Notes on the life of my brother: Andrew Robb, 1955-2022
When we were very young, my mother was in the habit of dressing my brother and me in identical clothes, which often led people to ask us if we were […]
Category Archives: Maori struggle
How not to conduct a scientific debate: Royal Society, university split over matauranga Maori and science
A long-running and tetchy argument over science education in New Zealand has polarised academics at Auckland University and shattered one of the central institutions of science, the Royal Society. International […]
Toppling statues, censorship, and erasing history
The first brass head has toppled in New Zealand. On 12 June the Hamilton City Council removed a statue of… Hamilton! British naval Captain John Fane Charles Hamilton, veteran of […]
Reflections on the George Floyd march in Auckland
Echoes of the June 1 march in Auckland in solidarity with the protests against the police murder of George Floyd continue to reverberate across New Zealand. The march was an […]
The profound political implications of Ihumātao
The most important shift in New Zealand politics in almost three decades was registered last month, when a long-simmering Māori land occupation at Ihumātao erupted into a mass struggle. In […]
Child welfare in the age of capitalist decay – a glimpse of New Zealand’s stolen generation
[Note: this post was updated on 24 June with comments on the obfuscatory character of the term ‘domestic violence,’ and on the source of Oranga Tamariki’s tendency to act on […]
The ‘white hope’ and the first alliance between Māori and the working class
Second of two parts. The first part, “Half-caste Maori” strikebreakers at Waihi and Huntly, is here. After the mine re-opened on October 2, the number of police, strikebreakers and thugs brought […]
“Half-caste Maori” strikebreakers at Waihi and Huntly (First of two parts)
(Note: In quoting historic documents, I have not attempted to modernise their Anglicised spelling and usage of Māori words, offensive as some of these things may seem today. The English […]
Marmaduke Nixon and “our history”
Standing beside the Great South Road in Otahuhu, about 13 km south of central Auckland, is a memorial obelisk, beneath which are buried the mortal remains of Marmaduke Nixon. The […]
Cultural appropriation, race-baiting, and the power of fiction: in defence of Lionel Shriver
US novelist Lionel Shriver ruffled a few feathers – to put it mildly – when she spoke at the Brisbane Writers Festival in September. Shriver took aim at ‘identity politics’ […]
A communist at large 