Over 10,000 copies of the short but mighty book Imagining Decolonisation have now been sold, the book’s publisher BWB Texts has announced.

The $15 book features essays on colonisation in Aotearoa and its ongoing impacts by Moana Jackson, Bianca Elkington, Rebecca Kiddle, Ocean Ripeka Mercier, Mike Ross, Jennie Smeaton and Amanda Thomas.

In a review published on The Spinoff earlier this year, Anahera Gildea wrote that Imagining Decolonisation is “not a decolonisation handbook, it’s an invitation to understand, to self-educate, to investigate our complicity, our resistance, our privilege; and to interrogate the structures of power that maintain the status quo. It is a book aimed at even the most skittish reader of decolonisation discourse.”

Published in March 2020, Imagining Decolonisation became a word-of-mouth hit. It was the biggest selling book of 2021 at Unity Books Wellington and is such a fixture on The Spinoff’s weekly Unity bestsellers list that finding new ways to describe it has become a running gag.

Yesterday the authors issued a statement to mark the sales milestone, acknowledging “the ongoing response from readers and the lasting words of co-author Moana Jackson”, who died earlier this year:

‘This little book seems to have a life of its own. We’re humbled that people have chosen to buy it but in many ways, these words aren’t ours, rather, we have just been the vehicle that pulls together the words of many. We hope we have contributed to normalising the possibility of decolonisation for wider Aotearoa New Zealand. Thank you.

“Nō te aranga o Matariki ki te pae, ka tangihia tō ingoa e Moana, haere! Kua whetūrangitia koe ki te poho o Ranginui. E okioki atu ai.”

A demonstration in Dunedin today against Covid measures and other loss of “freedoms” was drowned out by a much larger group of counter-protestors.

The anti-mandate protest was led by Derek Tait, a Christchurch-based Destiny Church pastor and key figure in the church’s Freedoms and Rights Coalition, which has arranged dozens of anti-government protests around the country and was part of this year’s parliament occupation.

Over the past year Tait has become the face of Destiny Church in the South Island, attracting attention with a extroverted persona and ostentatious lifestyle that bears striking similarities to that of church leader Brian Tamaki.

Tait is currently facing the prospect of legal action after refusing to pay $50,000 in traffic management costs associated with FRC marches through Christchurch last summer.

Today’s counter-protest was organised by Anti Fascist Ōtepoti. Tweets from attendees suggest the FRC was significantly outnumbered.

The Ministry of Health is today reporting 6,460 new community cases, 423 current hospitalisations and 20 deaths.

The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers today is 6,825. Last Saturday it was 4,737.

The seven-day rolling average of reported deaths stands at 14. Last Saturday it was 12.

Of the 20 deaths reported today, 19 occurred in the past three days and one occurred on 22 June. Five of the people who have died were from Auckland region, one was from Waikato, two were from Bay of Plenty, one was from Lakes, one was from Hawke’s Bay, one was from Taranaki, one was from MidCentral, one was from Nelson Marlborough, two were from South Canterbury and five were from Southern.

Five were in their 70s, six were in their 80s and nine were aged over 90. Nine were women and 11 were men.

New Zealanders up to the age of 35 will be able to live and work in the UK for three years under an extension to reciprocal working holiday arrangements agreed by prime ministers Jacinda Ardern and Boris Johnson today.

Currently only New Zealand adults aged 30 or under are eligible for the UK’s Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS), and can stay in the UK for two years.

Under the reciprocal agreement the same rules will be applied to UK citizens coming to New Zealand under our Working Holiday Scheme (WHS).

The two countries are working to implement the rule changes “as soon as practicable”, according to a spokesperson for Ardern. “Both sides are committed to the improved scheme being in place no later than 2024, and are working hard to see if it can be delivered sooner.”

The rule changes in summary:

• Extending the age of eligibility for the visa from 30 to 35 years.
• Extending the length of stay allowed to three years (it is currently two years for New Zealand YMS visa holders in the United Kingdom, and 23 months for UK nationals with WHS visas in New Zealand).
• An extension to the length of time visa holders can work to three years.

The prime ministers also signed two more bilateral agreements: one aimed at increasing collaboration on research, science and innovation, and another creating a fast-track customs process to ease trade between the two countries.