We just wanted to talk, to read a poem, and we were beaten up: Let Women Speak

[Whaeanui]

This may have been shared but since these brave wahine didn’t get to speak at the event, I think a thread dedicated to them speaking is the least we could do. The Platform allowed women to call up and speak. I’m only 30 minutes in, the fourth woman is so tearful it’s quite a hard listen. She is clearly traumatised. Please listen, please leave a comment if you can. I’m so heartbroken about it. I know some of these women who were attending. Whanau ( family ) and friends attended. They’re all completely in shock. Angry, broken, feeling completely overwhelmed. They’ve been called far right, Nazis, when a large portion are long time Maori rights activists, Labour supporters, and many are older women. Some have nothing to do with any feminist groups, they just wanted to be heard. Read a poem. Talk about their lives. Their fears.

The whole thing is horrifying. @Whaeanui are you local? I hate to see them win. How do we help you fight back in New Zealand?

I’m not currently living there but am local, I know many of those attending & one or two organisers. If you can follow the social media of the groups, let women speak nz & Mana Wahine Korero ( also on YouTube ) you’ll see any messages of help needed but I think for anyone here, letter writing and sharing of evidence is also good

A very hard listen. But....Plunket's insistence that the far right and Christians are lining up behind gay rights...nah I'm not buying it.

They'll just get used as a football. Women need their own party. Does NZ use PR for elections?

One speaker saw a woman in her 60s knocked to the ground and a woman in her 70s who had a black eye.
Another said women were pleading with the police (who were sitting in a van) to help, while the police solidly ignored them.
Another said she and her friends had run over to a crowd of men protesting on (I think) another issue nearby, and the trans mob had followed them but didn't dare attack because the other men surrounded the women. So it was pretty clear -- they were targeting the women.

The host quoted a man who said he'd seen it on television and it looked pretty peaceful. That shook me because it means the TV news footage was deliberately slanted, as there's no way anyone attending the event could have missed seeing the crowd attack. In fact it's quite frightening, as it means the media aren't innocently 'being kind' but are aware of the reality and deliberately hiding it.

I've seen trans mobs surrounding venues where women were meeting, screaming and making deafening noise to prevent female speakers being heard. The more of them there are, the more aggressive they become.

No one can be surprised that this NZ crowd took the logical next step and actually started beating women up.

I'm having difficulty playing this part of the recording back again, but I think the men who protected some women from the trans mob may have been fundamentalist Christians.

That how I understood it.

Big thanks to all those women who spoke up, all who were there supporting women's rights, and Sean Plunket who hosts The Platform online radio station.

I changed name for this.
I genuinely think people can genuinely not see stuff that's right in front of them if its inconvenient. And I think we underestimate the extent to which being on the receiving end of violence can make you invisible.

I was in a bad relationship at one point and got slapped, hard, several times in public. It was in front of a group of friends/work colleagues none of whom are the type to think DV is ok. But because it was so surreal (happy social setting, people drinking but not drunk) it was like no-one actually saw it. I literally saw people's eyes slide over us and focus somewhere else. Like it was a joke slap but it really wasn't - it was loud and he looked angry and my cheek would have been really red.

I don't want to make this all about me, but it does feel like a similar situation on a larger scale. The news media etc know they are good tolerant people. They know that the people they support (the rainbow brigade) are good tolerant people on TRSOH. Therefore any thing which impinges on that reality just isn't seen.

I'm sorry you went through that, Namity

It's a good point. A lot of people across the net are talking about the shock of trying to reconcile the programmed corporate image of vulnerability, oppression and victimhood with screaming, violent men battering middle aged women.

It's like the 72 year old lesbian on the radio programme talking about the surrealism of being protected as a lesbian by men from the Fundamentalist Christian group from the rainbow lynch mob. A lot of people are having their eyes opened.

The host quoted a man who said he'd seen it on television and it looked pretty peaceful. That shook me because it means the TV news footage was deliberately slanted, as there's no way anyone attending the event could have missed seeing the crowd attack. In fact it's quite frightening, as it means the media aren't innocently 'being kind' but are aware of the reality and deliberately hiding it.

@nilsmousehammer Therefore any thing which impinges on that reality just isn't seen. I absolutely get what you mean and I’m sorry for your experience too

@ArabellaScott that’s very apt isn’t it.

It's very hard to listen to.

Thanks for sharing and highlighting that. Sean Plunkett is about the only person in NZ who is amplifying this.

Listening now. You can hear the pain and real shock from these women about this happening in NZ. They're not are asking for much. To speak reason without being met with violence, or indifference from the police that literally exist to protect them. It's great to hear women's voices uninterrupted and not through the filter and positioning of media.

The NZ media is not great. A very small group of journalists/writers and not much oversight or accountability, but NZ is a small place and I've always seen people shrug off stupidity in the media when they see it. But seeing familiar faces put out blatant disinformation and playing a role in stoking the fire before the event has shocked me.

@Whaeanui thanks for posting

The caller “Tania” was amazing. And at the end of her call, when she was invited to say what she really thought. So strong and so angry.

Just finished listening, that was really powerful and hard to hear.
Rise up women.

Kia kaha wahines.

We are a global grassroots group and none of us will wheesht.

I am so pleased your voices are on that recording and I will share it with the friends, probably about to be ex friends, I have in NZ.

I am upset for you and I understand how scared you were. Your courage is inspiring

Fabulous posts, so very sad at what happened.

Solidarity to our NZ sisters

Can anyone provide a translate of the Maori language terms?

I'd love to know more, but I've tried google translate, it seems Utterly fucking useless.

Since nobody else wants to talk about, Sean Plunket is New Zealand’s version of Tucker Carlson.

His media company is bankrolled by a secretive wealthy family called the Wrights who made a massive fortune from retirement homes and private childcare centres. They use Plunket’s media platform to lobby against rises in the minimum wage, lowering of company taxes, against increased regulation of the aged care an and early-childhood education sectors, and the removal of Te tiriti from its position at the centre of NZ common law.

It’s interesting to see people lap up his media content uncritically. Like Fox News in the USA the content that Plunket produces is intended to inflame viewers rather than inform.

He can’t manipulate the women who are speaking.

Their emotion is raw and real.

Simce no one else there seems happy to even let them speak without that Avenue we wouldn’t be hearing from them at all.

I know you’re trying to shut down all avenues for these women but tough really, we see the footage and can hear their painful experiences.

I hear those women.

That you are afraid to says all I need to know.

I heard women who were given space to talk out and share their ordeal and I found it moving.

Funny how women speaking and being heard is painted as crossing the line by some.

I’ve mentally blocked a poster who had comments removed that were racist to me. I’d appreciate it if all of you could also do the same and ignore this person who likes to follow me around and harass me, also did this to another Maori poster last year.

The focus on this thread is the women and what they had to say, not on what platform they were on. Everyone else smeared them and beat them before they got the chance. Thanks.

As woman with Māori whakapapa who has suffered the indignity of having my reo erased on this very forum because it offends the ears of non-speakers, I’d be grateful if you’d all stop thanking Sean Plunket - a man who was fined by the Broadcasting Standards Authority after they ruled he had amplified negative Māori stereotypes, misinformed listeners, ridiculed Te Tiriti and insulted Te Whānau ā Apanui.

I would have thought that his decision to act abusively towards the GC advocate Ani O’Brien would have disqualified him from your adoration, but I guess that’s all forgiven and she should ‘just get over it’ now that he’s a GC hero.