February 13, 2014
Treaty educator shares history
A long time treaty educator says it was opposition to the racist apartheid regime in South Africa that led many Pakeha activists into looking at racism in Aotearoa.
Robert Consedine is giving the Rona Bailey Memorial Lecture in Wellington tonight on what he calls Suing Robert Muldoon and doing time: from anti-apartheid to Project Waitangi.
He says meeting Maori in jail in the 1970s when he was serving time for an anti-apartheid protest made a deep emotional impact.
Project Waitangi emerged from talking with Maori groups about raising awareness of their issues and the Treaty of Waitangi.
"Most of us, at least Pakeha, had to re-learn New Zealand colonial history. We found we simply didn’t know a lot of the issues that Maori were raising. The Land March and Bastion Point had happened on our watch, the Raglan Golf Course was at its peak, so those high profile issues were at work, so we had to relearn New Zealand history," he says.
Robert Consedine will be giving his history of race relations tonight at the New Zealand Drama School Toi Whakaari in Wellington.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT CONSEDINE CLICK ON THE LINK
http://www.waateanews.com/play_podcast?podlink=MTUzNDU=
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