The Strength of the Ttara Tree

Lois Carter

Description

He considered himself an ordinary, uneducated Mori man but Joseph Harawira, QSM, was a tireless worker who became spokesperson for an organisation called SWAP (Sawmill Workers Against Poisons). SWAP relentlessly presented their evidence to authorities, for work place poisoning causing ill health, for thirty years until those authorities finally listened. Post-colonial New Zealand had seen huge developments in industry and farming alongside extensive use of toxic chemicals in forestry, polluting the land, waterways and poisoning people. Joe mainly worked at the Whakatne sawmill between 1963 and 1992. The two main chemicals of concern were PCP (pentachlorophenol) and dioxin. Still working and in declining health, Joe had been looking for the 'right' person to record his journey. A series of unexpected events led to his choice of author, a retired Pkeh woman, a stranger with a Master’s degree, with whose partner he had recently reconnected through work. Joe grieved the loss of mentorship by Mori elders which left some Mori men feeling disconnected, sometimes resulting in violence, suicide or gang affiliation. He blamed some of this on poisons and understood there were also other factors. He wanted today’s young men to see that they too could believe in something, educate themselves and gain respect through their efforts. Joe felt keenly that even though there was some recognition of chemical poisoning in male sawmill workers, women cleaners and wives who dealt with contaminated clothing and gardens were, and still are, ignored by authorities. Ironically, sawmill work was not his first choice but events conspired to place him in a position where he could be spokesperson for the important issue: chemical poisoning of the land and of the people.

Sujets

• Personal Memoirs
• Maorí
• M?ori
• Biography
• Autobiography
• Maori

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris AU
• Date de parution: 23 septembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781984506573
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE STRENGTH OF THE TŌTARA TREE

Inspired by the life and work of Joseph Harawira and others in their crusade to gain recognition that poisons used in sawmills caused their many illnesses.
© 2019 Lois Carter

New Zealand/ Aotearoa where the story is based.

THE STRENGTH OF THE TŌTARA TREE

Joseph Harawira (QSM)
13 March 1946 - 9 January 2017

LOIS CARTER

Copyright © 2020 by Lois Carter.
ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-9845-0656-6

eBook
978-1-9845-0657-3
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 10/26/2020
 
 
 
Xlibris
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CONTENTS
Preface
Part One: Joe’s Journey
1Shared Histories
2Brought up with Kaitiakitanga
3Telegraph Office to Sawmill
4Whakatāne Sawmill Processes
5The Green Chain Effect
6Hospital and New Hips
7No Safe Level
8Lost Records
Part Two: Spirit World Intervention
9The Gift of Healing
10Queen’s Service Medal
11Whakapapa, Rainbows and Hawks
Part Three: The Chemical Paper Trail
12Plantations and Forestry Poisons
13Pentachlorophenol (PCP)
14Other Sawmill Chemicals
15Soda Ash, Bleach, Mercury and PCBs
16Deadly Dumping
17POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants) and 80,000 Chemicals
18Could You have been Poisoned?
19You and Chronic Chemical Poisoning
Part Four: Who is Responsible?
20What is Government’s Responsibility?
21Honesty is the only Policy
Part Five: Bioremediation for Sawmill Poisons
22The Kopeopeo Canal
Part Six: Poisons on Land and Sea
23Agent Orange
24Chemical Factory at Paritutu
25The M V Rena Shipwreck and Corexit
26Too Much Poison Everywhere
27A Few Last Words
28Memories of Joe
29The Tōtara Tree
Acknowledgements
Glossary: Māori and other terms
Bibliography

Disclaimer
I am not a scientist, although I would have loved to be one. Girls weren’t allowed to study specialised Science subjects at my high school in the 1960s unless they were good at Maths and I wasn’t. My Master’s degree, gained in later life as a single parent, is in Anthropology with Archaeology and other papers.
First and foremost, the purpose was to tell Joe’s story about sawmill poisons in a context and as things progressed, it seemed necessary to try to explain why he chose me to do this.
A lot of information is from recorded interviews and notes from discussions with Joe. I have used many secondary sources and have accepted information from these as also being correct, without always tracking down the original source. If I have not referenced an original source, this is not intentional. It is because someone else has failed to do so and this has not been obvious to me.
Where there is more than one source having similar information, I have referenced the one I actually read. Direct quotes have been used where necessary and in other places, because of the huge complexity of information, I have taken a ‘big picture’ approach, based on Joe’s or my own opinion.
Nearly everyone seems to have something to say about things that interest them and it is so easy to do so, in this age of communication.
Where I feel the evidence against a chemical product is overwhelming, such as it being banned by countries, then I have come out negatively against this product. Sometimes I have mentioned the ‘other side’ of the argument, as in the toxic boron, where I feel that the use of this has been well-explained and opposition to it has been treated seriously.
My stance is that every chemical is toxic, as are some substances in nature. Some would argue that it’s all about how you use these safely. That’s better than denial or claiming to have ‘proved’ non-toxicity in the face of existing evidence against a chemical. Just don’t insult the intelligence by claiming how ‘safe’ everything is; it’s not.
I have tried to present and link this fascinating information in a way that can be easily understood.
I want this book to challenge the ordinary person to think about the life they live and how this impacts the Earth, directly or indirectly. That’s what Joe wanted, too.
Please use the Bibliography at the end of the book to look up information for yourself.
© 2019 Lois Carter

Although this book is about suffering due to sawmill poisons, Joe hoped this would make people pay more attention to our poisoning of the land, so he gave me this poem to include in the book.
LISTEN TO THE LAND
KA RONGO AU I TE RĀKAU, KA RONGO AU I TAKU TUAKANA
KA RONGO AU I TE HAU, KA RONGO AU I TE HAUORA
KA RONGO AU I TE WAI, KA RONGO AU I TE WAIORA
KO AU TONU RĀ TE URI A RANGINUI, RĀUA KO PAPATŪĀNUKU
KOIA TAKU AU WHAKAHIRAHIRA, MAI I TE WHENUA KI TE RANGI
HE TANGATA AHAU, NŌ TE KĀKANO I RUIA I RANGIĀTEA!
TIHEI MAURI ORA!
When I stand in the presence of a tree, I stand in the presence of my elder brother
When I feel the wind upon my face, do I know that he gives me breath
When I gaze upon the glistening waters, do I know that I am the water
I am the vision of the Gods, born in the womb of the land
Between the land and the sky do I exist
People….. from the seed sown
In Rangiātea! Tihei mauri ora!
I sneeze and breathe life
(Author unknown)
PREFACE
Joseph (Hohepa) Harawira was born in Whakatāne, New Zealand, on 13 March, 1946. As a child, he lived at a time where Māori traditions and post-colonial needs were combining to change the fabric of Māori society. He was part of a big family and tried to meet his traditional obligations to them, tempered by living in and adjusting to, a new world.
Joe wanted us to understand why, in post-colonial New Zealand, the imposition of poisons used in sawmills produced almost irrecoverable long-term effects on Māori society, due to the kinds of work available to Māori men at that time. He wanted to increase awareness through sharing his own experiences.
My dad was called Fred Turumakina Harawira, son to Hohepa Hawawira of Ngāi Te Rangi iwi from Tauranga. He married a Whakatāne girl, my mum Koau Susie Hona who was from the Ngāti Awa hapū Te Patuwai, daughter of Wiremu Hona and Te Ara-Paparahi Kerara Rewiri from Ngāi Te Rangihouhiri.
The Whakatāne sawmill was opened in 1939. Early owners were Robert Holt & Sons, Carter Consolidated, Alex Harvey & Sons and L.J. Fisher & Co Ltd. It was bought by New Zealand Forest Products in 1981.
Joe first worked at the Whakatāne Sawmill in 1963. SWAP (Sawmill Workers Against Poisons) was formed in 1988. Before they could convince anybody to take action, Joe and SWAP first had to prove to authorities that sawmill workers were sick because of their exposure to chemicals on the job. It was an uphill battle that should not have been this way.
In the early days, Nikora Curtis, Matiaha Kohe, Robert Gillies and the late Tai Moeke were some of the founding members of SWAP and its spokespersons. When Joe became involved with SWAP in the early1990s, he often got upset and angry, when told by authority figures ‘we’re sick and tired of you fullas’ when they tried to present evidence that the men had been poisoned. Matt’s and Tai’s steadying influence in those early days, helped Joe develop some resilience to the racism and classism he endured that still shocked him, thirty years later.
It became real for Joe, that he may not live to finish his part of the SWAP story because he had seen so many people who were significant to SWAP, pass on before their time. He felt he had to keep going, even though he no longer had the two staff members previously allocated.
Tired and very ill, Joe took redundancy in 1992 after almost 30 years’ exposure to the poisonous cocktail of chemicals used at that time in sawmills around New Zealand.
Joe worked for SWAP, three days a week until the end of 2016, in terrible pain. He was fond of saying ‘if I hadn’t had this (cause), I’d have ‘snuffed it’ long ago.’
When I first met him at the start of 2016, Joe was Coordinator of SWAP, working out of the Whakatāne office of Te Tohu o Te Ora o Ngāti Awa, a Non-Government organisation (NGO) commonly known as NASH.
He worked with Kereama Akuhata who was also affected by sawmill poisons. Kere became responsible for managing the day-to-day wellbeing of the sawmill men, coordinating things after Joe’s passing.
Joe wished he’d had the experience and benefits of a university education. He seemed impressed that I had these qualifications. He also wanted a writer previously unknown to him. Joe was driven to record his experiences with SWAP and less about himself as a person but of course, the two intertwined. I found him to be a modest man who downplayed his leadership.
In December 2016, I still had lots of questions that it seemed only Joe could answer and suddenly, he was gone. It took all of my inner resources to keep going. It was not until May 2019 that I felt ready to try and fill in those gaps. Many times, I had thought the book should be ready to publis