The community is up in arms over another local post office in Aotearoa New Zealand about to be closed down, this time in the iconic and historic Auckland inner city suburb of Ponsonby.

A local author and founder of Greenstone Pictures, John Harris, has led a pushback against plans to close the Ponsonby post office branch in Three Lamps next month with an undated open letter to the chief executive David Walsh.

Saying he was “surprised and dismayed” to see the “closing soon but staying put” sign in the Ponsonby NZ Post shop, Harris pointed out that the small office gave “great service to dozens of businesses” in the area, and hundreds of residents.

“It is misleading on your poster to claim that people will be able to obtain the same services at nearby post shops like that in Jervois Road,” Harris said.

“Will they be able to pay their bills and car registration there? Collect mail and parcels? Buy courier bags and send mail and parcels?

“And do you expect them to walk there?  It is not helpful to say this closure ‘might mean a few minutes extra drive’.

This assumed that all clients were using a car, not elderly or young who were on foot.

Parking in busy streets
“And people are expected to try and find parking on other busy streets — Jervois Road, Karangahape Road, Wellesley Street.”

Harris said: “The Ponsonby post shop is a vital part of the network that binds the community together.

“To close it is like removing part of the community’s nervous system:  an ill-considered stab at the heart of a community which has always been vibrant, socially aware and productive.”

The NZ Post website proclaims that “we provide customers with the solutions and products to help them communicate and do business.”

However, said Harris, this planned closure for July 4 did not match those promises.

Harris also pointed out that NZ Post made a $16 million operating profit for the last six months of 2024.

“Congratulations. I’m pleased you are keeping NZ Post viable. But it shows there is a bit of ‘wriggle room’ to keep the Ponsonby store open.”

Digital services use
In response to the call to reconsider the decision, a customer services officer replied on June 6 on behalf of chief executive Walsh, saying that the NZ Post Office needed to “ensure our physical locations are in the right places and operating efficiently” in an age where more people used digital services.

“In some areas, including Ponsonby, we’ve had more than one store serving the same neighbourhood. That’s not a sustainable way for us to operate, so we’ve had to make some changes.”

However, critics of the decision to close the Ponsonby store say the reasoning  was “not credible”, stressing that all claimed alternative postal stores are several kilometres away.

A year after chief executive Walsh was appointed in 2017, it was announced that NZ Post would close almost 80 local post offices across the country and replace some of them with franchises.

Harris, a children’s author with a strong association with the local community stretching back to the 1970s and a former editor of West End News in Freemans Bay, acknowledged that the Ponsonby  PO boxes lobby was being kept open, “but what about the ordinary rank-and-file residents and small business owners who value the other everyday services offered at the store?”

He said he had written to local MP, Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick and the Ponsonby Business Association seeking their support.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

When the US Embassy knocked on my door in late 2024, I was both pleased and more than a little suspicious.

I’d worked with them before, but the organisation where I did that work, Tohatoha, had closed its doors. My new project, Dark Times Academy, was specifically an attempt to pull myself out of the grant cycle, to explore ways of funding the work of counter-disinformation education without dependence on unreliable governments and philanthropic funders more concerned with their own objectives than the work I believed then — and still believe — is crucial to the future of human freedom.

But despite my efforts to turn them away, they kept knocking, and Dark Times Academy certainly needed the money. I’m warning you all now: There is a sense in which everything I have to say about counter-disinformation comes down to conversations about how to fund the work.

There is nothing I would like more than to talk about literally anything other than funding this work. I don’t love money, but I do like eating, having a home, and being able to give my kids cash.

I have also repeatedly found myself in roles where other people look to me for their livelihoods; a responsibility that I carry heavily and with more than a little clumsiness and reluctance.

But if we are to talk about President Donald Trump and disinformation, we have to talk about money. As it is said, the love of money is the root of all evil. And the lack of it is the manifestation of that evil.

Trump and his attack on all of us — on truth, on peace, on human freedom and dignity — is, at its core, an attack that uses money as a weapon. It is an attack rooted in greed and in avarice.

In his world, money is power
But in that greed lies his weakness. In his world, money is power. He and those who serve him and his fascist agenda cannot see beyond the world that money built. Their power comes in the form of control over that world and the people forced to live in it.

Of course, money is just paper. It is digital bits in a database sitting on a server in a data centre relying on electricity and water taken from our earth. The ephemeral nature of their money speaks volumes about their lack of strength and their vulnerability to more powerful forces.

They know this. Trump and all men like him know their weaknesses — and that’s why they use their money to gather power and control. When you have more money than you and your whānau can spend in several generations, you suddenly have a different kind of  relationship to money.

It’s one where money itself — and the structures that allow money to be used for control of people and the material world — becomes your biggest vulnerability. If your power and identity are built entirely on the power of money, your commitment to preserving the power of money in the world becomes an all-consuming drive.

Capitalism rests on many “logics” — commodification, individualism, eternal growth, the alienation of labour. Marx and others have tried this ground well already.

In a sense, we are past the time when more analysis is useful to us. Rather, we have reached a point where action is becoming a practical necessity. After all, Trump isn’t going to stop with the media or with counter-disinformation organisations. He is ultimately coming for us all.

What form that action must take is a complicated matter. But, first we must think about money and about how money works, because only through lessening the power of money can we hope to lessen the power of those who wield it as their primary weapon.

Beliefs about poor people
If you have been so unfortunate to be subject to engagement with anti-poverty programmes during the neoliberal era either as a client or a worker, you will know that one of the motivations used for denying direct cash aid to those in need of money is a belief on the part of government and policy experts that poor people will use their money in unwise ways, be it drugs or alcohol, or status purchases like sneakers or manicures.

But over and over again, there’s another concern raised: cash benefits will be spent on others in the community, but outside of those targeted with the cash aid.

You see this less now that ideas like a universal basic income (UBI) and direct cash transfers have taken hold of the policy and donor classes, but it is one of those rightwing concerns that turned out to be empirically accurate.

Poor people are more generous with their money and all of their other resources as well. The stereotype of the stingy Scrooge is one based on a pretty solid mountain of evidence.

The poor turn out to understand far better than the rich how to defeat the power that money gives those who hoard it — and that is community. The logic of money and capital can most effectively be defeated through the creation and strengthening of our community ties.

Donald Trump and those who follow him revel in creating a world of atomised individuals focused on themselves; the kind of world where, rather than relying on each other, people depend on the market and the dollar to meet their material needs — dollars. of course, being the source of control and power for their class.

Our ability to fund our work, feed our families, and keep a roof over our heads has not always been subject to the whims of capitalists and those with money to pay us. Around the world, the grand multicentury project known as colonialism has impoverished us all and created our dependency.

Colonial projects and ‘enclosures’
I cannot speak as a direct victim of the colonial project. Those are not my stories to tell. There are so many of you in this room who can speak to that with far more eloquence and direct experience than I. But the colonial project wasn’t only an overseas project for my ancestors.

In England, the project was called “enclosure”.

Enclosure is one of the core colonial logics. Enclosure takes resources (land in particular) that were held in common and managed collectively using traditional customs and hands them over to private control to be used for private rather than communal benefit. This process, repeated over and over around the globe, created the world we live in today — the world built on money.

As we lose control over our access to what we need to live as the land that holds our communities together, that binds us to one another, is co-opted or stolen from us, we lose our power of self-determination. Self-governance, freedom, liberty — these are what colonisation and enclosure take from us when they steal our livelihoods.

As part of my work, I keep a close eye on the approaches to counter-disinformation that those whose relationship to power is smoother than my own take. Also, in this the year of our Lord 2025, it is mandatory to devote at least some portion of each public talk to AI.

I am also profoundly sorry to have to report that as far as I can tell, the only work on counter-disinformation still getting funding is work that claims to be able to use AI to detect and counter disinformation. It will not surprise you that I am extremely dubious about these claims.

AI has been created through what has been called “data colonialism”, in that it relies on stolen data, just as traditional forms of colonialism rely on stolen land.

Risks and dangers of AI
AI itself — and I am speaking here specifically of generative AI — is being used as a tool of oppression. Other forms of AI have their own risks and dangers, but in this context, generative AI is quite simply a tool of power consolidation, of hollowing out of human skill and care, and of profanity, in the sense of being the opposite of sacred.

Words, art, conversation, companionship — these are fiercely human things. For a machine to mimic these things is to transgress against all of our communities — all the more so when the machine is being wielded by people who speak openly of genocide and white supremacy.

However, just as capitalism can be fought through community, colonialism can and has been fought through our own commitment to living our lives in freedom. It is fought by refusing their demands and denying their power, whether through the traditional tools of street protest and nonviolent resistance, or through simply walking away from the structures of violence and control that they have implemented.

In the current moment, that particularly includes the technological tools that are being used to destroy our communities and create the data being used to enact their oppression. Each of us is free to deny them access to our lives, our hopes, and dreams.

This version of colonisation has a unique weakness, in that the cyber dystopia they have created can be unplugged and turned off. And yet, we can still retain the parts of it that serve us well by building our own technological infrastructure and helping people use that instead of the kind owned and controlled by oligarchs.

By living our lives with the freedom we all possess as human beings, we can deny these systems the symbolic power they rely on to continue.

That said, this has limitations. This process of theft that underlies both traditional colonialism and contemporary data colonialism, rather than that of land or data, destroys our material base of support — ie. places to grow food, the education of our children, control over our intellectual property.

Power consolidated upwards
The outcome is to create ever more dependence on systems outside of our control that serve to consolidate power upwards and create classes of disposable people through the logic of dehumanisation.

Disposable people have been a feature across many human societies. We see it in slaves, in cultures that use banishment and exile, and in places where imprisonment is used to enforce laws.

Right now we see it in the United States being directed at scale towards those from Central and Latin America and around the world. The men being sent to the El Salvadorian gulag, the toddlers sent to immigration court without a lawyer, the federal workers tossed from their jobs — these are disposable people to Trump.

The logic of colonialism relies on the process of dehumanisation; of denying the moral relevance of people’s identity and position within their communities and families. When they take a father from his family, they are dehumanising him and his family. They are denying the moral relevance of his role as a father and of his children and wife.

When they require a child to appear alone before an immigration judge, they are dehumanising her by denying her the right to be recognised as a child with moral claims on the adults around her. When they say they want to transition federal workers from unproductive government jobs to the private sector, they are denying those workers their life’s work and identity as labourers whose work supports the common good.

There was a time when I would point out that we all know where this leads, but we are there now. It has led there, although given the US incarceration rate for Black men, it isn’t unreasonable to argue that in fact for some people, the US has always been there. Fascism is not an aberration, it is a continuation. But the quickening is here. The expansion of dehumanisation and hate have escalated under Trump.

Dehumanisaton always starts with words and  language. And Trump is genuinely — and terribly — gifted with language. His speeches are compelling, glittering, and persuasive to his audiences. With his words and gestures, he creates an alternate reality. When Trump says, “They’re eating the cats! They’re eating the dogs!”, he is using language to dehumanise Haitian immigrants.

An alternate reality for migrants
When he calls immigrants “aliens” he is creating an alternate reality where migrants are no longer human, no longer part of our communities, but rather outside of them, not fully human.

When he tells lies and spews bullshit into our shared information system, those lies are virtually always aimed at creating a permission structure to deny some group of people their full humanity. Outrageous lie after outrageous lie told over and over again crumbles society in ways that we have seen over and over again throughout history.

In Europe, the claims that women were consorting with the devil led to the witch trials and the burning of thousands of women across central and northern Europe. In Myanmar, claims that Rohinga Muslims were commiting rape, led to mass slaughter.

Just as we fight the logics of capitalism with community and colonialism with a fierce commitment to our freedom, the power to resist dehumanisation is also ours. Through empathy and care — which is simply the material manifestation of empathy — we can defeat attempts to dehumanise.

Empathy and care are inherent to all functioning societies — and they are tools we all have available to us. By refusing to be drawn into their hateful premises, by putting morality and compassion first, we can draw attention to the ridiculousness of their ideas and help support those targeted.

Disinformation is the tool used to dehumanise. It always has been. During the COVID-19 pandemic when disinformation as a concept gained popularity over the rather older concept of propaganda, there was a real moment where there was a drive to focus on misinformation, or people who were genuinely wrong about usually public health facts. This is a way to talk about misinformation that elides the truth about it.

There is an empirical reality underlying the tsunami of COVID disinformation and it is that the information was spread intentionally by bad actors with the goal of destroying the social bonds that hold us all together. State actors, including the United States under the first Trump administration, spread lies about COVID intentionally for their own benefit and at the cost of thousands if not millions of lives.

Lies and disinformation at scale
This tactic was not new then. Those seeking political power or to destroy communities for their own financial gain have always used lies and disinformation. But what is different this time, what has created unique risks, is the scale.

Networked disinformation — the power to spread bullshit and lies across the globe within seconds and within a context where traditional media and sources of both moral and factual authority have been systematically weakened over decades of neoliberal attack — has created a situation where disinformation has more power and those who wield it can do so with precision.

But just as we have the means to fight capitalism, colonialism, and dehumanisation, so too do we — you and I — have the tools to fight disinformation: truth, and accurate and timely reporting from trustworthy sources of information shared with the communities impacted in their own language and from their own people.

If words and images are the chosen tools of dehumanisation and disinformation, then we are lucky because they are fighting with swords that we forged and that we know how to wield. You, the media, are the front lines right now. Trump will take all of our money and all of our resources, but our work must continue.

Times like this call for fearlessness and courage. But more than that, they call on us to use all of the tools in our toolboxes — community, self-determination, care, and truth. Fighting disinformation isn’t something we can do in a vacuum. It isn’t something that we can depersonalise and mechanise. It requires us to work together to build a very human movement.

I can’t deny that Trump’s attacks have exhausted me and left me depressed. I’m a librarian by training. I love sharing stories with people, not telling them myself. I love building communities of learning and of sharing, not taking to the streets in protest.

More than anything else, I just want a nice cup of tea and a novel. But we are here in what I’ve seen others call “a coyote moment”. Like Wile E. Coyote, we are over the cliff with our legs spinning in the air.

We can use this time to focus on what really matters and figure out how we will keep going and keep working. We can look at the blue sky above us and revel in what beauty and joy we can.

Building community, exercising our self-determination, caring for each other, and telling the truth fearlessly and as though our very lives depend on it will leave us all the stronger and ready to fight Trump and his tidal wave of disinformation.

Mandy Henk, co-founder of Dark Times Academy, has been teaching and learning on the margins of the academy for her whole career. As an academic librarian, she has worked closely with academics, students, and university administrations for decades. She taught her own courses, led her own research work, and fought for a vision of the liberal arts that supports learning and teaching as the things that actually matter. This article was originally presented as an invited address at the annual general meeting of the Asia Pacific Media Network on 24 April 2025.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Fa’anānā Efeso Collins is being remembered as a pillar of the Pacific community with a “big heart of service”, who loved being a husband and father.

The 49-year-old Samoan-Tokelauan leader and Greens MP has been described as someone who embodied the Samoan proverb: “o le ala i le pule o le tautua” — the pathway to leadership is through service.

Prominent leaders say Fa’anānā was “a strong community advocate”, known for serving disadvantaged communities.

A beloved father, husband, brother and friend, Fa’anānā died suddenly in Auckland yesterday afternoon and leaves behind a strong legacy of service as someone whose mission was helping the poor.

Health leader Sir Collin Tukuitonga said his death sent shock waves across the region, especially in the heart of South Auckland, where he grew up and had spent most of his time serving others.

“Shocking is an understatement. He was on the same mission as the rest of us [Pacific leaders]. A good man. Good community values. It’s absolutely devastating for his family, for the Pasifika community, for NZ and beyond.

“Efeso was a rare person. The Pasifika community is not well endowed with community leaders like Efeso – ethical, strong, community-minded.”

‘Stand out community leader’
Tukuitonga noted Fa’anānā’s contribution to students when he became the first Polynesian president of the Auckland University Students’ Association in the late 1990s.

“He did a lot at university for students, for local government. He was a stand-out community leader. A number of us were hopeful he would also have an impact at national Parliament, no doubt his legacy will live on in many of the things he had supported.”

National candidate and longtime friend Fonoti Agnes Loheni said he was “a very special person”.

“I am grateful for our friendship. His faith in God made him strong. He was a very fearless and fierce voice for the poor. He had a big heart of service. He was not only an advocate but also a man of action,” she said.

Loheni acknowledged his family, wife and two girls, saying just last week they had connected during his induction into Parliament and he shared with her just how much he loved his family.

“He was catching me up on his wife and his daughter. That was it for him, being a husband and a father were the main roles for him. The most important.”

Loss felt across region
Former minister for Pacific peoples Aupito William Sio said the loss was being felt across the region.

Tonga’s Princess also paid tribute online.

“It was no mystery to any of us in the islands how loved he was by many of our Pasifika community in New Zealand.”

Shocked to hear of the sudden passing of @efesocollins It was no mystery to any of us in the islands how loved he was by many of our Pasifika community in New Zealand. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family and friends. Toka aa ‘i he nonga moe melino ‘a e ‘Eiki 🙏 pic.twitter.com/XBnJkNhooi

— Frederica (@FredericaTuita) February 21, 2024

Sio said: “His [Fa’anānā’s] profile reached the four corners of the Pacific region. He was getting support from overseas when he ran for mayor. He gave everybody the belief that anybody can achieve the highest office in NZ society. Even though he didn’t win it he got major endorsements from two political parties and made everyone hopeful of the future.”

Sio said Fa’anānā was always speaking truth to power, recalling the night of his swearing-in as an Auckland councillor.

“He confronted racism and discrimination in the council. I think he made everyone uncomfortable and made them reflect on their behaviours. I think he was fearless, he woke everybody up. It enabled the next generation to build some confidence in who they were.”

Friends and colleagues of Fa’anānā have told RNZ Pacific their thoughts were with his family, wife and children.

‘He was always there to help’
Hana Schmidt, a director of Papatoetoe-based, Pasifika-led creative agency Bluwave, counted Fa’anānā as one of her mentors and supporters.

She told RNZ Nights that a lot of young people were able to relate to him and speak to him, because he could relate to their experiences growing up in South Auckland

“He was an awesome person gave a lot of guidance to those in south Auckland who are in the community space, and also the business space and the governance space.”

She said he was always there to help, and wasn’t always wearing his political hat

“He would rather have genuine connections with the youth that he did come into contact with, the conversations were very genuine and close to heart.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The race for the Auckland mayoralty ends this weekend in the Aotearoa New Zealand local elections and polls indicate that either Pacific contender Fa’anānā Efeso Collins or Wayne Brown will claim the chains.

RNZ News spoke to some prominent Aucklanders about who they believe should get the city’s top job.

Former world heavyweight boxing title contender David Tua said he was firmly in the corner of Efeso Collins.

Tua believed Collins would be a mayor for all, in particular the youth.

“At the end of the day they are our future and I believe he is a man the youth can relate to.”

Tua said Collins had a humanitarian nature.

“What he’s standing for is for the people, all the people. It’s always about the people and I believe that’s what he’s about.”

The ‘man for the job’
Advocate Shaneel Lal believes Collins is the man for the job due to the past support he has shown to the LGBTQI+ community.

Lal said Collins had progressed in his views and proved he had a backbone when he offered help during their campaign to ban conversion therapy.

“We need to give people room for growth, he advocated against same-sex marriage in 2012, the bill passed in 2013, in those 10 years he has come on a long journey of learning, that was 10 years ago and to me he clearly has changed.”

Lal said Collins had the temperament for the job.

“I also think Efeso is calm and collected and open to ideas and change, he has always been respectful to me and spoken with kindness even when he has disagreed with me.”

Former North Shore mayor George Wood is backing Wayne Brown.

“Wayne has already run a district council I think that will give him good knowledge of what it is like to run a local government organisation.”

Wood said Brown did have some room for improvement, however.

“He does have a tendency to say things off the cuff without realising the significance of what he is saying and it is an area he will have to improve that communication.”

Getting the balance right
Prominent activist Lisa Prager said Brown would get her tick.

“Wayne has the experience in both the corporate environment and also understands small local businesses so he understands what this city needs and how to get that balance right.”

Prager said council needed restructuring which Brown could deliver.

“I think it is excessive in its spending and failing to deliver the essential services that we all need.”

Actor Oscar Kightley said as a fellow Samoan man, Collins was the clear choice.

“When you are Samoan you experience different aspects of life Aotearoa including prejudice and discrimination and when you’ve fought through that and succeeded it just gives you skills to see the bigger picture.”

Kightley said it was time for change.

“I love how he’s changed his approach from when he first entered council, I think he’s really listened to all the diverse voices out there.”

Making a difference
Well-known celebrant Ronny Franks is voting Brown.

“I think he would make a huge difference, I think there could be good changes, particularly with Auckland Transport and other areas that are sort of lagging behind at the moment.”

Franks believed Brown’s personality would serve him well in office, despite the occasional gaffe.

“He’s a no nonsense man, he probably does rattle a lot of feathers but when you have to get something done you have to get it done and there is a right way of doing it and he does things the right way.”

Monday was the last day to get votes in the post but there are vote boxes at supermarkets, transport hubs and council buildings around Tāmaki Makaurau.

Auckland has a population of 1.7 million.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Rachael Mario isn’t just any woman, she is special in that she hails from the idyllic South Pacific island of Rotuma.

And it is her love for social work which she hopes will propel her and her Roskill Community Voice and City Vision team onto the Mt Roskill board.

It is also the first time a Pasifika person has decided to stand for the Puketapapa Local Board in Mt Roskill, in the current Auckland local government elections that began today.

Having lived in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland for 33 years has given her a perspective on social justice and diversity for Auckland.

Much of that comes from time spent at the Whānau Community Hub in the Auckland suburb of Mt Roskill where her and her team do a sterling job in running different programmes for the good folk of Roskill.

For instance, every first Wednesday of the month they host a free seniors lunch, and it not just for Rotumans but for the diverse group of seniors who reside in Mt Roskill and who yearn for company and a “good old talanoa”.

Quite apart from that, Mario and her team would be out delivering groceries to the needy, or holding health and well-being, financial literacy and language classes for children.

Community doubles
That the community doubles as the Rotuman-Fijian Centre is a testament to her 30+ plus years of marriage to Auckland Fiji human rights advocate Nik Naidu and former journalist, who she met in Fiji when he was a budding radio personality at FM96 in Suva.

When you first meet Rachael Mario she greets you with big smile and utters charming Noa’ia (the Rotuman language greeting) and then she inquires about you with an inquisitive mind just to see how things are going for you.

As Mario explains, the Hub isn’t just for Rotumans but is used by a plethora of other groups, including the Moana-Pasifika Seniors. It is also home to the recently formed Asia-Pacific Media Network (APMN), which publishes the Pacific Journalism Review at the behest of founder Professor David Robie.

With such a diverse bunch using the Whānau Community Hub it is small wonder that Mario would branch out and try to incorporate more diversity in her already busy lifestyle.

That is why the chair of the Auckland Rotuman Fellowship Inc. is now standing for her local Puketapapa Local Board in Mt Roskill.

But that has not been without social injustice challenges that her community has faced for many years.

Lack of language funding
Included in those is the housing crisis in Auckland but much closer to her heart was the lack of funding provided to Rotuman language programmes which was given a cold shoulder by local boards.

“The biggest challenge, which isn’t fair, is the discrimination against the Rotuman Community. The Ministry of Pacific Peoples choose to run a different language week against our community-led Rotuman language week programme,” she says.

Other issues she lists are climate change and the environment which she says are huge for Auckland and wider New Zealand.

What also occupies her mind is the city centre, economic and cultural development, better outcomes for Māori, wastewater and storm water, transport and parks and communities.

In a nutshell, Rachael Mario is all things to all communities.

Voting ends on October 8.

• Three fellow candidates from the Fiji Collective contesting the local body elections are: Anne DEGIA-PALA (C&R – Communities and Residents) –  Whau Local Board candidate
• Ilango KRISHNAMOORTHY (Labour) – Manurewa-Papakura Ward councillor & Manurewa Local Board candidate
  Vincent NAIDU (Labour) – Waitakere Licensing Trust – Ward 4 (Henderson) candidate

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Justice and peace advocates in New Zealand have strongly criticised Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s “horrific crackdown” on community leaders, activists, and educators.

They have condemned in a statement published in Manila yesterday the arrest last September of Filipina educator and poet Lorena Sigua on a “trumped-up murder charge”.

The advocates of the Auckland Philippiness Solidarity (APS) say Sigua, who is also a community activist, had recently returned from a visit to New Zealand and was not in Mindanao at the time of the alleged killing of Filipino soldiers on 22 April 2018.

The campaigners say the crackdown is “reminiscent of [Duterte’s] infamous war on drugs“.

Writing in a letter to the editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper, Helen Te Hira of APS, said: “It is outrageous that thousands have been unjustly arrested and brutally killed under Duterte’s drug war and war against community activists.

“Meanwhile those who are rich and close to power such as Kerwin Espinosa, a self-confessed drug dealer, will soon be free after the court dismissed drug trafficking charges against him.

“New Zealand indigenous rights advocates and community leaders were shocked to hear of the arrest of Lorena Sigua, a Filipino educator, poet, and community advocate on a trumped-up murder charge.

“Lorena was arrested on September 19, 2021, in Bulacan, Northern Luzon, and charged with murder for allegedly taking part in an attack by the New People’s Army [NPA] on members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines [AFP] on April 22, 2018, in Agusan del Sur, Mindanao.

Not in Mindanao
“But in fact, she was not in Mindanao at this time. Lorena returned to Manila after arriving back from New Zealand on April 6, 2018, and on the day of the alleged murder she was attending the indigenous festival “Cordillera Day” in Baguio, 1413 kilometers from Agusan.”

In 2018, Sigua took part in a speaking tour in Aotearoa New Zealand to discuss the situation of indigenous Lumad schools in Mindanao, Philippines.

Sigua spoke out strongly to New Zealand audiences in defence of the Lumad schools during her visit.

She met members of Parliament, representatives from the NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), human rights advocates, members of the local Filipino community, Māori leaders, and students and staff at kohanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori and tertiary wānanga.

Te Hira wrote that kohanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori students and staff “enjoyed a rich dialogue with Lorena and the delegation as they exchanged experiences around the strategies that Māori and indigenous communities have adopted to build a national movement for language and cultural revitalisation”.

“We were particularly disturbed to learn of the routine harassment and state violence that our Lumad counterparts face for attempting to educate children in indigenous ways,” she said.

Te Hira described Sigua as a volunteer with the Education Development Institute in developing curriculum, books, and resources for Lumad schools in Mindanao.

Sigua was also a volunteer for students at the Lumad Bakwit School at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, a school set up for young people forced to leave their ancestral lands due to militarisation and human rights violations.

“Lorena’s bravery and commitment to quality education for indigenous communities resonate with the struggles of our people in the kura kaupapa movement,” Te Hira wrote.

“We call for immediate freedom for Lorena and all political prisoners who have been slapped with trumped-up charges.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz