2023
ISSUE 17 (MARCH 2023)
CARE White Paper – Issue #17 – Drivers of Online Islamophobic hate in Aotearoa New Zealand
Online platforms are at the core of manufacturing and disseminating Islamophobic hate globally, and in Aotearoa New Zealandi. The Islamophobic hate on these platforms is largely unregulated, with both platform-driven mechanisms and state/civil society led mechanisms largely absent in regulating this hate. The current digital environment in Aotearoa is largely unregulated when it comes to addressing hate targeting communities at the margins, and particularly so when it comes to regulating Islamophobic hate. The Human Rights Act does not offer protections to Muslims who are targets of religious hate. Moreover, hegemonic constructions of human rights within the structures of colonialism have produced and
disseminated Islamophobia to legitimize neocolonial interventions, including in the most recent instances of imperial intervention as evidenced in Operation Iraqi Freedomii, the invasion of Afghanistan, and the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestineiii.
2022
ISSUE 16 (OCTOBER 2022)
CARE White Paper – Issue #16 Replacing Colonial Theft and Capitalism by Lunchtime
by Catherine Delahunty and Mohan J. Dutta, Center for Culture – Centered Approach to Research & Evaluation, Massey University
The climate and environmental crises we are in the midst of are symptoms of the failed extractive economic system based on colonial theft. The disproportionate burdens of climate change borne by Indigenous and local communities across the Global South foreground the importance of locating justice as the anchor to climate change organising. In this white paper, we argue that climate change cannot be addressed without the recognition of the racial capitalist processes that drive it. Based on the recognition that both colonialism and capitalism shape climate change, we propose that we cannot solve the crisis of climate change by relying on the colonising traditions and profit-driven techno fixes offered by the west, immersed in the ideology of whiteness. We offer the argument that addressing climate change calls for centering a justice-based framework that is both anti-colonial and anti-capitalist, and that looks to Indigenous peoples and local communities in the Global South to learn to rebuild relationships with the earth and with each other.
Read the full White Paper issue below:
CARE White Paper Launch Event: Replacing Colonial Theft and Capitalism by Lunchtime with Activist-in-Residence Catherine Delahunty and Professor Mohan J Dutta
Read more here on : CARE Activist In Residence – Catherine Delahunty Programme | 10-14 October 2022 at Massey University – Manawatū campus
ISSUE 15 (MARCH 2022)
CARE White Paper – Issue #15: Experiences with COVID-19 Among Gig Workers
by Dr. Leon Salter and Prof. Mohan Dutta, Center for Culture – Centered Approach to Research & Evaluation
Executive Summary
Gig work refers to forms of labour that are mediated by online platforms, which are contingent, piecemeal and individualised, offering little in the way of employment rights, protections or capacity for collective organising. It represents long-term trends towards the neoliberalisation of work, which until recently, have been disproportionately experienced by exploited, precarious workers in the global South. In the context of global North nations such as Aotearoa New Zealand, evidence has linked the growth of gig work with poor health outcomes for workers, particularly for ethnic minorities and women, outcomes which have been
exasperated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Currently, little is known about the experiences of gig workers in Aotearoa New
Zealand, including the nature and quality of their day-to-day work, or how they
have negotiated the disruption and risk brought to bear by the COVID-19
pandemic. Largely erased from the conceptual frameworks examining gig work are
the voices of workers. This white paper takes a Culture-Centered Approach (CCA)
to gig work, seeking to co-create voice infrastructures in partnership with gig
workers, attending to the classed, raced, gendered nature of gig work, and the ways
in which the structural characteristics of gig work which ingrain precarity are
exacerbated by the pandemic.
Drawing on 25 in-depth interviews with participants who are currently or have
recently worked as rideshare or food delivery gig workers, this report argues that
platformed work – organised and mediated through an online platform or app, is
structurally distinct from traditional forms of work.
We find that platformed work has seven key structural features:
- piecemeal
- precarious
- Individualised
- Gamified
- Dehumanised
- Automated
- Hyper-competitive
Read the White Paper below
CARE White Paper Launch Event:
CARE White Paper Launch Issue #15: Experiences with COVID-19 Among Gig Workers- presented by Prof. Mohan Dutta and Dr. Leon Salter with panelists Ibrahim Omer, Anita Rosentreter and Rebecca Macfie.Thursday, 24th March 2022 @ 12 PM NZDT
Location via Facebook Live and CARE YouTube channelLivestream Link: https://www.facebook.com/CAREMassey/videos/291971153109628
Abstract:
Experiences with COVID-19 Among Gig Workers: Findings from interviews with 25 rideshare and delivery drivers about their navigation of precarious working conditions in a pandemic environment.
About our panelists:
Ibrahim Omer became an MP to represent communities who often struggle to have their voices heard. His experience spans fleeing his home country, being in a refugee camp, working as a minimum wage cleaner, graduating from university, and representing low paid workers as a union organiser.
Rebecca Macfie is an award winning New Zealand journalist, with a background in workplace, health and safety, business and climate writing. She is the author of Tragedy at Pike River Mine:How and why 29 men died (2013), and Helen Kelly: Her Life (2021).
Anita Rosentreter is the Strategic Project Coordinator for Transport, Logistics and Manufacturing at FIRST Union. She leads the campaign Real Work Real Jobs, which aims to turn insecure work into secure work. Target groups include gig workers, those in labour hire, and dependent contractors.
#WhitePaper #COVID19 #GigWorkers #CAREWhitePaper #CAREMassey #CAREMasseyNZ #MasseyUni
ISSUE 14 (FEBRUARY 2022)
A Culture-Centered Approach to Community-led Social Cohesion in Aotearoa New Zealand
by Mohan J. Dutta, Pooja Jayan, Md Mahbubur Rahman, Christine Elers, Francine Whittfield
Center for Culture – Centered Approach to Research & Evaluation
The Christchurch terrorist attack urgently necessitates the development of strategies for addressing racism and hate[1]. The challenge of social cohesion in Aotearoa New Zealand is one of addressing the networks of disinformation that propel hate[2], specifically addressing the growth in anti-Māori propaganda, anti-migrant attitudes, and Islamophobia[3]. In addition to threatening social cohesion, disinformation and hate deplete human health and wellbeing of communities at the margins, multiplying manifold their experiences of marginalisation[4]. The threats to social cohesion are funded by powerful political and economic interests, and circulated through digital media infrastructures and shadow organisations[5].
[1] Besley, T., & Peters, M. A. (2020). Terrorism, trauma, tolerance: Bearing witness to white supremacist attack on Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand.
[2] Zimdars, M., & McLeod, K. (Eds.). (2020). Fake news: understanding media and misinformation in the digital age. MIT Press.
[3] Dutta, M. J., & Tuiono, T. (2019). Solidarity as the basis for anti-racist interventions. Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE) white paper. Palmerston North: CARE; Lant, M., & Dutta, M. J. (2020). Connecting across cultures: A framework for anti-racist strategies in New Zealand rooted in Te Tiriti. Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE) white paper. Palmerston North: CARE.
[4] Tremblay, M. C. The wicked interplay of hate rhetoric, politics and the internet: what can health promotion do to counter right-wing extremism?. Health Promotion International.
[5] Dutta, M. J. (2019). Understanding disinformation. New Naratif. Accessed online at https://newnaratif.com/understanding-disinformation/; Chadwick, A., & Vaccari, C. (2019). News sharing on UK social media: Misinformation, disinformation, and correction. Loughborough: Online Civic Culture Centre, Loughborough University;
CARE White Paper Launch Event:
Join us on Thursday, 17 March 2022 at 7PM (NZDT) for the release of the CARE White Paper: A Culture-Centered Approach to Community-led Social Cohesion in Aotearoa New Zealand
Facebook Premiere Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/311510504299109
The launch will be presented by Professor Mohan J Dutta, Dean’s Chair of Communication & Director of CARE.
The White Paper is co-authored with Pooja Jayan, Md Mahbub Rahman, Christine Elers, and Francine Whittfield, CARE: Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation.
#CARECCA #MasseyUni #CultureCenteredApproach #Community #SocialCohesion #CAREMassey
ISSUE 13 (JANUARY 2022)
Experiences of Muslims in India on digital platforms with anti-Muslim hate
by Prof. Mohan J. Dutta, CARE Massey University
The proliferation and penetration of digital media across the globe over the past two decades has witnessed the accelerated growth of hate content online[i]. Hate content threatens social cohesion and democratic processes[ii], and at the same time, adversely impacts the overall sense of security of those that are targeted with hate[iii]. Hate erodes trust, and thus, depletes democracies. When uncontrolled, hate leads to growing violence directed at minority communities and genocide. Moreover, hate directly impacts the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities that are targeted. The effects of hate are multiplied manifold when minorities are the subjects of these targeted attacks, exacerbating the sense of insecurity.
In India, the largest global democracy, the propaganda infrastructures of Hindutva[iv], the political ideology that has shaped the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are driven by hate, seeded, circulated, and reproduced through digital platforms[v]. Since the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 and subsequent electoral victory in 2019, the hate on digital platforms in India and in the Indian diaspora has proliferated exponentially. The content of digital hate driven by Hindutva has been directed at India’s religious minorities, Muslims and Christians, as well as oppressed caste communities (dalits)[vi]. Of particular significance are the extreme forms of hate that have been directed at Muslims, including calls for genocide issued by Hindutva ideologues.
A number of published studies and reports by civil society document the scope and volume of the hate content on digital platforms. However, the literature so far has not really explored the experiences of the exposure to the anti-Muslim digital hate among Muslims in India. In this white paper, drawing on a survey conducted with n = 1056 Muslims in India, I examine the exposure to digital hate among Muslims. The findings offer a descriptive framework for understanding the experiences of digital hate among Muslims in India, exploring the implications of the exposure to digital hate, and suggesting strategies for countering the hate.
CARE White Paper Launch Event:
CARE White Paper Launch online event held on Wednesday, 26th January 2022 @ 8 pm NZDT
Release of CARE white paper on anti-Muslim hate in India
Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/CAREMassey/videos/547809686874118
and on CARE YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF760E7rBst3U5GmJ5FhDDw
#CAREWhitePaper #DigitalHate #CAREMassey #CAREMasseyNZ #MasseyUni
ISSUE 12 (AUGUST 2021)
A culture-centered approach to hate speech regulation
by Mohan J. Dutta, Pooja Jayan, Md Mahbubur Rahman, Christine Elers,
Francine Whittfield , CARE Massey University
We begin this response by noting that laws against incitement of hate are necessary in extreme situations. However, a culture-centered analysis suggests that laws against incitement are not effective in transforming cultures of intolerance and hate that are held up by powerful political and economic interests[1]. Those in places of power deploy hate to serve their political and economic gains. Simultaneously, we note that powerful political and economic interests use hate speech laws to silence dissent and erase articulations from the margins. As anti-racist academics and activists, collaborating with social justice activists, we have experienced and witnessed the silencing processes through manipulation of legal frameworks around hate speech. Our activist collaborators have been harassed and persecuted by authoritarian states under the guise of promoting racial and/or religious harmony[2]. It is vital to critically interrogate the individualization of hate in laws against incitement. Instead, structural transformations are needed in the form of policies that are explicitly anti-discriminatory, guarantee and support equality of vulnerable communities, and protect the fundamental human rights of vulnerable groups[3]. We propose a culture-centered policy framework to addressing hate speech that tackles the political economy of hate and builds communicative infrastructures for the voices of communities at the “margins of the margins.”[4]
ISSUE 11 (MAY 2021)
Cultural Hindutva and Islamophobia
by Prof. Mohan J. Dutta, Director CARE, Massey University
Cultural Hindutva is a key resource of the Hindutva ideology, asserting the supremacy of Hindu nationalism through cultural forms, artefacts, and performances(i). Hindu nationalism organizes around the political conceptualization of India as a Hindu nation, working simultaneously through the erasure of Christians and Muslims that are portrayed as invaders. Of particular salience to Hindutva is the portrayal of the Muslim invader(ii), re-structuring India as a nation on the principles of Islamophobia, through the disenfranchisement of the Muslim other(iii).
2020
ISSUE 10. VOL 2 (SEPTEMBER 2020)
Connecting across cultures: A framework for anti-racist strategies in Aotearoa New Zealand rooted in Te Tiriti
by Marise Lant and Mohan J. Dutta, Center for Culture – Centered Approach to Research & Evaluation, Massey University
In this white paper [1], we outline the vitality of connecting across cultures, anchored in Māori leadership in shaping and guiding anti-racist interventions in Aotearoa New Zealand, connected to anti-colonial struggles by Māori. Noting that the entrenched settler colonialism in New Zealand is based on a history of Whiteness[2], we argue that witnessing this Whiteness in the colonial configuration of New Zealand is the first step to dismantling it[3]. Māori have historically experienced, negotiated and resisted the racist structures of Whiteness that form the architectures of settler colonialism in New Zealand through their everyday organizing across whanau and hapū. We center Whiteness to the colonial structures of racism in New Zealand because of the centering of White norms as the basis for perpetuating oppression, expulsion, genocide, rape, and murder of indigenous communities (Māori in New Zealand) and the simultaneous marginalisation of communities of colour, many of whom have experienced similar histories of expulsion, genocide, and violence.
In this paper, we argue that recognizing and centering the leadership of Māori as people of the land lies at the heart of the process of cultural centering we discuss here, anchoring interventions seeking transformations in racist structures in the everyday lived experiences of the indigenous people of the land. The leadership of Māori is vital to anti racist struggles not only as a way for building strategies that work but more fundamentally as the basis for turning to Te Tiriti. At the same time, connecting with the struggles of communities of colour, migrants and refugees in Aotearoa New Zealand creates a framework of solidarity that sees the Whiteness percolating through racist structures, witnesses the connections between them, and seeks to decolonize them. We argue here that seeing the connections between and across indigenous, ethnic, migrant and refugee struggles is central to culture-centered strategies of anti-racism that seek to dismantle Whiteness in colonial organisations, institutions, and society.
[1] We note in the naming of the white papers as authorial sources of knowledge the logics of Whiteness that constructs it.
[2] Whiteness refers to the hegemonic values of the colonising white culture, established as universal. See Moreton-Robinson, A. (2015). The white possessive: Property, power, and indigenous sovereignty. U of Minnesota Press
[3] Here we note the ongoing efforts at silencing conversations on Whiteness in Aotearoa by both white liberals and white supremacists. While white liberals suggest that the concept of Whiteness does not apply to Aotearoa, white supremacists deploy the age-old strategy of using communicative inversion by labelling anti-racist critiques of Whiteness as racist toward white communities.
Link to the CARE White Paper Launch with Marise Lant and Professor Mohan J Dutta.
ISSUE 10. (SEPTEMBER 2020)
Digital Hate and the infrastructures of communicative capital
by Prof. Mohan Dutta,Director, CARE Massey University
Communicative capital, the consolidation of communicative infrastructures to drive profiteering, forms the face of twenty-first century neoliberalism. From Facebook to Amazon, digital communication is one of the most profitable sites of capitalist expansion.
Communicative capital is intertwined with financial and technological capital, drawing on the global networks of finance and simultaneously creating new sites and spaces for financialization.
Communicative capital works through the commercialization of human participation on digital platforms, turning likes, shares, and comments into profitable resources.
Of the wide array of human emotions on digital platforms that drive profiteering, hate is a powerful resource that draws in viewers, propels shares, and creates networks of flow. Hate has the potential of generating large profits because of its virality.
ISSUE 9. (JULY 2020)
Relocating the Health of Transgender Sex Workers in Singapore from the Margins: A Culture-Centered Approach
While there is high visibility of LGBT advocacy in Singapore, transgender[1] persons comprise a small, marginalized portion of the community, an even smaller proportion of which tend to go into sex work at a young age for various economic, social and cultural factors. Transgender sex workers (TSW) in Singapore comprise a marginalized community that has been identified by health authorities as one that is high risk of HIV/AIDS and other STIs, as with cisgender[2] female sex workers. They are further marginalized for their status as sex workers in an Asian society where sex outside of marriage is considered deviant behavior (Banerjee, 2000; Allard K Lowenstein Human Rights Clinic, 2015). Sex work for transgender persons embodies an array of vulnerabilities ranging from income instability and health insecurities to everyday experiences of discrimination and communicative inequalities in articulating the problems faced by transgender sex workers (Perez-Brumer, 2016). Neoliberal state laws and policies in Singapore acknowledge that while sex work cannot be eradicated as this may force the activities underground and encourage organized crime, sex trafficking and public health risks (Singapore Parliament Reports), these laws do not deem sex work itself as illegal, but criminalize sex work-related activities such as soliciting, pimping, and owning brothels (Misc. Offences Act Art 19; Women’s Charter Art 146; Women’s Charter Art 148). Migrant sex workers are increasingly vulnerable, and may face arrest, fines, deportation and bans from the state for 3 years or more (Immigration Act Art 8(3)(e)(f); Allard K Lowenstein Human Rights Clinic, 2015).
[1] We use transgender as an umbrella term for persons who challenge gender normativity, which includes persons who identify as transfeminine, transmasculine, transsexual, hijra, genderqueer, female-to-male (FTM), male-to-female (MTF), intersex and more. In general, transgender refers to someone whose gender differs from that assigned at birth.
[2] ‘Cisgender’ refers to a person whose gender identity i.e. woman or man aligns with their assigned sex at birth.
ISSUE 8. (APRIL 2020)
Structural constraints, voice infrastructures, and mental health among low-wage migrant workers in Singapore: Solutions for addressing COVID19
Mohan J. Dutta Director, Center for Culture-centered Approach to Research & Evaluation, Massey University
Foreign migrant workers washing luxury condo in Singapore
Responding to the continued rise in COVID19 clusters in migrant worker dormitories in Singapore, and building on earlier research (See CARE White paper Issue 6), this White Paper reports on the findings of a survey conducted with low-wage migrant workers in Singapore. In addition to the poor living conditions highlighted earlier, the structural constraints on preventive behavior are explored. Drawing on the key tenets of the culture-centered approach, the research highlights the powerful role of structural factors such as arrangements of dormitories, the absence of hygienic conditions because of the structures, the lack of clean toilets, pressure on limited toilets, and scarcity of water. The findings highlight the challenges to mental health and wellbeing experienced by the workers. Moreover, it points to the absence of voice infrastructures, and the ways in which this absence contributes to conditions that are rife for the pandemic. Solutions for structural solutions and voice democracy are offered.
ISSUE 7. (APRIL 2020)
Culture-centered community-led testing
Gayle Moana – Johnson, CARE – Community Research Assistant and Mohan J. Dutta, Director,Center for Culture – centered Approach to Research & Evaluation Massey University
In this white paper, the community advisory group in Highbury, working with community researcher Gayle Moana-Johnson, developed the key conceptual guidelines for culture-centered community-grounded testing. The white paper highlights the key concepts anchoring the partnership between the community advisory group and the clinical team at HHPNZ
This white paper outlines the key principles of culture-centered community-led testing that are voiced by the advisory group of community members in Highbury, anchored in the principle of representing the most “in-need” members of the community (referred in the rest of this white paper as the “margins of the margins”). The key ideas in this white paper are developed as anchoring principles for the partnership between the community advisory group and the Health Hub Project New Zealand (HHPNZ).
ISSUE 6. (APRIL 2020)
Infrastructures of housing and food for low-wage migrant workers in Singapore
Mohan J. Dutta Director, Center for Culture-centered Approach to Research & Evaluation, Massey University
The high incidence of COVID-19 cases in dormitories housing low-wage migrant workers in Singapore makes visible the structural challenges of poor housing and food. Building on CARE’s ongoing work with low-wage migrant workers in Singapore, this white paper presents imaginaries for healthy housing and food voiced by low-wage migrant workers.
ISSUE 5. (APRIL 2020)
Challenges To Seeking Health Information And Healthcare Among Low Income Communities Amid COVID19
Mohan J. Dutta Director, Center for Culture-centered Approach to Research & Evaluation, Massey University
The findings reported here are drawn from our advisory group of community members that represent the community in Highbury. The advisory group has been built on the basis of purposive sampling, ensuring that the voices of the “margins of the margins” are represented. The advisory group meets face-to-face as well as on a digital platform. The group is facilitated by two community researchers, recruited from within the advisory group and trained in the fundamentals of interview-based research.
ISSUE 4. (MARCH 2020)
COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Package
Christine Elers (Ngā Hau), Junior Research Officer, Center for Culture-centered Approach to Research & Evaluation (CARE)
We are writing about the government’s covid-19 wage subsidy package, in particular:
- the sick leave payment due to be folded into the modified covid-19 wage subsidy package; and
- the online publication outlining the names of all employers who have received the covid-19 wage subsidy package.
ISSUE 3. (APRIL 2020)
The limits of the “Singapore Model” in COVID-19 response: Why authoritarian governmentality is not the solution
Mohan J. Dutta, Director, Center for Culture-centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE)
A wide range of models have been proposed as frameworks for responding to Covid-19. These models highlight the significance of health
communication in preventing the spread of COVID19 as well as in effectively responding to it. The positioning of specific models as solutions to COVID-19 is tied to the creation of actual strategies of response
globally. One such model that has been rapidly disseminated in policy discourse and circulated in articulations of COVID response is the “Singapore Model.” Drawing on the key tenets of the CCA, this paper will examine the premise of the “Singapore Model” as a framework for global health.
The white paper draws on the key tenets of the CCA to examine Singapore’s pandemic response. The CCA foregrounds the interplays of culture, structure, and agency in the constructions of health meanings and the development of health solutions.
Structure refers to the political economy of organizing resources in society. Culture reflects the community norms, community-based meanings, and community values guiding relational negotiations of health and wellbeing. Agency reflects the relational and collective capacities of communities to develop solutions.
ISSUE 2. (MARCH 2020)
A culture-centered approach to pandemic response: Voice, Universal Infrastructure, and Equality
Mohan J. Dutta, Director, Center for Culture-centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE)
the global nodes of spread of Covid-19 highlight the significance of health communication in preventing the spread as well as in effectively responding to it. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Noting the aggressive movement of the virus across countries, with eight countries reporting more than 1000 cases of COVID-19, the WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. Drawing on critical analyses of the pandemic and crises response literatures as well as building on the experiences of CARE in developing culture-centered community grounded interventions,this white paper outlines the culture-centered approach to pandemic response, specifically directed at offering culturecentered guidelines for effective communication. The culture-centered approach foregrounds the interplays of culture, structure, and agency in the constructions of health meanings and the development of health solutions.
ISSUE 1. (FEBRUARY 2020)
Exploring challenges: A Culture-Centred Approach (CCA) project in Glen Innes
Dr Phoebe Elers, Dr Steve Elers and Professor Mohan Dutta
This study explores the challenges experienced by residents in Glen Innes, Auckland. The findings have assisted in the identification of local problems and corresponding solutions, including the ‘Poverty is Not Our Future’ campaign, which has served as anchor for residents to challenge dominant structures and, at the same time, communicate their everyday realities of poverty. While this study is focused on Glen Innes, material hardship continues to be a significant issue in Aotearoa New Zealand, with research determining that 13 percent of children lived in households that experienced material hardship in the 2017/18 financial year (Statistics New Zealand, 2019) and that children born into disadvantage in Aotearoa New Zealand have a significant likelihood of remaining disadvantaged (New Zealand Treasury, 2016a, 2016b; Templeton, 2016).
2019
ISSUE 5. (AUGUST 2019)
Teanau Tuiono and Mohan J. Dutta
In this white paper, we depict
solidarity as the organizing concept
for addressing racism in Aotearoa,
New Zealand. After defining the
concept of solidarity, we address the
questions: Why do we need solidarity
in activist and advocacy interventions
seeking to address racism? What does
solidarity look like in struggles
against racism? We wrap up the
white paper with key elements drawn
from our dialogue, foregrounding
“seeing connections” as a way for
bringing together anti-racist, anticapitalist,
and decolonial struggles.
Seeing Whiteness as the very basis for
the production of various forms of
marginalization sets up the
groundwork for anti-racist struggles.
ISSUE 4. (AUGUST 2019)
Ihumātao protest, colonization, and cultural voice
by Christine Elers & Prof. Mohan J. Dutta
The erasure of indigenous voice goes hand-in-hand with the occupation of indigenous land. What we witness over the past seven years at Ihumātao, as an extension of over a century of colonialism in Aotearoa, is the deployment of colonial tactics to erase and silence the voices of indigenous Māori peoples. Through a variety of tactics the controls over which are held by the colonizers, Māori voices resisting colonialism are silenced. The very uses of communicative strategies of indigenous participation are deployed in logics established by the colonizer to prop up and perpetuate the colonial-capitalist structure, with the state making claims to having created opportunities for participation. The capitalist interests, served through naturalized logics of the market, reflect the oppressive nature of colonialism, all the while working to erase through the very performance of tools of participation and engagement. In this backdrop, drawing from the ongoing protests at Ihumātao, in this white paper, we attend to the organizing role of indigenous voice as the basis for dismantling colonial capitalism. The Māori voice of resistance in Ihumātao, resounds with indigenous voices in Hawaii, who are protecting their sacred land – Mauna Kea from the construction and intrusion of a giant telescope on the summit. Elsewhere across the globe the plurivocality of resistance offer pathways for addressing the very challenges that have been brought on by the accelerated corporate-colonialism of neoliberal governmentality.
2018
ISSUE 3. (DECEMBER 2018)
Strengthening-Refugee-Voices-in-NZ
Dr Murdoch Stephens & Professor Mohan J Dutta
The attached white paper – The state helps the refugee speak: dialogue, ventriloquism or something else? – on the funding of refugee voice organisations was prepared between November 2018 and April 2019. In the wake of the terrorist attacks on two Mosques in Christchurch on 15 March 2019 the need to address the issue of refugee support organisations becomes acute as they a significant role in the representation of many Muslim citizens in New Zealand. Specifically, the lack of funding for organisations that are tasked with connecting with refugee communities and representing those voices to government, media and the public undermined the ability of these organisations to respond after the attacks. We particularly note the absence of “democratic communication infrastructures” owned by refugees for representing their voices in New Zealand. (Stephens and J Dutta, 2019)