Week 8

Morris, Toby. The Pencilsword: Inequality Tower (2015). Published on: http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/the-pencilsword-inequality-tower

In "The War Against Poverty: The Underclass and Antipoverty Policy", Herbert J. Gans explains that there are two types of poor, 'Deserving of assistance' and 'Underserving of assistance' (Herbert Gans, 1996) According to Gans, the difference between someone being considered deserving and undeserving is that the former is seen as hardworking and honest but unlucky, whilst the latter, the ‘underserving’ is seen as lazy and unwilling (Herbert Gans, 1996)

Toby Morris’ 2015 illustration for The Wireless “The Pencilsword: Inequality Tower” demonstrates how huge the wealth gap is in New Zealand. He uses statistics from the Statistics New Zealand report “Wealth Disparity in New Zealand” (Morris, 2015) and uses a building as a metaphor to show how the richest 10% have more than 50% of the country’s wealth “…savings, houses, assets…” (Morris, 2015), and the poorest 50% of the population have less than 6% of that same pool of wealth. The poor class might be seen by the rich population as 'lazy and unwilling' due to their low status but half of the New Zealand population can't be lazy, according to Herbert Gans there are two types of poor. (1996)

Week 7

1.     From around 1350CE onwards there were no return trips to Eastern Polynesia by the first settlers of Aotearoa. “El Niño westerlies occur frequently, but only very occasionally are they sufficiently persistent to push a sailing vessel eastward across the larger sea gaps in Oceania.” (Anderson, 30). Of course the sailing direction from Polynesia to New Zealand is west. (Anderson, 30) There is good evidence supporting Anderson's idea of the El Niño periods, convincing me this is the most likely reason for no return trips.

Dawn Raid Entertainment T-shirt, Auckland 2000.

2.     Founded by Andy Murnane and Danny Leaosavai'i, the music label “Dawn Raid Entertainment” was created in response to the socio-political situation that concerned many Pacific Islanders living in Aotearoa in the late 20^th century. The Dawn Raids were a classic example of New Zealand racism "Eighty percent of all arrests made by the taskforce were of Maori and other Polynesians, prompting Nga Tamatoa to point out that the taskforce had selectively targeted Polynesians... Furthermore, the majority of overstayers were British or American." (Anae Melani, All Power To The People, 230). The impact of the selective targeting forced Polynesians to fight back against this racism. As a creative response, Murnane and Leaosavai'i referencing the Dawn Raids in the name of their label "Dawn Raids Entertainment" acknowledge the hardship Polynesians have been through and at the same time embrace the fact that they have overcome this time in New Zealand history.

Three officers arresting a Polynesian, ONE News footage.

3.    In the documentary “Dawn Raids” (2005), director Damon Fepulea'i uses many different film techniques to show the extreme racism. Through interviews and rough footage we get a feel for the stress this would have caused any Polynesians living in New Zealand at this time. From 1973 onwards, many homes of Pacific Islanders living and working in New Zealand were raided in the early hours of the morning by multiple police officers. The police were looking for illegal Pacific Island overstayers. In the film, (Damon Fepulea'i) mentions that at the time of the Dawn Raids, the majority of people over-staying their visas in New Zealand were British, yet brown-skinned Polynesians were targeted.