Justice & Race : Campaigns against racism and abuse in Aotearoa New Zealand

Author(s): Oliver Sutherland

History | Aotearoa New Zealand Non-Fiction | Maori | Politics | Society

Over half of those locked up in our prisons are Maori - are non-Pakeha people treated fairly by our police and courts? In the 1960s and '70s, thousands of young New Zealanders were arrested, charged and processed by children's courts for a variety of mostly minor offences. Few had access to lawyers. Most pleaded guilty. Many were Maori and Pasifika. About 4000 children a year were put into social welfare homes, as state wards or until sentencing. Hundreds each year were held on remand in adult prisons. At each step closer to borstal, the proportion of Maori became greater, reaching over 80% for Maori girls. Children considered seriously out of control were sent to Lake Alice Hospital. They received repeated courses of electroconvulsive therapy and were disciplined with 'aversive' electric shocks to their bodies. To oppose this abuse of largely Maori and Pacific Island children, Oliver Sutherland and a small group of Pakeha formed the Auckland Committee on Racism and Discrimination, ACORD, in 1973. For 15 years ACORD exposed and campaigned against the institutional racism of the police, justice and social welfare systems. It laid the groundwork for a national duty solicitor scheme and gained protections for children incarcerated by the state. Equally oppressive was the police 'Task Force', formed in 1974 ostensibly to combat street violence in Auckland. Thousands were arrested - around 80% of them Maori or Pasifika - but the initiative had no impact on 'street violence'; most arrests were for minor offences. Oliver Sutherland's memoir tells the story of these campaigns against injustice and describes cases that graphically substantiate them.

OLIVER SUTHERLAND is a retired scientist who worked with the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research and Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research. In 1973 he and others founded the Auckland Committee on Racism and Discrimination, ACORD. — from the foreword by David Williams ‘Those of us who lived through those years of protest, and rallied in support of Nga Tamatoa, the Polynesian Panther Party and the Auckland District Maori Council, should be grateful that Oliver has put himself on the line again. Members of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care will need to read this book with close attention, but so indeed should all people who believe in the importance of speaking truth to power.’ Steele Roberts Aotearoa • info@steeleroberts.co.nz • www.steeleroberts.co.nz represented by Greene Phoenix Marketing 288 pages • 160 x 235 mm soft cover • available 27 february 2020 isbn 978-1-99-000713-2 • rrp $34.99 new title information Chapters — • Forging a duty solicitor scheme • Maori participation in Pakeha justice • The Task Force: an exercise in oppression • The state as parent • The outrage that was Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital • Children and young persons legislation and the courts — Imprisonment of Maori and Pasifika children — Punishing young people with Electro-convulsive Therapy (ECT) — Auckland’s Police Task Force targeting Maori and Pasifika people — Abuse of children in social welfare homes In November 2019 Oliver Sutherland gave dramatic testimony about these and similar injustices to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. This is the full story of ACORD — the Auckland Committee on Racism and Discrimination — that Oliver and friends started in the 1970s. For 15 years ACORD exposed and campaigned against the institutional racism of the police, justice and social welfare systems. It laid the groundwork for a national duty solicitor scheme and gained protections for children incarcerated by the state. Oliver Sutherland’s memoir covers these campaigns against injustice and describes cases that graphically substantiate them. “… I looked straight at Judge Wallace and said, ‘It cannot go on. It cannot be tolerated, not for one more day and not for one more child’, and then turned away in tears.”

35.00 NZD

Stock: 1

Add to Cart


Add to Wishlist


Product Information

General Fields

  • : 9781990007132
  • : Steele Roberts Aotearoa Limited
  • : UNKNOWN
  • : January 2020
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Oliver Sutherland
  • : Hardback
  • : 288