Morgan Godfery

Contributing writer

Morgan Godfery (Te Pahipoto, Lalomanu) is a writer and trade unionist based in Wellington. He is the author of a collection of essays, Maui Street, published by Bridget Williams Books in early 2019. Morgan was born in 1991 in Whakatāne.

This is not Morgan Godfery’s carpet, nor his appliance. Photo: Getty

22nd April, 2020

Lockdown letters #27, Morgan Godfery: What I thought while I was vacuuming

I told Nan that I’m a historical materialist.

By Morgan Godfery

Contributing writer

Photo: Getty Images

17th April, 2020

Lockdown letters #22, Morgan Godfery: Do you feel powerless too?

We spent years waiting on a moment. That moment is here, but what can anyone show for it?

By Morgan Godfery

Contributing writer

Kawerau Intermediate was closed in December, 2012.

12th April, 2020

Lockdown letters #17, Morgan Godfery: The ground beneath our feet

'In an ideal world the physical lives we build would speak to the past, but the truth is New Zealanders silence it, building their social and industrial histories literally on top of Māori.'

By Morgan Godfery

Contributing writer

Photo: Getty Images

7th April, 2020

Lockdown letters #12, Morgan Godfery: Decay, domesticity and doomsday prepping

'Paint is peeling from the old truck workshop walls. Some days you can taste rust on the autumn wind, like swallowing iron and blood and pollen.'

By Morgan Godfery

Contributing writer

Photo: Getty Images

2nd April, 2020

Lockdown letters #7, Morgan Godfery: Thoughts from under the plum tree

On our best days, time’s passing felt like a melody, embracing every beat and delighting in every pause. But on our worst days time was a cacophony.

By Morgan Godfery

Contributing writer

Photo: Getty Images

28th March, 2020

Lockdown letters #2, Morgan Godfery: I’m never sleeping

I can’t stop. Keep posting. Keep consuming content. My frontal lobe is its own memetic economy.

By Morgan Godfery

Contributing writer

Friday prayers at Al Noor mosque on March 22, 2019 (Photo: Sanka Vidanagama/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

13th March, 2020

‘They are us’ – an urgent, uncomfortable call to action

A proper reckoning with March 15 2019 demands that we take up a generations-long struggle to destroy all the exclusions that make up our society and produce the conditions we know as racism.

By Morgan Godfery

Contributing writer

Photo: Getty Images

3rd March, 2020

Māori nurses earn 25% less. And this government won’t even talk about it

And don't think Māori voters aren't going to notice.

By Morgan Godfery

Contributing writer

Papuan students during a rally in Jakarta, Indonesia, on August 28, 2019 (Photo: Andrew Gal/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

20th January, 2020

Boycott Bali? Why the atrocities in West Papua demand your attention

It's estimated that as many as half a million Papuans have been killed at the hands of Indonesian security forces in the past 50 years.

By Morgan Godfery

Contributing writer

John Key, Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Scott Morrison in clown makeup

9th January, 2020

Bunch of clowns: Morgan Godfery on the unfunny jesters who rule the world

For Trump, Johnson, Morrison et al, the jokester act provides the perfect political cover, writes Morgan Godfery.

By Morgan Godfery

Contributing writer