34 Comments

Oh, Anna. I know a fair bit of this damnable story and its characters, but your meticulous explication does excellent work in its rationality and its clarity. My postgrad supervisor once took me to task for inserting my indignant voice into a difficult piece of writing. Lay out the evidence, she said - let it do the talking...and it will. It has done that here, and it needs to be shared. (So glad that you enjoyed working with Ronnie - her mix of grace, erudition and passion is hard to beat.)

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Ha, I wrote a slightly indignant thesis, then picked up the rest of indignance and chucked it into a Substack. Thanks, friend.

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Another amazing piece. If I win powerball I’ll get it printed on the front page of the herald. You’ll know it’s me by the unmatchable pseudonym Plodgsons Hedge 😂

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This could be the only thing that would convince me to buy the Herald. 😂

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Nice! - Been scheming how to establish a left wing think tank and website named Plobson's Hedge. It is unmatchable - and you keep it as I have not found the backers yet.

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Wow, what a thought provoking read. And I agree with Ady, informative and well researched. How do we get this information out there? Especially to the blind and gullible followers of Muriel Newman.

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Great question. And I don't know. Adam Dudding and RNZ did some great reporting - but I'm guessing they were constrained by resources and whatever was more sexy in the media cycle. I don't think anyone's followed the story from start to finish, which is what's needed for justice and healing.

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I’d heard snippets of much of what you’ve written but not enough to put it all together. Thank you for doing that. I’d love to copy and paste it onto Muriel’s right wing think tank NZCPR but their moderators never let anything through unless it agrees with their views. So much for free speech.

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Thanks Anna, such a readable rendition of this crazy story.

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Thank you for reading. It's ... a lot, I know.

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No I think it’s perfect. A lot of this I know, but all condensed and added to in your usual articulate fashion. I’d love more people to read this. Unfortunately I imagine those that should never will.

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😭 every damn time.

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Hey, this is what we do on Sunday nights, e hoa. ❤️

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Wow, what an informative and well researched piece of work. I must remember some of this for use when calling out racists.

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Thank you! Appreciate you reading.

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I’ve been meaning to comment all week but this is a phenomenal piece of writing Anna. You should enter it in the media awards ❤️

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Tautoko!!!

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I wish that every NZer could read this. What a harrowing story. Thank you so much for writing it and your skill in giving justice where it was needed. I hope it can be published more widely.

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Thanks, Jenna. It was unusually hard to write, and I appreciate you giving it your time. 🙂

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Fascinating, important work. My father was a Doutre follower and he had his own small following of tragic old anti Te Tiriti guys. He left the One New Zealand Foundation because it was too soft. He was a constant writer of vitriolic letters to the local newspaper throughout the nineties. You would think it was all in the past, until up pops Julian Batchelor and his racist roadshow, just last year

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brilliant......I have been there and lived thru the media wars of those times. Totally pro tangata whenua in these harrowing days with this shite government and the likes of Brash and Batchelor pedalling hate..........lies and mis information. I am really glad for reading the truths I didnt know or had forgotten..............but so good to be reminded of. AND the reminder of the good grace and patience of Tangata Whenua over the many decades of dealing with the various acts of colonising powers....the theft and the degradation. Thank you for this. I will go there again and it will be totally different with this new knowing.......

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Wow, this started out as an incredible tale and I was waiting for justice to be served but the longer it took the more and more my heart sank. Thankfully some degree of justice in the end.

And thank you for the incredible mahi researching and writing it up.

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I cannot thank you enough for the amazing writing you share Anna . I have shared this atricle to FB and emailed it to those who hopefully share on as well.

Ka nui te mihi aroha..

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This is a an astounding contribution of research and storytelling that I am so grateful to you for the painstaking work to explain. Just wow. And what the actual.

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Incredible writing. Thank you.

I wonder where Susan Cochrane is now and how we can support her.

I hope she has since been able to build a happy and safe life for herself and her children.

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Amazing piece, Anna.

So very important.

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Reading about this has helped explain in my head just how I developed such abhorrent ideas in the early 90's about what the Treaty settlement process meant... I can only presume that I took the presented news media at it's word as a young teen...

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