Auckland's Basement Theatre will be holding an event next Wednesday to commemorate the Black Lives Matter movement in New Zealand.
By Mildred Armah
The event is led by a community group called Black Creatives Aotearoa (BCA), founded by Dione Joseph, who is also the artistic director for the event.
Joseph says this event is to commemorate the moment that brought black New Zealanders and their allies together.
The murder of George Floyd in May of last year sparked protests around the work, bringing attention to the deep-rooted and systemic racism faced by the black community.
Joseph says in the weeks following the protests, she noticed the conversations around racism and discrimination faced by the black community in New Zealand remained ongoing.
“[While] well-intentioned pakeha people were wanting to be educated, micro-aggressions had spiked. Black people [living in NZ] had responded to the movement with poetry, with art, and with story.
"I wanted to make sure that we wouldn’t forget this moment when New Zealand came together. So, I applied for funding from Auckland Council to fund the development of the archive.”
The archive is an online collection of articles, photos, ephemera and interviews in response to the BLM movement in New Zealand.
She says the event also marks the launch of the archive, with Bareeka Vrede as the lead archivist.
“This event is to reflect over the BLM movement in Aotearoa. What it meant to us as a black community, and what allyship was, and what we went through with our own stories,” Vrede said.
“I think the archive is very much our community using their voices to express what they felt and what they went through instead of having someone else come in and say this is how it is.”
Joseph says it will feature an excerpt from her play performed by "four amazing black actors”.
“You're going to see spoken word performances. You're going to see a panel that discusses [not only] the Back Lives Matter movement but also black mental health.”
Joseph says the panel will be moderated, and touch on topics such as performative allyship, black queer people and black trans lives.
“These other movements are equally as important and don't often get a light shone on them.
“We've also got a whole range of live performances and artistic expression to share with our community and our allies about our response and not just our reaction, our genuine, thoughtful, response to the events.”
The launch will be held at the Basement Theatre on August 18.
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