Hate speech graffiti has appeared on the Ōwairaka / Te Ahi-kā-a-Rakataura / Mt Albert Maunga overnight in retaliation for the Tūpuna Maunga Authority’s enforcement action on Wednesday which removed the unlawful protestor encampment there.
The words ‘Majurey Lies’, accompanied by two Star of David symbols has been spray painted across the public toilets at the entrance to the Maunga.
The attack has been reported to the Police.
Paul Majurey, Chair of the Tūpuna Maunga Authority says, “This is a disgusting act and sadly demonstrates the true character of the protest group. Childish name-calling is of no consequence, but the anti-Semitic and supremacist use of the Star of David is abhorrent.”
Sadly, this is the latest ramping up of the escalation of intimidation and hate speech by the protest group.
At the very beginning of their campaign in November last year, the protest group leader posted on Facebook that the Authority’s plans to restore native vegetation on the maunga was retribution for colonisation.
At the public Hui held by the Tūpuna Maunga Authority on November 28 last year, one non-Māori member of the protest group took to the microphone and placed a curse on all Mana Whenua who supported the Authority’s plans to restore native vegetation on the Ōwairaka Maunga.
Various extensions of the protest group have also been active in distributing racist messaging. For example, the radical right group Hobsons Pledge delivered their ‘One Treaty One Nation’ flier to Mt Albert residents’ letterboxes, together with a flier referring to the Treaty of Waitangi settlement over the Maunga as a ‘fraud’.
During the course of this year, Tūpuna Maunga Authority members, especially ward councillors, have also been personally insulted.
The protestors have continued to flout the Covid-19 alert level 4 lockdown rules by continuing a protest presence on the Maunga under the guise of exercising in line with lockdown rules. New protest signs have been erected after the encampment was removed, and now the hate speech graffiti.
“It does say something about the value set of those who seek to portray themselves as victims over the removal of unlawful structures as the result of their flouting of the clear lockdown rules during a global pandemic,” says Majurey.
“Based on previous form, we can expect the protestors to try to distance themselves from this latest attack and claim they had nothing to do with it. However, the public will be able to draw their own conclusions as to those responsible given the location, style of attack and proximity to the recent removal of their unlawful structures.”
“It is timely for some very misguided individuals to take stock and remind themselves that they are in the middle of a global pandemic and that the scars of the Christchurch massacre are still very fresh. What really matters in these challenging times is whanaungatanga and aroha,” Majurey says.
Ōwairaka-Mt Albert graffiti