1971: Polynesian Panthers
June 16, 2019
By AHNZ
The Black Panthers were in New Zealand too. Their HQ was in Ponsonby, Auckland, near the Three Lamps.
The New Zealand born Polynesians were disaffected youths. Their parents came here on a wave of 1950s immigration but the kids were not alright. Coming of age in the late 1960s they formed gangs and student groups which by 1971 coalesced into The Polynesian Panthers [est 16 June, 1971.]
“Ponsonby was a very different place back then, it was a real cultural melting pot. There was no laws protecting tenants and many of the houses in the area would now be condemned.”- Wayne Taleafoa; Polynesian Panthers commemorate 45 year anniversary; Stuff
Unlike the US Panthers the Kiwi ones were not a militant paramilitary ambitiously plotting the overthrow of one version of The State for a crazier one. The TMC (Theory of Moral Cultures) seems to hold up pretty well and classifies the Polynesian Panthers as Dignity Culture.
In my opinion the community of Islanders had passed through a phase of working class Slave Culture where they kept their heads down. They performed our unskilled labour; Roading, laundries, factories. Their housing was sub-standard but they sucked it up since, after all, the standard of living was a step up from island life. Honour Culture always replaces Slave Culture and as the record shows these youths passed though their spell of gang violence and crime. But after Honour Culture always comes Dignity Culture.
Anarchy in Action
Polynesian Panthers were Dignity as can be. They embraced institutions, lobbied for change, held meetings, employed an administrator, opened an office, printed information books. They improved housing standards and looked out for prisoner’s rights. The Panthers claim responsibility for having a pedestrian crossing installed at the Franklin Road/Ponsonby Road intersection. Rather than complain, they started their own Police Investigation Group (P.I.G.) to provide civilian oversight to the constabulary at no cost to the taxpayer.
A community of people made themselves strong, proud, and organised by themselves. They were not administered by government social workers or given fiscal injections from a state programme. The Panthers raised their own people up by their bootstraps which goes to show that voluntary social systems do work; Anarchism works.
Camelot was on the horizon if only it could have gone on. But The State cannot abide self-governing communities.
Demise: ‘Vengeance Has Consumed You’
Mainsteam New Zealand was still suffering from what I’m calling Muldoon vs Kirk Honour Culture. The two cultures clashed as Prime Minister Kirk sent out his Dawn Raids from 1973 onward. HC cops literally raided the DC community but the Panthers and friends triumphed because of the superior culture which included the help of lawyer (and future Dignity Culture era Prime Minister) David Lange.
All good things must come to an end. By the time mainstream New Zealand did enter Dignity Culture the Panthers had been absorbed into Victimhood Culture. In 1978 the Panthers decided to join a (VC) Maori fight: Bastion Point. By 1981 the Panthers allowed themselves to be subverted back to their Honour Culture roots as evidenced by their violent participation in the Springbok Tour Riots of that year.
After ten years (1971-81) this last experience saw the Panthers disbanded. In my opinion the Panthers were ever a Dignity Culture organisation but had lost their raison d’etre, their identity, by slumming it with Victimhood and Honour Culture Maoris. Forgot what they were supposed to be. Forgot who they were. I cannot back this up with evidence but I assume the team up must have always been an uneasy one fraught with friction. I expect many true Panthers turned away as their organisation drifted from its initial focus, embroiled into fights belonging to someone else’s community.
“Vengeance has consumed you. It’s consuming them.”- Black Panther
The power of the Black Panther (and I don’t just mean the heroic fictional representation) flows from Dignity Culture. Their means of production are rooted in being intelligent, civilised, cool, patient. Justice will come soon enough. Their recourse is to peaceful and institutional means to solve problems. To be slow to anger and not take things personally is their culture. Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me. For a few years the Polynesian New Zealanders in Auckland held that power before letting it slip between their fingers. So did their US counterparts; Seduced by Victimhood and Vengeance to which the DC has no natural immunity.
Polynesian Panthers (2010)
For a very interesting telling, see the 2010 documentary…
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image ref. Forest Gump attends a Black Panther party, is confronted by a Victimhood Culture infiltrator; Forest Gump (1994)
image ref. Polynesian Panther logo; Avondale Library; Facebook
ref. Polynesian Panthers; wiki
Update 2019: Video pulled from Youtube, still on NZ On Screen though
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