The motives behind the theft from the church remain unclear, sparking intense speculation and concern among the mission's congregation and the wider community.

The US bishops who approved a pastoral framework for Indigenous ministry just days ago are among those keen to hear more.

Removal by stealth

The almost 2.5-metre Apache Christ icon had hung behind the altar under a crucifix since 1989. Painted by Franciscan Friar Robert Lentz, the icon depicts Jesus as a Mescalero holy man. Its Apache inscription translates as "Giver of Life".

Lentz says it was created with "substantial consultation and collaboration with the Apache community".

Both the Apache Christ and the Gervase Peso Spirit Dancers were taken from St Joseph Apache Mission on the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico on 26 or 27 June.

The icon's detailed, hand-crafted frame was disassembled and left behind.

At the same time, the parish's sacred vessels - Pueblo pottery and Apache baskets - were replaced with brass.

Shock and distress

The artworks' disappearance was discovered as shocked parish staff and volunteers opened the church on June 27.

The parish priest, Father Simeon-Aguinam, "did not like anything to do with our Native culture" said a parishioner.

"It was a shock to our summer youth catechism teachers and attendees to enter the church and be greeted by an empty space where the 'Apache Christ' icon once stood" says volunteer youth minister and catechist AnneMarie Brillante.

The New Mexico State Council of the Knights of Columbus is also upset.

The Knights' state deputy says any Knights of Columbus involved in the icon's removal "were acting on their own behalf" and "not ... in the capacity of Knights of Columbus".

Restoring the work

A week after the artworks' disappearance, the Mescalero Apache Tribe announced their return.

On 3 July they said "it is with profound joy that we announce that the paintings ... have been returned to the tribe and ... will be returned to their locations in the church".

The icon has been damaged, reports say.

Who did it?

The mission's website says those responsible were the pastor, members of the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces. Bishop Peter Baldacchino is said to have approved their removal.

Brillante posted an audio recording of a June 27 phone call she had with Deacon John Munson from Las Cruces diocese.

He said the icon had not been stolen - "just removed".

Brillante argued they stole the icon because it belonged to parishioners. Munson insisted it belonged to the Church.

Lentz clarified he gave the icon to the people. The fact that the priest led men from Alamogordo in its removal "only adds to the shame" he said.

The diocese didn't offer a reason and Simeon-Aguinam couldn't be reached for comment.

Church leaders are trying to meet with Baldacchino who has never visited St Joseph Apache Mission despite several invitations.

Mescalero Tribal Police say they have "taken a report" and are investigating.

Source

• OSV News
• UCA News
• ABQ News

Grim findings

Researchers at the universities of Auckland and Otago have found that almost all - 90 percent - of Maori doctors and medical students say they have experienced or witnessed racism in their education or work environments.

Of the 205 Maori medical students and 200 Maori physicians they surveyed, discrimination, bullying and harassment were common to all.

The research was published last week in JAMA Network Open, a monthly medical journal of the American Medical Association.

Institutional racism

Paediatrician Owen Sinclair (Te Rarawa) works at Waitakere Hospital. The findings are disheartening, he says.

"When you get into the system you see just how destructive it is to Maori. It's ambivalent to the needs of Maori.

"They come into this Pakeha system that's very rigid… and no one says ‘Kia Ora'.

"Maori have all these cultural needs and it's just not recognised as an issue."

Researchers also heard from many respondents that they had seen Maori patients and their whanau treated badly in clinical settings.

"There's not a lot of people running around sort of racially abusing Maori, but there's lots of decisions you can see being made that are made differently depending on whether someone's a Maori or Pakeha, and you see that a lot" Sinclair said.

"You see them getting sent home earlier, you see them not being able to get into ED. I think often people don't know they're doing it."

The study found some Maori doctors had even considered leaving or had taken a break from medicine because of their experiences.

Change needed

Urgent, systemic changes are needed, the researchers say.

This is critical to ensure medicine is safe for Indigenous medical students, physicians and communities.

"I'd like people to do something. There's been a lot of talking about addressing inequalities but there's actually very little that gets done to actually change it" Sinclair said.

"Maori working inside the system find it really difficult… it's very threatening sometimes."

Minister of Health's view

The Minister of Health Shane Reti says he did not experience racism during his 17 years as a GP.

"I firmly believe all interpersonal relationships need to start from a position of respect" he says.

"As a self-reported study this is useful in terms of gaining understanding of others' experiences within the system and of work to do in this area."

He now wants to see cultural understanding and competency within medicine established and maintained.

Respect is paramount, he emphasises.

"Levers such as the New Zealand Health Charter (Te Mauro o Rongo), the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights, and individual colleges standing by their policies and practice will help reinforce this."

Source

• Stuff

"A wave of brown-skinned filth."

"Keep your crime and your filth out of this neighbourhood."

This is some of the invective directed at Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini after she arrives in a chaotic New York City, as depicted in the luminous new film drama Cabrini.

It should be obvious that the kind of abuse that bigots hurled at this future saint and her fellow Italian immigrants in 1889 is also freely applied to migrants today.

"Filthy dagoes, they just keep coming," one gent tells the just-off-the-boat sister. "Who you looking at, guinea-pig?"

It's a good historical rendering of Cabrini's jarring welcome to New York; the scenes echo correspondence in which she wrote home requesting additional habits and veils for her sisters, "otherwise they will call us ‘guinea-pigs' the way they do to the Italians here."

("Guinea" was a slur used against Black people, the coin used to purchase slaves.)

Patron saint of immigrants

The time is right for a new biopic of Mother Cabrini, the patron saint of immigrants and the first American citizen to be canonised.

From Donald Trump on down, many politicians are pushing antipathy for migrants to boost their election campaigns.

I see the result in my own Brooklyn neighbourhood, where efforts to help migrants at a local shelter are treated on social media with expressions of anger and sarcasm.

As Pope Francis has said, Cabrini's life is of "extraordinary current relevance because migrants certainly need good laws, development programmes, and organisation.

But, "they also always need, first and foremost, love, friendship, and human closeness; they need to be heard, to have people look into their eyes, to be accompanied; they need God."

Compassion still needed

The new film, produced by Angel Studios and directed by Alejandro Monteverde, finds this space and presents a much-needed message of compassion with great visual and emotional impact.

It's a traditional underdog story, with a physically frail, five-foot-tall sister in the Rocky role fighting against the system.

The Italian actress Cristiana Dell'Anna, who starred in the HBO Max crime drama Gomorrah, brings a fiery determination to her portrayal of Cabrini.

I had some doubts about whether this team would do justice to the story.

That's because Utah-based Angel Studios heavily markets its films and fundraising pitches to a conservative Christian audience.

I wondered if Cabrini would really present the saint's pro-immigrant fervour at a time when conservative politicians are exploiting anti-immigrant sentiment.

That's not to stereotype Evangelicals; many Christian groups have aided migrants, as Scripture demands, and some think a more Bible-based response is beginning to take hold.

But overall, for example, this isn't so.

Not political

Nearly three-quarters of the white Evangelical Protestants interviewed in a PRRI survey would "favour installing deterrents to prevent immigrants from entering the country illegally even if they endanger or kill some people."

Director Monteverde's previous film for Angel Studios, last year's box-office hit Sound of Freedom, has been lauded for spotlighting the evils and prevalence of child sex-trafficking.

But it was criticised because "the film could be seen as adjacent to the alt-right paranoia that was originally stoked by 4Chan and QAnon" on this subject, as Variety put it.

Monteverde and the film's screenwriter responded in the Hollywood Reporter that the script was written in 2015, well before these conspiracy theories were spread, and that it "was not in the least political."

But promotion for Sound of Freedom, aided by a special showing for Trump at his estate in Bedminster, N.J., was politicised.

That was highlighted when lead actor Jim Caviezel, best known for playing Jesus in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, announced on Fox & Friends that voting for Trump was the way to take action against the trafficking of children for sex.

"This is the new Moses," he said of Trump as he was interviewed along with the movie's producer, the Mexican actor and political activist Eduardo Verástegui, who has similarly marketed his movies with a political slant.

Don't expect Trump to embrace and promote Cabrini in the way he did Sound of Freedom. It contradicts his anti-immigrant agenda.

In the opening scene, for example, employees at a hospital turn away a young boy trying desperately to get care for his sick mother, remarking that Italian immigrants were "monkeys" and "inferior."

It shows in shorthand the influence of the racist eugenic theory that was popular at the time, and which Trump is trying to revive by claiming that immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country."

When I spoke with the director, the executive producer, and the screenwriter in separate interviews, all said that Cabrini was not political: it's not about immigration policy, but about immigrants.

That's true. Read more

• Paul Moses is an author and a contributing writer to Commonweal.

Claiming to be a Catholic, the man even spat at the people.

Craig George Murray's behaviour made very unpleasant reading, said Judge Arthur Tompkins as he sentenced Murray for the incident.

What happened

Tomkins heard Murray began his racist rant late on a Saturday evening last October. His three victims were setting up for the following morning's Mass.

Initially, Murray stayed in the church foyer while younger associates walked around the church interior.

They left soon afterwards with Murray.

However, Murray became "enraged" and ran back into the church foyer yelling that it was his church and the three workers were not supposed to be there.

Assault

Murray then turned on one of the workers, who was trying to get away from him. He pushed the man in the chest with both hands three times, shouting "Get out, you're black!"

The victim ran out and got into a friend's car. The two other church workers also left the church, hoping Murray would leave.

Instead, Murray approached one of them and began pushing him in the chest, racially abusing him using the foulest language, all the while claiming to be a Catholic.

Murray then spat on the third worker's face, after being asked to "please leave". He went on to shove the man in the back as he turned to walk away.

Murray's younger associates tried and failed to pull him away.

Not yet finished, Murray went to the car his first victim had fled to, screaming that he'd hunt him down.

He continued in this manner until his partner arrived and said the police were on their way.

He fled and was arrested at home. He denied making any racial slurs or spitting at anyone.

Shame and sentencing

Murray's victims "understandably" did not want to attend a restorative justice conference, his lawyer told the Court.

Her client had written a letter of remorse to them instead .

She told Tompkins that Murray had been highly intoxicated during the incident.

Murray was so ashamed of his behaviour he couldn't watch the CCTV footage that had recorded the incident, his lawyer said.

She pushed for a sentence to include supervision to address his rehabilitative needs.

Tompkins asked Probation Service staff in court whether there were any "anti-racism programmes" Murray could participate in. There were not.

"It would be beneficial both to Mr Murray himself if as part of his supervision he could given psychological treatment to address a spectrum of issues."

Tompkins sentenced Murray to three months' community detention and nine months' supervision for the three charges of common assault.

He has suppressed the victims' names and the name of the church.

Source

• NZ Herald
• Waikato Times

"Racism is a sin and has no place in our world. As followers of Christ, it is our duty to welcome all people, regardless of race or background, into our Church and show them there is a place for them" said Canon Victor Darlington.

Darlington is the chair of the Archdiocese of Southark's Commission for Promoting Racial and Cultural Inclusion, which governs the London boroughs south of the River Thames.

It is the first Catholic diocese in England and Wales to establish such a Commission.

Welcoming diversity

One parish in particular "leads the way" in the archdiocese as to how it promotes racial and cultural inclusion.

The pastor of that parish (St. Margaret of Scotland) is Father Anthony Uche, originally from Nigeria.

Uche (pictured greeting a young parishioner) has established a Racial and Cultural Inclusion group in the community, saying "the face of the Church must be seen in all we do".

The parish's efforts to extend an inclusive welcome to all has seen a change in the imagery chosen to decorate the church. These include images and statues of saints from different cultural and racial backgrounds. There are several of the Virgin Mary from different parts of the world.

Darlington said that's why the work of St Margaret's Parish is so important - "because when people go to a parish, they should not only see white images but also people who look like them.

"Jesus loves us all and we in turn must love and welcome all" the priest said.

Diversity in the parish is increasing, says Uche. The impact has been extraordinary, with a previously predominantly white parish now including others from various cultures.

"You know how it can feel busy in London but we always feel at home and okay here. We are welcome to Mass, we are welcome to the church and the parish" a parishioner says

The parish's welcome is a welcome influence on his family which includes six children.

As his wife says "... the impact of the parish on each of them makes a huge difference in the community and we hope that can impact their friends".

Equality includes all

A member of St Margaret's Racial and Cultural Diversity group says racial equality means fairness to everybody regardless of what race they're from.

"When you think of what we're meant to be as Christians, we're called to love everybody, regardless of race."

Another parishioner - also a group member - says promoting racial and cultural diversity does not happen by accident.

"It needs a group which looks systemically at all the worship, the activities, the different ministries in the parish and making sure we're promoting racial and cultural diversity across everything we do.

"We have to show God loves everyone equally - in our activities and in our worship. If we don't show that, we are failing" he adds.

Source

• Crux Now

"We will never be a fully multicultural society until we've fully adopted our bicultural foundations, and that's the struggle" says Devoy, a former race relations commissioner.

In an interview with Grey Areas host Petra Bagust, Devoy said racism is "an intractable problem".

It's always going to be there, it's never going to be eradicated.

Devoy said during her period as race relations commissioner between 2013 and 2018,75 percent of the complaints of racist behaviour she received "were all from the same demographic.

"They were old, not always men, but predominantly men, white - you couldn't call them Pakeha because that offended them as well - and threatened ...that something that was never theirs in the beginning was going to be taken away from them.

"I don't think any education in the world is going to change that attitude, and I think that attitude has been slightly empowered ... the minute they hear politicians using dog-whistle politics, they feel beholden in themselves to be able to say the things they only thought, but to say them out loud and to other people.

"Whatever I say is not going to change their point of view.

"The only thing that is going to change is that eventually they will pass away, and let's hope the next generation haven't inherited those beliefs that they have."

What would Jesus do?

Devoy then told Bagust of an incident where she was accused of "abolishing" Christmas after working with Belong Aotearoa.

That group - then known as the Auckland Regional Migrants Society - was set up to support refugees and new arrivals settling into New Zealand.

A Christmas lunch was being held for the collective.

As most of the migrants invited to the lunch weren't Christian and didn't relate to the festival, a more inclusive seasonal message replaced "Merry Christmas".

"Honestly, that escalated beyond actual belief - I got accused of wanting to ban Christmas and I got Christmas cards galore," Devoy told Bagust.

She said as she herself is a Christian, she thought the backlash "rather ironic" due to the teaching of Jesus Christ.

"Someone sent me a box of faeces that was wrapped up in beautiful Christmas paper.

"The box didn't offend me so much; it was the fact that someone had come down my driveway in the middle of the night and left it there," Devoy said.

"What would Jesus do?

"I think he would want us all to celebrate in the manner that we do, and this is where I can't quite understand the IQ of people sometimes."

Source

• Te Ao Maori News

The Women of the Church conference was for Catholic women leaders.

It took place recently.

All was not bleak, as highlighted by Women of the Church keynote speaker, theology Professor Kristin Colberg (pictured), who discussed "Fruit and Seed: New Roles for Women in a Synodal Church".

"What's happening with women in the Church is not just the beginning of something new, but it's the realisation of something that's already happening," she told participants.

"Because we're living through it, we can fail to see how radical and exciting a time this is in the Church," she said.

Colberg is on the synod's theological commission. She also helped write the synod's continental document "Enlarge the Space of Your Tent".

After reading synodal reports from across the globe, she said it was clear that women's issues were not just a Western concern.

"The whole world is ready to move on the issue of women," she told conference attendees.

She thinks the synod will bring a "fundamental transformation of the Church."

Including women as synod voting members is a significant shift, she noted. It is bringing new means of discernment and decision-making.

"After such changes, there's no turning back," she said.

Women of the Church at the conference

On the last day of the conference, participants met in small groups for synodal listening sessions. In these, they reflected on the conference topics and on the Holy Spirit in their own lives.

One attendee said the event was an opportunity to discern where God is leading her.

"It fills my cup to be connected with women who are active in the Church and who are struggling like I am.

"Although we have far to go for greater equality and female leadership in the Church, there are visible signs of fruits from what's been done and seeds for the future that are being sown — all indicate we are indeed moving," she wrote.

"There is a transformation happening from within."

Source

• NCR

Although they never fail to take us aback, French riots have followed the same distinct pattern ever since protests broke out in the eastern suburbs of Lyon in 1981, an episode known as the "summer of Minguettes": a young person is killed or seriously injured by the police, triggering an outpouring of violence in the affected neighbourhood and nearby.

Sometimes, as in the case of the 2005 riots and of this past week's, it is every rough neighbourhood that flares up.

Throughout the past 40 years in France, urban revolts have been dominated by the rage of young people who attack the symbols of order and the state: town halls, social centres, schools, and shops.

An institutional and political vacuum

That rage is the kind that leads one to destroy one's own neighbourhood, for all to see.

Residents condemn these acts, but can also understand the motivation. Elected representatives, associations, churches and mosques, social workers and teachers admit their powerlessness, revealing an institutional and political vacuum.

Of all the revolts, the summer of the Minguettes was the only one to pave the way to a social movement: the March for Equality and Against Racism in December 1983.

Numbering more than 100,000 people and prominently covered by the media, it was France's first demonstration of its kind. Left-leaning newspaper Libération nicknamed it "La Marche des Beurs", a colloquial term that refers to Europeans whose parents or grandparents are from the Maghreb.

In the demonstrations that followed, no similar movement appears to have emerged from the ashes.

At each riot, politicians are quick to play well-worn roles: the right denounces the violence and goes on to stigmatise neighbourhoods and police victims; the left denounces injustice and promises social policies in the neighbourhoods.

In 2005, then Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy sided with the police. France's current President, Emmanuel Macron, has expressed compassion for the teenager killed by the police in Nanterre, but politicians and presidents are hardly heard in the neighbourhoods concerned.

We then wait for silence to set in until the next time the problems of the banlieues (French suburbs) and its police are rediscovered by society at large.

Lessons to be learned

The recurrence of urban riots in France and their scenarios yield some relatively simple lessons.

First, the country's urban policies miss their targets. Over the last 40 years, considerable efforts have been made to improve housing and facilities. Apartments are of better quality, there are social centres, schools, colleges and public transportation.

It would be wrong to say that these neighbourhoods have been abandoned.

On the other hand, the social and cultural diversity of disadvantaged suburbs has deteriorated. More often than not, the residents are poor or financially insecure, and are either descendants of immigrants or immigrants themselves.

Above all, when given the opportunity and the resources, those who can leave the banlieues soon do, only to be replaced by even poorer residents from further afield. Thus while the built environment is improving, the social environment is unravelling.

However reluctant people may be to talk about France's disadvantaged neighbourhoods, the social process at work here is indeed one of ghettoisation - i.e., a growing divide between neighbourhoods and their environment, a self-containment reinforced from within. You go to the same school, the same social centre, you socialise with the same individuals, and you participate in the same more or less legal economy.

In spite of the cash and local representatives' goodwill, people still feel excluded from society because of their origins, culture or religion. In spite of social policies and councillors' work, the neighbourhoods have no institutional or political resources of their own.

Whereas the often communist-led "banlieues rouges" ("red suburbs") benefited from the strong support of left-leaning political parties, trade unions and popular education movements, today's banlieues hardly have any spokespeople. Social workers and teachers are full of goodwill, but many don't live in the neighbourhoods where they work.

This disconnect works both ways, and the past days' riots revealed that elected representatives and associations don't have any hold on neighbourhoods where residents feel ignored and abandoned. Appeals for calm are going unheeded. The rift is not just social, it's also political.

• Dr François Dubet is a an Emeritus Professor at the University of Bordeaux.
• This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

Amid a long-term push away from ability grouping, both the Ministry of Education and the Government support think tank Tokona Te Raki - Maori Futures Collective aim to stop this.

In a bid for more equity, the Christchurch organisation launched a new action plan on Monday to remove streaming from Aotearoa's schools by 2030.

Called Kokirihia, the Collective's report has the Matauranga Iwi Leaders Group's endorsement. The Ministry of Education supported its release.

Researchers and report authors Eruera Tarena and Hana O'Regan (pictured) say the practice must be scrapped to make schools fairer for all students.

Tarena, who is Tokona te Raki's executive director, says while streaming has had a place throughout the history of teaching, it's time to re-evaluate it.

"The roots of streaming has been something that is deeply embedded in our history and education system," he says.

"It's the fact it's so deeply rooted in our history that we actually have gone beyond the point where we question it and we see it as normal."

New Zealand continues to have one of the highest rates of ability grouping in the developed world. It comes second in that equation - pipped to the post by Ireland.

The Ministry of Education discourages streaming. Regardless of this, decisions are left to individual school boards as to whether to use ability grouping systems on students.

Ditching streaming is part of an effort to find new ways to shift teaching to become more inclusive than it had been in the past, Tarena says.

"You can't just stop streaming and teach in the same way," he explains.

CORE Education chief executive Hana O'Regan isn't a fan of streaming either.

She argues the practice creates racial inequity for Maori and Pacific students.

"It has hugely damaging impacts on a lot of Maori and Pasifika, But also, what we know is that it's a behaviour which is changeable. What's fantastic is that we know the solution.

"There's a whole bunch of courageous teachers who have transitioned away from streaming and most often they use mixed-ability teaching" she says.

"What we know from the evidence is that when you have these mixed abilities, everyone benefits, but in particular, Maori and Pasifika students' achievement rates go through the roof."

O'Regan says the evidence shows all students benefit from the removal of streaming.

It is important not to be "fearful" of making changes to the education system.

"When we think about our younger and faster growing Maori and Pasifika populations, who are going to be a much larger proportion of our population and workforce in the future — we can't afford to continue a practice we know creates racial inequity.

"Which, to be blunt, means it is a racist practice."

Source

• 1News

The paper, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal on Friday, finds groups most likely to experience anti-Asian hate were temporary migrants, students, and those living in rural communities.

Author Dr Lynne Soon-Chean Park says experiencing racism can lead to depression, anxiety and low life satisfaction.

"In Aotearoa and globally, the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted racism in our society, including targeted anti-Asian hatred," she said. Read more

On the latest episode of Jordan Simi's Grouse & A Few Reds podcast, released on May 20, the topic of "New Zealand girls" came up.

Simi, a Sydney social media influencer and former rugby league player, described New Zealand women as "not looking nice" compared to UK women, who he described as the "cream of the crop".

Simi, who is Samoan and originally from South Auckland, went on to say: "shout out to South Auckland, where there was an all-girls school there and you would look at them and think, is that a girl?"

His two male co-hosts roared with laughter.

South Aucklander Mariner Fagaiava-Muller posted the audio clip on TikTok, commenting that hearing it made his blood boil.

Fagaiava-Muller's video has been viewed over 47,000 times and counting. Simi later replied to Fagaiava-Muller's video, saying his comments were "just a joke".

There's only one all-girls school in South Auckland and it's McAuley High School.

I went to McAuley High School.

The "joke" that was directed at McAuley students is nothing new.

If you attended McAuley, you were labelled a bulldog.

You were barked at if you were spotted in your school uniform out in public.

Students from other schools mocked us saying we looked manly or for having legs with big taro calves.

I lost count of how many times my school bus had its window smashed by a rock from another school student. Someone even wasted a mince and cheese pie-throwing it at the bus window.

McAuley students, like many South Auckland students at decile one schools, experience marginalisation on a daily basis.

We experience the kind of adversity where a joke about our appearance is just another stress we have to deal with.

McAuley is a school with limited resources and limited subject options, where the majority of families come from low-income households. They don't have the privilege of choosing whatever they want for lunch, having the top stationery brands, or being able to afford a blazer as part of the complete school uniform.

When you are a Pasifika girl from a household juggling study, errands and cultural responsibilities; when self-confidence is already a rarity; and you hear someone from your own community, on a platform with a large following, insult young girls for not looking a certain way - that their dark-coloured eyes, brown skin and black thick hair aren't seen as beautiful - it destroys what little self-belief you had left.

This is why the "joke" is not funny.

Because of those comments made throughout my years in high school, I, like many McAuley students, used it as unspoken motivation to do better, be better.

Since the early 2000s, McAuley has worked extra hard to prove its worth, to prove people wrong about the stereotypes placed on us by others. McAuley was featured in Metro a few times for their high academic rates for a decile one school.

In 2016, the school was awarded both Excellence in Engaging and Education Supreme Awards by the prime minister.

• Elisapeta Toeava of the Northern Mystics;
• Annetta Nu'uausala from the women's Newcastle Knights NRL team;
• Niu FM afternoon radio presenter Sia Petelo;
• prominent New Zealand multi-disciplinary artist Salome Tanuvasa;
• senior urban planner Eseta Maka-Fonokalafi;
• Bernadette Robertson, a member of the South Pacific Professional Engineering Excellence group; and myself,
• Pacific communities editor at The Spinoff.

All schooled at McAuley. All the while maintaining our reputation as "one of the schools to beat" at the largest Polynesian dance competition in the world, ASB Polyfest.

Of course, every high school has students who have gone off to do incredible, headlining, awe-inspiring things. So why do I bring up McAuley alumni's achievements?

It's because a lot of these women have had to face huge obstacles to get where they're at now, have had to work three times harder than students from wealthier schools.

They've had to face the culture shock of leaving their family, their community and a predominantly Pasifika high school to attend a university where being Pacific is a minority, where being humble - a virtue ingrained in Pasifika people - isn't going to cut it if you want to stand out in a class of over 600.

Casually making a "joke" about the appearance of young girls won't affect Simi and his podcast co-hosts, but it will surely hurt the confidence of many of those McAuley students targeted.

I worry they'll lose pride in a school uniform now associated with the "manly" insult lobbed at them by those deemed more powerful because they have a following larger than their ego.

To all past, present and future McAuley students, Domine In Te Speravi - Lord in you I hoped.

It's a motto that lives on for us, alongside our memories of beating the odds in Tamaki Makaurau.

• Sela Jane Hopgood is the Pacific communities editor of Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air. New Zealand born Tongan, she writes stories about issues affecting the Pacific communities across Aotearoa.
• First published in The Spinoff, republished with permission.

The survey cast over one thousand people over the age of 18 in 2022, found a lower tolerance among New Zealand audiences towards racial and cultural insults compared to a survey in 2018.

31 words and phrases that could offend some audiences were put to the respondents. They included swear words, racial and gender-based terms and blasphemy.

The survey found the N-word is the least acceptable. Read more

Read by some as a surrender to the "woke brigade" and by others as a reasonable response to the accusation the lyrics glorify "slavery, rape, torture and paedophilia", the decision highlights the changing ethical considerations musicians must navigate in order to maintain a social license.

Brown Sugar was recorded in Alabama in late 1969 and released on the Rolling Stones' 1971 album Sticky Fingers.

The song is emblematic of the Stones' energetic rhythm and blues sound and has been a mainstay of their set list for decades.

The lyrics explore the sexual exploitation of a black woman by slave traders and slave owners in America's south, presenting a sexualised view of a marginalised group.

Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good?
Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should.

Contemporary and informed audiences would also recognise "brown sugar" as a reference to heroin.

Through the course of the song, the singer moves from observer to an agent of this sexualisation.

And all her boyfriends were sweet 16
I'm no school boy but I know what I like
You should have heard them just around midnight.

While some interpretations of the song would like to see it primarily as a celebration of a drug counterculture, any pretence the phrase "Brown Sugar" is other than a reference to a black woman falls away in the final lyric of the studio album.

Just like a black girl should.

This combination of sexual imagery and illicit drug references in the song's lyrics contributes to the culturally transgressive place the Rolling Stones occupy in popular music history.

A question of race

Some have little to say about matters of race in the Stone's music.

A recent essay in the Cambridge Companion to the Rolling Stones examines the contribution of non-band members to Brown Sugar, notably pianist Ian Stewart and saxophonist Bobby Keys, and interprets the lyrics as nothing more than "famously bawdy".

But for many race is central to any consideration of the Stones' output from this period.

Patrick Burke, in Rock, Race and Radicalism in the 1960s sees the Stones as wallowing in racist stereotypes.

He asserts Brown Sugar is a "lascivious celebration of sexual clichés associated with slavery."

The song undeniably deals in confronting subject matter.

Its removal from the set list causes us to question whether the song is racist and speaks to the changing parameters of ethical practice for musicians.

Keith Richards highlights this ambiguity in his comments on the removal of the song.

"I don't know. I'm trying to figure out with the sisters quite where the beef is. Didn't they understand this was a song about the horrors of slavery?"

Richards' mildly defensive tone fuels broadcaster Piers Morgan bellicose defence of Brown Sugar as a "song aimed at defending and supporting black women".

Morgan also draws attention to what he sees as a "double standard" for rap music where racist and misogynist tropes abound.

Pulling the song from the set list seems to Morgan an unacceptable confession of guilt.

Ethics in music

I would argue that whether Mick Jagger, in writing Brown Sugar, intended it to be racist misses the point.

My research examines how non-Aboriginal Australian composers have interacted with Australian Indigenous music.

The use of Indigenous music, instruments and language by Australian composers was once commonplace - and even viewed as a form of advocacy. More recently, Australian composers have come to realise the damage cultural appropriate can cause.

As we learn more about other cultures - including greater knowledge of what causes offence and what is painful - our behaviour needs to change.

Even if the style of Brown Sugar was once heard as an innocent rendering of an upbeat rhythm and blues sound (and as far back as the mid-1960s there have been critiques of the Rolling Stones co-option of Black culture), the ecstatic guitar riff, energetic piano and vigorous saxophone create an unacceptable dissonance in the ears of contemporary listeners.

To use such joyful music to accompany lyrics exploring the sexual exploitation which accompanied slavery clearly causes hurt to marginalised people. As music producer and author Ian Brennan notes, were someone in customer service was to utter the line "Brown Sugar how come you taste so good?", they would be immediately fired.

The freedom to not play Brown Sugar

So does the Stones decision to pull the song damage their reputation? Is this an act of censorship, injuring artistic freedom?

I would argue the ethical musician should defer to the sensibilities of the marginalised group.

The cost here is the Rolling Stones won't play Brown Sugar live.

This isn't censorship; the song is readily available. It isn't even iconoclasm - music history is not damaged and no idols have been smashed.

The Stones' decision to pull the song isn't a confession of racism. It is an ethical act and, in itself, an act of artistic freedom that preserves their social license and affirms their ongoing cultural significance.

• Timothy McKenry is Professor of Music, Australian Catholic University.
• First published in The Conversation; republished with permission.

But instead, it clearly appears that more often than not, Catholics - much like the general public - make important decisions on who to vote for, and where to come down on crucial issues, based primarily on the political party they affiliate with and from their cultural, economic and political leanings as being either conservative or liberal.

Putting faith on the back burner is not Christocentric, and is not Catholic.

And so when it comes to the life and death issues facing billions of suffering brothers and sisters - born and unborn, in one's nation, as well as in all other countries - Catholics for the most part, don't look, sound or act much different than the larger secular population. And that's not good.

But in the Gospel, Jesus puts forth to his followers this challenging directive: "You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house."

In a world that is so often darkened by what Pope Francis calls the "culture of indifference," we, the modern-day followers of Jesus, like his ancient followers, are called to radiate the Master's light of love upon the various sufferings of countless brothers and sisters.

But we are taking this mandate too lightly - in a fractured and partial way.

In general, I have long found that very often Catholics with conservative leanings, more or less oppose abortion, infanticide, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, promiscuous public school sex education and government attacks on religious liberty and traditional marriage.

And in general, I have long found that very often Catholics with liberal leanings, more or less support nonviolent peace initiatives, demilitarization, drastically cutting military budgets and redirecting those funds to end global hunger and poverty, protecting the environment while working to end human-induced climate change, abolishing capital punishment, welcoming migrants and refugees, opposing racism, and fighting to stop human trafficking.

Each of these efforts is morally commendable - to a point.

But the problem is that when it comes to conservative Catholic social action initiatives and liberal Catholic social action initiatives, it most often boils down to "never the twain shall meet."

And this is disastrous - disastrous for our Catholic faith and for all who will continue to suffer because we prefer biased, ideological, narrow-minded tunnel vision to open-minded, heartfelt Catholic dialogue that places the Gospel and Catholic social teaching as our foundation.

Catholic conservatives and Catholic liberals desperately need to pray and take concrete steps in forging a unity designed to work together to develop holistic nonviolent strategies aimed at protecting the life and dignity of every single human being from conception to natural death - with a preferential option for the poorest and most vulnerable, including our common earth-home.

Instead of ranking the life issues, we need to link them, always bearing in mind that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Thus, all the life-links need to be strong!

Imagine what a moral, political, economic, cultural and religious beacon of light the Catholic Church would be if conservative Catholics and liberal Catholics would come together, in a determined way to learn from each other, to pray together and to work together with Christocentric passion building Pope Francis' "culture of encounter" where all life is respected, protected and nurtured!

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag6@comcast.net.

The Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal has instead issued Simon Humphrey a stern warning about his "ill-considered and unacceptable" racist posts saying any repeat behaviour would almost certainly find him in breach and put his teaching registration at grave risk. Read more

The current Delta variant outbreak has disproportionately affected the Samoan community, including people exposed at a major church assembly in Mangere in Auckland.

"These people were involved in legal activity and were operating within Level 1 Covid guidelines," said an Auckland minister who preferred not to be named.

"The church is lively and two-thirds of cases are under 30.

"These people were ineligible to get the vaccine," he said.

The Ministry of Health also joined the conversation, with Dr Ashley Bloomfield saying "The virus is the problem, not people. People are the solution, be part of the solution."

"Bloomfield says authorities are doing "a tremendous amount of work" with the Pacific communities affected by the latest Delta outbreak and the community was "incredibly responsive" to this and previous outbreaks.

The church leader, who did not wish to be named, said members were disappointed by the attack but felt no need to retaliate, adding "they can say whatever, it changes nothing".

"Our service happened before the lockdown so it's not like we knew this was going to happen.

"We just had an unwanted visitor," he said.

"We're just getting on with it".

Manukau Ward councillor Alf Filipaina says he is disappointed in role the media has played.

Filipaina says there are five other church-related locations of interest that were not in South Auckland and their congregations' ethnicities have not been highlighted in the news.

Another Manukau Ward councillor, Fa'anana Efeso Collins pointed out that a lot of Pacifica people keep the economy ticking over.

"Many Pacific people work in essential services as well customer-facing roles like bus driving and hospitality, it's not a surprise they also make up so many of the positive cases," Collins told RNZ.

Vaccination coverage rates

Auckland University associate professor of public health Dr Colin Tukuitonga said church services are the perfect setting for transmission, given the prevalence of singing and close proximity of attendees.

"The appalling vaccination coverage rates that we have is one reason why we are seeing many, many more cases," he said.

"They did a big song and dance about that mass vaccination event a few weeks back, but I've always said that wasn't going to work.

"Yes there were large numbers, but they were vaccinating low priority groups and we had barely 1300 Pacific vaccinated out of 15,000."

"We've always asked for more targeted vaccination options for Maori and Pacific communities.

"There's some dedicated options for Maori and Pacific communities but nowhere [near] enough."

Dr Dianne Sika-Paotonu from the University of Otago says the Delta variant presented a more dangerous version of Covid-19 within the community setting.

"Vaccination rates for Pacific peoples collectively across Aotearoa New Zealand, remain of significant concern," said Sika-Paotonu, a pathology and molecular medicine expert.

She says more work and support is needed to ensure Pacific and Maori communities were prioritised.

Sika-Paotonu says it was devastating to hear more than half the reported Covid-19 cases were affecting Pacific peoples, with numbers projected to rise.

Source

• Otago Daily Times
• TVNZ
• RNZ
• Image: Stuff

Commissioner of Equal Employment Opportunities Saunoamaali'i Dr Karanina Sumeo​ has launched an inquiry into Pacific people, New Zealand's lowest paid workers. The scope of the inquiry has been decided, and she will release her report in April or May next year.

Pacific workers were not put forward for training and promotions, and did not report workplace discrimination because of fears of reprisal, Sumeo said. Read more

MSP is Wellington's Catholic rugby club.

Speaking with RNZ's Lisa Owen, MSP Chairman Rob Evans reluctantly confirmed the 'n.....' word had been used

He told Owen that after OBU scored the final try of the game, some spectators who were drinking alcohol on the sideline, rushed onto the field before the full-time whistle and yelled "vile racial slurs".

Evans told Owen there is no room for racism in sport nor in society, and the same goes for violence.

He said he was surprised about the drinking at the game, and more so because it was a school ground.

RNZ reports the father of an OBU rugby player was attacked by MSP players in response to "repeated vile racial slurs".

"It is clear some of our players became upset following repeated, vile racial slurs and the attack on the father of one of our players by an intoxicated group of OBU supporters.

"Just as violence cannot be tolerated, the kind of racial abuse witnessed on Saturday has no place in our game or society," Rob Evans said.

MSP did not condone violence of any kind and the club met players on Monday to "get to the bottom of the facts", he said.

OBU chairman Pete McFarlane would not be interviewed by RNZ over the matter but said in a statement that his club was investigating an incident.

"It is important to note that there are no allegations against any OBU players, management or coaches from the match and from what I have seen they conducted themselves admirably given the circumstances," McFarlane said in the statement.

Wellington Rugby is investigating the incident.

Its chief executive Matt Evans​​ says staff were rewatching video footage of the game to work out exactly what had happened.

Parts of the altercation were caught on match video, but apparently, the racial abuse was not available.

However, Rob Evans confirmed to RNZ's Lisa Owen that he had a number of witness statements.

Wellington Rugby says the union will discipline those involved as soon as possible.

Chief Executive Matt Evans sees the incident as "a cloud hanging over rugby."

In 2017 Rugby NZ released the results of a "culture review" acknowledging that entitlement and alcohol were a part of rugby's culture.

Source

• Stuff
• RNZ
• RNZ
• Scoop
• Image: RNZ

Earlier today she said a Year 10 Aotea College class were instructed to do the activity, which involved selling slaves, land and commoners - for "10 pearls".

Documents show the groups were also asked to attack aliens and rival countries, as well as inviting missionaries to talk to invaders and buy zap guns.

In a statement, acting principal Kathleen Kaveney said the Alien Invasion game was played in the context of a Treaty of Waitangi unit. Continue reading