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Polynesian Panthers:
In the first CAPEs Education Team event of 2024, three of the founding members of the Polynesian Panther Party Legacy Trust presented at The Pā, University of Waikato.
Around 300 participants took part in three free workshops that tapped into the knowledge, skills, and action of responsible global citizenship.
As part of the CAPEs Education 2024 Step up to the World | Tū māia ki te Ao series, this was the first of five events for the year. Melani Anae, Alec Toleafoa and Tigilau Ness delivered two sessions that focused on the activism of Auckland’s 1970s Polynesian Panthers and their ‘three point’ philosophy of:
peaceful resistance
Pacific empowerment
educating Aotearoa New Zealand about persistent systemic racism.
(Left to right) Tigilau Ness, Melani Anae and Alec Toleafoa presented two workshops at the February 2024 Step up to the World|Tū māia ki te Ao event.
Themes for their sessions tapped into the three big ideas that underpin the CAPEs framework on global citizenship education: identity/tuakiritanga, connections/hononga and responsibility/kaitiakitanga.
The Polynesian Panthers discussed a range of ideas from the inception of their organisation through to the long-lasting impacts of their activism that endure today.
Their story explored ideas and events including:
roots and routes
knowing your roots (whakapapa)
the Mau Movement
blackbirding (kidnapping of Pacific Islands peoples into slavery)
stigma by association (Niue called Savage Islands)
the Va – the social and sacred spaces of relationships
the Dawn Raids.
More information on some of these can be found in the useful links section at the end of this article.
Melani Anae speaking at the February 2024 Step up to the World|Tū māia ki te Ao event.
As part of their early activism, the Polynesian Panthers set up grassroots initiatives, many of which still exist today under different names. These include:
homework centres and tutoring for Pasifika children
educating Māori and Pacific Islanders on rights as New Zealanders
legal aid advocating for those unjustly evicted or fired, who have lost visas or who are under threat of deportation
free meal programmes and food banks.
The Polynesian Panthers shared this very moving video (on right) that summarises some of their work and the challenges they faced (duration: 14:22).
Polynesian Panthers, continuing the fight 50 years on.
One News YouTube channel
Following from the Panthers, the afternoon session involved Rose Hipkins, Pauline Waiti, Stephen Ross and Merimeri Anania facilitating a workshop on understanding global issues from a social justice perspective. Participants were invited to explore how knowledge systems shape our worldviews and thus our actions and efficacy in ways that are often invisible to us because they are ‘just natural’.
Drawing on social justice themes from the Polynesian Panthers’ story, this workshop provoked participants to think about how gaining an understanding of knowledge systems can impact on students’ ability to take action as local and global citizens. Participants were challenged to think about ways of knowing and different knowledge systems by considering the following ideas:
Border crossing.
What does understanding other knowledge systems allow/equip us to do?
What opportunities are available to us when we understand other knowledge systems?
Provocations
If we choose to take action for social justice, how do we ensure safety for all involved?
What is the place of social justice in challenging deep structures of political economy, culture, and power?
How would you begin to discuss anti-oppressive action with your students?
What organisations exist today that have roots in the Polynesian Panthers movement?
Related resources
The New Zealand History website outlines the formation of the Polynesian Panthers with video footage from the 1970s. The page also contains links to further resources related to the Polynesian Panthers.
Read the Radio New Zealand story marking the 50-year anniversary of the Polynesian Panthers’ activism.
The Samoa Media NZ YouTube channel shares a documentary video detailing the influence of the Polynesian Panthers through the 1970s (duration 51:59).
This Encyclopedia Britannica article describes the practice of blackbirding.
This New Zealand History website article talks about the rise of the Mau movement
(c) 2024
Images (c) Centers of Asia-Pacific Excellence
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