A short report from the 2008 Christian Anarchist hui
By | Jul 18, 2008
Tena koutou e te whanau
For those of you who read my post inviting you all to attend the 2008 South Pacific Christian Anarchist hui down in Akaroa over the weekend of 11-13 April and thought, oh my goodness what a crazy concept, I would never attend anything like that, you may be interested to know that our short gathering covered many of the kaupapa that are close to the hearts of JustWiki readers.
A short summary:
- we were hosted by Ngati Tarewa, a hapu o Ngai Tahu, at their beautiful marae Onuku, sheltered beside the beautiful Akaroa harbour. They shared their stories with us as we sat and slept within their whare tupuna. It was a fantastic space for a gathering of people intent on exploring and debating issues together
- we brought and gathered and shared ‘free food’ with each other, to cater our Hui. 40+ participants were very well feed for 2 & 1/2 days on beautiful dumpster foods and garden/preserving cupboard produce. About three teams did 3 separate dives in Christchurch and Tauranga before our event, which supplied 95 percent of our kai. It was fantastic and a real conversion experience for those amongst us not experienced at the quality of free food available after hours in our local supermarket dumpsters
- the hui was organised and led by women, with gender perspectives and discussions a high priority on the programme. We heard about Greenham Commons Women’s Peace Camp in the 1980s and feminist approaches to anti-militarism and war, discussed the roles of women in communities and what whanau means to us, and had a workshop about ‘deep masculinity’. It was a very empowering hui for all the women present, many of whom had never been asked to lead a workshop at a conference before, despite having years of experience in christian, anarchist, activist or community settings.
- we were a diverse and united group. Across the gathering there were 6 Australians involved in ‘intentional christian community’, and more than 30 New Zealanders, who included people attached to the christian church, people living in intentional christian community, people involved in secular activist and pacifist work and ‘regular anarchists’. We shared openly and honestly with each other, and all felt connected with common beliefs and visions for our world. It was awesome.
So to anyone who missed out on this year’s gathering but would like to connect with this growing network of people interested in the connections between Christianity and Anarchism, feel free to log on to our website, http://anz.jesusradicals.com/ and plan to visit Melbourne for the SPCA Hui 09, next year.
Kia tau te rangimarie o te Atua ki a koutou
na, Jo Cameron
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Comments
Anne
July 21st, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Hey Jo,
Thanks for your report. It was a great hui, awesome chats, people, ideas. My parents, after raising their eyebrows a few times, were pretty intrigued by the leftover dumstered food that I popped in with on my way back to Wellington!
Arohanui,
Anne
georgedarroch
July 25th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Hi Jo,
I heard it was wonderful. Duncan is a pretty good dumpsterer, I bet you all ate well!
George
JoC
July 26th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Kia ora George
Yes we ate incredibly well - those of us from Tauranga who attended were stoked to finally meet Duncan, having heard of him, being inspired by, and even read his theological thoughts on, dumpster diving for some time!
Many new dumpster divers were recruited and taught the ropes when we hit the supermarket carparks of suburban Christchurch on the Tuesday and Thursday nights before, so hopefully ongoing liberation of good food and redistribution to those who are struggling to afford their groceries, can continue post-Hui!
Blessings
Jo Cameron
Ant
July 29th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
But isn’t one of the problems with dumpster diving not the diving as such, but the way it’s been ‘hijacked’ by the middle classes as an ‘alternative’ or at best ‘protest’ lifestyle choice, and has very little to do with redistribution with an eye to assisting those who are struggling?
And is dumpster diving really a viable way of providing social assistance to those in need? While it uses up waste from an incredibly wasteful system, and is good from that pov, isn’t it creating a cycle of dependency on waste. Shouldn’t we be seeking to reduce waste?
Anne
July 30th, 2008 at 11:47 am
I definitely know some groups that redistribute their dumpstered goods to families in their neighbourhoods who really need them, like some friends of mine in Auckland. But for lots of us it is undoubtedly also a question of protest kudos, although we wouldn’t like to admit it.
I guess if we could minimise the waste built into the system by changing our expectations of unlimited choice and fully stocked shelves, then in theory food prices should drop as supermarkets would not be having to recoup the cost of waste. This should make food more affordable for all of us, especially those struggling with food bills that account for a huge proportion of their income. Whether this would work in practice is another question though…
manucaddie
August 3rd, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Thanks for the great report Jo - you did a fantastic job organising it with Catherine.
For people who want a more interactice experience than the Jesus Radicals website - you can check out: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23587026262
I think dumpster diving is great - it’s not going to end world hunger or provide a kind of redistribution of resources required in this country - but it is lots of fun!
- Manu