It was difficult to not weep at the formal apology for the Dawn Raids.
The ghosts of 5 decades banged their grief as Jacinda flanked by her Pacific and Maori Caucus were escorted by a Pacifica honour guard into the Town Hall.
From the cries of a challenge to a song of loving welcome, the audience sat in the dark and silence as a soundscape of the Dawn Raids were played with early morning banging, dogs barking and Police asking questions.
It was difficult not to weep as prayer was sung in the wake of that poignant immersion into time.
Jacinda was sitting, covered in humility and emerged into an embrace of forgiveness.
Peeni Henare performed the speech of his career.
Jacinda’s grace and dignity in her apology was another reminder that we have not seen the best of this remarkable leader yet and that her honest empathy for the damage the Dawn Raids caused makes her one of our unique Prime Ministers.
Her articulation of injustice and unwavering criticism of this shameful policy deserves an accolade.
We were wrong to do this. We must atone for that wrong.
Jacinda started that process today.
Jacinda’s apology went beyond words with the offer of an official historical account of the Dawn Raid from the community alongside resources that can teach the Dawn Raids at schools, $1.2million into Pacifica education scholarships plus $1million into Pacifica leadership.
It was a day where the naked beauty and power of a genuine apology could heal all sides of injustice.
There is much still to do to unwind the current overstayer issues, a total amnesty would be a fitting response to a day as important as this.
First published on Waatea News.
Yeah, I teared up through that.
No-one else could have done that, either.
She was absolutely the right person, and she represented all Kiwis with great dignity, sincerity and grace.
Re-phrase: She represented most Kiwis, – just NOT Mr Frank.
Herein lies the mistakes the left are committing. The theatrics on display during this appealed to a certain part of New Zealand. That NZ doesn’t incorporate the middle/sheeple who are desperately trying to get a jab so they can get on a place and head for the GC for a week in the sun.
Would Helen Clarke allow herself to be in the submissive position the Blairite was. No.
If vaccinated covid mortality continues to sit at less than a 3rd of a percent – the fear goes, the empathy disappears and the politics of greed and “what’s in it for me” returns.
This just reinforces the workborg culture that has infected NZ politics over the past 18 months.
Helen did not have to deal with a worldwide pandemic.
Or an horrific massacre. Or a time when the monster committing that massacre could livestream it to the world.
Or a volcanic eruption that ripped the flesh off many as they died.
Helen did not go through pregnancy and childbirth while PM.
Helen did not govern during a time when the world finally had to wake up and deal with the fact that Climate Change has tipped us over the edge.
Helen did not have to pick up the broken pieces of our country after it had been smashed by nine years of plutocratic exploitation, including the sale of many of our homes to people in foreign lands who often bought them primarily for speculation.
There are a million more people packed into AO/ NZ since Helen was PM (ref Bert). One fifth of the population that we have here now are ‘imported’. Helen did not have to deal with that level of assimilation of new arrivals with their different cultures.
Helen’s governance was in an earlier era, a past century, a different millennium.
Helen’s governance was in an earlier era, a past century, a different millennium.
Was FROM an earlier era, from a different millennium.
Now, the 21st Century is forcing us to deal with problems which, even in Helen’s last years as PM, were not evident, or were still being denied.
I remember when David Lange entered the political arena when he had a meeting in Wellington protesting the dawn raids. His move into politics ended with him becoming Prime Minister. He could have as Prime Minister made the apology. Someone in the ‘public service’ must have persuaded him otherwise.
You certainly wouldn’t have gotten an apology from the Snake Oil Salesman.
I agree Bertie. Michael Cullen definitely wouldn’t have apologized. LOL
Now now Frankie you know who I meant, you drooled all over him! LOL
It is nice to know we have apologised to Polynesians for the injustices of the past.
Not so nice to know we still imprison them in disproportionate numbers to the rest of the population.
I suppose we can apologise for that too at some undetermined time in the future.
It has all the depth and resonance of an apology from Oranga Tamariki or the Resrve Bank.
We have lost the word “real”…
No, we are finally acknowledging, accepting and reclaiming what is real.
Arresting people for no reason is wrong. Not sure why the woke are so keen then to criminalise free speech. With Christian views, could be Dawn Raids 2021 https://www.tiktok.com/@jesuspreachingnz/video/6986750398782622977
Funny how Jacinda can’t say sorry about current abuses and mistakes, such as the NZ child torture victims, oranga tamariki victims, the growing homeless/in emergency housing, the disabled who can’t even get support workers turning up or a dental appointment, people not being able to access health care with a 30,000 waiting list, which the government has direct control of.
No lessons learnt from Fiji, aka NZ opening up the borders to Sāmoa, Tonga and Vanuatu without MIQ and could be catastrophic for them (and us) as there are people who are gaming the system and flying to countries to avoid quarantines and hide their original departure country.
How Fiji got so bad.
“From July 2020 to April 2021, Fiji only recorded cases from managed quarantine facilities at the border as repatriation flights brought stranded citizens back home. This has allowed the country to relax its COVID-19 restrictions to boost its economic recovery however on 19 April 2021, Fiji confirmed its first community case as a result of a breach in protocol.[3] In response, the township of Nadi and the city of Lautoka went into a lockdown and previous health restrictions were re-imposed all over the country with the national curfew restored. As local transmission cases soared exacerbated by the Delta variant, the Government sealed off the main island of Viti Levu establishing Suva, Lautoka, Nadi, Nausori, Rakiraki and Lami as containment areas which meant that over 70% of the population was now in lockdown. The government also activated FEMAT (Fiji Emergency Medical Assistance Team) in Suva and Lautoka. The virus penetrated prominent hospitals of Fiji including the Fiji CDC and the headquarters of the Ministry of Health which prompted senior health officials to go into self isolation. High number of cases continue to be recorded from the Western and Central division, with daily records being broken almost every second day. Despite this, the government has ruled out any possibility of a nationwide lockdown adding that their directive would be on targeted lockdowns instead.[4]”
So, by your reasoning, the PM should do nothing at all until she can do everything immediately.
ok…
Anna Fifield, editor and owner of the DomPost, said on ‘The Nation’ a week ago that “I can’t remember Jacinda Adern apologising for anything” and then, “I think she’s not known for getting it wrong on anything”.
What concerning and stupid ignorance from a person who should know a hell of a lot better! I assume she reads her paper and has at least some knowledge of recent events of national significance?
At least the very least, six times the PM has made a formal, public apology on various matters, since taking office. A cursory look at internet sources confirms it.
Thank you for highlighting that.
Our PM is home, unwell, at the moment.
“Kia kaha Jacinda.”
Nice that she has a secure home to feel safe in. Shame she took that opportunity from so many.
Either you don’t live here in NZ, or you have not been here very long at all. Or, you suffering memory loss.
Who’s home have you taken, I wonder…
How about apologising for making so many Polynesians living in NZ homeless through your sinister housing policies Saint Jacinda?
Can you give me the figures on homelessness n ow that they are properly measured compared to 2013 when the figures were manufactured down.
Fast forward 45 years.
The PM has apologised for the governments whose wilful intransigence and inaction ensured generations of their people were left homeless, without hope, bereft and at the will of market forces.
TheKraut you say,” I am confused’.
IT SHOWS !
Extend your reading beyond ‘Mein Kampf’ and do a little research and your confusion may end.
Look at the court cases; Rich white kids get drunk, do stupid stuff and get diversion because a criminal record would harm their future employment prospects in white collar jobs.
Poor brown kids get drunk, do stupid stuff, and get jailed because their employment prospects do not matter.
I could try telling you more but there is that bit about ‘answer not a fool according to his folly lest thou liken him to a wise man.'( translate’don’t waste time on confused fuckwits)
Baby Can I hold you … Tracy Chapman
https://youtu.be/kjRo_CHSdt0?t=2
Te Kraut obviously hasn’t been to court or experienced the deeply embedded racisms in our justice system. And we all know not all people have fair and equal access to the best lawyers who can get them a lighter sentence like home detention. If we look at pedophilia who are over represented in this category Te Kraut, many being clergy who escaped justice for too many years leaving traumatised victims with governments and social agencies having to pick up the pieces.
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