The Wire with Caeden

A South Auckland-based art exhibition opened last week at the Mangere Arts Centre, featuring the works of 10 contemporary Aotearoa artists with Tāgata Pācifica and Tāgata Ahia heritage.

Producer Ezra spoke to the Co-Curator from I-M.S Arts, Iokapeta Magele-Suamasi, about the importance of the “South-Versed” exhibition for recognising South-Auckland-connected talent.

Greenpeace has announced an upcoming “March for Nature” in response to the current Government’s environmental policies, which they have called a “war on nature.”

Their website says this protest is targeting the Fast Track Consent Bill which “undermines democracy and Te Tiriti.”

Wire Host Caeden spoke to Greenpeace spokesperson Sinead Deighton-O'Flynn about the upcoming march.

They started by asking what the demands of the march were.

Users are continuing to boycott celebrities on social media following the beginning of  #Blockout2024. The activist movement was sparked by a peak in digital audiences’ frustrations surrounding the concurrent platforming of wealth and celebrity at the MET Gala alongside scenes of humanitarian devastation in Gaza. The parallel has been described by many as uncomfortably close to dystopian narratives such as Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy. 

Producer Jasmine Gray spoke to Media and Communications expert, Dr. Sabrina Moro, to further understand the social impact of the #Blockout2024 movement

Last week, New Caledonia became the site of widespread civil unrest and mass riots. Protests erupted in response to a decision made by the French government to grant voting rights to residents of New Caledonia who had been residing on the Island for at Least 10 years, overturning a previous constitutional amendment that only permitted the Island’s indigenous Kanak population and residents residing on the Island before 1998 to vote in local elections. 

New Caledonia’s Indigenous Kanak people, who have largely resisted French rule and have campaigned for independence for several generations, said that the constitutional amendment would undermine their push for independence and give greater preference to newer French settlers. 

Oto spoke to Professor Yvonne Underhill-Sem, a professor of Pacific studies at the university of Auckland, to discuss the context behind the current unrest, and the Kanak independence movement as a whole.