I've got 5 minutes, what can I do to make the world slightly less sh*t?
Trying is what matters most!
Phew, life is feeling pretty dark eh? I don’t know about you but I have to try really hard not to fall into despair. The thing that helps me, is to act. When I’m heartbroken or feel like everything is hopeless - that’s really hard.
So I try to think of small things I can do. Then, when I feel stronger, I take on the bigger things. I am lucky that community work is just part of my life now. I volunteer, I do pro bono work, and I am an activist so I’m often keyed into what actions are happening across the motu. But it wasn’t always like that.
I used to really struggle with where to start. All of the problems we face are so big - so what should I focus on? I questioned whether I could commit to regular volunteering alongside work that paid my rent. I wondered if my skills would even be useful.
I struggled with over-committing and managing my social anxiety. But - I realised it’s all the trying that counts. Trying to always think about the community - what needs are out there, can I help?
I am assuming many of you support my mahi because you too want to help out in your community or you’re already doing a lot of helping. I’m also assuming many of you are time poor. I’m hoping this list helps. It’s a change from our usual round-up: The Call.
As always, I’d love to hear from you - if you want to return to the old way we did things that works too!
All of the posters in this newsletter are by artist Roger Peet.
I’ve got five minutes!
Sign the Remove GST from all kai petition - Te Pāti Māori are calling for GST to be removed from all food sales in Aotearoa. Aotearoa is experiencing the worst cost of living crisis in generations. Hard working whānau are paying half of their weekly income on rent, a trip to the grocery store is more expensive than it has ever been. Everything is going up but wages. In the last year the price of tomatoes has more than doubled, from $2.94 to $7.29 per kilogram. Today 9 dollars might get you a head of cabbage, and that’s if you can afford the petrol to get to the supermarket in the first place.
Food is a right and a necessity and should never be taxed.
Sign the Protect Te Aka Whai Ora petition - Te Aka Whai Ora (the Māori Health Authority) is the result of their vision for a health system that better honours Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and better cares for whānau. A truly Māori-led agency that has the power to resource and lift up kaupapa Māori, and iwi and hapū health services, can improve health for Māori, and all communities in Aotearoa.
Without a clear plan to improve hauora Māori, the National, ACT, and NZ First parties are disestablishing Te Aka Whai Ora.
Sign the Protect sexual education resources and guidelines in schools petition - The Government has indicated it wants to remove sexual education resources and guidelines from schools and kura. This move will be a damaging step backwards for so many young people.
These education resources were created to answer the call of teachers and communities for more action against bullying, violence and child abuse.
(Make sure you untick the box that says Labour will email you all the time! Unless you want emails from Labour).
Sign the Close the Israeli embassy petition - Urge the government to immediately close the Israeli embassy in Wellington and sever all diplomatic relations with the State of Israel as New Zealand did in 2004. Israel has completely ignored calls from the international community to comply with the terms of international law as outlined in UN Security Council Resolution 2334 cosponsored by New Zealand in 2016. The refusal of Israel to allow the return of Palestinian refugees to their land and homes in Palestine as demanded by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 in 1948 is reason enough to close the embassy. Even if you don’t take into consideration their genocidal campaign to erase Palestinians.
Sign the Protect Our School Lunches petition - Ka Ora, Ka Ako - the school lunch programme - currently offers 230,000 students in about 1,000 of the least advantaged schools lunches, and is a major safety net against food poverty and poor nutrition. It’s looking at being scrapped because this shithouse fucking mother fucking government wants to rim landlords all day Government thinks it’s not a good investment.
Order RAT test and masks. The government seems to believe Covid isn’t an issue anymore (though I’m sure you all know someone with Covid right now). Please consider taking a few minutes to order RAT tests from your local pharmacy. This government will base any decisions on ending free RAT tests based on supply and demand. There are so many families like mine that rely on people testing and staying home if they have Covid.
Because we have a medically fragile child and we both work with vulnerable groups - my husband and I test every few days to make sure we are protecting our community. Without free tests we will struggle to afford them.
I’ve got 10-20 minutes!
Give your feedback on the Covid 19 Royal Commission
The NZ Royal Commission COVID-19 Lessons Learned public consultation is open. Please share your story - because God Knows the anti-vaxxers will be. And when there’s inevitably another pandemic, we need the Government to make tough calls that protect our most vulnerable.
There are two questions:
Question 1: Looking back – what would you like the Inquiry to know about your experiences of the pandemic?
Question 2: Moving forward – what lessons should we learn from your experiences so we can be as prepared as possible for a future pandemic?
It’s fine if you only answer one question if you feel you’ve covered all the points you want to make.
You can also just say - Hey thanks for saving the lives of literally thousands and thousands of New Zealanders and if there’s another pandemic I would like you to also try to save the lives of thousands and thousands of New Zealanders.
Tell Erica Stanford and help save lives - Immigration Minister Erica Stanford stated on March 9 2022 “Desperate Ukrainians in New Zealand have been unable to rescue wider family members because Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi has not created a visa pathway to let them come to New Zealand”. Of course, she doesn’t feel the same way about Palestinians.
Minas Al-Ansari, speaking for Kiwi Palestinians with family in Gaza explains, “Right now, our families are being killed and we are helpless to save them. One member of our community has lost 120 members of their family. If Erica Stanford, this National-led government had granted special humanitarian visas early, as was done for Ukraine, there is absolutely no doubt lives would have been saved.
“Every day that goes by more people are dying. Our children, our elders, our people, have a Right to Life as defined by Article 3 of the International Declaration of Human Rights."
Twenty days after the Russia-Ukraine war began, the Labour government created a special visa category for families of Kiwi Ukrainians. Israel is 155 days into an unprecedented military onslaught on the Gaza Strip and the International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel is plausibly committing genocide.
Email Erica Standford here Erica.Stanford@parliament.govt.nz and demand she immediately grant special humanitarian visas for Palestinian New Zealanders and their families.
She has blocked almost every person who has contacted her on social media including me lol.
It is very worrying that so many journalists are losing their jobs. Re:News are facing redundancies too. I am a big fan of Re: News, so I’m giving feedback to the powers that be by emailing Re:News. (Full disclosure, I’ve written for them in the past and hope to again in the future - like almost all media organisations in NZ!). Here’s what I said -
Kia ora, to whom it may concern,
I sincerely hope the staffing at Re:News is not reduced from ten staff to six. Re:News serves a community that is often ignored in media. Younger audiences deserve a media organisation that speaks to them in their language. I believe Re:News is essential - no other media organisations make such a consistent effort to speak to young people and uplift, boost and share the voices of vulnerable and marginalised communities. In particular the care Re:News has made in working with queer and disabled communities has been very personally meaningful to me.
I hope you will recognise the importance of re:News and respect their audiences by protecting their important coverage and service.
If you don’t want to write anything, and you just want to watch something - fair enough. Check these out:
Watch 14 anti-Māori myths in media (20 mins) with Dr. Tim McCreanor.
Watch Listening Across Difference (19mins) with Dr. Emily Beausoleil, Lecturer of Politics (VUW)
I’ve got an hour or more!
Tauiwi Tautoko (non Māori in support of Māori) started off as a community project to address racism on the internet. With the government’s attack on Te Tiriti - it’s really important for tauiwi (non-Māori) to get up to speed on major issues impacting Māori. I’m on a big learning journey and these have helped me a lot.
These were the five topics and you can watch them all here.
Real Talk: How do we honour Te Tiriti in the now?
Health and Wellbeing: Tuning into the Māori Health Authority
Returning to the River: Te Mana o te Wai Te Matau a Māui (Hawkes Bay)
Supercharge your Tauiwi-tanga
Pathways to action were provided during and post all five webinars and you can find out more on our dedicated Tautoko website.
I also recommend Values based messaging (60 mins) with Marianne Elliott from The Workshop.
I want to invest more time to support my community!
Learn the Tauiwi Tautoko approach to challenging racism in everyday conversations, with the support and structure of a facilitated course led by experienced trainers.
Together with participants across the motu, you will be guided on a seven-week journey, learning and practicing with others. There is strength in community, and in structure: this formal course makes it easier to learn more deeply and sustain your focus and energy. Details are here.
Volunteering in your community is super rewarding and makes a huge difference. Even if you only have a few hours a month available, there will be a volunteering role available.
My tips with volunteering are to make sure you don’t over commit. Bigger organisations like City Mission are great if you have to plan shifts in advance - the shifts are generally half days - 9-12 or 1-4. They usually have an app with all available shifts to choose from.
Plunket playgroups and community garden work can be a great volunteering job because you can bring your children. Community Gardens help nourish and sustain communties. Playgroups strengthen and build communities.
Working in an op shop looks great on your CV or your teenager’s CV. If you have a dog, you can have them visit hospitals, rest homes and even local libraries for ‘reading with dogs’ programmes.
Really, the sky is the limit with what you can do. Reading to kids at your local school, teaching surf lessons to kids, building a website for a new charity, teaching coding…
Check out Volunteer NZ or just Google your interest + volunteer + your region.
Thanks for reading and as always I am beyond grateful for those of you who support my mahi. It means the world to me. And it’s a beautiful model because you are paying for people who can’t afford to subscribe to the newsletter. And you’re paying for this to be my job - interviewing people and writing explainers and writing stories and sharing funny things and important things. Please know I am endlessly grateful for this. I think we have a really beautiful community here and it means a lot to me that you don’t have to pay if you can’t afford to - you won’t miss out - and that’s because of paid subscribers. So thank you for supporting me - a little old writer!
Please share with me any ways you’re helping in your community that you’d like me to highlight x
Thank you. I have six tabs opened off the back of that to go and action.
Appreciate your mahi Emily xx