mahana commune 2019

Posted on August 13, 2020 at 1:06 pm by / tornado sounds 1 hour / Cover story band net

""Might be better if you packed your bags now!" "He turns to Arthur and his voice is low, face tight with anger.

You want to teach me a lesson? "They want to teach the old cunt lesson? "Sometimes they come in handy, these old recipes," he murmurs. The rain sweeping through is the tail of Cyclone Donna.

"He doesn't have much in the way of relationships with other residents. He's been living alone for some time now.He is, it turns out, the local fire chief, heading up the volunteer squad. Just as the islands we stand on provide for us economically and define us as a nation, they are also scarred by history and our environment faces an uncertain future.

Sees us looking up at him, and waves slowly, then continues his way up the track.An abandoned caravan among the Manuka. Over the years, people have left their homes empty.

Fittingly, the average Gemini talks enough for two people, is incredibly two-faced, and loves two-timing others.Reached by VICE News, the police officer said he was posting in the Telegram group "Fuck Antifa" to "get people on the left and the right together. That's a pity. His partner weaves, and it's sweet with the smell of drying flax. I've got a school-age child here.

On his first ever visit to Mahana he says he had a "spiritual experience," sitting right here on the deck of the cookhouse. And then they wanted to move in here. "It's more everybody's got their own house.

With Temuera Morrison, Akuhata Keefe, Nancy Brunning, Jim Moriarty.

He seems confident that the meeting will rule in his favour, and it will mark the start of Mahana's return to openness and its former glory.

The property where these people were living, a lot of the stolen stuff got found on their property.

It used to be that if he opened a bottle, he'd polish it off in that sitting. Padding across the floorboards in velcro-strapped sandals.It's difficult to know how long the house has been abandoned. "Arthur's house is up a steep incline—106 steps, hand-dug and filled with concrete, each with a different ancient rune tiled into it.He points to one, a horizontal tile surrounded by ten squares. Arthur's got no children living here, no family here. "The knife that I pulled out of my back? Confronting yet gentle portraits of the New Zealand men and women who spend day in, day out, butchering animals.Lisa Kendall is the fourth female to make it to the grand final of Young Farmer of the Year in its 48-year history. Arthur chimes out. He's talking to himself now, seems to have forgotten there's anyone else there. "That's the man who burns down houses," Arthur says.The man reaches the top of the slope, and turns.

"We stopped these people moving in, and we've been slammed for that.

The rest of us can come home from whatever we've been doing, we've got our families in our homes.A vase of flowers lies where it's fallen, knocked over in an abandoned home. There's a coffee table with a candle, burned half the way down.

He's talking to himself now, seems to have forgotten there's anyone else there. "Since they stopped that group moving in, it's become a witch hunt, he says, a trial by social media, with Arthur taking his complaints to Facebook and past residents calling for those who took action to be turfed out. Upon the news that a women and two children were hoping to move into the community, another house, sitting empty, was ripped apart by a group of residents. "Arthur lives in a concrete igloo structure he built himself. He's called a meeting of all community members, past and present, to rule on whether Mahana stays open.
The plaster is chipping now. "Oh, I don't want to go into things. Other coverage for Rural Week will examine everything from a Maori family returning from the city to their marae, the effect of technology on farming, growing up in Kawerau and more.On the go and no time to finish that story right now? De-established," he says.I picture the ripped up floorboards, the smashed windows, the upturned couch."Deconstructed. De-established," he says.For some time, he says, some of the community have wanted to establish a two-tiered structure: people who don't live here but have signed the book, and then resident members. I think of all the things in retaliation I can do. It hasn't been used yet. The property where these people were living, a lot of the stolen stuff got found on their property. "Backstabber. Things change, I understand that. The rain sweeping through is the tail of Cyclone Donna.

"He doesn't have much in the way of relationships with other residents. Everything you can see, he points up the valley, everything up to the ridgeline, everything is Mahana. There are arguments over how open the community should stay, over who has a right to the empty houses.Some disputes escalated, became startling in their violence: two houses were burned down. I've got it at home and it's got your name on it. Your News is the place for you to save content to read later from any device.

Arthur chimes out. They're grey and brittle, wreathed in lichen.Over a small stream, you reach the old cookhouse, where the community used to share its meals. The outer layers have begun to crumble.Arthur lives in a kind of enormous igloo—built with mud bricks from the hillside, then reinforced with concrete as they started to crumble. Like I say, there's a lot of shit going on. "Inside the house, Arthur digs around for a bottle of home-brew.

"You might move here with your boyfriend, and then he's got his eye on another girl," he says.

About 20 people live here, and some of the homes sit empty.In old photos of Mahana, it's populated by families and crowds of people who came to join the commune.The fruit trees spotting the path are dead now, but he lists off what they used to grow: plum, pear, feijoa. You understand? That's the army symbol.

Some disputes escalated, became startling in their violence: two houses were burned down. It looks like an enraged medieval beast has ripped through. He doesn't have any family here. He was a fervent pro-legalisation campaigner and racked up a few pot convictions in police raids. Directed by Lee Tamahori. The house's owners have long since left.

"He is, it turns out, the local fire chief, heading up the volunteer squad. De-established," he says.I picture the ripped up floorboards, the smashed windows, the upturned couch."Deconstructed.