COVID spending that promotes gender equity
The Government is spending to prevent a severe recession. This spending should promte gender equity as well as prevent hardship and stimulate the economy. Read the article here.
Kōrero with Laura O’Connell Rapira
Laura O’Connell Rapira: Our work must be values-based A long-term vision for our earth mother Papatūānuku will help create the best future for wāhine Māori and for all of us, said Action Station director Laura O’Connell-Rapira at Auckland Women’s Centre’s latest community forum. Laura delivered her inspirational kōrero to nearly 100 participants in the first-ever ...
Dr Hinemoa Elder: Science alone won’t save us
A kōrero with Dr Hinemoa Elder was an evening of sharing stories, Indigenous wisdom, and the joy of being together as women. “Incredible women celebrate incredible women!” as chair Stacey Morrison (Ngāi Tahu, Te Arawa) put it. Hinemoa invited us on a voyage of discovery to Antarctica, a voyage she actually took three months ago with 99 ...
What kind of future do we want after COVID-19?
Women – particularly low-income women and women in marginalised communities – are bearing the brunt of the immediate COVID-response burden. Post-pandemic, will this inequity be entrenched, or can we catapult society’s priorities in this time of upheaval towards caring, human rights and real gender equality? At a macro level, the rāhui is arguably a feminist ...
Keeping summer festivals safe
Our youth coordinator Gabriella Brayne reports on her Consent Club leadership work. The Consent Club is a restorative-oriented, peer support system that works at festivals to promote a culture of consent. Our mahi has three focuses: education through kōrero and wānanga for festival goers; training volunteers to practice survivor-focussed, non-confrontational bystander intervention; and dealing with ...
Taking misogyny out of mainstream porn
A difficult but not impossible task. At AWC’s “The Problem with Porn” Forum in early October, the four panellists were uncompromising when they explained why they agreed with the forum kaupapa. “Our ‘enemy’ is not pornography per se, but the sexism, racism and misogyny that saturates most of the most easily accessible porn,” said ...
Kōrero with Tracey McIntosh
Radical honesty and joyous activism Her remedies for our unequal society Matching hope and humour with clear-eyed analysis of New Zealand society, Tracey McIntosh (Tūhoe) was a warm inspiration at AWC’s last event for 2019. In front of a sold-out crowd at the light and airy West End tennis club, the Professor of Indigenous ...
The equal pay amendment needs amending!
The current Equal Pay Bill creates more problems than it solves The most recent statistics show a small improvement in the gender pay equity gap. However, if the current Equal Pay Amendment Bill becomes law without amendment, the Auckland Women’s Centre believes it will do little to facilitate narrowing the gap. In August, Statistics ...
Wāhine Māori used as economic ‘shock absorbers’ for too long
Authors say New Zealand needs to stop rewarding the rich and punishing the poor “Miriama” grew up poor. She got a job early – the work was casual and insecure, and it prevented her getting qualifications for more secure and higher-paid employment. Now a sole parent, she is one of the poorest “precariat”, living ...
Muslim women speak out about feminism, racism and spirituality
AWC forum hears that refugees feared to leave their homes after the Christchurch attacks. A Muslim woman – Fatima al-Fihri – founded the world’s oldest university, in Morocco in 859CE. Two centuries earlier, the first-ever Muslim woman Khadijah bint Khuwaylid was a merchant 15 years older than the prophet Muhammed: she was his employer ...