Space Race Bodies

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Talks and Public Lectures

The Compassion Deficit: The New War Against Asylum

Tracey Barnett

What is the going price for Australia to pay traffickers to turn a boatload of refugees around and ferry them away from their waters? Allegedly $32,000 USD.


In what country can medical professionals now be given two years in prison for speaking out about conditions at offshore refugee detention sites?


Why would a country that has never had a boatload of asylum arrivals in modern history suddenly legislate for mass detention?


While the Western press turns its eyes to headlines in Europe, the policies in our own back garden often slide under the radar.  With our ranking as 90th in the world for the total number of refugees we host per capita, and our tiny refugee quota stuck for almost three decades, columnist and author Tracey Barnett asks—is New Zealand really the compassionate player on the world stage we imagine ourselves to be for refugees?


Drawing from her refugee camp reportage along the Thai-Myanmar border and Sydney’s Villawood detention centre, journalist Tracey Barnett will examine this rapidly emerging new war on asylum—and New Zealand’s response to it.


Tracey Barnett is the author of The Quiet War on Asylum, published by Bridget Williams Books, and is the creator of WagePeaceNZ, an initiative to keep New Zealanders up to date on refugee issues.

What's the Story?
Doug Ditfort

A kōrero about the power of stories to unveil patterns in reality.

Stolen Identities, Stolen Opportunities: The Psychological Impact of Stereotypes on Indigenous Peoples

Associate Professor Stephanie Fryberg

University of Washington


Stereotypes often reflect widely shared, taken-for-granted, ideas and meanings that are embodied in institutions, social structures, and everyday artifacts. As such, stereotypes are a natural feature of people’s everyday lives; they reflect and create reality by affording certain perceptions and limiting others. For example, despite calls to change or eliminate certain stereotypes (e.g., debates on history curricula, the use of American Indian mascots, and the use of the Confederate flag), the status quo is often dynamically reproduced to perpetuate positive stereotypes for some groups (e.g., European Americans, middle class) and not for others (e.g., North American Indigenous People, African Americans, working class). Consequently, stereotypes are seen and understood through the eyes of the groups to which people belong and, as such, they carry with them certain privileges and constraints for the self. For instance, Indigenous People are likely to be represented in negative or limiting ways or they are simply not represented at all—they are invisible. In this talk, I will present six studies that examine the impact of both stereotypic representations, such as American Indian mascots, and invisibility for the psychological well being of Indigenous and White students.
In this talk, Tame Iti discusses the concept of enemies (whewheia), and how they are both internal and external to communities. He will also focus on how they are dealt with and understood, "If you don't know your enemy, you're in a dire state."
Matike Mai! Māori-led Constitutional Transformation in Aotearoa New Zealand
Professor Margaret Mutu

University of Auckland and Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu


‘Matike Mai Aotearoa’ is the Independent Working Group on Constitutional Transformation in New Zealand. Formed at a National Iwi Chairs Forum hui in 2010, this group was tasked with engaging communities nation-wide on developing a constitution for Aotearoa reflective of our kawa and tikanga (Māori laws and customs), the 1835 He Whakaputanga o Te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni (Declaration of Independence), 1840 Te Tiriti o Waitangi (authentic Treaty of Waitangi, Māori text) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. At Waitangi in February 2016 the Group presented its report on its findings and recommendations on models for such a constitution and steps to be taken towards such a transformation. This initiative is just the latest in a long history of resistance to British colonial rule, and is the result of the enduring determination of hapū and iwi to hold fast to our mana and tino rangatiratanga – the sacred authority inherited from our ancestors – which we in turn must pass on to our descendants. This presentation will discuss the background to this initiative, the feedback received from communities (including one prison), key findings and recommendations of the report, and the on-going work of Matike Mai Aotearoa.