Melanesians all across Aotearoa are coming together in Auckland this weekend to celebrate their unique cultural heritage.

This is the second time the annual Melanesian Festival Aotearoa is being held and it is an opportunity for community members from Fiji, Kanaky New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to fully immerse in their culture.

More than 7000 people attended the inaugural event last year which was a huge success.

Cultural performances, musical showcases, traditional food, arts and craft were on display and enjoyed by all.

Festival director Albert Traill said this festival is “something unique for New Zealand because New Zealand is a predominantly Polynesian-based society when it comes to Pacific Islands communities”.

He expressed that sometimes the Melanesian community feel left out or lost in the crowd and their numbers are smaller in comparison to their Polynesian brothers and sisters.

“Melanesian culture and music is really different to Polynesia. Very similar, but it has its own unique feel,” Traill said.

Annual event
The community have been talking about organising their own cultural festival for years, and with the support of Creative New Zealand, it is now an annual event.

“It’s an opportunity for our Melanesian community to come out and have a space for us to share our culture, our food, and just to come together and celebrate each other’s identity and culture.

“We love it here in New Zealand because New Zealand is a country that loves and supports cultural diversity.”

Traill has a smile in his voice as he reflects on the success of last year’s festival, sharing how many of the performances were youth driven.

The young ones spent months researching their countries and consulting with community elders and knowledge holders, to produce outstanding items.

Their pride and passion shone on stage, striking a string in the hearts of their family and friends

‘Everyone in tears’
“And pretty much everyone was in tears hearing them share how special they felt. Normally they get lumped in with Polyfest and, and all the other festivals and stuff. But this one, for the first time ever, they could say, ‘this is my festival. It’s Melanesian’.”

“We’re doing it for the young people,” he says.

“So hopefully one day when we’re not here, they can stand up with the same pride and say, ‘Yeah, you know what? I’m Melanesia. And I’m proud to share my culture’.”

The festival will be held at the Waitemata Rugby Club Grounds in Henderson from 9am onwards with a packed programme.

The cultural performances begin at 10am and there are a few popular reggae artists and bands hailing from the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

Community groups from Christchurch, Tauranga, Waikato and Wellington are travelling up to participate and the entertainment will continue until late in the afternoon.

Cultural activation spaces will also be spread around the grounds showcasing the traditional weaving and tapa printing of Melanesia.

Ancient tatooing style
The ancient style of Papua New Guinea tattooing will also be on display.

It will be a vibrant hub of cultural identity and heritage and the the organizers warmly welcome any interested ones to come along and join in the celebrations.

“Come and have a look, come and see Melanesia,” Traill said.

“Melanesia is like the Tuakana of the Pacific, the older sibling, the older ancient cultures. You’re looking at 10,000 years of history in the Pacific. A lot of these are ancient old cultures and very complex.”

The organisers expect this year to be even bigger and better, and it will only grow each consecutive year.

They are already looking into further expanding the festival for 2024 and are looking to collaborate with embassies to fly across talented local artists and cultural performance groups to join in next years Melanesia Festival.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

On the 61st anniversary of the first raising of West Papua’s symbol of independence — 1 December 1961 — the Morning Star flag:

We, the Indigenous caucus of the movement for self-determination, decolonisation, nuclear justice, and demilitarisation of the Pacific, call for coordinated action for key campaigns that impact the human rights, sovereignty, wellbeing and prosperity of Pacific peoples across our region.

As guardians of our Wansolwara (Tok Pisin term meaning “One Salt Water,” or “One Ocean, One People”), we are united in seeking the protection, genuine security and vitality for the spiritual, cultural and economic base for our lives, and we will defend it at all costs. We affirm the kōrero of the late Father Walter Lini, “No one is free, until everyone is free!”

We thank the mana whenua of Ōtepoti, Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa, the National Centre for Peace and Conflict and Kā Rakahau o Te Ao Tūroa Centre for Sustainability at the University of Otago for their hospitality in welcoming us as their Pacific whānau to their unceded and sovereign lands of Aotearoa.

We acknowledge the genealogy of resistance we share with community activists who laid the mat in our shared struggles in the 1970s and 1980s. Our gathering comes 40 years after the first Te Hui Oranga o Te Moana Nui a Kiwa, hosted by the Pacific Peoples Anti Nuclear Action Committee (PPANAC) at Tātai Hono in Tamaki Makaurau.

Self-determination and decolonisation
We remain steadfast in our continuing solidarity with our sisters and brothers in West Papua, who are surviving from and resisting against the Indonesian genocidal regime, injustice and oppression. We bear witness for millions of West Papuans murdered by this brutal occupation. We will not be silent until the right to self-determination of West Papua is fully achieved.

We urge our Forum leaders to follow through with Indonesia to finalise the visit from the UN Commissioner for Human Rights to West Papua, as agreed in the Leaders Communiqué 2019 resolution.

We are united in reaffirming the inalienable right of all Indigenous peoples to self-determination and demand the sovereignty of West Papua, Kanaky, Mā’ohi Nui, Bougainville, Hawai’i, Guåhan, the Northern Mariana Islands, Rapa Nui, Aotearoa, and First Nations of the lands now called Australia.

Of priority, we call on the French government to implement the United Nations self-governing protocols in Mā’ohi Nui and Kanaky. We urge France to comply with the resolution set forth on May 17th, 2013 which declared French Polynesia to be a non-self-governing territory, and the successive resolutions from 2013 to 2022. The “empty seat policy” that the administering power has been practising since 2013 and attempts to remove Mā’ohi Nui from the list of countries to be decolonised have to stop. We call on France to immediately resume its participation in the work of the C-24 and the 4th Commission of the United Nations.

Nuclear justice
We grieve for the survivors and victims who lost their lives to the nuclear violence caused by over 315 nuclear weapons detonated in Marshall Islands, Australia, Kiribati, Johnston Atoll and Mā’ohi Nui by the United States, United Kingdom/Australia and France. The legacy and ongoing nuclear violence in our region is unfinished business and calls for recognition, reconciliation and reparations to be made by nuclear colonisers are long overdue.

We call for the United States, United Kingdom/Australia and France to deliver fair and just
compensation to Indigenous civilians, workers and servicemen for the health and environmental harms, including intergenerational trauma caused by nuclear testing programs (and subsequent illegal medical experiments in the Marshall Islands). The compensation schemes currently in place in all states constitute a grave political failure of these aforementioned nuclear testing states and serve to deceive the world that they are recognising their responsibility to address the nuclear legacy. We call for the United States, United Kingdom/Australia, and France to establish or otherwise significantly improve
accessible healthcare systems and develop and fund cancer facilities within the Marshall Islands, Kiribati/Australia and Mā’ohi Nui respectively, where alarming rates of cancers, birth defects and other related diseases continue to claim lives and cause socio-economic distress to those affected. The descendants of the thousands of dead and the thousands of sick are still waiting for real justice to be put in place with the supervision of the international community.

We demand that the French government take full responsibility for the racist genocidal health effects of nuclear testing on generations of Mā’ohi and provide full transparency, rapid assessment and urgent action for nuclear contamination risks. While the President of France boasts on the international stage of his major environmental and ecological transition projects, in the territory of Mā’ohi Nui, the French government’s instructions are to definitively “turn the page of nuclear history.” This is a white-washing and colonial gas-lighting attitude towards the citizens and now the mokopuna of Mā’ohi Nui. It is
imperative for France to produce the long-awaited report on the environmental, economic and sanitary consequences of its 193 nuclear tests conducted between 1966 and 1996.

We proclaim our commitment to the abolition of nuclear weapons and call all states of the Pacific region who have not done so to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), namely Australia, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. We urge Pacific nations along with the world’s governments to contribute to the international trust fund for victims of nuclear weapons implemented by the TPNW. We urge Aotearoa/New Zealand and other states who have ratified the TPNW to follow through on their commitment to nuclear survivors, and to create a world free from the threat and harm of nuclear weapons through the universalisation of the TPNW. There can be no peace without justice.

We oppose the despicable proposal of Japan and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to dump 1.3 million tonnes of radioactive wastewater next year in 2023, and support in solidarity with the citizens of Japan, East Asian states and Micronesian states who sit on the frontlines of this crisis. This is an act of trans-boundary harm upon the Pacific. We call on the New Zealand government and others to stay true to its commitment to a Nuclear Free Pacific and bring a case under the international tribunal for the Law of the Sea against the proposed radioactive release from TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi planned from 2023 to 2053.

Demilitarisation
We condemn the geopolitical order forced upon our nations by imperial powers, who claim to be our friends, yet treat our islands as collateral damage and use financial blackmail to bully us into submission. We demand that the United States remove and remediate all military bases, infrastructure, debris and nuclear and chemical waste from the Pacific. Of priority is the US-owned nuclear waste storage site of Runit Dome on Enewetak Atoll which threatens nuclear contamination of the ocean and marine-life, on which our lives depend. Furthermore, we call for all remaining American UXOs (unexploded ordnances) from World War II in the Solomon Islands, which cause the preventable deaths of more than 20 people every year to be removed immediately!

We support in solidarity with Kānaka Maoli and demand the immediate end to the biennial RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific) exercises hosted in Honolulu, Hawai’i. We urge all the present participating militaries of RIMPAC to withdraw their participation in the desecration and plunder of Indigenous lands and seas. We support in solidarity with the Marianas and demand an end to munitions testing in the Northern Marianas and the development of new military bases. We rebuke the AUKUS trilateral military pact and the militarisation of unceded Aboriginal lands of the northern arc of Australia and are outraged at Australia’s plans to permit further military bases, six nuclear-capable B52s and eight nuclear-powered submarines to use our Pacific Ocean as a military playground and nuclear highway.

We call on all those committed to ending militarism in the Pacific to gather and organise in Hawai’i between 6-16 June 2024, during the Festival of the Pacific and bring these issues to the forefront to renew our regional solidarity and form a new coalition to build power to oppose all forms of military exercises (RIMPAC also returns in July -August 2024) and instead promote the genuine security of clean water, safe housing, healthcare and generative economies, rather than those of extraction and perpetual readiness for war.

We view colonial powers and their militaries to be the biggest contributors to the climate crisis, the continued extractive mining of our lands and seabeds and the exploitation of our resources. These exacerbate and are exacerbated by unjust structures of colonialism, militarism and geopolitical abuse. This environmental destruction shifts the costs to Pacific and Indigenous communities who are responsible for less than 1 percent of global climate emissions.

As Pacific peoples deeply familiar with the destruction of nuclear imperialism, we strongly disapprove of the new propaganda of nuclear industry lobbyists, attempting to sell nuclear power as the best solution for climate change. Similarly, we oppose the Deep Sea Mining (DSM) industry lobbyists that promote DSM as necessary for green technologies. We call for a Fossil Fuel Non-proliferation Treaty to be implemented by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and for safe and equitable transition to better energy solutions. We reject any military solution for the climate crisis!

We recognise the urgent need for a regional coordinator to be instituted to strategise collective grassroots movements for self-determination, decolonisation, nuclear justice and demilitarisation.

Our existence is our resistance.

We, the guardians of our Wansolwara, are determined to carry on the legacy and vision for a Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Report by Pacific Media Centre ]]> https://eveningreport.nz/2019/02/07/bryce-edwards-political-roundup-nzs-changing-race-relations/ Thu, 07 Feb 2019 04:11:32 +0000 https://eveningreport.nz/?p=20424 Political Roundup: NZ’s changing race relations

The new mood in race relations, so clearly enunciated by politicians and commentators over the last few days, was thrown into stark relief by broadcaster Mike Hosking’s column today which seemed entirely out-of-sync with other readings of race relations at the moment – see: Waitangi isn’t our national day, it’s our grievance day.

Hosking made this observation: “It’s not really our national day, it’s our grievance day. And not even a national grievance day, because the vast, vast majority of us don’t actually have a grievance. The vast, vast majority of us love our lives, love our country, feel blessed to be here, and understand just how lucky we are.”

Similarly, Lizzie Marvelly’s column at the weekend portrayed race relations around Waitangi Day as deeply negative, and she seemed pessimistic about the debates and discussions – see: For many, Waitangi Day is just a day off work.

Marvelly says her negative view is based on personal experience: “being Māori, Waitangi Day is always inevitably charged for me. It looms in my mind. Early in January, I subconsciously wait for controversy to erupt. Whatever happens, inevitably Māori bear the brunt of the negative publicity. We’re often cast as bloody Mowries with our hands out. We can’t even stop the grievance machine for one day of national significance. We’re an embarrassment. A joke.”

In fact, what was most striking about the public debate and discussions this week is they were not about grievance nor about “Māori bashing”, but about celebration of race relations progress. Two newspaper editorials were particularly interesting in this regard.

The Otago Daily Times declared yesterday that something new was happening: “For much of the past few decades, Waitangi Day has served as a pulpit from which differences have been shouted. This has been healthy, necessary and, at times, effective. But there is a feeling times are changing” – see: Waitangi Day about us all.

This editorial makes a controversial point reminiscent of Don Brash: “the most effective and lasting way each of us can celebrate is to see ourselves as one people, as simply ‘us’, without a ‘them’.” But the declaration of New Zealand being “one people” is made in the context of what the newspaper sees as a history of disadvantage for Maori, albeit one that is now being taken seriously and remedied.

The editorial applauds the widespread embrace of Māori culture: “We should celebrate Maori education, health and social services for the unique and effective role they play in New Zealand. We should celebrate Maori business, cultural and sporting successes, and the shifting role of Maori culture as a reverently respected bedrock of our national identity. Maori success is New Zealand success, after all.”

The New Zealand Herald also has a very interesting editorial drawing attention to the increasing entrenchment of bi-culturalism, improved political representation of Māori, increased usage of te reo Māori, and the fact that iwi have been strengthened by Treaty settlements – see: Celebration in order on our special day.

Unlike in the past, the newspaper declares, “New Zealand is in good heart, politically stable, economically prospering and capable of doing even better. This is a day to celebrate.”

Journalist Karl du Fresne is in sync with this new outlook of celebration and positivity about race relations and Waitangi Day – see his column, Waitangi Day: We’ve come a long way, with further to go.

Du Fresne looks at the wrongs and the continued ill-effects of colonisation for Māori, complains that we “still don’t know nearly enough about our incredibly rich and colourful history”, but also says we need to acknowledge that the “British were relatively humane, enlightened colonisers” and “colonisation brought benefits too”, helping make New Zealand “one of the world’s most civilised liberal democracies.”

Māori commentators have also been offering accounts of progress and positivity about race relations in 2019. Treaty educator Te Huia Bill Hamilton says “I have noticed over time that public reactions to announcements of claims being settled are not as negative as they were. People are learning more about our history and seeing the fairness of the settlement programme” – see: NZ moving into positive territory with Tiriti.

Hamilton is now 70 years old, but says “I resisted being Māori until I was 32” because his Māori mother discouraged him. But given his observations of the nation embracing Māori culture and identity, he says that if his mother was alive today she would say “This is great. I was wrong”.

Amongst a long list of progress for race relations, Hamilton makes the following point, worth quoting at length: “There are more attempts to respect tikanga Māori (cultural practices) and for organisations to engage effectively with tangata whenua. It is becoming normal for buildings to be opened and events to begin with karakia. Many institutions have their favourite waiata which they use to support their manager or CEO who begins his or her address with a mihi. The haka is now not only the entrée to an All Blacks game, but also an expression of success by other victorious sports teams. When asked to do something ‘Kiwi’ on our overseas trips, we say ‘Kia ora’ and as a group we sing Pokarekare Ana. The Crown has created post settlement governance entities which corporate Māori can work with to receive and administer funds and assets. Treaty settlement payments have made iwi significant commercial players in their communities. Most have invested carefully and their assets have increased. Everyone wants to do business with iwi.”

Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere is also full of optimism about the state of race relations, and says New Zealand should rejoice at the progress made and where New Zealand is today – see: The Treaty as a roadmap .

Tamihere argues that Treaty promises are being properly realised, that Maori culture is recognised and embraced by wider society, and he points to all politicians supporting the Treaty process and the settlements achieved.

However, he says that it’s time for Maori leaders to move on from a focus on past injustices towards action on economic inequality: “Maori leadership is also going to have to invest in lifting the performance of our people across the board. If this does not happen, we simply copy the levels of inequality now evident in non-Maori communities”.

It’s not just commentators who are suggesting the arrival of a new era. The events at Waitangi yesterday provides some evidence – especially in terms of the official ceremonies – that there may be a move towards greater political harmony instead of protest and conflict.

Simon Wilson’s coverage is particularly useful. In his article, All together now: The main parties walk the walk at Waitangi, Wilson explains that the two separate marae at Waitangi served two different purposes: “A spirit of unified purpose on the upper grounds; the conflict of old on the lower.” And it was on the upper marae that history was being made: “It was the first time that all the political parties had been formally welcomed to the upper marae on the treaty grounds together.”

In a second account, When the kotuku appears: Waitangi unity on show, Wilson coveys the immense civility and unity that was on show at a place where “it’s easier to obsess about the conflict”. Wilson explains that the “theme of the pōwhiri, officially, was political unity of purpose, as symbolised by the joint walk-on of the parties.”

Much of the focus is on the leader of the Opposition, Simon Bridges, who Wilson observes “made an excellent speech”. He says “Bridges is Ngāti Maniapoto and his mihi was delivered with enormous pride. The first Māori leader of a major political party, his first time as leader at Waitangi.”

But Jacinda Ardern was still the star of the show. Wilson explains that a waiata sung about her in the ceremony has the following translation: “Oh beautiful woman with a full heart and a peaceful soul, the matriarch of the world”. However, in this article, Wilson challenges Ardern on her suggestion that progress can be made in a non-partisan fashion, and finds her elaboration on this goal disappointing.

For another useful account of the peacefulness of the ceremonies, see Henry Cooke and Amanda Saxton’s Waitangi Day commemorations begin under the starlight. This article quotes Māori warden Rebecca Heti: “I’ve been coming to Waitangi Day here for 20 solid years… These days it’s so much better. More peaceful. There’s no one down at the flagpole, protesting… I don’t feel that’s befitting”.

But are the Waitangi events in danger of losing the colour and substance of the past? RNZ’s Jo Moir reports Whanau Ora Minister Peeni Henare having some concerns: “I’d hate for it to become rather bland and I’d like to see a little bit more intermingling between the forum tent down there and what goes on up here” – see: ‘I’d hate for it to become rather bland’ – Labour minister on Waitangi day.

Henare also responds to questions about the Prime Minister’s grasp of the Treaty principles and her use of te reo Maori: “It’s bloody impressive to see her understanding of those concepts and her ability to interplay between English and Māori is important. She always apologises for her Pakeha tongue but she does well.”

Of course a more culturally progressive world is one thing, but for many Māori who  continue to suffer severe economic and social deprivation it will take more than a harmonious and polite Waitangi Day events to justify feeling good about race relations in this country. It could be argued that even Maori political leaders are taking the easier option through concentrating on culture instead of economics. I’ve written about this in previous years, see for example, Is the new Government already failing Māori?

Finally, there’s been some interesting cartoons published this year about the week’s events – see my blogpost, Cartoons about Waitangi 2019. And for a discussion of the history of such cartoons, together with some more historic examples, see Colin Peacock’s How cartoonists framed Waitangi Day.

Sylvia Frain profiles the achievements and challenges of four days at the second Pacific Ocean Climate Change Conference, Cyclone Gita interrupted the timely and relevant second Pacific Ocean Climate Change Conference held at Te Papa Tongarewa museum in Wellington last week. I was fortunate to arrive on the last flight before Wellington Airport closed on Tuesday afternoon in anticipation for Gita’s arrival. Many presenters and participants had their flights delayed or cancelled, which solidified the urgency and importance of the conference. As independent researcher and keynote speaker Aroha Te Pareake Mead pointed out, Air New Zealand acknowledges the disruptions and increased storm activities and is currently working on developing digital solutions and asks its customers for patience and flexibility. While the Pacific Media Centre featured several pieces highlighting speakers at the conference, the pre-conference workshops and public lecture set the tone for the next few days. The gathering provided a platform for researchers and scientists, practitioners and state representatives to collaborate, share knowledge and plan for the future. The Climate Change Media and Communication pre-conference workshop, facilitated by Dacia Herbulock, senior media advisor at the Science Media Centre, included media professionals, freelancers, and those using visual and written communications to convey the depth and urgency of climate change. Visual stereotypes
The visual stereotypes and the challenges of long-term reporting in a fast-paced media environment dominated the discussion of how to best, and most appropriately, make a relatively “abstract” issue seem “real”. Participants provided practical solutions, including creative strategies and diverse delivery mechanisms for academic researchers to produce text, audio, video, and used new media platforms to reach a wider audience. Two examples are the interactive piece by Charlie Mitchell, “The Angry Sea Will Kill Us All: Our Disappearing Neighbours” on Stuff, organised in a new multimedia format. The second online outlet is The Conversation, (the academic and journalism collaboration currently in Australia, and soon to be launched in New Zealand) which provides researchers and academics editorial support and the ability to track and evaluate the online publication’s reach and audience. While these platforms are improving climate change reporting capabilities, there remains an urgent need to ensure that Pacific and indigenous perspectives are at the forefront directing climate change resiliency and adaption policies. This is a reminder that current climate change is a contemporary manifestation of colonialism and the continued exploitation of stolen land and resources. While Pacific and indigenous populations are not the leading contributors to emissions, they are on the frontlines experiencing the impacts disproportionally. ‘Discoveries’ already known
Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn highlighted how “a significant proportion of [scientific] ‘discoveries’” are not discoveries at all, but that “indigenous peoples already knew about many of these ‘scientific’ ideas”. She called upon the Western scientific community to follow the example of the World Council of Churches, who in 2012 denounced the Doctrine of Discovery, and “denounce the ‘Doctrine of Scientific Discovery’ as it relates to indigenous knowledge”. She also invited scientists, journalists, and policymakers “to build good faith collaborative partnerships with indigenous peoples so we can together explore ‘consciousness’ with a view to identifying ‘technologies’ that would help mitigate and adapt to climate crisis”. She reminded the audience that Albert Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” While the law and legal frameworks can be a tool to encourage states to make commitments to lower emissions and create national standards, there are limitations to enforcement and accountability.

During the pre-conference public lecture, Law as an Activism Strategy, Julian Aguon of Blue Ocean Law, spoke of how he “practices law for change” and “uses international human rights law for self-determination” for Guam. His work is currently focused on deep sea mining, (DSM), an experimental and newly emerging form of mineral extraction. The Pacific Region is seen as the “latest frontier” which is more politically stable with less potential for conflict than other mineral-rich regions of the globe. However, the minerals are hundreds of kilometres under the sea – a region that is relatively unknown. Aguon discussed how scientists know more about the moon’s surface than about deep sea ecologies, hydrothermal vents, and tectonic environments. Asia Pacific Report coverage of the conference
 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3

Report by Pacific Media Centre ]]>