The Wire with Caeden

This week saw controversy sparked out of the Nelson Santa Parade when a Non-Traditional Santa was represented this year.

This year’s Santa wore a red korowai, held a taiaha and was Maori.

People from Nelson having a variety of opinions, some said that Santa has always been a jolly white man in a red suit and it was distressing for children to be confronted with this representation. The comment section around these stories left space for many to leave racist remarks resulting in the comment sections being disabled for a stuff article on the topic. The Nelson Deputy mayor Paul Matheson also remarked that he found the commentary on the matter to be “ quite sick”.   

Nelson Council’s decision for this year’s Santa also received a great deal of support for leaning into multiculturalism, and giving the space for Maori representation in what is typically an eurocentric image.

Therapeutic Care Worker, Jordan Henare who works with children and youth in New Zealand joined Laura Kvigstad to discuss what the it meant to see Maori representation in an image that is dominated by European ideals.  

First up on the Wire, we have worry week, where Oscar talked today to Professor Robert Patman about international relations and militarisation of the pacific. Then in a back to back double dosage of Oscar, he’s have harvested another great group to chat to in The Community garden, this week talking to Everybody Eats. After that, Andrew Little joins Lachlan for their regular chat, this week discussing potential future referenda and a meeting with the US intelligence services. Finally on This Day in History, Ben graces the air waves to discuss the ‘Blood in the Water’ water polo match of 1956.

On the show today, for Dear Science we talk about CRISPR, accurate clocks and Werner Heisenberg.

We talk to Fletcher Tabuteau about his role as undersecretary of disarmament and arms control and the militarisation of the pacific.

Lisa Boudet reports on last weekend’s demonstrations in France and the Yellow Jacket Movement.

And we speak to Organise Aotearoa about their march for reproductive rights happening today.

Burnt cars, tear gas, and calls for Emmanuel Macron's resignation: the French are at it again with the protest. This time, it is the Gilets Jaunes (literaly "Yellow Jackets") fighting for social justice. And if it all stemmed online because of a hike in petrol prices due to new taxation, the movement has managed to gain momentum, asking now for more purchasing power and better lives. The revolt has been compared to the events of May 1968, but is France's uprising worse than usual? Or is it just the same feeling of being fed up of being taken for fools?