Doing it for the kids
For those that want to be kept up to date with what’s going on with the Uruwera 17/18 (depending on which report you read) I suggest you keep an eye on Indymedia. The editors at AIMC are doing a fabulous job of keeping everything update, especially with details of solidarity actions.
Just a couple of things I want to point out.
A fighting fund as been set up. At this stage, donations can be made to a defence fund organised by Global Peace & Justice Auckland. Identify the donation as being for the defence fund. 38-9000-0099726-00 GLOBAL PEACE & JUSTICE AKLD.
And those that want to send messages of support direct to detainees can send stuff to lettersforprisoners[at]riseup[dot]net which will printed out and distributed to arrestees. Obviously don’t write anything that could negatively impact on you or anyone else!
Finally, I think the event that upset me the most from Monday was the armed offenders squad searching a bus full of kids on their way to kohanga. This was handled appallingly and I think at the very least those officers involved should be personally apologising to those kids.
There is a hikoi been organised to support the kids and call for protocol to ensure that it never happens again.
Kia Ora koutou katoa nga Kohanga Reo o Mataatua me Tauranga Moana.
He mihi nui. He mihi mahana, he mihi aroha.
Nga mihi ki o tatou mate kua huri ki tua o te Arai.
Tena koutou nga Kohanga Reo whakahirahira o Mataatua-Taurnaga Moana mai nga Kuri a Wh?rei ki Tihirau.
He panui tenei kia koutou kei te watea. Kia huihui mai tatou ki te tautoko te Hikoi a nga Kohanga Reo o te wharua o Ruatoki . I runga i nga pahetanga I utainga ki nga mokopuna I te wa e haere ana ratou ki nga Kohanga Reo
I kite koutou I runga I te pouaka whakaata nga mahi weriweri a nga pirihimana e patu ana nga wairua o a tatou mokopuna nohinohi.
This is an invitation to all Kohanga Reo in Mataatua-Tauranga Moana to come and support the Kohanga Reo from Te P?rei Kohu Purapura on their
hikoi through Whakatane township, through the Whakatane District Council Office and on to the Whakatane Police Station.DATE – Tomorrow – Friday 19 October 2007 in Whakatane
Te Ururoa Flavell , Member of Parliament Waiariki will be at this hikoi
TIME TO ASSEMBLE: 9:00am at the carpark behind the Strand (near the Warehouse). Hikoi begins – 9:30am. If your Kohanga Reo have uniforms please let your children wear them.
TE WAIATA: “He Taonga Taku Mokopuna
Taku Mokopuna Korikori e……………….The purpose of this hikoi has arisen out of the way the Armed Offenders squad stopped the vehicles taking our mokopuna to the 4 Kohanga Reo in Ruatoki and also the School children at the Ruatoki and Tawera Kura.
The Kohanga Reo in Te P?rei Kohu Purapura are highlighting the health and well-being of our mokopuna ‘Nga Taumata Whakahirahira’ MANA ATUA kaua e tukino nga mokopuna. HE TAONGA TE MOKOPUNA
The desired outcome out of this ‘Hikoi’ is that our mokopuna will never be subjected to this type of traumatic experience again and that it be legislated that vehicles transporting Kohanga Reo mokopuna or school children never be stopped, and that they be allowed to continue to the Kohanga Reo, or Kura, where the children can then disembark and be placed in a safe haven, before the vehicles are searched and the Adults responsible be questioned.
You are welcome to make banners/placards for this hikoi. If the words could be in Maori and in English so there are no excuses that they do not understand the message we are trying to get across ‘Ki te Motu.’
This hikoi is very important to inform the whole World how our little children were treated during the recent siege at Ruatoki and that it must never ever happen again.
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Nga Mihi Arohanui to all the tamariki mokopuna of Ruatoki,Tuhoe Nation.
We all need to tautoko the peoples that have been victimised and isolated by this process of invasion that has beset the peoples of Tuhoe. There are
a number of planned events to express our dissatisfaction with the way that the peoples of Te Urewera have been targeted unfairly.
The first kaupapa is to be a hikoi by our tamariki and mokopuna who were harassed unfairly and who have now had the spectre of DARK VADER and the
NINJA TURTLES terrorists boarding their WAKA on their way to KOHANGA REO
implanted in their memories this week. Hopefully the hikoi will enable the
vortex of evil energy that those memories were tainted by, to be replaced
by the cleansing weapon of EMBARRASSMENT and WHAKAMA which is an intrinsic
tool in our world view from which those that would seek to do harm to the
most vulnerable and innocent will now suffer.
Please contact all the Kohanga Reo and Kura Kaupapa in your regions to
offer their support to the Children of the Mist, Nga Mokopuna o Te Kohu as
they organise for this hikoi. Have a vigil at your own Kohanga Reo if you cant
get to Whakatane tomorrow. Revive the karakia of Te Kooti, Rua, Te Whiti
and Tohu whereever you may be to provide a calm in the storm of invasion
that is still affecting many of our communities in Taupo, Waikaremoana,
Wairoa, Palmerston North, Hamilton, Rotorua, Tamaki Makaurau, Whakatane,
and Ruatoki.
YOU MUST GET UP AND SUPPORT. It is not enough to send your words of
concern and sympathy and outrage.
NAU MAI HAERE MAI
RING,
ARRANGE TRANSPORT,
FUNDRAISE FOR THE WHANAU TRAVELLING TO COURTS TO OFFER SUPPORT TO THEIR
LOVED RANGATIRA
MOST IMPORTANTLY TURN UP TO THE HIKOI APOPO
KA WHAWHAI TONU TATOU
AKE AKE AKE
Annette Sykes
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Tots protest against ninja raid
A Ruatoki kohanga plans to march through Whakatane to the police station tomorrow morning to protest police actions during Monday’s lock-down on the eastern Bay of Plenty township.
Mere Nuku from Taawhaki Kohanga Reo says the actions of armed, black-clad police has left Ruatoki’s children are still unsettled, and could have long term consequences.
There’s conflict over whether armed police searched buses taking children to the area’s five kohanga reo.
The police and government ministers say the police were unarmed, but Mrs Nuku says that’s not true.
She says there needs to be a law to protect buses transporting children.
“If they need to be questioned or searched, that they put vehicles behind them to go there until our babies are safely inside the kohanga or the kura, then do the search and talk to the adults,” Mrs Nuku says.
She says Monday’s search has undone the kohanga’s efforts to stop children playing with toy guns, or to teach them the police are their friends.