Brown Brother

Brown Brother
Speech
Joshua Iosefa

Brown Brother is about a young pacific islander Joshua Iosefa a prefect from Mount Roskill Grammar School who talks about how proud he is to be an islander and explains why his culture is really important to him as a young Pacific Islander. He talks about the Polynesians and Maori's coming together as one to keep moving forward instead of staying behind. He talks about the lifestyle of a Pacific Islander where most people don't fancy maths, english and science than p.e or music because they love that more than the other subjects they take in school. Other than that this speech is very strong, it explains a lot about describing everything that's brown to himself also the people from his community as Pacific Islanders.

One idea in this speech was the perseverance he has toward his kind because him joining the 1st XV and expecting himself to not make it in the team without motivating himself, although he has support from his family and friends to help him strive for the best in what he can do in the school also in the team. An example of which he says he cannot play rugby is when he quotes "who needs to be able to quote Shakespeare when they can play rugby", meaning that you do not need to be intelligent or smart to be able to play rugby, it does not matter if your white or brown, because everyone is equal.

A word that Intrigued me in this speech was Heritage. Because everything that is brown around him describes his heritage for instance he says "Brown like the bark of the palm tree that supports my heritage. Brown like the table of which my family sits and eats upon. Brown like the paper bag containing burgers and fries by which my people consume etc" this means that everything that he is compose to and what his people inherit in the form of their culture that has a meaning to it. His background is based on stereotypes given by individuals of society, therefore they live in a life of discrimination by the opposite race. "Whenever someone tries to breach my comfort zone or whenever I don't have anything else to say in defence and an argument im going to say that "you're a racist", that your words are a mockery in my skin tone and my color." this means that if the opposite race dares to breach our comfort zone we are gonna say what we think about the situation in hand.

A message or one thing I learnt after reading this text was where he says "For where you go, you take us with you. Brown Brother, do not be afraid to be the first, the first to graduate, the first to climb, the first prime minister, or the first good wife-brown brother, do not be afraid to be the change. Not in skin tone or color, but a change in mindset. From one brown brother to another." he has the mindset to change everything around him and the society he lives in. We live in a world where racism occurs where the opposite race claims to be superior than the rest.

Dawn Raids Response

Dawn Raids

Oscar Knightly

Play

Dawn Raids is about a pacific island family who is getting harassed by the Labour Department. It is also about the struggles pacific island families had to go through that time when racism was occurred in New Zealand 1976. The struggles the over-stayers had to go through was hard for them to cope with each other especially trying to hide from the Labour Department.

A challenge a character faced in this play was Fuarosa. She handled it by disobeying rules and orders her family have given her. Fuarosa herself is an over-stayer she was hidden in the house away from the Labour Department where they get the police force to search for over-stayers. But one night Fuarosa went out of the house To'aga let Teresa to take Fuarosa out to look for Sione to tell him the big news she was waiting to tell him privately, when they got back home they are caught by Teresa's dad. In scene 11 page 58 a quotation that explains the way Mose felt towards Teresa is "I've had enough of you treating this place like a hotel. You come and go as you please. You don't care about the rules and when i try and tell you, you laugh like its a big joke." This helps me understand that Teresa disobeys her dad and the rules he has set for her as she is a over-stayer herself but instead of looking after herself she is taking care of Fuarosa instead because teenagers back then had to hide from the authorities where as now we have freedom to walk around the streets of Auckland but there are some Islanders that come from the pacific islands that don't have New Zealand citizenship still have to stay hidden away from the authorities.

The most exciting part was when in the first  few scenes it was talking about how they were really careful with Fuarosa setting her rules about not going outside because they don't want her to get caught by the authorities and without the palagi's laughing at her because of the clothes they are wearing. Then when it came to the middle and the ending part of the story it got interesting with the authorities getting more involved with the over-stayers not noticing that their always around watching their every move that they were making. I found it interesting because racism has always been in the story where the islanders get harassed by the palagi's, the police and also the Labour Department especially for them having no freedom to walk the streets of Auckland-Ponsonby. A scene that made me thought of racism is when the police officer says to Bene and Teresa in scene 9 page 51; "Alright. I'll let you off with a warning but can recommend that since you's both don't look like kiwi's, that you get passports and carry them around for when this happens again". This made me feel bad about the islanders because they are always getting picked on by the palagi's and the police because no matter what color they are, they are always gonna be apart of New Zealand and everywhere else where racism is located because they are exactly like everyone else and that is being "HUMAN".

After reading this text it made me think about the way Pacific Islanders has been struggling living in New Zealand and trying to hide from the Labour Department just because they haven't had a New Zealand Citizenship or Passport. It also taught me that in 1976 pacific islanders such as over-stayers were always kept inside away from the Police and the Labour Department because they had no freedom to walk around the streets but when you compare now a days to back then we have freedom to walk around the streets of Auckland. This made me realize that if i was there in the 1970's i would be kicked out of this country in no time but i am really glad to have freedom to walk around because if i haven't i wouldn't of have made many good friends right now without freedom i would be just a joke to palagi's.