For 50 years, the Polynesian Panthers fought the power in New Zealand. Now, the government will apologise for police tactics the Pacific Islander community label 'state-sanctioned racism'.
You are lying asleep in your bed in the home you own. It should be the most comfortable place but, before the sun is up, police are knocking on your door and you will have to convince them you deserve to stay.It's 1974 and this is a dawn raid. If you can't prove who you are, you will likely be locked up and eventually deported.
The date was June 16, 1971 and the first generation of New Zealand-born Pacific people had decided to organise. "When I read that book, I couldn't get over how much it mirrored what we as Pacific communities were living through," she said. Dr Melani Anae became a Polynesian Panther as a teenager. Fifty years later, she's still working to improve lives of Pacific Islanders in New Zealand.
"The crucible years, I believe, were 1971 to 1974, was when the Panthers were the strongest and fiercest, in terms of our membership, which had reached 500 people. That's when we put our community survival programs in place," Dr Anae said. One of the lasting legacies of the 1970s-era Panthers is the group's contribution to legal aid in New Zealand.
People soon learned that if a police officer didn't have his badge or hat on, he was not in full uniform and technically he could not make an arrest. Founding member Will Ilolahia has been quoted as saying: "The thing about the Panther … it never attacks. The Polynesian Panthers were organised. They had ministers for information, culture and finance. They had a Police Investigation Group — or PIG Patrol — and a military wing.Her childhood memories are underwritten by the fear her family lived through every day. She remembers being confused about her parents' anxiety and why they were always worried about dogs.
"The thinking was, if we're going to be raided, at least the women feel safe together and there's no random male [police officer] coming through where they're sleeping." "As soon as we reply we find ourselves in restraints and thrown in the car, taken away from our neighbourhood and given the beat down and then dropped back as if nothing had happened.Ms Nurminen will be at the apology with her parents and her daughter.
"They were encouraged by the government, and employers and the churches to stay beyond their permits — the government turned a blind eye — until the recession, then that nerve, that racist thread that runs through New Zealand history emerged … and then all the dreams we had turned into nightmares."Polynesian Panther members often say "once a Panther, always a Panther" and after 50 years they still have the same message: "Educate to liberate.
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