There have been two developments in the so called Urewera terror saga. Firstly, the Urewera 15 are seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. Secondly, a film chronicling and commenting on events since the raids in 2007 has opened in Auckland. The film is called Operation 8: Deep in the Forest and is directed by Errol Wright and Abi King-Jones.
On the first issue I recommend, in fact I urge you, to go watch Julian Wilcox’s interview with Professor Jane Kelsey on Native Affairs (episode 05/06). Prof. Kelsey is fiercely intelligent and sympathetic towards things Maori. I wish she was an MP – she’d be outstanding. In the interview Prof. Kelsey makes the pertinent point that the needs of the system are been put ahead of the rights of the accused. She goes on to discuss the advantages of a jury trail in this particular case as well as the personal effect the process is having and has had on the accused and their whanau. I thought she framed the issue better than anyone has so far.
On the second issue I’ll point you to the Standard where Rocky has written an excellent review of the film. The post is fairly comprehensive and incredibly informative.
So go and watch the Jane Kelsey’s interview and read Rocky’s review. They put it far better than I ever could.
Hi Morgan. Agree 100%, Jane Kelsey was brilliant on Native Affairs. I was with several other law students having dinner at her house the day of Operation 8 and it was amazing to here her commentary then on what was going on. It was, simply put, complete disbelief and what was going on, especially when she knew what was going on and that the police had no show of making terrorism charges stick.
ReplyDeleteI've got my own Maori law and politics blog going at the moment, I like what you are doing here and it is great to see Maori voices start to come out on the internet!.
Hi Joshua,
ReplyDeleteYour blog is great! I'll link to it in the sidebar. I'm looking forward to reading more.
Thanks for pointing me to the Jane Kelsey interview. You're right, she is fiercely intelligent and makes sense of the complexities around this case. Her work on opposing the TPPA 'free' trade agreement has moved this issue into the public eye.
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