Try Revolution

Thanks Leanne for allowing this fantastic film to be aired in this way. I have told my Year 12 students to check it out in order to help them with one of our themes for this year which is racism and how it becomes a part of the fabric of communities through misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Not only that, I enjoyed watching this film as well as Merata Mita's Patu because, like many others, I was involved in these protests and actually made it to the fence at Athletic park during the protest against the 2nd (?) test there - the same park my father once played against the Springboks as a Wellington Universities loose forward and won! I was 21 at the time and a good friend of my sister's was one of the HART organisers. I remember her bringing a black South African man to our house in Lower Hutt (it may have been Andrew Molotsane - I'm not sure?) and that my father was not very happy about that! He always said we had to play against the Boks because they were such terrible cheats and we just had to 'beat the bastards!' But he did come around in the end, realising that the tour was wrong. I was bashed with a long baton by a very big fat cop that day in Rintoul Street even though I was just walking past him and off the property we had 'stormed' as a part of 'Brown Squad' - the so-called kamikaze squad of protesters who had to run down the street and through the properties that backed onto the park. Being bashed like that really made me wake up to the fact that this struggle was a real and legitimate one. But watching these two films makes me aware of just how naive and ignorant of the deeper reasons for this movement I was back then.

I'll never forget being called a nigger lover for opposing the tour. Funny thing is, you can't find anyone who was pro tour these days.

I was 19 and went on all but 3 of the Wellington marches. This far down the years I have no regrets. Meeting Tutu was like meeting Martin Luther King.

The film is available on DVD and can be purchased from the Filmshop (click on 'buy' tab below and to the right of the player), or from the makers' website: http://www.spacific.co.nz/buy-docos/.

Agreed! Has it even been released on DVD? The 1981 Tour is bing studied at my kids' high school, and they're looking for source material. This documentary looks extremely relevant and interesting. But I can't find it anywhere...