Calling All Change Agents
In the mid 1980’s when the Whakatu meatworks closed we ran a programme at Waiohiki to support workers made redundant by the extraordinary restructuring of our economy. Men and women who previously had been…
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Te Whaea: Our Lady of Aotearoa
By Denis O’Reilly. Late last year I attended the unveiling for the late Hon. Parekura Horomia. Helen Clark gave a panegyric for her deceased acolyte. At the time of the tangihana itself, Helen was…
Ruby Princess and the Great Discontinuity
Denis O’Reilly is a New Zealand community leader and activist. This is his 91st essay for nzedge.com. My time as a bouncer on the door at Ali Baba’s in Cuba St Wellington, circa 1975,…
Haere Ra Petera. Open Letter to Mr Craig Little, Mayor of Wairoa, and his Hawke’s Bay fellows.
Dear Matua Craig, Late last evening I stood at the hospital bedside of my young Hawke’s Bay Black Power brother Petera Smith. He was in a coma and on life support. I whispered my nickname…
Herbs And Freedom Songs For The New Revolution
I’ve just returned from a full-on weekend in Auckland. I originally come from Timaru. My father used to say, on learning that I’d been in that city, “Did you call in on your aunt…
Treat Auckland Gun Violence as Contagion, Phil.
Mayor Phil Goff is correct that the dislocation of expelled, Australian-raised, criminally minded, New Zealanders, back to Aotearoa has acted as a violent force majeure on already marginalized communities of the poor, particularly in…
New Zealander Leads Transformational New York Symposium For Ex-Offenders And ‘At Risk’ Harlem Youth
Recently announced United States Democratic Congressional Contender Richard Habersham enlisted New Zealander John Wareham, who splits his time between New Zealand and New York, to lead an oversubscribed weekend retreat for ex-offenders and ‘at…
Review: Marilyn Waring The Political Years
Marilyn Waring’s forensic record of her Parliamentary career (Marilyn Waring: The Political Years Bridget Williams Books) is a layered work, a primer in the travails of Aotearoa’s parliamentary democracy. It…
Salam Alaikum. Patience Required
Salaam Alaikum. Peace be upon us all. Aotearoa is experiencing an extended tangi. Like any such event emotions ebb and flow, sneak up on you, get you when you are not looking. A frightening…
That Guy John Wareham
Some years ago I had a ring from Saatchi & Saatchi chief Kevin Roberts, a man I’ve always found to be inspirational, generous, and unflinchingly courageous. Seems a New York friend of Kevin’s, a…
Lean On Me – Nga Kupu Aroha
I nearly started to sob when Joe Walsh, Tim Schmit, and Vince Gill sang a waiata, acapella, at Hoani Waititi Marae Auckland, in support of the…
The Best Place in the World to Be a Child
After the Hāpaitia te Oranga Tangata summit in August, Denis O’Reilly started thinking about how to address the wicked criminal justice problems we face. He turns to the past, and muses on community, from…
On the Anniversary of the Death of James K Baxter
Last Sunday a group of around 40 people gathered for breakfast at Lola’s Café in Waipawa to memorialise the death of James K Baxter, Hemi, friend and poet, on 22nd October 1972. One had…
The justice summit — and the road from populism to principle
Mātua Zac (Anzac Wallace) made the news last week when he voiced his disapproval of the relatively low representation of Māori at the Hāpaitia Te Oranga Tangata criminal justice summit in Wellington. He had a…
He Poroporoaki: Te Rangatira Jack Tuhi
Born 28-11-1958. Died 1-08-2018 Redemption Song On the second to last Monday…
Poroporoaki mo Papa Hemi
It may have been the disconnection from his biological father that motivated Jim Anderton to champion the tribe of nga mokai, the fatherless ones. Then again it could have been a deep-seated instinct stemming…
Reitu Noble Harris, Kahukura
My friend and leader Reitu Noble Harris, pensioner, was downed by winter pneumonia. Marshalled by Hine Nui Te Po he passed into the long night…
Ōmarunui: Differing Narratives And Different Perspectives
This coming week and especially the day of 12 October brings memories of war to the fore. It is the 99th anniversary of the worst day in our nation’s…
64 Shots: Leadership in a Crazy World – Review
64 Shots- leadership in a crazy world. Kevin Roberts, Chairman Saatchi & Saatchi. New York: Power House Books. The locus of this new book by Kevin…
Mahi Aroha 4: A Short History of Two Deaths and a Single Killing
Social change activist and longtime NZEDGE columnist Denis O’Reilly weaves a multi-layered tale located on the social edge of Aotearoa. Last week I heard on RNZ a documentary interview with Rastaman Tigilau Ness
Mahi Aroha 3: Endurance Required
In Napier there is a certain smug satisfaction at the defeat of the amalgamation proposal. Another local proposal – the Ahuriri Deed of Settlement – that seeks to put right past wrongs – also…
Mahi Aroha 2: First, Revive the Spirit
In the week preceding the 2014 General Election I gave a speech to the AGM of the Council of Social Services in Christchurch. Whenever I’m in Christchurch I feel the spirit of my late…
He Mahi Aroha 1: WFFW – Whanau Forever, Forever Whanau
Hello. Its been a while. My heart is full. I’m in the mood to write. In recent times Taape and I have been trying as much as is possible to live out at Ocean Beach,…
Nga Kupu Aroha Epilogue
Once you put something out there you just don’t know who will pick it up and where it will go. Since its birth in 2004 Nga…
Once Was Gangman Styles
As I approach my 60th year (next month) I’m increasingly reflecting on times past and what the hell I intend to do with the time…
Deck the Halls
On Election Day I worked at the Waiohiki Arts Village with my nephew Lawrence Kingi-Miki, Nathan Rose, Gerard Gunn, and Tipu Tareha. We were digging…
Circenses nil Panem
If you believe that rugby is played in heaven then New Zealand is currently Paradise:…
Kia Pakeke Ahau
It has been a quarter of a year since I wrote to you last. Arohamai. It’s a sign though that I’m otherwise flat out….
Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage
Each morning I go for a swim. When at home, and whilst the weather is still warm enough, I use the seawater ‘pond’ at Ahuriri, a remnant of what was once the inner-harbour, Te…
Beneath the Kahungunu Flag
Nga mihi. It’s a bit late to be saying Happy New Year and all that, but take my best wishes anyway. Well another sparkling Waitangi Day has passed with the synergy sapping ‘Harawira factor’…
Poisonous Fuming
It is said that those gifted with foresight often observe ‘tohu’, signs, portents of things to come. Recently we have witnessed a raft of missed signals in a range of circumstances across Aotearoa. In…
Honour the Past, Enjoy the Present, Prepare for the Future
I love this time of the year in Hawke’s Bay, although it’s been a little bit different than usual weatherwise. I don’t know if these are natural portents of times to come or results…
It’s an Ill Wind
My apologies for such a delay between posts. I’ve been no more flat out than usual but for some reason the muse seems to have deserted me and I’ve been struggling with expressing my…
Love is the word for Mumday
We are in what looks to be the last few weeks of a protracted ‘Indian Summer’ in the Bay. It’s been very dry. We’ve had a few ‘close to frost’ mornings which killed the…
Pharaoh’s Rod
It’s been one hell of a start to the year. I left you last in January at the gates of Parihaka and I feel like I’ve been foot down and motoring hard ever since….
Chip Away
I love Aotearoa, the land, its people old and new. I’m just back from the 2010 Parihaka International Peace Festival and I can still feel the grin on my face like reverse botox. About…
Practice of Love
It’s been one of those years. I feel like I’m still in planning mode and woosh, its gone, done and dusted. These last few months have given me the worst of times and the…
It’s the Putting White That Counts!
Let’s pass through the flack cloud of the moment: Hone Harawira and white mofos! We’ll take ‘white mofo’ first. Don’t get too upset about the terminology. I agree that it’s inappropriate language for an…
Breathe Through the Nose
It was a cold, swine-flu ridden winter when I last wrote to you, and now is the time of fresh morning asparagus, drooping rich coloured kowhai, full throated tui, the tintabulations of the bellbirds,…
The Stub of Your Cheque Book
Every now and then the various streams of our lives seem to conflate, one layer tumbling in on another, old times hurtling back from the past and crashing into the present regardless of how…
Stepping Back from the Precipice
It’s been grim-times at home in Taradale, and that’s more than the recession or a bit of shitty weather. Last weekend, the first in May, a local bloke, Michael Meehan, was shot dead at…
Dangerous Utopias
What happened to March? My calendar accelerated and it just went. One minute I was planning for St Paddy’s Day and the next thing I know it’s been, gone, and done for. The ginko…
Reggae’s Doing Fine
Welcome to 2009. May it go well for you and yours. I’ve had a great start. I was pretty stuffed at the end of last year, but a bit of time off and a…
Briefing to Incoming Ministers
The wonderful thing about those of us who enjoy democracy, we are currently told, is that we enjoy the fruits of an orderly and peaceful transfer of power between governing regimes. I’ve got to tell…
Jesus Mary and Joseph!
Ka nui te mihi ki a koutou mo te ra whanau a Hehu, me te Tau Hou, hoki. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. My mate wished me ‘Happy Holidays’ the other day…
Tama Heihei Kaki Maro
I start this blog on Labour Day. I’m just back at Waiohiki from a Black Power hui near Rotorua, including a challenge for the Gabe Tawhaiti – and I’ll come back to that in…
Let He Who is Without Sin
When I was a young activist in Wellington I attended a function in Auckland at which the lead presenter was a bloke from Brazil called Paulo Freire. At the time I was much into…
Jurassic Roar
It’s spring. The kowhai has begun to blossom and on this, the last day of the month, a sunny Sunday in the Bay, I picked the first asparagus of the season. Seasons are cycles,…
Low Blow
First, we’ll visit the ossuary. Tam Wong Shi, my friend Harry’s mum, reached her terminal milestone of 103 years a few weeks ago. Her journey in life sounded tough: married in feudal China at…
Thud And Blunder
There’s a scrap between the Mongrel Mob and the Road Knights in the deep South and the Mayor of Invercargill is calling for ‘Sheriff Joe’ style retributive justice. There’s a scrap between…
War and Peace
I start this blog on a Friday night in mid April and I’ve not long pulled into the homestead at Waiohiki after a long long drive to…
Easter Edge
So, that was Easter. What a buzz all round. The stone at the sepulchre door has been shifted, and an impossible calendar of commitments has been …
The Cycle of Life
At home, the colour of the grapes has changed rapidly. In December they were a wistful light green and now, swollen with juice, they are rich …
