Mahi Tupuna- Blackball Museum of Working Class History

04/05/2024

A great Mayday event with the opening of the huts and a vibrant dinner and forum. Much thanks to the Mayor Gibson, the Cuban Ambassador, Luis Rodreguez, Camilla Belich and Rachel Boyack, and the Christchurch Socialists for making the effort to attend.

23/06/2023

It is extraordinary how capitalism can produce, almost accidentally, an image of great power: this submersible with tickets at $250,000, on a disaster tourism trip to see the remains of the Titanic, that technological masterpiece dealt to by an iceberg. In turn, the submersible disintegrates, killing the wealthy who could afford this escapade in order to be able to tell a story to the wide-eyed party guest or perhaps feature it in a chapter of a memoir: I saw the wreck of a dream. The planet still dictates to the life it has produced and homo sapiens has become perhaps the dumbest of species.

It is extraordinary how capitalism can produce, almost accidentally, an image of great power: this submersible with tickets at $250,000, on a disaster tourism trip to see the remains of the Titanic…

06/06/2023

A fifties classroom, windows each side, neon lights, a veranda outside, a crowd of chairs, a sound system and a small dais, two people talking, sometimes three, about writing and life and projects, men and women, gay and hetero, Pākeha and Māori, words and laughter, occasional despair or puzzlement, politics and justice, in between dashes through rain for tea and cake, soup and croissant and a p*e; snow threatens on the Pass but tomorrow is another day and tonight we will eat together and plot a future in these uncertain times....

A fifties classroom, windows each side, neon lights, a veranda outside, a crowd of chairs, a sound system and a small dais, two people talking, sometimes three, about writing and life and projects,…

08/05/2023

There’ve been some melodramas occurring on the political scene with the defections of Meka Whaitiri from Labour and the resignation of Elizabeth Kerekere from the Greens. Journalists are wary of comment as are the Labour and Green hierarchies. Yet it has been strange behaviour, with ambition, envy and opportunism poking their heads in the door. Meta Whaitiri was on the wrong side of an employment dispute five years ago, was demoted to the back bench, reinstated to ministerial ranking, but lower than some younger Māori women MPs who have been promoted....

There’ve been some melodramas occurring on the political scene with the defections of Meka Whaitiri from Labour and the resignation of Elizabeth Kerekere from the Greens. Journalists are wary of co…

16/04/2023

Sometimes things turn out well. After a year of hard slog, the repair and upgrade of Jack’s Mill School situated at Kōtuku drew to a conclusion so that a residential centre for the exploration of social change, as well as a community resource, now exists.[1] There was a final drive required to meet the funding deadline but builder and plumber came to the party and a gentle opening took place a week ago....

Sometimes things turn out well. After a year of hard slog, the repair and upgrade of Jack’s Mill School situated at Kōtuku drew to a conclusion so that a residential centre for the exploration of s…

29/03/2023

In the 1990s I was privileged to work with the Hutt Valley Tokelauan community and helped them devise a couple of plays, which, after performances locally, we took to Tokelau, spending a month on the three atolls. It was a time of exploring often complex community relationships. At the end of the trip, on the last atoll, we came across a man who was entrepreneurial, having established a sort of nightclub....

In the 1990s I was privileged to work with the Hutt Valley Tokelauan community and helped them devise a couple of plays, which, after performances locally, we took to Tokelau, spending a month on t…

14/03/2023

Almost two years ago my daughter had her first child in Australia. Recently, when it was obvious they would not be coming back to Aotearoa as soon as they thought, she asked me to bring back the boy’s whenua and bury it. It had been in their freezer since his birth. It needs to be in Papatuanuku, she said to me....

Almost two years ago my daughter had her first child in Australia. Recently, when it was obvious they would not be coming back to Aotearoa as soon as they thought, she asked me to bring back the bo…

23/02/2023

Hanging out with a grandchild, I become aware of the extraordinary market for products related to child rearing, with every age a target, from napkins to baby clothing to cribs to front packs to back packs to silhouette books readable by unfocused eyes, to prams, to car seats, to surveillance devices, to mobiles, to teethers, to first toys… And then it really takes off, to balls that glow, to teddy bears, to various rattles and toys that beep and whistle and sing nursery rhymes, to buggies, to sleep noise and whales singing, to lotions, to special play facilities for a rainy day and organisers of first birthday parties....

Hanging out with a grandchild, I become aware of the extraordinary market for products related to child rearing, with every age a target, from napkins to baby clothing to cribs to front packs to ba…

16/02/2023

(1) I’ve been reading a study of how the ANZAC concept has been used as a tool in forging national ideology in New Zealand and Australia.[1] After the Gallipoli military disaster, with its considerable loss of life, commemorations were held annually to honour the veterans and the fallen. The dominant theme was that of the colonies proving their valour and their maturity and thus establishing their place in the Empire....

(1) I’ve been reading a study of how the ANZAC concept has been used as a tool in forging national ideology in New Zealand and Australia.[1] After the Gallipoli military disaster, with its consider…

04/01/2023

Having received an honour, that is, a ‘mark of respect’ made to a person who has also paid ‘allegiance to a code of conduct’; and the honour involving becoming a member of the NZ Order of Merit, an order made up of those whose work has been of meritorious worth to society, it is a significant pat on the back....

Having received an honour, that is, a ‘mark of respect’ made to a person who has also paid ‘allegiance to a code of conduct’; and the honour involving becoming a member of the NZ Order of Merit, an…