Yes New Zealand We Protest. A Day at the Racists

A Day at the Racists.

National Support      National sport
Bashing Protestors    Labour of
            Bashing protestors

Helmets and shields,   
    VS.
Helmets and clubs.

Ake Ake Ake

Racism is no game,
Biko
Remember  Soweto - remember...
in Steve Biko - remember...
remember Molsworth St. - Remember
in Hamilton.
in Raglan
in the people
Power to the people.

Prime minister says he couldn't remember if he'd asked the spring box to cancel the tour -
It became NZers who had to restore our integrity and be the real country that we are meant to be.

We don't want to die,
we will not advance,
we will not advance.
We have not provoked you
we turn our backs to you
would you strike us from behind?
Would you kill us from behind?
We are ashamed of you.
We will not attack you
We are peaceful.
Our intention is not to harm you,
throw down your batons,
move, move, move, move, move,
The world is watching you.
The woman & children you have clubbed.
We are NZers like you.
How can we charge on our knees

Don't Hit us.
Power to the Black people.
Artists Against Apartheid.
A A A

Bicultural Discussion that the
treaties demanded -

Civil disobedience.
Police for the people became
Police against the people.
We've learned
Police carried slashers long knives
Anger Agony Awake.
We are seeing something that has
never been seen before in NZ.
(except at Parihaka, except..)
Match cancellation and invasion
of the pitch
Quite impossible for the 500 policemen
could hold the line - I was
not prepared to order a baton
charge.
Police Decision to cancel the Game.
South Africa is Azania,
NZ protest influence South African
Politics,
Grim winter of 1981

 

 

 

 

 

 Re-edit and cropped Photographs by Tao Wells. Original photographs of the 1981 Springbok tour and 1970s anti-apartheid protests by John Miller, February 2014.

John Miller (Ngaitewake ki te Tuawhenua hapu of Ngapuhi) is a photographer and self-described ‘sympathetic observer’ of protest. Over four decades, he has photographed anti-war, civil rights, anti-apartheid, anti-nuclear and Māori political protests. Tour Scrums features his black and white photographs of anti-apartheid protests in 1970s Wellington together with his major colour work documenting the anti-tour protests a decade later: Tour Scrums – Protesting Black and Blue. Pairs of still images are combined with sound and radio recordings captured at the time; in Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington, Rotorua and Auckland protestors face off against police.

The 1981 Springbok rugby tour brought protestors onto the streets in cities across New Zealand, re-shaping the national self- image. Miller's visceral images document a period of radical unrest with New Zealanders of all ages expressing solidarity with black South Africans, and their aspirations for freedom and justice.

In recent years, John Miller has held solo exhibitions in Auckland, Melbourne and Paris. In 2003 Miller received a Media Peace Prize Lifetime Award in recognition of his photography and its role in helping to promote peace.