Sandra Coney and the protest gang on the steps of the Hamilton Court House in 1982.
Opinion
Facebook has the knack of popping up with pictures that bring back memories and reflections.
Sometimes photos bubble up out of the piles of paper and remind you what you were doing 20 or 30 years ago.
This one (above) is of Ripeka Evans outside the court in Hamilton where she faced being bound over to keep the peace, after being part of the group that stormed the Hamilton Rugby ground during the 1981 Springbok Tour.
It was 1981, so 42 years ago. (A year after the tour that divided Aotearoa).
That’s me on the left, and the folk on the steps are a bit of a roll call of anti-racist luminaries from that time.
The man back right is Rhys Harrison - later judge - who was defending Ripeka. Donna Awatere (later Awatere-Huata) is standing to the left of Ripeka and Sharon Hawke to her right.
Also present were a number of Harawira’s. Sue Fitchett is behind me. Ripeka, Donna and Hone were the leaders of Patu. (Merata Mita’s Patu! is a startling record of the mass civil disobedience that took place throughout New Zealand during the winter of 1981, in protest against the South African rugby tour).
Coney’s father, Tom Pearce, was manager of the final all-white All Black rugby tour of South Africa in 1960.
Ripeka remembers that Eva Rickard was in court and Father Terry Dibble and Ranginui Walker gave evidence in support of her.
“I snapped the tendons in my arms with the plastic handcuffs when I was arrested. Music to our ears to find that Winnie Mandela had seen the game closed on TV in South Africa only because she was under house arrest at the time.”
Do you have a photo of the tour you would like to share? Email: joseph.lose@nzme.co.nz
Sandra Coney is a longtime local-body politician, writer, feminist, historian, and women’s health campaigner who stood shoulder to shoulder to protest the 1981 South African rugby tour of New Zealand.
The Rotorua law student who authored it says the support was 'overwhelming but inspiring'.