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.

Yes, they were. The Christian men were using their own bodies to shield the women as they were trying to get away from the mob.

Don't know if this has already been posted elsewhere:

(I don't agree entirely with her take on the bigger societal picture, but it gives a good feeling of what the event must have been like.)

I will be glad to.

Following the women's concerns about the media intentionally creating false impressions that 'nothing much happened' which is not at all matching what people who were there are saying and showing films of, Whaenui are you aware of any of the media being more reliable on this than others, or is it seeming to be a blanket thing?

We can still hear the women.

It doesn’t matter how much they post to try to hide it but I can see it’s troubling them enough to follow you around op.

Makes me very grateful that in the UK we have women journalists like Janice Taylor who have fought and fought to get truth and reality put up, however 'transphobic' any negative reality is framed as being.

@HBGKC yes shocking they had to get protection from that particular group! Off all people but at least they don’t think women should be subject to violence.

@nilsmousehammer thanks. We don’t have a lot of media, all have to get government support and a couple of smaller ones wouldn’t exist without that. The two main ones are Stuff & The Herald. None have ever been neutral or fair on this issue.

@MarshaBradyo thanks, yes I’m glad everyone can see they follow me around, as they did to another Maori person last year. It’s disturbing, especially as comments were removed disparaging my mother and grandmother who raised me.

That makes even more sense in the light of what the women were saying

I KNEW someone would come along sooner or later with some reason for this being buried or discredited.

Fortunately the overwhelming majority of posts here have been entirely focused on women's voices and testimony. They are all that matter.

They are all that matter.

Yes they are. I hope the lady who was so upset at the start is ok. I have really bad anxiety and it’s very common, 1 in 2 people experience it so the thought of being caught up in that… it’s just scary.

Nobody has asked you to bury or discredit this.

I’ve politely asked people not to thank Sean Plunket. As my aunties would say, he is taku weriweri (disgusting).

Understood.

The women speakers were so brave and inspiring. Brilliant idea to give them a platform and make a document of their vitally important voices.

Brilliant idea to give them a platform and make a document of their vitally important voices.

It was indeed. I much appreciated the presenter's repeated reminder to men on the phone lines that they would not be speaking while there were women waiting to talk. Very much KJK's belief: to create a situation in which women's voices are the point and focus.

The women speakers were so brave and inspiring. Brilliant idea to give them a platform and make a document of their vitally important voices.

Im sure we will hear from some of them in different forms later, but I think immediately after the event is important, so we can hear their genuine feelings directly after. They are clearly rattled and traumatised, as anyone would be. The media easily smeared Posie, but how could they possibly do that to these crying distressed women? I mean they might, but I think they’re hoping nobody will listen because of the platform.

This.

you know what? TRAs have a point. Words can be violence. But it’s their words. The frenzy of slurs and name calling mud slinging and lies., The demonization that is the same demonization that has been used throughout history to legitimize violence against groups of people. The politicians using lies and slurs, the media lying and distorting in their presentation. The silence from politicians who should be defending democratic debate, the slurs from politicians against GC women, ALL of these people have created and enabled a situation where women were traumatized and could have been murdered that day.

Words can be violence.
Silence can be violence.

One of my house plants has got fungus gnats, nasty little shits that grub around in the dirt and eat mould. I don't know how, but one seems to have got a MN account! I'm going to ignore it.

That what happens when you let things fester in their parent's basement without sunlight!

Get it out into the morning sunshine!

It's not an instant cure but the more sunshine you subject it to the quicker those little fuckers will stop being an annoyance

At least it’s not spider mites. Those things are utter fuckers.

I’m going to listen to the rest of this as I wfh today

And I know I posted this yesterday, but @Whaeanui a reminder won't hurt.

I don't care what platform I have to go to to listen to those wonderful women's words. As long as they get the opportunity to talk that's good enough for me right now.

For your friends and family, and you:

MAORI WOMEN

Magnificent
Amazing
Outstanding
Resplendent
Incredible

Wonderful
Outbrave
Monumental
Extraordinary
Noble

Boiled x

Thank you @Boiledbeetle

Landof your lack of compassion toward women and girls on all the threads I see you pop up on is incredible

That was extraordinary and powerful.
I am sending links to all the other adult human females I know.

I thought that my activist days would be over at my age - how wrong was I.
I hope that women over the world who are, ostensibly at least, able to have a voice and assemble in public, begin to do so and say no to the frenzied misogynists in bad wigs, the biased media and the cowed politicians.
(and that we remember and support the sisters in the countries where they can't)

One horrible thought occurred to me: Kellie Jay, if you're reading this, please get a medical check.
That deranged man who threw the juice over you is apparently a chemist - I wouldn't put it past him to add something toxic into the mix.

That was extraordinary and powerful.
I am sending links to all the other adult human females I know.

Thanks so much.

Note that the poster who follows me around, as noted by numerous other users in a couple of threads and PMs, is allowed to be racist about my family ( now deleted comment ) but still come to my thread to derail it, but when I ask that they leave, it’s reported and MN delete my comment. This is why people complain about racism on MN. It’s one thing to delete a comment. But if you allow the person to stay and follow around the person they’ve already been racist to, that is not ok. Every damn time I’m here this kind of thing happens. I’ve had three users be racist to me in less than a week.

I urge you all to follow the women from nz involved in this on social media, since this really isn’t a safe or pleasant space for us here.