Hi Everyone,

The Yung Warriors have been nominated for a deadly award.

They have been strident supporters of Self determination and the sacred fire.

Those of you who went to the second Aniv. of Camp Sovereingty will remember the electrifying performance they put on for us; those who didn't can look forward to a great show at the third Aniv.

In the meantime give them a vote and lets see them get the credit they deserve for their hard work.

Gengis...



MEDIA RELEASE


17th August 2008


Be Deadly and VOTE YUNG!


Hip Hop Crew the Tjimba and the Yung Warriors have been nominated for the leading indigenous DEADLY AWARD for BAND OF THE YEAR.

Voting has opened and fans and supporters can get on and vote online now for awards that will be presented on October 9th at the Sydney Opera House. Voting online details are on
Vote here

Tjimba and the Yung Warriors are one of four nominations this year in what looks like being a new high water mark for indigenous achievements in the Arts and Sports as measured by the internationally recognised prize ‘The Deadlies’.

Yung Warriors Tjimba and Narjic and Danny said ‘we are just so proud to have our nomination accepted, especially as ‘Band of the Year’ because that’s already a reward for all the live shows we did and recognition for our first album.

‘Its an honour to be up there in a category with our Uncles and Aunties in the Black Arm Band and our mates in the Street Warriors and Max Judo. If we win then that’s a win for our generation continue the work of our musical elders.

The Yung Warriors sing ‘there’s always something good out there’ and to ‘hold your head up and things will get better’ and there has been a huge demands for their shows and workshops by indigenous youth all over Australia.

They have performed continuously for their communities both in town and regionally. This included inspiring shows in Lake Tyers Community, Tarerer Festival in Warnambool, Yorta Yorta communities on the Murray and Wathaurong Community in Geelong.

The Yung Warriors have been consistently re-booked by organisations such as Snake Safe Sex program, Reconciliation Victoria, The Long Walk, the Melbourne Youth Custodial Service and Indigenous colleges at Latrobe Uni, VCA, Melbourne Uni, Monash Uni and KODE School

As well as crossing over into wider audiences at the Big Day Out and playing for clubbers in the Melbourne nightclub scene the Yung Warriors achieved an aim by playing a support spot for international act and hero 50 Cent. To cap it off they played an intro at the Anthony Mundine world title fight.

Tjimba and the Yung Warriors debut CD the ‘Warrior for Life’ has been album of the week at most indigenous radio stations around the country. Hip Hop journalists have described the album as one of the best Australian Hip Hop albums in 20 years. The recordings feature all original beats and the three guys also play all the instruments themselves.

Or mummmmmmmmy as a person too, or the mummmy experience. Really so often when i talk about my experiences as a parent/woman/person,  those who see me as other instead of human such as those non-parenting persons will compare me to their mothers,  i.e me… ¨I´m feeling grumpy and tired, think I´m premenstrual¨ others… ¨oh when my mother had her period she would be…¨ Calling forth a discussion about mothers periods. Mother is no longer (if she ever was) a person in eyes of group think but an institution. Another box I didn´t choose. Yes I could fill this in more but I´ve got a trillion more things to do before bed tonight and something is better than nothing.

My life as a person is so often only carved out as being the experiences of ¨a mother¨or as is often (almost always) when dealing with ¨men¨…the experiences of a women/mother, (barely a living being and rarely ever a friend in her own right.)

so STOP, LOOK and LISTEN, here i am writing again!

and i just wanted to say fuck you all, all you posturing politicians who will never read this or bother to add me to your blog rolls.

Go fuck yourselves, (and I think I heard this line in a song somewhere recently so its probably ok for a mother to say, now.)

THE Cape York town of Aurukun will become one of the most closely watched communities in Australia, monitored through security cameras 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from a room 600km away in Cairns.

Desperate to stop violence, break-ins and thefts, the Aurukun Shire Council has agreed to have the indigenous community of 800 placed under constant surveillance.

Thirty-four cameras - covering almost every corner of the community - are being installed at a one-off cost of $225,000.

The community will then pay $12,000 a month to have the cameras monitored from a control room in Cairns, as two security staff rove the community.

Until now, Aurukun has contracted a private security company to patrol the area at about $60,000 a month, a cost chief executive John Bensch said was not sustainable.

About half of the cameras have been installed, and will be turned on next week.

The cameras will be monitored by security firm GSS Asset Management in Cairns, which will inform police on the ground of serious incidents.

Images from the community will be fed to a secure bunker in Cairns via a secure internet connection, with cameras in the community designed to be tamper-proof.

continues here

See Also:

Gubba minister to boost pig numbers in Aurukun
AURUKUN RIOTS CAUSED BY SECRET DEAL

In reguards to the recent riots today in Aurukun one important factor has failed to be mentioned in media reports. A recent deal has been made to open a massive bauxite mine in the community with the Chinese company Chalco. All this has caused immense community uproar as only one small family secretly signed for the deal in a community of over 1200. Riots. We'll it's simple to see the community opposition to whats really going on there.

Related:

http://www.nit.com.au/News/story.aspx?id=12327
http://www.nit.com.au/News/story.aspx?id=11367
http://www.nit.com.au/BreakingNews/story.aspx?id=10142

a public talk by Maori and Pacific anti-globalisation and solidarity activist Sina Brown-Davis

Tuesday, September 2, 2008
6:00pm - 8:00pm
@ Clubspace, above the Auckland University Quad.
Corner Princes and Alfred Streets (By Maidment Theatre), Auckland, New Zealand

Sina Brown-Davis, Melbourne-based Maori, Tongan & Samoan anti-globalisation and solidarity activist will be giving a public talk on revolutionary struggle and activism in Australia and the Pacific.

Sina works closely with Aboriginal Australians in a number of anti-racist and anti-colonial projects and campaigns. She runs uriohau.blogspot.com a news service for activists and revolutionaries throughout the Pacific.

Sina was one of two-dozen activists arrested in the wake of riots atthe G20 neo-liberal economic summit held in Melbourne in 2006. Sinawill be discussing her experiences in and perspectives onanti-capitalist and anti-colonial struggles in Australia and the Pacific.

Sina is visiting Aotearoa to build solidarity and support between indigenous and radical activists who on both sides of the Tasman are being targeted by state repression.

6pm - Tuesday September 2nd
@ Clubspace, above the Auckland University Quad, corner Princes and Alfred Streets. (By Maidment Theatre)
Brought to you by Auckland Anarchist Network and Socialist Aotearoa

Flint Duxfield is a co-director of AID/WATCH, an independent monitor of aid and development issues.

Labour mobility may be in the headlines but as Kevin Rudd talks the talk at the Pacific Islander Leaders' forum in Nuie, he'll have one thing on his mind; trade.

Allowing Pacific workers to plug the holes in Australia's labour market is certainly a priority for Australia's farmers. But the real gain for Rudd lies in the bargaining power the scheme will give Simon Crean as he moves into the second phase of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Agreement negotiations, the free trade agreement Australia and New Zealand are negotiating with the Pacific countries.

It's an approach that strongly resembles the aid-for-trade model heavily promoted within the World Trade Organisation. Developing countries that liberalise their economies are rewarded with aid packages designed to ''minimise the adjustment costs'' associated with rapid liberalisation and allow them to ''maximise the benefits'' of new market access. An expanded aid program will help overcome the revenue loss for pacific governments and the labour mobility scheme will take the edge off any unemployment which occurs as domestic producers become displaced by Australian imports.

Or so the theory goes.

Continues here

"...We emphasized that the fight against neoliberalism had to be waged globally."

From the G8 to Lacandona Jungle

The last Anti-G8 experiences and the Zapatistas new possibilities

Discussion and thoughts on autonomous social movements and anti-neoliberalism global struggles




Rachel Rowe, Mexico Australia Solidarity Network activist & independent journalist of Regeneracion Radio from Mexico City; recently returned from Mexico, she has been involved in The Other Campaign (a call from the Zapatistas) and in the autonomous community radio Regeneracion; Rachel is part of the alternative media and communication facility groups and grassroots organisations both in urban (landless peoples movements and poor street vendors movements) and rural environments (indigenous and campesino communities).


Canopy, LASNET activist, recently returned from Japan where he attended an Indigenous and anti-G8 Conferences. In Japan, July 2008, grassroots organisations from around the globe share their experiences and struggles in a four days conference, discussing and planning new ways to confront global capitalism.

Date: Thursday August 28th,
Time: 7pm
Venue: Victoria Trades Hall Council,
Meeting Room 1, ground floor, corner of Victoria & Lygon Streets, Carlton

Entry by donation

Everyone welcome

Red de Solidaridad con los Pueblos Latinoamericanoswww.latinlasnet.org
lasnet@latinlasnet.org

click for a larger image



Tues 26th @ 1:15pm in D531
Footscray Park Campus, Victoria University

Speakers include:
David Vakalis, PHASS
Pamela Curr, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
Kristalo Hrysicos, refugee activist

ALL WELCOME!

> please distribute widely <<

Papua New Guinea says it remains cautious about the possibility of labour exploitation under a pilot scheme where Pacific Islanders will be offered seasonal jobs in Australia.

"One of my big fears is the Australian government had special work visas where they issued to workers coming from Asia and they found that is some cases, those people were being exploited by employers,: he said.

"The Australian government I'm told has learnt through that experience and they don't want it repeated with our people going to Australia for rural work.

Mr Hickey says he would like to see the Australian government put mechanisms in place whereby they would be protected from exploitation by employers.

"First we would like to see that our workers belong to a trade union in Australia, because they would receive some protection from exploitation if they became trade unionists."continues here

Here’s a bunch more shots from various parts of my trip

First up, a nice sunset (it looked better in person, but oh well) from Stepney Green in London, where I stayed for most of the time I was there. A couple of days before I left, I realised that one street over from where I was staying was Jubilee St, where, in the early 1900s, the Jewish anarchists in London (plus Rudolf Rocker) had a club where they held meetings, social events etc. Also within a few minutes walk was Cable St, site of the anti-fascist demonstration in 1936. The whole area I stayed in was surrounded by endless bits of radical history, which was fucking cool.

Next up, a bunch of shots from my day trip to the Acropolis in Athens. Once again, the history geek in me was loving it!

Next, a bit of graffiti that made me smile from Tel Aviv, Israel.

The following few photos were taken at an old crusader fortress (and surrounding village) in Herzliyya, in Israel. The site had been used prior to the crusaders by others including Persians. There was still quite a bit standing, or which had been excavated, was quite interesting (and stunning views up and down the coast).

In the following photo from the fortress itself, the left foreground was the ovens, the right foreground the kitchen basins (with plaster inlay) and the dome-topped thing in the middle of the background was storage for grain.

I don’t really know why, but I found the following sign absolutely hilarious, and had to take a photo…

Next up, 3 bits of graffiti (not all the most intelligent work!) from the walls of South Tel Aviv (very near to Salon Mazal, the anarchist infoshop/cafe).

Last of all, a crazy fucking bug. Oddly, the first thing I thought when I saw it (other than “I have to get a photo of this”) was “Holy shit, that reminds me of a V advertisment!”.

The government of Peru suspended civil liberties following clashes between indigenous Peruvians and police. The action is taking place in remote jungle regions where Indian groups are blocking highways and oil and gas installations.

The protests and blockades have followed the accusation by a Peruvian indigenous association which accused the Peruvian government last week of violating the rights of the native communities in the Amazon with laws that favour foreign oil companies. The recently signed Free Trade Agreement with the United States and a number of draft laws in the legislature all allow for the easy commercial exploitation of indigenous territories

Continues here
Thanks to OreadDaily

A Northland Maori group has erected pou, or boundary markers, on disputed beachfront land at Matapouri.

The group is taking action in the High Court against the Department of Conservation, the Department of Land and Survey Information and the Attorney-General in a bid to have the land designated a reserve.

Te Whanau o Rangi Whakaahu say they sold the Otito Block to the Government in 1970 as a scenic reserve in the belief that reserve status would safeguard it for all time.

However, they say part of the land was wrongly included in a freehold title by private survey in 1999.

The hapu says the five manuka posts it has erected on the land are to
make a statement, and watch over wahi tapu.

continues here

Watch More Videos Uploaded by www.bebo.com/Feelstyle

Kas Futialo "AUA LE EU'EU'IGA LE LIMA SA FAFAGA'IGA AI OUKOU"

Dedicated with Love to all those who fight oppression

Active support and solidarity for local struggles of self-determination, justice and dignity

[August 2008 OTTAWA] ---- In the year 2010, three major international events will be taking place in the Canadian state: the Winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler (between February 12-28); the G8 Leader's Summit in Huntsville, Ontario (most likely in June or July); and the meeting of the NAFTA leaders as part of the so-called "Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP)" (date and location not yet known). ---- Already, groups and individuals on the West Coast have come together under the banner of "No Olympics on stolen native land." They have been organizing and raising awareness, from an anti-colonial and anti-capitalist perspective, against the 2010 Olympics, for several years.

[More info available at www.no2010.com and http://harrietspirit.blogspot.com/]

Inspired by the mobilizing on the West Coast, organizers across "Canada"have begun awareness-raising efforts. Building on the call from the West Coast for anti-capitalist and anti-colonial resistance to the Olympics, some organizers affiliated with the "People's Global Action" Bloc (PGA-Bloc) in Ontario and Quebec have begun mobilizing around "Resistance2010", linking
anti-Olympics efforts to organizing against the G8 and SPP, and the day-to-day systems and institutions of power and oppression they represent.

With more than one-year before the Olympics begin, there is a huge opportunity for coordinated and developed campaigns against the Olympics, G-8 and SPP: campaigns that are rooted in our every-day mobilizing, and survival; and campaigns that understand that the institutions of oppression and power function daily in our own communities.


The PGA-Bloc is organizing within the framework of the People's Global Action Hallmarks, which are linked at: www.agp.org

The PGA Hallmarks are a common expression of some of our basic politics, and are linked to a loose international network of grassroots resistance to capitalism that is directly inspired by the Zapatistas. Over the past several years, the "PGA-Bloc" has been used in Ontario and Quebec for
various organizing efforts, such as opposing George Bush's visit to Ottawa (2004) and mobilizing against the SPP meeting in Montebello (2007). The PGA network is also linked to numerous groups who organized anti-capitalist resistance to the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City (2001).

Whether groups are organizing within the PGA Hallmarks or not, we would like to communicate and organize with everyone with shared affinities -- anti-capitalist and anti-colonial analysis; support for direct action;confrontation of oppressive systems; opposition to all forms of oppression;autonomous and horizontal organizing; and support of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination -- in a spirit of unity, solidarity and mutual aid.

There have so far been two regional organizing meetings in Ottawa (in January and July 2008) related to the Resistance 2010 campaign, bringing together activists from Ontario and Quebec. Allies have been meeting in Halifax as well. A Resistance 2010 information session was held at the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair this past May, involving participants from Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes as well as the Northeast USA. To date, there have been two visits by Indigenous organizers in "British Columbia" to Ontario and Quebec, and communications between organizers across "Canada".

This callout (our second; the first was made in January 2008) is being made to again encourage networking and communications between groups and individuals who support the Resistance 2010 campaign.

We write this in the hopes that we can re-kindle old networks, encourage and join new ones, and support each other's organizing and struggles towards 2010 and beyond.

In solidarity and in struggle,Members and supporters of the PGA-Bloc in Ontario and Quebec.

www.resistance2010.net (under construction)
info@resistance2010.net


*GET INVOLVED:*

*ENDORSE RESISTANCE 2010:* We encourage groups and organizations to discuss
the Resistance 2010 campaign. If your group supports the main demands of Resistance 2010 campaign -- no Olympics on stolen land; disrupt and abolish the G8 and SPP; and active support and solidarity for local struggles of self-determination, justice and dignity ?- please get in touch to endorse the campaign at info@resistance2010.net

*SHARE INFORMATION:* Please share any public information about activities and campaigns that you've already begun or discussed in your area that might be related to the Resistance2010 effort. We are compiling the public information at info@resistance2010.net and will send it out on our announcements list to share with everyone.

*POPULAR EDUCATION:* We are particularly interested in sharing research and popular education materials. Members of the PGA-Bloc in Ontario and Quebec are working together in the coming months on a more detailed information package to share with your group, as well as more informational workshops. Please e-mail info@resistance2010.net to share any info.


info@resistance2010.net
www.resistance2010.net (under construction)
==================================
* An antiauthoritarian anticapitalist initiative network

Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to posting, things have been somewhat hectic recently. Anyway, here’s a bunch of photos I’ve taken so far during my trip, on my brand new second hand cellphone’s camera. Sweet.

This one (and the next 3 closeups) is from an outside wall of Freedom, in London. The home of Freedom Bookshop, Freedom Press and, of course, Freedom the newspaper. The project was in collaboration with the art gallery next store, and consists of images of a whole bunch of anarchists (and proto-anarchists) from history. Following that is a pic of the door to Freedom itself, including a stencil of Wildcat, an anarchist comic character. I interviewed Donald Rooum, the creator of the cartoon, for over an hour while in London

Next up, some photos from Athens. These were all taken on the walk from Monastiraki up towards the Acropolis (photos of that will be uploaded in the next few days). It was fucking hot, but the view from the top was definately worth it. Anyway, as with everywhere I went in Athens, there was plenty of political graffiti. Some of it was fairly ugly, just tagging etc, and lots of it I didn’t understand (as I don’t speak Greek), but some I liked and took photos of

Lastly, the night that I flew out of Athens, I spent a few hours in Exarchia, which is a “reclaimed neighbourhood” - a bunch of streets where heaps of anarchists and other lefties live, and cops aren’t welcome. The walls were coated thickly with graffiti and posters for demos, soli work for prisoners etc etc, was pretty cool. Then when I left to go catch a bus to the airport, I noticed that at the edges of Exarchia, there were young (some looked like 15, but must’ve been older) cops in full riot gear at every corner - apparently, thats normal, to ensure that Exarchia doesn’t spread, and also for training the young cops - the older ones go to the demos/riots, but the young ones learn the trade at the borders…bizarre! The following photos are from the doors in the toilets in a bar I went to, where I was served by an anarchist bartender.

Lastly, off to Israel, where I currently am. While in Tel Aviv, I took a few photos of bits of graffiti/stencil art there.

This one is a stencil of the founder of political Zionism, Theodore Herzl. The Hebrew text below translates to “Don’t want, don’t need…” This is a piece of slang in Hebrew that is said when someone offers you something you don’t want - in the case of this stencil, referring to the Israeli state itself.

This stencil is about Ahmed Mousa, a 10 year old child murdered recently in the West Bank town of Ni’ilin by the Israeli army during a demonstration by Palestinians, Israelis and internationals against the separation wall. More info about Ahmed and the demo (inc photos) can be found on the Anarchists Against The Wall website.

A slightly older stencil to finish it off, this one is from last year, the 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights. It says “occupation” in Hebrew, Arabic and English below the number 40, followed by an unreadable date (I think?) and website.

"Kiribati people are their own failures, they weren't motivated. I couldn't get them to work," was the comment made to the ODT by the Marlborough contractor who crammed 22 people into a three bedroom apartment. And the Department of Labour was reportedly investigating Garry Maxwell-Smith and his company Fore-Vintage Contracting, for treating migrant workers like so much garbage. To top it all off, 60 or so Kiribati workers have been sent home penniless after the promised work has run out.

With the Pacific Forum in Niue next week, alarm bells should be ringing as Australia and New Zealand tighten their grip over the Pacific labour markets and plan to set up more schemes to tap into a vast pool of Pacific labour, which through seasonal work schemes can be mobilised and then dumped back into the labour pool with the ease of turning on a tap. Just 100% pure minimum wage labour. 100% New Zealand.

The future of the Pacific seems to be looking grim with these relevations, which come hot on the heels of leaked details of Australia attempting to bully Pacific nations into a free trade agreement which will no doubt "lead to rising inequality, losses in government revenue, job losses, a reduction in the quality and supply of essential services and the closing off of policy space that governments use to stimulate development."

see also
http://uriohau.blogspot.com/2008/08/slavery-in-pacific_09.html

Wu Tang Clan - I Can't Go To Sleep Ft. Issac Hayes

Check out this memorial to Isaac ISAAC HAYES RIP
and more at brother Sukant Chandan's blog http://sonsofmalcolm.blogspot.com/

"Inspired by the principles of Malcolm X / Malik El-Hajj Shabazz. A 'Third Worldist' perspective focusing on the increasing pace of south-south co-operation which is challenging US hegemony, and the struggles of those oppressed by neo-colonialism and racism who fight for their social, political and cultural freedom 'by any means necessary'"

By Abigail Kwok
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 14:45:00 08/13/2008

MANILA, Philippines -- Indigenous groups in the country are in decline because of the government's alleged “militarist and aggressive economic policies,” a coalition of indigenous groups said on Wednesday.

Groups from Central Luzon, led by the Central Luzon Aeta Association (CLAA), marched to the Don Chino Roces Bridge (formerly Mendiola) to protest the alleged destruction of their ancestral lands due to mining.

“The urgent and critical situation of the indigenous people’s sector has brought us here,” said Nelson Mallari, secretary general of CLAA.

He added that members of the military allegedly harass, intimidate, and threaten locals in the area.

The group also criticized the agreement between Nihao Mineral Resources International and Geograce Philippines, headed by former Malacañang chief of staff Michael Defensor, and China’s Jiangxi Rare Earth and Rare Metals Tungsten Group Co. to conduct mining explorations in more than 30,000 hectares of land in Zambales.

Himpad Mangumalas, spokesman for the Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP), said the mining explorations would displace Aeta communities in the area.

“The Arroyo government is wiping out indigenous communities all over the country through its militarist and aggressive economic policies. Another reason is that the President does not intend to cease these injustices,” he said.

Groups urged the government to stop mining, where priority mining areas of the government have now reached to 63, or more than 108,000 hectares.

“The realization of the rights of national minorities to ancestral lands and self-determination will only be fully realized when the government is no longer bound by capitalist interests. Until then, the indigenous and Moro peoples’ rights is only second to the interests of companies interested in the resources found in ancestral domains,” Mangumalas said.

Nan Seuffert

Excerpted Racing & Engendering the Nation State in Atoearoa/ 10 American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law 597-618, 599-612 (2002)
(127 Footnotes)

Centering Maori women activists in an analysis of the convergence of policies of structural adjustment and political claims for self-determination and redress of colonial injustices suggests that the settlements were an alliance of men across race to silence these women. The political activism of some Maori women, gaining momentum from the 1970s, operated to disrupt the illusion of unity of the nation. Regaining the illusion of unity, and in particular reaffirmation of the dominance of the minority of privileged white men, required erasing these Maori women activists as serious political subjects. This move required the cooperation of at least some Maori men in a temporary alliance among men across race in a process of "settlement" of historical colonial injustices. This part examines Maori activism's disruption of New Zealand's illusion of national unity, and the resultant configuring of a national identity as bicultural. It then briefly discusses policies of structural adjustment and the corresponding emergence of a national identity of global entrepreneurs. The production of these two national identities resulted in tensions that were resolved through the settlements process, with the assimilation of some Maori men to the new national identity of global entrepreneurs. This resolution restored the illusion of national unity, silencing and erasing the activism of Maori women.

A. Disrupting New Zealand's Illusion of National Unity: The Nation as Bicultural


The dominant story of the founding of Aotearoa/New Zealand is a simple one of cession of sovereignty by the indigenous Maori people to the British in the English version of the Treaty of Waitangi of 1840 ("Treaty"), resulting in one unified British New Zealand. Contrary to the dominant story, it has been argued persuasively that the Maori version of the Treaty, signed by most Maori leaders, did not cede sovereignty to the British. Historical data suggests that, in the Maori version of the Treaty, Maori people agreed to the British coming into the country to govern the British while Maori retained their traditional control over their land and people. The "appropriative mistranslation" of the English version of the Treaty, which clearly ceded sovereignty, into a Maori version that envisioned power sharing, was followed by the repression of the Maori version in the dominant foundation story. The textual and material violence necessary to this repression produced an illusion of national unity. Simultaneously, however, repression results in return. There have been repeated disruptions to the myth of national unity throughout New Zealand's history.

Discourses of biculturalism, which gained momentum in the 1970s, developed out of the most recent disruption to the illusion of national unity in New Zealand. Political activism on the part of Maori, often initiated and led by Maori women, increased and diversified. The local context of Treaty protests was framed by the global development of discourses of multiculturalism and indigenous, self-determination claims. The 1984 Labour Government promised prior to the election to honour the Treaty and to settle Treaty grievances. Initially the Government's discussions of these issues occurred in terms of multiculturalism and even broader equity considerations.

The broad discussion of equity and multiculturalism was not satisfactory to many Maori people, who responded with claims that biculturalism was the appropriate relationship for Maori and non-Maori under the Treaty of Waitangi. Some argued that a focus on multiculturalism was an excuse for "doing nothing" and a means by which the state could silence Maori demands and placate mainstream New Zealand. Perhaps the most powerful explication of biculturalism appeared in Moana Jackson's 1988 report on Maori and the criminal justice system, which critiqued both the system's basis in a monocultural philosophy and the substantive outcome of criminal convictions. Jackson concluded that parallel legal systems for Maori and non- Maori in Aotearoa were mandated by the Treaty. While Jackson's report was quickly sidelined and repressed by the government, his analysis resonated powerfully with many Maori and some Pakeha.

In contrast to Jackson's proposal for parallel legal systems, state- sponsored attempts to implement biculturalism included the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal, which was eventually given jurisdiction to hear the claims of Maori for Treaty grievances dating back to 1840. The Tribunal was initially empowered only to make recommendations to the government with respect to those claims, not to order redress binding on the government. Jane Kelsey has cogently argued that the Tribunal process channeled the energy of claims for full political self-determination into a cumbersome, expensive, and largely ineffectual apparatus that operated to legitimate the government's supreme authority, without placing any obligation on it to act.


B. State Structural Adjustment: The Nation as Global Entrepreneurs


Prior to 1984, the New Zealand state might have been described as "socialist", providing free education through the tertiary level, student living allowances, a comprehensive national health system, an extensive state housing system primarily in single family dwellings, a state pension plan, and welfare services and income assistance, including a domestic purposes benefit for single mothers. The State also owned railways, power generators, television and radio stations, universities, airlines, many coalmines, most forestry, some hotels, a shipping line, a ferry service, and a number of farms. It wrote wills, administered deceased estates, and ran banks and the largest contracting business in the country. All of this changed with the 1984 Labour Government, which commenced and accelerated the project of state structural adjustment. While neo-liberal economic policies were contradictory to Labour's traditional policy stances, economic and political instability in the early 1980s provided an opening for a push for law and policy reform by advocates of structural adjustment within the New Zealand Department of Treasury ("Treasury"). These advocates were influenced by economic theory produced in the United States. Treasury's advice was based on faith in market efficiencies: "[e]ssentially, Treasury's advice was founded upon the assumption that the economy is self-righting." Faith in markets was combined with anxiety about regulation and the assumption that the economy prior to 1984 had been constrained from reaching its full potential by government interventions. The overall prescription for stimulating the economy involved downsizing the government in favour of more and bigger markets.

The New Zealand structural adjustment reforms have been divided into three stages. The first stage, commenced by the 1984 Labour Government, involved deregulating the commercial and financial markets. The idea was that deregulation freed the market to allow it to work its miracles. Deregulation included ending wage and price controls, and deregulating interest rates, controls on external investment and borrowing, and foreign exchange trading. The New Zealand dollar was floated on the foreign exchange market, the stock market and regulation concerning mergers and trade practices were liberalized, and the country was opened further to foreign investment and ownership.

The second stage of structural adjustment, beginning in 1986, provided for the privatization and quasi-privatization of state-owned assets and utilities. It was assumed that organizing these enterprises along commercial lines would result in market-driven efficiency gains. The New Zealand State- Owned Enterprises Act of 1986 ("SOE Act") restructured government-owned assets and utilities into businesses, with a view to their eventual sale. Any state-owned enterprise ("SOE") was to be run on a commercial basis and have, as its primary goal, the production of profits for the government owner. Corporatization and privatization of SOEs led to massive redundancies of employees and a much "smaller" state. For example, the Ministry of Transport went from employing 4,500 people to a few hundred, contracting out almost all of its activities in an attempt to stimulate efficiencies through competition for the contracts. Also in the time period of the second stage, what was essentially another first stage deregulation project was carried out. The New Zealand Reserve Bank Act of 1989 ("RBA") was passed, repealing the New Zealand Reserve Bank Act of 1964 ("1964 Act"), with price stability through inflation control as its primary objective. The primary objective of the 1964 Act was to achieve full employment. In contrast, consistent with "orthodox macroeconomics," the RBA reflected faith in the marketplace to achieve the most efficient level of employment. The RBA, therefore, represents a further step in deregulating the economy by a "hands off" stance in monetary policy in relation to employment.

In the third stage of structural adjustment the success of the application of market principles to the new SOEs was applied to the remaining core state sector. Generally commenced after Labour was re-elected in 1987, it comprised the reorganization of the remaining state sector through downsizing, contracting out, and the imposition of rigid accountability requirements, in attempts to facilitate efficiencies assumed to be achievable through competitive markets. A fourth stage, deregulating the labour market and dismantling the welfare state, gained momentum with the election of a conservative National Government in 1990. The new Government immediately repealed the New Zealand Pay Equity Act of 1990 and the New Zealand National Labour Relations Act of 1987, and substituted the latter with the radical free market New Zealand Employment Contracts Act 1990 ("ECA"). Weeks after its election it started cuts to the unemployment and domestic purposes benefits. In the "Mother of all budgets" in June of 1991, it introduced further cuts to benefits and cut community grants, training programs, Maori development and legal aid. Disposable incomes of beneficiaries were cut by up to thirty percent. Following Treasury's lead, the National Government argued that cuts were necessary to restore integrity to the system and to provide incentives for beneficiaries to find work.

Taken together, these four stages represent a radical neo-liberal economic "experiment" voluntarily implemented in New Zealand to an extent usually only seen in third world countries in response to pressure from international monetary organizations. These reforms have taken Aotearoa/New Zealand from one of the most highly regulated to one of the least regulated countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ("OECD"), making it a model for neo-liberal economic policies. "Anyone who looks at privatization and government reform trends around the world tends to look first at New Zealand . . . no one has done a better job than them." New Zealand capitalizes on this reputation by "actively export[ing] advice on deregulation and privatisation."

The National Party's dramatic decline in support at the 1993 election and the success of a referendum to change the electoral system from first-past-the- post ("FPP") to MMP representation are both often attributed to the lack of popularity of, at least, the fourth stage reforms of the welfare state. The National Party was re-elected in 1993 by a slim majority in a context where the only other choice was the party that had initiated the radical reforms. Perhaps alerted to the possibility of overturns to its policy initiatives by its close win, and disturbed by predictions that MMP would result in more representative governments, the 1993 National Government quickly moved to attempt to entrench their fiscal policy through the New Zealand Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1994 ("FRA"). The fiscal strategies embedded in the FRA include stating principles of responsible fiscal management, which were seen as necessary to the maintenance of the confidence of the markets. These principles include reducing Crown debt by running budget surpluses, maintaining stable tax rates, and prudently managing the Crown's financial risks (usually by privatising Crown assets to avoid risks of loss). The requirement of extensive reports by the Government to the House of Representatives provides for monitoring of compliance with these principles. The FRA allows for only temporary departure from the principles of responsible fiscal management. Further, while the FRA is not formally entrenched in New Zealand law, non-compliance with its reporting requirements, or repeal, opens any government to attack on the basis that it is irresponsible with the country's money.

The stated aim of structural adjustment was making New Zealand markets (including its labour market) and products globally competitive. Competition became the buzzword and the benefits of competition were continually espoused. The centrality of competition to the economic policies restructuring the state required a corresponding rewriting of New Zealand's national identity. The national identity had to be shifted from one in which the motto "we take care of each other" was prominent, to one that emphasized self-sufficiency, individual responsibility and individual competition in domestic and global marketplaces: "For 40 years, New Zealand tried to build a civil society in which all its people were free from fear or want. That project has now lapsed. In its place is only a vague exhortation for individuals to go and get rich."

Politicians labeled this new society the "enterprise society." The paradigm citizen in this nation competes individually in global markets as a business entrepreneur. His interest in getting rich coincides with the national interest, as his business creates jobs and products for export. His wealth allows him to exercise citizenship to consume many goods and services previously provided by the government, but now more efficiently provided by businesses like his.

C. The Treaty Settlements Process: The Production of Maori Men as Global Entrepreneurs

The Eurocentric logic of identity provides a framework for analyzing the resolution of the tensions between the emerging national identities of biculturalism and global entrepreneurship in Aotearoa/New Zealand. These tensions came to a head in 1986 in New Zealand Maori Council v. Attorney General ("NZMC case"), where the New Zealand Maori Council ("NZMC"), a statutory body, challenged the privatization aspect of structural adjustment using the SOE Act. The tension was resolved through the assimilation of some Maori men as global entrepreneurs and partners to the neo-liberal Treaty settlements. The logic of identity in dominant Eurocentric discourses produces universal unmarked subjects, usually some versions of white European males, who enjoy a wide range of possibilities in constructing their identities. "Membership in the dominant group . . . is legally marked by a convenient lack of interdiction, by unlimited possibilities." The production of the universal unmarked subject relies on the logics of race, class, and gender for the displacement of these 'marks' onto 'others.' The logic of assimilation of these 'others' to the position of the universal unmarked subject operates in two steps. The first step recognizes the sameness of the assimilated subject. The second part of this logic resists the incorporation of difference, leaving the mark of difference as "the primitive, the local, or the merely contingent" unassimilated. This logic also structures the assimilated sameness hierarchically over the unassimilated difference.

In the NZMC case, the NZMC sought a court order enjoining the government from privatizing state-owned assets under the SOE Act. The NZMC claimed that by transferring state assets potentially subject to future Tribunal claims to SOEs with a view to privatizing them, the Crown was exercising its powers in a manner inconsistent with the principles of the Treaty in contravention of the SOE Act. The decision in the case provided some very limited protections for such assets, and highlighted the tension between biculturalism and economic restructuring.

The NZMC case was followed by a raft of cases challenging the SOE Act, and an increasing backlog of costly and time-consuming Tribunal claims. These cases and claims presented a practical obstacle and a political challenge to the legitimacy of the government's increasingly hegemonic economic agenda. In response, the government developed a policy of negotiating Treaty claims directly, with the goal of settling them fully and finally. Settlements of outstanding debts to Maori would be fiscally prudent, would remove the 'drag' from the economy represented by Maori people and resources tied up in Tribunal claims, and would provide finality to Maori grievances and certain title to state-owned enterprises, enabling the Government to maximize profits from their sale. The Treaty settlements produced in this crucible of biculturalism and neo-liberal economic policy involved structuring the settlement proceeds into corporate ventures. The benefits of the settlements were meant to "trickle down" to Maori people over time.

The recognition of sameness is the first part of the logic of assimilation. Some senior and influential Maori men were among those at the forefront of the reconstruction of Aotearoa/New Zealand's national identity. In 1984, as the Labour Government commenced implementation of neo- liberal economic policies, a few of these men formed a corporation called Maori International Ltd. ("MIL"). Subsequent to the NZMC case, the directors of MIL proposed the establishment of a Maori SOE that would "act as financial manager, advocate, negotiator, business advisor, commercial developer, lender and manager of trading operations owned by Maori investors." Maori opponents argued that this type of economic approach would leave Maori "subordinated to colonial economic and political structures," and the Maori SOE did not materialize. Despite this outcome, the directors of MIL were the men that the government turned to in its efforts to settle Treaty claims. They became known as 'the Maori negotiators,' assimilating themselves consistent with the new national identity of global entrepreneurs, or the "wheeler-dealer, BMW driving, cell phone carrying entrepreneur[s]." These men negotiated settlements of Treaty grievances as corporate deals mirroring the neo-liberal policies of structural adjustment.

The two principle Maori negotiators of the first two major iwi (tribal) settlements, which were the most politically visible, were rewarded for assimilating to the new national identity with knighthoods. The knighthoods came at great cost. Treaty claims had to be negotiated in monetary terms and structured consistently with neo-liberal economic theory, and had to ignore issues of self-determination and political power-sharing, such as Jackson's claim for parallel legal systems. In order to be constructed as reasonable, realistic, and deserving of knighthood, the negotiators assimilated to the new national identity, accepted a small fraction of the estimated amount of the claim, and agreed to fully and finally settle claims.

The first part of the logic of assimilation provided recognition for the Maori negotiators only to the extent that they were willing and able to mirror the new national identity as global entrepreneurs. The title 'corporate warriors,' popularly used for the Maori negotiators, signals assimilation as both the reflection of the dominant 'corporate' partner, and the difference as the 'warrior' marked local, primitive, and raced other. Similarly, the Maori negotiators have been tagged as the 'Business Brown Table,' or just the 'Brown Table,' as a reflection of the Business Round Table marked by race. The central corporation in one of the settlements is dubbed the 'Brown-faced Brierleys,' after Brierley Investment Ltd., one of the country's largest corporations. These labels in the neo-liberal economic terms of globalisation are translated in the colonial marking of the assimilated 'other' as 'just like a white man' or as a 'black Englishman.'

Assimilation of the Maori negotiators as reasonable, realistic global entrepreneurs deserving of knighthood also allows those Maori who do not settle on these terms to be marked as unreasonable and unrealistic:

Mr Graham has offered $40[M] to the Whaktohea tribe in the Bay of Plenty to settle claims arising from the [C]rown's military invasion. The confiscated land today might be worth billions, says Mr Graham, 'but there are only 8000 of them (in the tribe) and the idea that somehow they should get all of that money is just totally unrealistic.'

The assimilation of the Maori negotiators leaves a residue of race that is reflected in appellations of 'brown' and 'warrior,' and is displaced onto those Maori who refuse to settle Treaty grievances.

D. Displacing Gender and Culture: Centering Maori Women


Within the dominant logic of identity, production of the unmarked subject of New Zealand's new national identity also required displacing the marks of gender and culture onto 'others.' White women are one of the necessary symbols of the local and particular against which the universal subject is measured. Within the logic of gender, white women, as those responsible for raising white men, are the bearers and reproducers of Eurocentric cultures, and serve as a civilizing presence within the nation. The re-emergence of the prominence of 'family values' during the process of structural adjustment and reconstruction of New Zealand's national identity may be seen as reaffirmation of the roles of white women as bearers and reproducers of Eurocentric cultures.

The process of colonization involved attempts to conform Maori women to the dominant logic of gender by constructing them as bearers of culture and civilizers of Maori men. In the crucible of discourses of structural adjustment and biculturalism, assimilation of the Maori negotiators into the new national identity displaced the mark of culture onto Maori women. The negotiators are constructed in opposition to the local, particular and primitive represented by the colonized 'traditional' culture imposed on Maori women. Simultaneously, the agency of Maori women exceeds this construction.

Prominent Maori women scholars have pointed out that there is much evidence that, traditionally, Maori women assumed a whole range of leadership roles. There is "unmistakable evidence that women's lives were richer and more varied than has ever been suggested in the 'received' anthropological literature" and "all Maori women enjoyed a better status than that being experienced by women in Europe at the time." Imposing the dominant logic of gender onto the operation of gender in Maori culture during colonization in New Zealand involved rewriting the roles of Maori women as subordinate to Maori men, and consigning Maori women to the private sphere. For example, British officials often attempted to refuse political recognition to Maori women leaders by refusing to allow them to sign the Treaty, rendering them invisible in the public sphere of the new British colony. Despite these attempts, a number of Maori women signed at the insistence of the groups that they represented.

These rewritten, static 'traditional' roles are again imposed on Maori women as part of the process of assimilation of some Maori men. Maori women are often kept out of the management of Treaty settlement assets with the argument that 'traditional' Maori culture requires men to manage assets: "There is no system of guarantee of a place for Maori women within our own institutions or within the new organisations which have evolved to manage our assets. Any talk of structural change sends our Maori men into a tail spin about 'cultural correctness' and 'making waves."' At the same time, assimilation indicates that the male roles are fluid: "The changes being made to our culture are freeing up the role and status of all men, Maori and Pakeha, whilst petrifying, meaning ceasing to change or develop, the role and status of Maori women."

The gender 'spin' on the settlements process is that fluidity is appropriate for the roles of Maori men and the implicit assumption is that women's roles must remain static. In other words, Maori women carry, or symbolize, 'traditional' Maori culture. The exclusion of women from the management of settlement assets reflects the dominant Eurocentric logic of gender, within which women are bearers of culture.

The actions of many Maori women far exceed the construction of "Maori women" through this logic of gender. Maori women have been central to the revitalization of Maori culture over the past two decades. Many occupy powerful and influential positions within Maori culture and society, and "have maintained a vanguard position on Treaty issues and debates with the Crown." A recent survey of Maori people revealed that leadership was firmly located at the hapu ('sub-tribe') level (not in the so-called national figures, some of whom were chosen by the government to negotiate the Treaty settlements). Furthermore, two of the only three Maori leaders who gained over ten percent recognition outside of their iwi borders were women.

A theoretical analysis that centers on Maori women focuses on their pivotal position in the operation of the settlements process. The political activism of some Maori women, gaining momentum from the 1970s, operated to disrupt the constructed illusion of unity of the nation. Regaining the illusion of stability and, in particular, reaffirmation of the dominance of the minority of privileged white men, required erasing these Maori women activists as serious political subjects. Cooperation of at least some Maori men in a temporary alliance among men across race in the Treaty settlement process facilitated this erasure. Necessary to this dynamic is the construction of the Maori negotiators as reasonable and rational assimilated subjects. Maori women who refuse to participate in this production by performing the corresponding roles of bearers of'traditional' Maori culture are labeled 'Maori activists' and represented as "hysterical and out there." The construction of their 'hysterical' claims for full political self-determination in opposition to the 'realistic' acceptance of the Maori negotiators of tiny fractions of commodified claims operates to maintain the legitimacy of the myth of the illusion of national unity.