Not everything Labour plans to do over the next three years was announced during the campaign. Two promises that didn’t get any public announcement: reopening the door to refugees and a review of how political parties can raise money. Labour just won its most resounding victory in a half-century with a manifesto offering little of … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Green school controversy drags on for James Shaw, head of volunteer firefighters association being investigated, and wharfies speak out after worker death. I’ll be honest, I really thought this story would be basically wrapped up by the weekend. And yet somehow it’s Wednesday, and it’s still … Read more
On World Refugee Day, New Zealanders of forced-migrant backgrounds share their memories of persecution and displacement, and their journeys to New Zealand. At Aotearoa Resettled Community Coalition we engage with forced-migrant-background communities, acting as the bridge between those communities and government and non-governmental service providers. For us, World Refugee Day means remembering those who did … Read more
The Auckland that Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman found herself in as a nine-year-old was starkly Pākehā – to the point that she assumed Māori must be refugees, too. Ghahraman’s memoir, Know Your Place, is out this week and opens with a tense recounting of her family’s flight from Iran in 1990. Parts of this … Read more
Nedal Ebrahim never thought he would be forced to flee his home and start all over again. But now, as a former refugee, supermarket assistant, passionate cook and Covid-19 essential worker, Nedal has become an important and valued member of his new community. Taste Nature in Dunedin is a favourite stop for organic and sustainable … Read more
Sabira Nouri exemplifies fierce determination to never give up. A former refugee, nurse, avid traveller, cancer survivor and Covid-19 essential worker, Sabira has been defying the odds her whole life. When 15-year-old Sabira Nouri’s plane touched down at 1am on the tarmac of an eerily quiet Auckland International Airport, she had already faced more than … Read more
As New Zealanders start to consider the end of the Covid-19 outbreak here, it’s time to look outward, to the many refugees in overcrowded, underfunded settlements worldwide. In Cox’s Bazar on the southeast coast of Bangladesh, refugees fleeing war, famine and death live in one-room bamboo structures with plastic sheet roofs. Toilets are shared between … Read more
A new life has been put on hold for people in the Auckland resettlement centre, writes Greta Yeoman. For the 135 refugees based at the Māngere Refugee Resettlement Centre in Auckland, plans to resettle in towns across New Zealand towards the end of April are up in the air with the country four-week-long Covid-19 lockdown … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Pranav Chopra, founder and CEO of Nemi Teas. On Business is Boring this week, Simon Pound speaks with … Read more
One million people from Myanmar live in 34 camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. They are considered some of the largest and most densely populated camps in the world. New Zealand Red Cross’ international delegate Elodie Berthe shares some of their stories. After what seemed like an never-ending car journey on windy roads full of potholes, … Read more
New Zealanders like to claim moral superiority over their Australian neighbours when it comes to how asylum seekers are treated. But this belief is not based on reality, writes Tim Maurice of the Asylum Seekers Support Trust The local news media has welcomed Iranian asylum seeker Behrouz Boochani into New Zealand like a celebrity. There … Read more
Artist Lema Shamamba highlights the threads that connect cellphone use to violence and exploitation in the Democratic Republic of Congo in her first solo exhibition at Auckland’s Objectspace. Embroidered into a purple and yellow dress, a woman has one baby slung on her front and another on her back. Looking at her bright colours, you … Read more
Today marks 75 years since the first official refugees – Polish children fleeing the horrors of World War II – arrived in New Zealand. On the anniversary, historian Ann Beaglehole reflects on our history of settling refugees. Hundreds of smiling school children, waving New Zealand and Polish flags, greeted the Polish children when they arrived … Read more
The Shouting Valley is a powerful group exhibition at the Gus Fisher Gallery in Auckland that interrogates and gives voice to the people caught between borders. But is the real paradox of this politically charged show the limit of what art can do? Lana Lopesi reviews. “What’s bad about borders?” asked David Hall in a … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: How a racist policy ended up being overturned, new report paints grim picture of ‘locked-in’ youth facilities, and Porirua mayor under further spending pressure. This happened on Friday, but it was a long time coming so is worth covering properly. The government has announced that an … Read more
A long-derided refugee policy has been reversed, the government announced today. What’s happening? The government has announced changes to its three-year refugee policy, focusing on the Asia-Pacific region and removing restrictions for some refugees. In announcing the changes, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway said, “we knew changes needed to be made and today’s announcements reflect … Read more
New Zealander Kristin Hall spent a year living in a rural Irish town that last month became the centre of an internet-stoked frenzy over refugees. Oughterard may be half a world away, she writes, but it could easily happen here. I was scrolling through Twitter the other day when I saw a tweet from renowned … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Nervousness about latest batch of tourist numbers, Waitangi Tribunal hammers prisoner voting ban, and more refugees heading for smaller provincial centres. The tourism industry is showing definite signs of a wobble, with arrival number growth looking flat and certain key markets dropping away. Despite 2019 being … Read more
Amy Weng reviews Kim Hak’s exhibition that tells the stories of Cambodian refugees who fled the Khmer Rouge through the objects they carried – a show that will please many and offend none. Alive is an exhibition with the noblest intentions. In 29 still lives, Phnom Penh-based photographer Kim Hak brings to life the accounts … Read more
It will always be hard to keep Muslim and migrant perspectives in the foreground as long as material support is wanting, write Mohan Dutta and Murdoch Stephens After the mosque attacks in Christchurch, there was a strong call from media to centre Muslim responses. For a few short weeks, the voices from the attacked communities … Read more
A mortar and pestle, a pair of scissors and a cooking pot are among the objects Cambodian refugees have kept with them since resettling in New Zealand. Kim Hak grew up in Cambodia just after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, listening to his family recount their memories of the time. He heard his … Read more
What was New Zealand’s role in the interception of the Andika, and is the $25 million allocated to preventing asylum-seeker vessels like it really a humanitarian act? In the 2019 “Wellbeing” budget, $25 million was allocated to maritime mass arrival prevention, described as an initiative aimed at preventing asylum seekers “departing for New Zealand”. But … Read more
New poetry by Auckland writer Fardowsa Mohamed. Alien When I was born, Earth held me in her mouth then promptly spat me out. I saw my first map of the world six years later. I remember the cartographer’s straight lines through Africa and I wondered if he could be trusted. My grandmother’s name … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Pressure put on refugee policy over discriminatory clause, man stood down by Parliamentary Services speaks out, and Fox River cleanup going badly. New Zealand’s refugee policy stands accused of being racist and discriminatory, in the same vein as US President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. This has been … Read more
PM Jacinda Ardern will soon have the chance to reverse policy that prioritises Asia-Pacific immigrants over refugees from Africa and the Middle East. But how did that policy get made in the first place? After the attacks on Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, attention has returned to restrictions on African and Middle Eastern refugees … Read more
Ashleigh Young reviews More of Us, a collection of poetry written by migrants and refugees. We greet with deep pleasure and confidence, eyes greeting all over the body, shaking the hand with a hug. That’s the first stanza of ‘Greeting’ by Samson Sahele, the first poem in More of Us, a collection of poems written … Read more
New Zealanders have shown they care about the terrible situation refugees have found themselves in. But for so many people languishing in camps, they currently have no chance at all to make it here, writes national director of World Vision New Zealand Grant Bayldon. As we sit on cushions inside Khelfa’s plastic tent drinking thick black … Read more
Proceeds from the sales of a new cookbook that shares recipes and stories from people from refugee and migrant backgrounds will go towards funding a new scholarship. Sakina Ewazi, a visual arts graduate originally from Afghanistan, weeps quietly during the minute’s silence. We’re at Ōtāhuhu library in south Auckland for the launch of Tastes of … Read more
At any time, but especially as New Zealand’s Muslim and migrant communities recoil from an inhuman attack, you can play a role, writes Lucy Lawless I wrote this in Nov 2018 and am now infuriated and ashamed that I didn’t get it published. Want to know how to actually be part of a healing process? … Read more