Climate Disasters and the Ministry of Green Works

The beginning of 2023 saw Aotearoa hit by a deadly and destructive wave of extreme weather events. As a mokopuna of Kahungunu I want to extend care, love and peace to whānau who lost loved ones in the floodwaters - ka aroha hoki, ka manaaki hoki. The impacts of the flooding are heartbreaking, and continue to hang over affected communities as they try to put their lives back together.

We hold these ongoing struggles close, as well as acknowledging the incredible acts of generosity and solidarity that have been shown. Marae threw their doors open, spare generators were redistributed, and emergency services worked for days to rescue stranded families and restore key services.

In the immediate aftermath, ActionStation helped with sharing information and support with our members in collaboration with the likes of Student Army and NZ Ethnic Women’s Trust.

As communities looked to recover, ActionStation launched a campaign calling for the government to create a Ministry of Green Works. This was in recognition of the multi-faceted nature of the disaster - poor resilience, fragile infrastructure, under-resourcing of mana whenua leadership and fossil fuel emissions baked into our built environment.

The Ministry of Green Works was first outlined in a report published by First Union - you can read the report here. It argues for the creation of a Ministry that restores the capacity of government to deliver large scale, holistic and quality building, while making sure mana whenua are resourced to do the same in alignment with Te Tiriti o Waitangi, while workers are looked after.

The Ministry of Green Works would play a crucial role in meeting the delivery demand of building public housing, climate-resilient infrastructure and public transport. It would also stop private corporations from profiting off disaster recovery, by bringing construction for the public back in-house.

We have been collaborating with 350 Aotearoa and First Union on taking the Ministry of Green Works even further. In the lead up to the election, we hosted a webinar "The market won’t save us: Climate action for public good, not price profit." If you missed the webinar, you can watch it here. 

My family comes from generations of gardeners and hunters. We love to talk about the weather and what we’re seeing in the animals, plants and waterways around us. As we gather for the holiday break this year, we will also continue our discussions and planning for resilience. And, no doubt, we’ll be talking about our future summers and the urgent action needed from our decision-makers to reduce emissions.

I encourage you and yours to do the same. Getting ready and getting active in and with our communities is how we show love and care for each other. Being prepared is being safe. The climate team at ActionStation will keep you updated on and included in opportunities to flex this care as we move forward in our protection of the precious places and communities around us.

India Logan-Riley

Heal our Harbour campaign

Our climate justice campaigner, Pania Rei, kicked off her year with an event for people from her iwi, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, to find a campaign slogan that spoke to the core of the wastewater issue in Porirua. With a flow of thoughts and ideas around the mamae to the harbour and what the moana means to Ngāti Toa, one idea rang above the rest: “Heal our Harbour.” This finally gave a name and a slogan to one of our core climate justice campaigns.

Following through from the end of last year, Pania organised a rangatahi wānanga with her iwi, with multiple aims:

• to build connections between the young people of the A.R.T. confederation (Te Atiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga and Ngāti Toa Rangatira),
• to highlight the way climate change would affect their rohe, and
• to give rangatahi an inside look at all the moving parts of the climate justice movement.

There were guest speakers from Porirua City Council, iwi and activists, through to artists and rongoā practitioners. The rangatahi wānanga was a vibrant space for young people to share stories and dreams on how their rohe would look and function into the future, given the climate crisis on their ancestral borders. This event wasn't just an investment in the future, it was a commitment to nurturing a new generation of leaders who are passionate about climate justice.

As part of the wānanga, Yasmine El Orfi from the League of Live Illustrators created this board as a visual representation of the dreams and aspirations of the rangatahi who attended.

Around this time, Pania also began filming with Māori television for a documentary series on rangatahi Māori and their perspectives and experiences of climate change. In the episode featuring the "Heal Our Harbour" campaign, Pania went into detail about the issues and why she's committed to the mahi she does. The series will be released some time in 2024.

We also launched a petition for the "Heal Our Harbour" campaign, pressuring Porirua City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council and Wellington Water to stop the discharge of untreated wastewater into the Porirua Harbour.

Read more on the petition here: https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/stop-the-disposal-of-untreated-wastewater-into-the-porirua-harbour

To round off the year, the "Heal Our Harbour" campaign has two projects in the works:

1. Pania is currently working on an oral histories project, curating a short documentary with filmmaker Nicole Hunt about rangatahi voice and iwi perspective on climate change and Te Awarua o Porirua. Pania and Nicole interviewed several rangatahi who attend the wānanga and kaumatua on what their dreams and aspirations are for their harbour, and discussed how the continual overflow of wastewater into Te Awarua o Porirua continues to affect them from one generation to the next. The documentary will be released around the end of 2023.
   
2. We are currently in the process of creating some merchandise, including hoodies and stickers! We may be able to release some of these to our membership, so if you want to purchase them, keep your eyes out for further emails from our climate justice campaigners, Pania and India.