Great-grandmother to lead Wellington blockade - Extinction Rebellion

Extinction Rebellion Aotearoa New Zealand

Press release for immediate release

Sunday 6 October, 1:40 pm.

GREAT-GRANDMOTHER TO LEAD WELLINGTON BLOCKADE

Extinction Rebellion will disrupt central Wellington tomorrow starting
an international wave of climate and environmental civil disobedience.

Participants will initially meet at Midlands Park, Wellington at 7 am
before moving to an undisclosed event location.

The non-violent action is the first of more than 60 in capital cities
organised by Extinction Rebellion around the world.

The Wellington action will disrupt traffic with a street party and
expects arrests.

Extinction Rebellion spokesperson Mary Rose, 80, will lead the blockade.

She says decades of inaction around climate and ecological breakdown
is pushing ordinary people to risk arrest.

"As a great grandmother, I'm determined to help wake up the world, so
my grandchildren have the same choices as their parents," she says.

Extinction Rebellion members from across the country have gathered at
Paekakariki to practice peaceful civil disobedience and get legal
briefings.

Melanie Vautier, a student at Victoria University, says she never
imagined she'd find herself in a situation risking arrest.

"Society needs to change, and that will take collective action by
everyone," she says." That includes people like me who would never
have thought of themselves as an 'activist'."

Rose says the Monday event is open to the public at any time during the day.

There will be a family-friendly space for people to take part without
risking arrest, she says.

Extinction Rebellion has three demands of Government:

1. Tell the truth and declare a climate and ecological emergency,

2. Act Now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse emissions
to net-zero by 2025, and

3. Go beyond politics and set up a Citizen's Assembly on climate and
ecological justice.

ENDS

More information

• We will post the event location, and updates throughout the day
on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
• Extinction Rebellion Aotearoa NZ started in late 2018 and has
over 20 branches nationwide from Whangarei to Invercargill.
• As New Zealanders and members of the Pacific, Extinction
Rebellion Aotearoa New Zealand acknowledge climate injustice is
colonial injustice. Māori and Pacific peoples bear its brunt. Their
voices and leadership must guide the way forward.

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