Oscar Kightley wants a more mature and nuanced conversation about New Zealand’s role in the Pacific and its relationship with its neighbours.
The playwright, actor and aspiring local government politician says that as Aotearoa learns more about the Dawn Raids, there is an opportunity to rethink attitudes about the way we interact with our neighbours.
Kightley told Q+A with Jack Tame that when his play about the Dawn Raids was first staged 25 years ago, they weren’t talked about publicly by most New Zealanders.
“There was no attitude towards it. There was no one discussing it. There was no one feeling bad about it. There were no politicians."
Instead, it was something that mainly the Pacific community talked about, especially those from Samoa, Tonga and Fiji, he says.
"'Cause we were the ones who were deported. We just had to deal with it on our own as a bad memory that we just had to put to the past. And that's why I wanted to write it.”
Despite that silence, the effects of the raids were widespread.
“I was four when I arrived in this country and they were on. And even though I was only a little kid, even I'd heard about them at the time. It was just this really yuck thing that was happening that was affecting the air outside your house. That affected the attitude towards you from non-Samoans, non-Pacific people.”
While the Government’s apology last year brought more attention to the raids, Kightley, who was at the ceremony, argues the compensation for what had happened fell short.
READ MORE: Govt apologises for dawn raids in historic three-hour ceremony
"They were so insidious and they had such a horrible effect that still carry on now,” he says.
"They were such extraordinary times that I think an apology requires extraordinary compensation."
Kightley believes there should be free movement between New Zealand and Pacific nations. But, in the meantime, he says there are other measures that could be taken.
“There should have been pathways for overstayers at the moment. Pacific overstayers at the moment have been living in fear for years," he says.
READ MORE: Tongan princess in tears as she accepts formal dawn raids apology
“You know, we've got a worker and people shortage. The Pacific is usually the last place we look to. There's people right in our backyard. Barristers, lawyers, doctors. We just go, 'Oh, fruit pickers.'”
He says that attitude is also reflected in the way New Zealand engages in diplomacy with the wider Pacific region.
“I feel like New Zealand and Australia kind of treated it like it's a place we still go for holiday," he says.
“And now that all these big powers are kind of jostling for position over who has more say in it, we're getting more involved and more concerned, which is I feel quite patronising when you're like, these are nations. These are sovereign states.”
READ MORE: Ardern toasts New Zealand's enduring friendship with Samoa
“Samoa is 3000 years old. Way older than New Zealand. And we treat them like the little kid who needs help with their homework in our backyard.”
Pacific Underground and Auckland Theatre Company's co-production of Dawn Raids is showing between August 16 to September 3 at the ASB Waterfront Theatre.
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