Te Kuaka New Zealand Alternative

In this episode Nina Hall speaks with Maureen Panjueli, Ja Ian Chong, and Marco De Jong about about AUKUS, the trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States with a particular focus on it's implications on relationships and security in the Asia Pacific region. 

Marco DeJong is a Samoan New Zealander and a Pacific historian. He is currently completing a doctorate at the University of Oxford on the history of the environmental movement in the Pacific focusing on anti-nuclearism and climate change.

Maureen Panjueli is the coordinator of Pacific Network on Globalisation and is based in Suva, Fiji. She has worked in the non-profit sector for over 20 years on environmental, economic, political and social justice in the Pacific.

Ja Ian Chong is an associate professor at the National University of Singapore teaching international relations. He has a special interest in IR theory, security, Chinese foreign policy, and international relations in the Asia-Pacific.

Nina Hall is a founding member of New Zealand Alternative and an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. 

In this episode of Te Kuaka we turn our focus to Rocket Lab, the little Kiwi start up sending rockets into space from Mahia. 

Max Harris speaks with Sonya Smith from Rocket Lab Monitor, and journalists Nicki Hager and Ollie Neas about Rocket Lab, the role of militaries in space and where Aotearoa New Zealand fits in all of this.

Listen in on how Rocket Lab's activities have affected tangata whenua, the wider community, and zoom all the way out to see the global implications of blasting American military payloads out to orbit. 



Read more

Mahia, We Have a Problem by Ollie Neas



Keep in the loop

Rocket Lab Moniter

On their way from COP 26 in Glasgow to Jokkmokk in Sápmi, India Logan Riley crashed for a week at Phoebe's place in Gothenburg. After a week long meandering conversation about the crises at hand and the world that could be with a winter swim and a few dark laughs in between, the two sat down to record this podcast. 

The discussion delves into big feelings around climate change, what took India to COP in the first place, what keeps them coming back, the reaction to Trump's election during COP 22, what NZ needs to do to act meaningfully on climate change, and what we need to do to make NZ act meaningfully on climate change. 



India organises with Te Ara Whatu and Action Station. 

Our third episode of Te Kuaka concentrates on the relationship between Aotearoa and Palestine. 

Host, Phoebe Carr, is joined by Nadia Abu-Shanab and Samira Archer from Justice for Palestine, and Marilyn Garson from Alternative Jewish Voices to discuss the situation in Palestine, what foreign policy for solidarity with Palestine would look like, and how building solidarity with Palestine is tied to creating a better world for everyone.

You can find Nadia and Samira's organisation Justice for Palestine on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Alternative Jewish Voices is Marilyn Garson's organisations website. You can read her blog posts on Palestine policy here and here, and her book: Still Lives - a memoir of Gaza.



To learn more about Palestine, please check out these links below. 

The Guardian: Here in Jerusalem, We Palestinians are still fighting for our homes- Mohammed El Kurd 

Amnesty International: Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories- Israel continues to break international laws while the world turns a blind eye.

Human Rights Watch report:  Gaza - apparent war crimes during May fighting

Red Cross:  80% of Gazans live much of their lives in darkness

Ha'aretz: 'This is catastrophic' - one out of five Gazans has no access to running water

Financial Times: Ban Ki Moon - US should back a new approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

New York Times: 'So they know we existed', Gazans film their survival under fire

Since its release He Puapua has been hitting headlines across the motu. He Puapua is a report which considers how our laws and policies in Aotearoa New Zealand can be adapted to become consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). In this episode Dr. Claire Charters, Prof. Jacinta Ruru, who are both co-writers of He Puapua, and Max Harris share their whakaaro about the report, what it is, where it has come from, and importantly, what it isn't. 



Read the redacted version of He Puapua here: https://www.tpk.govt.nz/docs/undrip/tpk-undrip-he-puapua.pdf

Te Takarangi Celebrating Māori Publications: https://www.royalsociety.org.nz/150th-anniversary/tetakarangi/

Read Our Words: An anti-racist reading list for New Zealanders by Jacinta Ruru, Angela Wanhalla & Jeanette Wikaira: https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/15-06-2020/read-our-words-an-anti-racist-reading-list-for-new-zealanders/

Our guests Fatima Hassan, Dr. Josephine Varghese, and Katie Gallogly-Swan, and host, Max Harris all campaign for a People's Vaccine for COVID 19. In this episode we discuss how to produce more vaccines and distribute them fairly and quickly across the globe, and what role can New Zealand play in this?