Educate to liberate!
Fifty years ago the Polynesian Panthers Party led a revolution against the rampant racism of 1970s New Zealand. The movement shone a light on the oppressive systems and persecution of Pacific people that were accepted by mainstream New Zealand.
In this honest and personal talk, Dr Melani Anae will recount her experience as an original Polynesian Panther and the radical activism that spilled into her work as an academic, teacher and mentor. The Panthers affected change though education, liberating New Zealand from its tolerance of overt racism. The Panthers’ legacy has had a snowball effect, influencing a highly politicised generation of Pacific leaders who became politicians, university graduates, doctors, lawyers, All Blacks, academics, writers, theologians, musicians and entertainers.
As a Pacific scholar, Melani has redefined what Pacific scholarship and research should be, particularly in the context of current global challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and the modern and more subtle prejudice that continues today. She is determined that the Panthers’ story and legacy be passed on to the next generation, and that history does not repeat.
Bio
Lupematasila Melani Anae QSO is Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, specialising in Pacific Studies using an anthropological lens. Her sustained leadership in research and teaching over the last 20 years lies in three interconnected strands – social justice/Pacific activism; leadership and ethnic identity work/Pacific empowerment; and a liberating education/relational ethics. She is a foundational member of the Polynesian Panther Party, author of The Platform: The Radical Legacy of the Polynesian Panthers, and co-editor of Polynesian Panthers: Pacific Protest and Affirmative Action in Aotearoa New Zealand 1971 - 1981.
Event
8:00pm @Shadows, 8 Alfred St, CBD
Also speaking at this location at 6:30pm is Andrew Shelling
