Denis O'Reilly Blog #18: "How to Break Out"

Denis O’Reilly’s series Nga Kupu Aroha/Words of Love (#18, 3,300 words), from the living edge of Aotearoa

• A headline from gangland: better employment and health
• Managing crime and punishment in New Zealand; restorative justice vs the Maricopa Country chain-gang method; the passing of Joseph Roberts, mentor, coach and American Eagle; gang policies in NY (community development) vs LA (suppressive policing); recognition for Ecuador’s Latin Kings
• Tigilau Ness documentary From Street to Sky; Robert Muldoon and Rastafarianism; social rage directed into art; “music speaks louder than words”
• The coronation of Kingi Tuheitia; Bishop Paraone Turei’s sermon affirming “whakakotahi (collective unity) and the desirability of enabling Maori to be unique
• Papakainga: architecture, whanau housing and the Hawkes Bay village settlement project

Whakapapa

From Kevin Roberts. USA Rugby people got together just before the World Cup kick-off for a meeting of the new Congress and the new Board, of which I am Chair. The talk was around how we could all pull together to inspire Americans to fall in love with rugby. Core to this dream were a couple of beliefs.

The first is that rugby is a game that can be played and enjoyed by everyone, irrespective of body shape or size. Second, only rugby transcends the local to create a timeless global fraternity. I have also found that only rugby forges brotherhood through blood and respect, creating unbreakable bonds. As most of you know by now, the great passion of my life is centered on the New Zealand All Blacks. To me, they have always been the living embodiment of unbreakable bonds. They have now begun what will hopefully turn out to be a 7-week odyssey to win the Rugby World Cup for all of New Zealand.

I have written previously about the Maori concept of Whakapapa, which explains a person’s place in the world. It is genealogy merged with mythology, spirituality and sustainability - a simple, beautiful view of the world. New Zealand’s indigenous people, the Maori, see themselves as part of a flowing line of ancestors linked arm and arm, from the beginning of time through to the present, and into the future through yet to be born forebears. The sun moves slowly along this interlinking chain of people and it signifies each person’s life as it shines down upon each of them. And so during every life, the individual is seen as a representative of the people and the custodian of the people’s heritage and values. The chain is unbreakable and the line of people immortal.

These unbreakable bonds are at the core of my own personal value set. A few weekends ago I spent some time thinking about just that, as I traveled back in time with a bunch of mates. I last played rugby with them 40 years ago in Lancaster and we all came together to watch the USA Eagles kick off their World Cup challenge. 40 years on the bond that held us together was still vibrant and real. It also got me thinking about another concept I discovered through great Maori leaders in New Zealand; that of mana. Mana is a Maori word which we can define in English as respect and presence. You know when someone has mana. When they walk into a room, a bar, or any group situation, they are immediately granted respect from those around them. Sometimes no words are spoken. Their presence is enough. Mana is bestowed, not claimed. The character of someone with mana is summed up in a beautiful Maori saying talking about one of their food staples, “the kumara does not talk about its own sweetness”.

Mana comes from Whakapapa and its connections, through to descendants who have performed great deeds, the personal performance of great actions with humbleness, and being part of a group that has bestowed great charity on others.

All three create belonging and legacy. Sean Fitzpatrick exemplifies it. So does Tana Umaga. So did Buck Shelford. And so does Richie McCaw.

KR

Denis O'Reilly Blog #17: Looking through a kaleidescope

Angela Davis, 1974

“It must be a beautiful feeling to fly halfway around the world, touch down in a seemingly contented society, and discover a body of people who have been enacting your disobedient thinking for over 30 years.”

Blog #17 of Denis O’Reilly’s series Nga Kupu Aroha, from the flipside of the edge; “Looking through a kaleidoscope” (4,750 words):

• The meaning of Maori tangi; tangi for Mick the Aussie biker in Wellington, and Rangi Tareha at Waiohiki Marae after a 500-strong funeral in Redfern Sydney; the Hamuera Morehu Silver Band
• Arthur Young’s The Reflexive Universe and his explanation of the seven stages of evolution (Theory of Process)
• Edge-dwelling and the brink of disobedience
• The visit by Angela Davis (“the candle of social resistance”) to New Zealand with a radical agenda: the process of decarceration and introduction of restorative justice; her influence on the Polynesian Panthers in Auckland, capital of Nesia
• Definitions of “organised crime” in New Zealand; distinctions between venial and mortal sin; discontinuity of the 1980s economic reforms resulting in a 3:1 Maori/Pakeha unemployment rate; moral panic and the perspicaciousness of policy makers in regard to the criminal justice system
• “Can we reverse the trend and steer those people who are caught up in crime back to legitimate pursuits?”
• Time magazine’s cover story “New Zealand: A Culture of Violence” and Zeppelins sighted in Southland
• A good reason to get upset – the grand denial of potential; imprisonment becoming the standard expectation of our underclass, our lumpenproletariat, our nga mokai; Law & Order Select Committee submissions by Principal Youth Judge Andrew Beecroft and Children’s Commissioner Cindy Kiro
• “Could we agree on having a decarcerated nation within which the indigenous people are proportionally the least imprisoned population segment?’; tut-tutting at Australia
• “Police dragnets can criminalize whole communities and land large numbers of non-violent children in jail and don’t reduce gang involvement or gang violence…Once jailed these children will inevitably become hardened criminals and spend the rest of their lives in and out of prison…The emphasis needs to be on changing children’s behavior by getting them involved in community and school-based programs that essentially keep them out of gangs.” New York Times, 19 July 2007, “The Wrong Approach to Gangs”
• Celebration of life for daughter Kaylene; prayerful and profound intervention of a tohunga; respect and admiration for an ICU doc
• Maatariki – planted shallots, garlic, onions and chives and now time to dig in mustard so it can enrich the soil for Maori spuds: Tuteakuri, Moemoe and Perepuru
• A week ahead of politics and difficult engagements dissuading people from one path and persuading them to take another.

Posted. Raumati South

New Zealand Unleashed

My daily foray into Unity Books at 57 Willis Street has just yielded the sort of book about New Zealand that curls your toes up with anticipation. “New Zealand Unleashed: the country, its future and the people who will get it there” by Steven Carden (with Campbell Murray) is a geo-bio-histo-psycho thriller about the emergence of New Zealand in a pan-global sweep through nature and technology. Rooted in the biological science of complex adaptive systems, “Unleashed” is sectioned into “The end of certainty,” ”How to build a successful society,” “New Zealand’s DNA” and “Ideas for a more adaptable New Zealand.” A sped-up world and how we need to face change are key subtexts.

There are several elements to return to in “Unleashed” including the chapter “Maori 1 – a crash course in survival” about the extraordinary adaption of Maori society. “…after landing in New Zealand, Maori sat apart from the rest of humanity for perhaps another six hundred years. No one came to visit. No sailing vessels appeared over the horizon. No mail or telegrams arrived with news of the outside world. No one had sailed over the horizon in either direction for a long, long time. As far as Maori were concerned, New Zealand was the world.” (p 164)

Most resonant for me is the Steven Carden’s placement of New Zealand at “the edge of chaos”: “Innovations rarely emerge from systems with high degrees of order and stability. Systems in equilibrium lose diversity and give rise to the sorts of problems one encounters in homogenous communities and centrally planned economies. On the other hand, completely chaotic systems – riots, stock market crashes, revolutions – are not that great either.

“The key is to find that spot where disequilibrium breeds vitality and creativity, but doesn’t do so at the expense of all order and structure. The spot is the ‘edge of chaos’, a term coined by the physicist Norman Packard. He uses it to describe a state of untidy creativity, between rigidity and chaos. In this zone, the system is best able to function, adjusting constantly to a turbulent world, but without traumatic upheaval.

“Systems operating at the edge of chaos are excellent information processors and are highly creative. They are sensitive to slight changes in external conditions and internal events, generating innovative responses to these which adapt or evolve to suit the current environment. ‘The ghost in nature’s machine,’ he writes, ‘almost seems to be purposefully piloting the system to the edge of chaos.’…

…[The edge of chaos is] where productive agitation runs high, innovation thrives and breakthroughs occur. It’s the place this book argues New Zealand should be. A dynamic, innovative, creative society that is comfortable changing.” (pp 112-113)

Globalization is an exciting concept for New Zealand when viewed through a biological lens. We have a unique and powerful location in the world that is significantly underappreciated by a mass of people stuck in the rut of “small, remote, isolated.” “New Zealand Unleashed” puts some much-needed intellectual and metaphoric moxie into our perspectives about who we are, and what we are capable of achieving. “Unleashed” introduces new thinking and language that picks us up and points us to a better place that has us fully engaged with global change.

Steven Carden is an Engagement Manager for management consulting firm McKinsey and Co., and returned to NZ in 2006 from a posting at McKinsey’s New York office. He has arts and law degrees from Auckland University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. In 2005 Steven was one of five New Zealanders awarded an inaugural Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leaders Award. Campbell Murray is director of the Novartis BioVenture Fund in Boston. He trained as a doctor and also has an MBA from Harvard.

“New Zealand Unleashed,” by Steven Carden with Campbell Murray, Random House, Auckland

Nga Kupu Aroha #16: Denis O'Reilly

"Those that have ears let them hear"

The killing of Jhia Te Tua (2) in a drive-by shooting in Wanganui on May 5 has created grief among her family and iwi - and quite possibly a tipping point in New Zealand gang history. In the latest post in his Nga Kupu Aroha: Words of Love series, Denis O’Reilly tells of Jhia Te Tua’s tangi at Tukorehe marae at Kuku south of Levin (pictured); the talk of whanau and warriors; triangulation between gangs, police, officials; the geo-politics and zeitgeist of Black Power and other gangs; linkages between gangs, social development and criminality; factors, findings and recommendations of the latest Government report on youth gangs in Counties Manukau; a New Zealand gang timeline; international strategies for community-wide approaches to gang prevention (Divert; Contain; Redirect); and five “Maori stones” from James K Baxter – aroha, korero, matewa, mahi and mahuhiritanga – that set philosophical values for ways forward. 5,500 words of intel, analysis and advocacy. http://www.nzedge.com/features/ar-denis16.html

Says O’Reilly, “being in the trapped lifestyle of a gang is a waste of time and human potential.” He asks: “What would it take for the brothers to put down their patches? I don't just mean for an event or such - they'll generally do that if asked respectfully - but as a lifestyle. Well, what would it take for us as a nation to resolve this whole issue? If the brotherhood acknowledged that in fact they don't want a trapped lifestyle that means relative poverty, jail, and underachievement; if the brotherhood said we want to join in socially because we want our kids to succeed and we don't want them in jail, we don't want them to repeat our mistakes; as a nation what would we do?”

Denis O’Reilly is a Hawkes Bay social innovator, coach and businessman. He is a life member of Black Power. His methods of social development at the edges of our society have been honed by his experiences over three decades of mediating with gangs, working in State systems, academic research, and corporate business.

Nga Kupu Aroha #14: Denis O'Reilly

Denis O'Reilly is a social innovator and activist based at Waiohiki Marae Napier. In 1977 I co-hosted him as a speaker in the inaugural University of Waikato Winter Lectures. He spoke, chanted and probably cursed in an address about gangs in New Zealand. The NZ situation was quite incendiary, and Denis triangulated between Black Power, the Mongrel Mob, others, and PM Muldoon. Many years later he has orchestrated major events involving New Zealand corporates and Maori. Three years ago I invited Denis to write a column for nzedge.com on the very dangerous edge of the methamphetamine epidemic in New Zealand, our incarceration culture, marginalized Maori - and his fresh ideas for creating ways out and ahead. This Irish Ngati Pakeha reports on events, people, protocols, local intel, highs, doubts and the occasional crisis, with a knowingness few New Zealanders have accumulated. BS

AROHAMAI (FORGIVE ME). Feeding the soul at Parihaka a century since the passing of Tohu Kakahi and Te Whiti o Rongomai, “the human pillars of passive resistance in New Zealand”; a Festival with 7000 people clustered in campsites; the formalities of powhiri and the beauty of korero and waiata; remembrances of confiscation of land, imprisonment of people, rape of women, looting, invasion, forcible ejection and illegal arrest in 1881; postering about P (“beware of P and seek help if hooked”); “start with bring peace to your house, to your street and onward”; meeting up with Te Ringa Mangu Dun Mihaka; Unity Pacific, Batacuda Sound Machine and Kora; and the forthcoming St Patrick’s Day Maori/Celtic Hui & Huilli at Waiohiki Marae Napier with Governor General Anand Satyanand, Lady Thea Muldoon and Sir Tipene O’Regan in attendance for long festivities. 5500 words. First published March 07. http://www.nzedge.com/features/ar-denis14.html