Roger Norman Fowler: 12 September 1948 – 21 February 2026

Roger Fowler, an activist legend of social justice solidarity movements from Bastion Point to resisting apartheid and racist rugby tours and freedom for Palestine, has died after a long illness. He was 77.

Described by some as a “true Tāne Toa”, his protest warrior courage and his commitment to a bicultural and cross-cultural vision for Aotearoa New Zealand, was perhaps best represented by his “Songs of Struggle and Solidarity” vinyl album launched last year.

The first of 14 tracks on the album produced by Banana Boat Records, was “We Are All Palestinians”, which has become an anthem for the Gaza solidarity movement for the past 124 weeks of protest against the Israeli genocide.

Ironically, this was sung yet again by a group in Te Komititanga Square yesterday within hours of his death.

It was written by Fowler after the Viva Palestina solidarity convoy from London to Gaza in 2010.

Fowler led the Kia Ora Gaza team of six Kiwis who drove three of 135 aid-packed ambulances – funded by New Zealand donations — into the besieged enclave. This was followed later by two other land convoys and three Gaza Freedom Flotillas.

In April 2026, a massive new siege-breaking Sumud Flotilla to Gaza with 100 boats and carrying some 1000 activists is being planned.

Gaza solidarity rallies
In spite of failing health in recent months, Fowler was frequently seen at Gaza rallies, speaking and singing in his rousing voice.

Close comrade and friend, John Minto, co-chair of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA), paid tribute to his contribution in a statement today.

“Roger has been a legend of the solidarity movement for many decades as the founder and co-cordinator of Kia Ora Gaza which delivered aid to the besieged Gaza strip by land and by sea,” he said.

“He was a man of great integrity and character with passion for justice. He will remain a guiding light for the solidarity movement here.”

Co-chair Maher Nazzal presented Fowler an award for his contribution to Palestinian solidarity last September.

Another comrade, especially during Fowler’s activism in the 1960s and 1970s, Tony Fala, recalls his “dauntless courage, tireless optimism, boundless energy, and vast strategic capacity was profoundly inspiring.”

“Roger was one of the humblest and kindest people I have ever met. He could build coalitions and strengthen community bonds with ease. He sought what brought people together, not what kept them apart.

Belief in ordinary people
“He believed in ordinary people and possessed a deep, instinctive understanding of justice. He was strong yet carried no ego.”

Fala praised Fowler’s commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and to Te Ao Māori community life, describing him as a “born oral historian”.

“He gave selflessly to every cause he committed himself to and would move mountains to achieve victory for the struggles he served.”

“We are all Palestinians.”                              Video: Banana Boat Records

In the weeks before his death, he and his whanau were working hard to complete a history of the socialist Ponsonby People’s Union, “Struggle and Solidarity”, due to be published soon. Fowler met his future wife, Dr Lyn Doherty (Ngati Porou and Ngāpuhi), then while they were activists campaigning to stop landlords evicting tenants.

Activist author Dean Parker once described Fowler as “the Great Helmsman of the legendary Ponsonby People’s Union, brave hero of so many struggles”.

Fowler had lived for almost four decades in Mangere East, a multicultural quarter of South Auckland.

He was manager of the Mangere East Community Learning Centre and an executive member of Out of School Care Network.

Impressive community tribute
In 1999, he was a recipient of the Queen’s Service Medal for his “services to community” and the people of Mangere East paid an impressive tribute to him with a daytime concert last November.

One of his best remembered local campaigns was the community coalition in 2010 that saved Mangere East’s Postshop.

A one-time bus driver, Fowler strongly campaigned for public transport.

He was also involved with amateur theatre for several decades, including Auckland Light Opera, “The Aunties” children’s theatre and Manukau Performing Arts.

Fowler was a founding member of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign in the 1970s and he was part of the anti-apartheid movement for 15 years.

In 1969, along with a large group of activists — including Alan Robson, Pat Bolster and Graeme Whimp — he opened the first Resistance Bookshop in Queen Street and he was co-director for a time.

During his lifelong protests, he was arrested and jailed four times and with colleagues he set up a free prison visiting service in 1972 for Paremoremo and Waikeria.

The last track on Fowler’s album is titled “The Final Song” but his music will be long remembered as the hallmark of the life of an extraordinary community and political activist.

• Roger Fowler’s life will be celebrated at Ngā Tapuwae Community Centre, 255 Buckland Road, Mangere, 10-2pm, Wednesday, February 25.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Māngere East community stalwarts and activists from across Tamaki Makaurau Auckland have gathered at the local Village Green to pay tribute to their popular ‘power couple’ and entertainers Roger Fowler and Lyn Doherty with their whānau.

MC Emily Worman of Science in a Van summed it up best yesterday morning by declaring the event as the “perfect opportunity to show our aroha for both Roger and Lyn” after a lifetime or service and activism for the community.

Fowler recently retired from his community duties at the Māngere East Community Centre and is seriously ill with cancer.

The community presented both Fowler and Doherty with stunning korowai and their “main stage” entourage included Māori land rights lawyer and activist Pania Newton and former MP Aupito Sua William Sio.

“This is the perfect place to acknowledge them,” said Worman. “Right in the heart of our community beside the Māngere East Community Centre which started out as Roger and Lyn needed after school care for their kids — so you put your heads together and started an after school programme in the late 1990s.

“Right in front of the library that you campaigned to protect and rebuild back in 2002,
over the road from the Post Shop which you organised the community to successfully fight to stop its closure in 2010.

“Next to the Metro Theatre where the Respect Our Community Campaign, ROCC Stars, met with the NZ Transport Authority over 10 years ago now to stop a motorway from going through our hood.

‘Putting in the mahi’
“Next to Vege Oasis which would have been another alcohol outlet if it wasn’t for you and your whānau putting in the mahi!

“Right here in this festival — where, in previous years, we’ve gathered signatures and spread the word about saving the whenua out at Ihumatao.”

Worman said her words were “just a highlight reel” of some of the “awesomeness that is Roger Fowler”.

“We all have our own experiences how Roger has supported us, organised us and shown us how to reach out to others, make connections and stand together,” she added

Former MP Sua said to Fowler and the crowd: “In the traditional Samoan fale, there is a post in the middle – some posts have two or more — usually it is a strong post that hold up the roof and everything else is connected to it.

“And I think, you are that post. You are that post for Māngere East, for our local community.”

While paying tribute to Fowler’s contribution to Mangere East, Sua also acknowledged his activism for international issues such as the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Fowler had set up Kia Ora Gaza, a New Zealand charity member of the global Gaza Freedom Flotilla network trying to break the siege around the enclave. He wore his favourite “Kia Ora Gaza” beanie for Palestine during the tribute.

‘Powerful man in gumboots’
Worman said: “Roger, we all know you love to grab your guitar and get the crowd going.

“But you’ve shown us over the years, it’s not about getting the attention for yourself — it’s about pointing us to where it matters most.

“I’ve never met such a quiet yet powerful man who wears gumboots to almost every occasion!”

Turning to Roger’s partner, “Lyn, on the other hand, always looks fabulous.

“She is the perfect match for you Roger. We might not always see Lyn out the front but — trust me — she’s a powerhouse in her own right!

“Lyn, who knows intuitively what our families need, and then gets a PhD to prove it in order to get the resources so that our whānau can thrive.”

The work of health and science psychologist Dr Lyn Doherty (Ngati Porou and Ngapuhi) with the Ohomairangi Trust is “vast and continues to have a huge impact on the wellbeing of our community”.

Worman also said one of the couple’s biggest achievements together had been their four children — “they are all amazing, caring, capable and fun children, Kahu, Tawera, Maia and Hone”.

“And they are now raising another generation of outstanding humans,” she said.

The three grandchildren treated the Village Green crowd to a waiata and also songs from Fowler’s recently released vinyl album “Songs of Struggle and Solidarity” and finishing with a Christmas musical message for all.

The whānau are also working on a forthcoming book of community activism and resistance with a similar title to the album.

Fowler thanked the community for its support and gave an emotional tribute to Doherty for all her mahi and aroha.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Kanak people in Aotearoa New Zealand are lamenting the loss of family and friends in Kanaky New Caledonia, following mass rioting and civil unrest since mid-May prompted by an electoral reform believed to threaten dilution of the indigenous voice.

A fono (meeting) at Māngere East Community Centre welcomed Kanak people who have been staying in Aotearoa since November last year and were here when the independence protests-turned-riots broke out on May 13.

The fono on the King’s Birthday holiday was in solidarity with the Kanak struggle for independence from France and drew connections between Kanaky, Aotearoa and Palestine.

A young Kanak spoke at the fono in French which was translated by a French speaker on the night.

Te Ao Māori News has chosen not to reveal the identity of these Kanaks.

“We’re here but we’re not really here because most of us are hurt,” a young Kanak man said.

“Young brothers and sisters are being killed but we know that our brothers and sisters don’t have weapons.”

“Some of our families have been killed,” said another young Kanak man whose brother had died.

“It’s difficult for us ‘cos we’re far from our land, from our home.”

Officially, seven people had died during the unrest, four of them Kanak and two police officers (one by accident). However, there have been persistent rumours of other unconfirmed deaths.

Tāngata whenua on mana motuhake for all
Bianca Ranson (Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa) was one of the speakers at the fono and spoke with Te Ao Māori News the following day.

Ranson is part of Matika mō Paretīnia, a solidarity group that organises in support of the Free Palestine Movement.

“One of the key messages that we were wanting to to get across or to be able to open up discussion around was settler colonialism . ..  whether that’s for us as tangata whenua here, with the current government, the attack that we’re seeing on our health, on education, whether it’s our treaty, the environment,” she said.

“But also you know when you really look at the tip of the spear, and of settler colonial violence that’s happening in other places around the world, the people of Palestine and the people of Kanaky are really on the frontline.”

Tina Ngata has also linked the struggles between Aotearoa and Kanaky and the shared visions of self-determination for Kanak and tino rangatiratanga for Māori, the French government derailing their decolonisation process and the “assimilation policies” that threaten Māori tino rangatiratanga and the right the self-determination.

Yasmine Serhan, a Palestinian raised in Aotearoa and speaker at the fono, said a highlight was Ranson inviting the Kanak community to her marae.

“I just thought that’s like the purest form of connection and solidarity to basically open your home up. Any activism that we do in Aotearoa is essentially the extension of the manaaki of tangata whenua,” she said.

“So seeing that in live action was really beautiful.”

The humanisation of resistance
Serhan also drew the connection between Kanaky, Aotearoa, and Palestine through the shared experience of settler colonialism and violent land dispossession.

“The space was set up to make it clear that our indigenous struggles aren’t in isolation and they’re not coincidental. They’re all interconnected and the liberation of one of us will lead to the liberation of all of us,” Serhan said.

“People who spoke from the Kanak community shared that they’re resisting with their bare hands. Basically, that is against an armed military force that’s been sent by France.

“It’s very similar to what’s happening in occupied Palestine, where they’re sending armed, Israeli occupational forces and people are resisting with their bare hands — basically, for their homes to be safe for their kids, for their schools, for their hospitals.”

Serhan emphasised the importance of fighting for the humanisation of resistance.

“The humanisation of our resistance happens when we share our stories, and when we continue to exist and be present in spaces.

“As a Palestinian person, my people have been resisting our erasure for 76 plus years, and for the Kanaks, it’s 150 years of living under French colonial rule.

“And we’re still here. We are the grandchildren, the mokopuna of ancestors that they’ve tried to erase and haven’t been successful in erasing.

“So our existence and presence here today is a very firm standing in our resistance.”

The barricades and unarmed Kanaks
One of the Kanaks who spoke at the fono said: “The French government has created organised militia. They have militias of local police to exterminate us.”

It was reported this week that France had deployed six more Centaures — armoured vehicles with tear gas and machine gun capabilities — to help police remove barricades.

However, a young Kanak at the fono said: “The barricades are built to protect the areas where people live. We got a video two days ago, 48 hours ago of the gendarmes, the French police, going into the suburbs where people live.

“They threw homemade gas bombs. People have found weapons from the militia, grenades, bombs and heavy artillery.”

Jessie Ounei, an Aotearoa-born Kanak woman told Te Ao Māori News there’s a lot of unchecked violence happening in Kanaky.

“It’s not being reported and the French forces are being left to their own devices.”

Ounei said there was a video released in the last few days of a young Kanak man who was going to the gas station and was shot in the face with a flash ball.

“There are right-wing civilians who see as a threat who want to . . .  I guess exterminate us is the nicest way to put that.

“I just want to say that they’re not being stopped and they’re not being addressed. That’s part of the reason why we have all these checkpoints and barricades, to keep our families safe.

“To keep our people safe. We have seen that it’s not the French forces that are going to keep us safe. We have to keep ourselves safe.”

Nuclearisation and militarisation of the Pacific
Ranson talked about imperialism regarding the extraction and exploitation of Kanaky resources that has directly benefitted the settlers and disregarded Kanak leadership or their care for the whenua.

Nickel mining in Kanaky started in 1864. Kanaks were excluded from the mining industry which has led to pollution, devastated forests, wetlands, waterways, and overall destruction of Kanaky’s biodiversity.

“There’s also the positioning of France in the wider Pacific,” Ranson said.

“We have to ask ourselves, why? Why is France in Kanaky? What does that serve in the overall agenda of the French colonial project.”

At the fono speakers made the connection between France and nuclearisation.

The French have undertaken nuclear tests in Fangataufa and Moruroa of French Polynesia which media had reported an estimated 110,000 people who had been affected by the radioactive fallout between the 1960s and 1990s.

In Aotearoa, Greenpeace was protesting the French nuclear tests in Moruroa with their protest fleet the flagship Rainbow Warrior was bombed by French spies in Opération Satanique which led to the death of Portuguese-Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira.

Ranson also mentioned the coalition government’s positioning of New Zealand.

“Whether it’s with AUKUS or strengthening our connections with US, there’s some serious, serious concerns that we as indigenous people have. The implications on tāngata moana throughout Te Moana Nui A Kiwa are immense if we are heading down the dangerous pathway of moving away from being a nuclear-free and independent Pacific.”

An article published by The Diplomat discussed New Zealand and France’s “shared vision for the Indo-Pacific”, which is the strategy launched by the Biden-Harris US administration in 2022 and has been more recently adopted by the French government.

The US has also conducted nuclear tests in the Pacific in the Bikini Atoll and the Marshall Islands, and is now part of the AUKUS security pact that will lead to nuclear proliferation in the Pacific and militarisation through advanced military technology sharing.

Opponents of AUKUS argue it compromises the Rarotongan treaty for a nuclear-free zone in the South Pacific.

Susanna Ounei, the late Kanak activist and mother of Jessie Ounei, has also made the connection between decolonisation and denuclearisation of the Pacific.

Susanna delivered a speech in Kenya 1985 as part of the United Nations Decade for women.

Ounei said the colonial government claimed there were 75,000 Kanaks when they arrived, but Kanaks said there were more than 200,000 and only 26,000 after French invaded. This indicated a mass genocide.

The future of Kanaky
When asked about her dreams for Kanaky, Jessie Ounei said she wanted an independent Kanaky.

“I want our people to choose and thrive. I want our people to have the resources to discover their gifts and share it with the world. I don’t want our people to make 90 percent of the incarceration rates or 70 percent of poverty rates.”

At the end of the night, one of the young Kanaks said: “We just want our freedom. Thank you very much for your support, we all have the same fight.

Said another Kanak youth: “We are so happy that you have a thought for the young Kanaks here. That you are with us. We’re not feeling that we’re left alone because you are behind us.”

Although much of what was discussed was heavy and saddening for those in the crowd, the night ended with the crowd dancing and cheering together in solidarity with each other’s struggles and the strength to keep resisting.

Te Aniwaniwa Paterson is a digital reporter with Te Ao Māori News.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz