colonial violence.

‘I’m really happy that those bridges of solidarity were built between tangata whenua and struggles of other colonized peoples’ finished Sina Brown-Davis.

In a couple of weeks New Zealand is hosting a weapons conference and the next step from this conference is to build on that solidarity and continue the fight against colonial injustices that affect our Pacific and Indigenous peoples. Pacific Panthers is holding a Karanga Tangaroa on the 17th November at 9am at Mission Bay in a stand of solidarity with Tangaroa and against the military vessels that will be present.

ENDS

© Scoop Media