apartheid

Boycott Bali? Why the atrocities in West Papua demand your attention

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It’s estimated that as many as half a million Papuans have been killed at the hands of Indonesian security forces over the past 50 years. Not holidaying in Indonesia is an easy way to say you’re not OK with that, writes Morgan Godfery. Would you have gone on holiday in apartheid South Africa? I suspect … Read more

Meet the Kiwi who rubbed shoulders with Lange and Boris at the Oxford Union

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Question: What do Boris Johnson, the 1981 Springboks tour, the 1985 nuclear weapons debate, and the Emperor of Japan have in common? Answer: Jeya Wilson. Matt Hayes calls Jeya Wilson, the second woman of colour to be elected president of the Oxford Union and a New Zealander, to hear about her extraordinary life and career. … Read more

The birth of a movement that divided NZ – and changed us forever

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Fifty years ago today the anti-apartheid group Hart – Halt All Racist Tours – was formed. Founding chairperson Trevor Richards looks back to the 1960s New Zealand into which Hart was born, and how it launched a battle for the country’s soul. It has been said that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren’t … Read more

‘Please accept three hearty cheers, for one man with morality and guts’

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On Thursday, the exhibition Mandela: My Life was officially opened at Eden Park, where in 1981 the All Blacks test against the Springboks was disrupted by flour bombs and flares. By then, Robert Burgess’s All Blacks career was long over, having been cut short by his refusal to play against apartheid teams. This is his … Read more

NZ’s South African community needs to stop peddling the myth of white genocide

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The myth of white genocide in South Africa has fuelled far-right violence the world over, including the attack on Christchurch’s mosques. Ross Webb calls on his fellow South Africans to stop helping those who perpetuate the myth and who use South Africa to support their deluded fantasies.  Lusaka, 1986 In 1986, a New Zealand man … Read more