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OPINIONSocietyMarch 26, 2022

Siouxsie Wiles: Two years since New Zealand’s first lockdown

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As we look back on how far we’ve come since March 26, 2020, it’s also an opportunity to think about how we’ll fight Covid in the future – and ask whether relaxing restrictions now is the right call. 

Two years ago today, New Zealand did what would have seemed impossible mere weeks before. We went into lockdown. Covid-19 had been detected in people with no clear link to the border or international travel. If we wanted to prevent the chaos and devastation we’d seen in China and Italy, we needed to stop transmission of the virus. Schools closed and anyone who wasn’t deemed an essential worker stayed at home, supported by a government wage subsidy. We formed bubbles and stayed in them to keep each other safe. It worked, and our “go hard and early” elimination strategy saved thousands of lives and protected our economy from some of the worst impacts of the pandemic. It also bought time for safe and effective vaccines and treatments to be developed and trialled.

Two years later, the world is a different place. I was hoping we’d bring this pandemic under control like Sars – by stopping the virus from transmitting between people until there was no one left infectious. But there was no global effort to do this when we had the chance. Instead, some countries deliberately took the “let it rip” approach, hoping they could just get it over and done with as quickly as possible. Well, we all know how that turned out. Some of those countries are now on their fourth or fifth wave. Look at the graph below of the confirmed deaths in the USA and UK, with New Zealand for comparison. Go and explore the data for yourself.

Graph comparing daily Covid-19 deaths in New Zealand, UK and United States

And do you know why the waves happen? Because despite all we’ve learned over the last two years about how Covid-19 spreads, and all the public health measures we now know help to prevent or reduce that spread, there are those who would rather abandon all protections when cases start to come down. And then what happens? Cases start to rise again. Some countries that recently removed protections after their omicron wave subsided are now starting to see cases, hospitalisations and deaths rise again.

It feels like Covid-19 is heading down the same road as HIV. Treatments and vaccines will hopefully mean most people come through an infection relatively unscathed. This is why so many people are happy to call the virus “mild” now. But there are still so many uncertainties around this. Will our treatments and vaccines still be as effective against the next variant of the virus, or the one after that, or the one after that? And how many people will develop long-term health conditions given what we know already about the virus’s ability to impact organs like the brain, heart and testicles? Like HIV, Covid will cause most harm to those who are unable to access effective treatments and vaccines, and those people who they don’t work as well for. In other words, just like so many infectious diseases, the burden is going to be carried most by those people and communities who are always the ones left behind.

That’s why I was really disappointed and nervous about the government’s recent announcement to changes to the traffic light system. I’m relieved they haven’t gone as far as other countries in abandoning all protections. But with all the talk of things being safer now Auckland is coming out of this omicron peak, the big question has to be: safer for who? Not our unvaccinated children nor our immunocompromised and disabled communities, for starters. We know that being boosted helps reduce transmission of this virus so upgrading vaccine passes to include the booster would have helped keep indoor environments safer for the more at-risk members of our community. Same with vaccine mandates. I would also have preferred to see QR code scanning kept. That’s hardly a huge inconvenience. It’s much easier just to keep that habit up rather than having to start again in the future.

After my thoughts on the government’s changes were reported, a journalist got in touch asking me “what science or research you are using to support your position that removing restrictions could be harmful, and whether this differs from the science the government is using”. It reminded me of a question I was asked by journalists in the UK when we were in lockdown two years ago: what evidence did New Zealand have that meant we decided to act so early? The implication seemed to be that we had some secret knowledge that countries like the UK lacked. We didn’t. We’d just seen what was happening in China and Italy and realised what would likely happen to us. The journalists’ questions highlight a fundamental misunderstanding about the use of evidence to inform policy: people can use the same evidence but come to completely different conclusions about how to act based on what they are trying to achieve.

I’ve made it really clear what I care about from the very beginning of this pandemic: that we come out of it with the least amount of harm and suffering in both the short and long term, and that we don’t leave anyone behind, especially not those who are always left behind. I’m not in government so I can’t speak to what they are trying to achieve but it looks to me like they want to keep hospitalisations at a manageable level with the least number of restrictions. That’s hardly surprising given they are attacked daily by people wanting us to “get back to normal”.

But as I said earlier, the world is fundamentally different to how it was pre-Covid. Rather than harking back to the pre-pandemic era, I firmly believe we should be asking what protections we need to put in place in both the short term and the long term to make living with Covid in our community safer for everyone, not just the wealthy and healthy. This virus isn’t HIV which we can largely avoid by slipping on a condom and using a dental dam. It’s airborne. That makes it difficult to control. But not impossible. The bonus is that by protecting people from Covid, we can also address inequalities from diseases that we’ve been living with for a long time. Fundamentally, what I want the government to aim for is for us to have the least restrictions that makes New Zealand safer for groups like our unvaccinated children, and our immunocompromised and disabled people. But I also want us to minimise transmission to reduce the number of people who will develop lifelong complications from infection – like long Covid – and reduce the chances of the virus mutating into a more dangerous variant.

Two years ago we did something bold and brave and unexpected and we reaped the rewards. I want us to keep being bold and brave – not just to keep us safe from Covid, but to help us respond to all the other challenges we face. But this threatens the status quo and the one lesson I’ve learned over the last two years is just how far some people will go to maintain it.

Keep going!
Raroboys are rewriting the narrative in the art scene in Tāmaki Makaurau. (Image: Tina Tiller)
Raroboys are rewriting the narrative in the art scene in Tāmaki Makaurau. (Image: Tina Tiller)

SocietyMarch 25, 2022

Raroboys are putting young Pasifika artists on the map

Raroboys are rewriting the narrative in the art scene in Tāmaki Makaurau. (Image: Tina Tiller)
Raroboys are rewriting the narrative in the art scene in Tāmaki Makaurau. (Image: Tina Tiller)

Arizona Leger meets some of the creatives taking part in the collective’s first major exhibition, Raroboys and Friends.

With their first funded exhibition, Raroboys and Friends, on at Māngere Arts Centre until March 26, Raroboys are on a mission to make the arts scene an accessible pathway for young creatives in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Founded in 2018 by Bryson Naik (Naik2G) and Lolani Dalosa (DNP), Raroboys is a collective of 10 Pasifika artists who work in a wide variety of mediums, including illustration, graphic design, photography and multimedia. The collective has already self-funded two zines, Raroboys Vol. 1 and Raroboys Vol. 2; a third is promised shortly.

Inside Raroboys and Friends (Photo: Geoffery Matautia)

The Spinoff caught up with a few of the artists in the exhibition to talk art, expression and what Raroboys means to them.

Geoffery

Growing up, Geoffery Matautia (Southsides) says he was led to believe that creative pathways weren’t a feasible career option. Now aged 26, Matautia is an established creative, leading his own team at AUT. He’s one of Raroboys’ earliest members. “We just wanted to make a space for ourselves, our artwork and dictate how the experience was when people came to see it,” Matautia says.

Matautia says Raroboys wasn’t set up with any purpose or goal – the aim was to create a collective that included and celebrated their creative friends. Once the members understood their potential, however, it became clear that they should work to increase youth participation and access to the Auckland arts scene. “None of us really had access to art galleries or spaces [growing up]. We never saw our work fitting or being displayed,” Matautia explains. 

Fast forward four years, and Raroboys are rewriting that narrative.

An idea brewing since 2020, the Raroboys and Friends exhibition is “labour of love [for] our friends, showcasing art from various artists outside of the Raroboys collective,” Matautia says.

“They are the ones who would come to our shows, support our work, buy our t-shirts. So, you know, why not include them in a show that we as a collective light put on together.”

Teya

Shateya Fuimaono (T3ya) is an 18 year old artist who is studying communication design at AUT in Manukau. 

Shateya Fuimaono
Shateya ‘Teya’ Fuimaono, a young artist and student participating in the Raroboys exhibition. (Photo: Supplied)

Fuimaono began embracing her talent when she started taking photos on her phone during a school geography trip. She says she’d been following Matautia on social media for a while and took inspiration from the creative work he was sharing. Photos on phones then have become photos on a gallery wall now, after Matautia put out a call for submissions for the exhibition on Raroboys’ Discord chat. “I took my chances and I messaged him back,” she says.

Fuimaono says it’s “unreal” to see her own work being displayed in an exhibition. She says young creatives who are unsure whether they should pursue similar pathways to “get out of their comfort zone and if you feel that your work needs to be out there, then you should totally go for it”.

Fuimaono says the impact that Raroboys are making can’t be underestimated. “If it weren’t for Raroboys and Period7, I wouldn’t have found the creativity that I have at the moment”.

Jono

Jonathan Thompson (jono.tee) is a 22 year-old Afakasi Sāmoan living in central Auckland. He’s an artist and designer specialising in illustration and drawing.

Artist & designer Jonathan Thompson’s works. (Photo: Jonathan Thompson)

He says he found his passion for art at a young age and realised that drawing was something he could do for hours without getting bored. “I like to do things with my hands and I like how you can create your own restrictions to form your own unique look,” he says.

Thompson’s connection to the Raroboys came through his own creative collective. Finding himself in the same university class as two like-minded creatives, Desmond and Junior, the three freshmen soon became “Comboys”, a name inspired by the university common room. Thompson heard about Raroboys via Comboys and says it changed how he thought about his own collective. “Originally our goal was to take over, to be the best, but Raroboys have changed that mentality for us. Now it’s to uplift everyone.”

Having spent some time working at the Design Institute of New Zealand, Thompson says he can relate to Matautia’s comments about the lack of accessibility and exposure for young artists. He’s confident that much of the work being done by young local artists is of a similar standard to that which he saw at the institute, but a lack of opportunity means they struggle to get the exposure their work deserves. Thompson emphasises how impactful he found the “and friends” in the title of the Raroboys’ exhibition. “Shout out to Geoff and Raroboys forreal. Doing God’s work really. They didn’t have to include ‘Friends’, but they did.”

He also advocates for the impact that Raroboys are making at a grassroots level. “They mentor, they offer opportunities and they’ve even inspired one of the boys to go to university.” It’s clear that although the Raroboys collective is only four years old, their inspiration on the future landscape of New Zealand art and design will be huge as they continue to help young creatives participate in the arts.

Dallas

Dallas Matautia (alasvillany) a graphic design whiz, is still in high school at De La Salle College but his age puts no limit on his potential. “I had a YouTube channel with my cousins when we were younger,” Matautia shares with a proud smile. “We all had jobs, my brother was the photographer, I was the editor and my cousin did the drawings.”

(L-R) Dallas Matautia and his exhibition piece ‘bungas and beyond’. (Photo: Dallas Matautia)

I ask Matautia whether the world would look different if all kids had the same access to the digital resources he had as a kid. “I think the percentage of Pacific people who pursue the arts would be higher,” he says. 

Turns out it was art that connected Matautia to Raroboys. He and his best mate, Dante, were routine listeners of hip hop duo, Church & AP, and came across their posters. “We saw the posters for Church & AP and thought, who made that? That’s gangster.” They soon found out the designer was Raroboys co-founder Naik2G.

They began to follow Raroboys work on social media until they came across each other at Hayman Park, a memory Geoffery also recalls. From there, Dallas and his friends formed their own collective, Bodied

Matautia’s exhibition piece, ‘Bungas and Beyond’, is a replica of the famous photo of the first steps on the moon in 1969. But Matautia has added his own twist, swapping the American stars and stripes for a proud Sāmoan flag. “The piece was to show PI’s [Pacific Islanders] that they could do whatever the fuck they want,” he says. “Like, because we’re loud and proud, you can go to the moon, put the Sāmoan flag on the moon and come back.”

He recalls feeling really proud when he first saw his piece in the exhibition as it’s the first time he feels he’s been given recognition for something he’s good at. “Because, I’m not one for academics. I’m not great at English, I’m not good at maths. I’m not great at science. But, fuck, give me a mouse and keyboard and give me PhotoShop and I’ll run that shit up.” 

After noting that funding is essentially inaccessible to groups like Raroboys, Geoffery says that he chooses to create opportunities for young creatives because “I was one of these kids. I had cool ideas but I didn’t always have access to the right resources and people.” 

As a solution, Raroboys are becoming the right resource, they are becoming the people our youth can turn to. They exemplify the importance of using your platform to put people on the map and in doing so, inspire many around them to follow suit.

This is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.

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