<nettime> Some background to Christchurch

[David Garcia <d.garcia@new-tactical-research.co.uk>]

Simon Perkins a colleague at Bournemouth University sent me these reflections on the background to the impressive national response to the Christchurch massacre:

If you see the recent attacks in Chch as part of a more long-standing and generalised effort to deal with the country's inequalities then for me the beginning of this was the civil unrest and the aftermath of the 1981 Springbok Rugby Tour of NZ. What happened was that in protesting the inequalities in South Africa there became a wide-scale recognition that NZ also had real issues, which needed to be dealt with. The result was that there was there was a groundswell to make the country work for all. As the NZ historian Jock Phillips explains it "the tour represent[ed] the emergence of an independent Pacific nation to challenge the previous image of New Zealand as the 'Britain of the South Seas'. Playing rugby against South Africa was consistent with New Zealand's traditional identity as a loyal servant of the British Empire. The anti-tour movement had a different vision. New Zealand could be seen as an example of an independent, racially tolerant society, a moral exemplar." https://springboktournewzealand.weebly.com/aftermath.html

And so, the public outpouring that we've seen since the mosques shooting are in someways a direct beneficiary of the Tour, where I think the attacks have shocked the country into realising that again - more needs to be done. BTW. if you're interested, this is a documentary made by the anti-tour protester/director Merata Mita: https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/patu-1983

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