Samoan community in Dunedin responds to measles cartoon

Transcript

Barry Stewart and the paper's chief executive Grant McKenzie met on Thursday morning with members of Dunedin's Samoan Community to start the healing process caused by Garrick Tremain's piece.
 
Members say the acknowledgement of racism by the paper allowed them to start moving forward with ifoga, forgiveness and healing.
 
Community activist Sina Brown-Davis says Mr Stewart apologised again for the cartoon and accepted the hurt it caused to Samoan people world-wide.
 
"I was actually relieved to finally hear from the editor's mouth that he referred to the cartoon as racism. So I thought, that was a good thing."
 
A local councillor, Marie Laufiso, was at the meeting as part of the community.

"After listening to us all speak, Mr Stewart acknowledged the racism of the publication and the cartoon and he didn't dwell on it but it was great to hear him acknowledge it."
 
However, Barry Stewart says he didn't acknowledge the Garrick Tremain cartoon as racist saying instead it was insensitive.
 
But he did say that if the community took that from the meeting, he would not challenge it.
 
The paper and its editor have been criticised firstly for publishing the cartoon and again for their cursory apology for it but Barry Stewart's revised version is more contrite.
 
"We take allegations of racism extremely seriously, and we are urgently looking at ways to provide our staff with training around cultural intelligence and unconscious bias."
 
The paper and its very white, very male management have drawn much criticism for Tremain's cartoon portrayals of various minority groups, particularly Tangata Whenua, Pasifika and women.
 
This week, Dunedin's mayor Aaron Hawkins joined the chorus calling for change at the paper with an open letter endorsed by councillors including Marie Laufiso.

"Mr Tremain's forays into unreconstructed commentary aren't new, but this week's effort - making fun of dying children in Samoa - is surely the straw that breaks the camel's back."
 
The mayor has called for more inclusive editorial voices on the ODT pages, that punch up rather than down.
 
The paper promised the start of this on Thursday with the inclusion of an editorial written by the Dunedin's Samoan community.
 
Councillor Laufiso says they're still hurting and upset.
 
"But they also want us to get on with the real business of assisting Samoa in dealing with the crisis and for a lot of people, it's kind of been a distraction but then this is just another example of every day racism that we have to live with."
 
Community activist Sina Brown-Davis says the paper has agreed to some concrete actions to demonstrate the sincerity of their apology.
 
She says the community will be making some recommendations to the paper over the coming week as to how it can help with the crisis in Samoa.