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“This is not us”: But actually, it is. Talking about when to raise the issue of colonisation.

Abstract
This paper is a commentary on some of the responses to the public narrative of the events after the March 15th Christchurch attack. Several colleagues had publicly and privately, offered their views on the Government’s and media outlets use of terms such as ‘unprecedented’, ‘our loss of innocence’ and ‘our darkest day’. A fiery and empassioned exchange of words emerged on social media about the statement: ‘This is not us’. By exposing the counternarrative to these emotion laden terms, a shady past, and invisible present was revealed. However, the timing of the talk about colonisation also seemed out of step with the need for sensitivity. This paper also explores the role of White supremacy and causal racism in New Zealand. A personal I/we/us narrative style is used throughout the paper to describe how Muslim and Maori lives intersected prior to, and after the attack. The timeline of events is primarily 1 week, and up to 6 weeks post the attack.
Type
Journal Article
Type of thesis
Series
Citation
Waitoki, W. (2019). ‘This is not us’: But actually, it is. Talking about when to raise the issue of colonisation. New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 48(1), 140–145.
Date
2019
Publisher
New Zealand Psychological Society
Degree
Supervisors
Rights
This is an author’s accepted version of an article published in the journal: New Zealand Journal of Psychology. Used with permission.