In this newsletter:
- The latest storms
- XR in Kirikiriroa
- Climate actions that you can be a part of
- Vote 2026
- Latest news about the climate crisis
- Extinction Rebellion News
- Matike Mai
Firstly our hearts go out to the bereaved whānau from the latest fatal storms.
XR follows the science. Ongoing more frequent, higher intensity storms with related flooding, droughts, fires has long been predicted. Our hearts go out to the bereaved whānau in these latest storms.
We hear with extreme sadness from Professor James Renwick that these effects are locked in for centuries. They are worsening. But that we can minimise these climate extreme events by dropping our greenhouse emissions urgently. But to return to the stable environment we have lived in for centuries will require research into and development of greenhouse gas extraction technology. Until this technology is developed we only have trees and forests to hold excessive carbon in the atmosphere.
Tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa
A huge welcome to all the people who signed up at the Big Gay Out. We had so much fun with a roster system to have someone on the stall all day. We were inundated with people. Thanks to a collab with 350 we had the petition for a national energy. So many people joined XR.
Kirikiriroa Hamilton
Excitingly we had a huge interest from people living in Kirikiriroa Hamilton. We are developing a chapter. First get together is Friday March 27th 11-2 pm. Venue TBA. There will be a zoom option. Contact is Catharine. Contact is text: 0226709819
CLIMATE ACTIONS YOU CAN BE PART OF
The biggest protest opportunity: VOTE 2026
The coalition government are climate/science deniers. They are actively increasing our dependency on fossil fuels for our energy, transport and given the agricultural sector permission to go slow on emissions. The cost of living is increasing with non-renewable energy centrally controlled, minimal intercity public transport, removal of the EV private transport subsidy. Droughts and floods increasing food costs.
Let’s get a government that will help us have communities/society that works for us, works for Papatūānuku. Nearly 1 million of us didn’t vote last election, allowing the coalition. Let’s not let this happen again.
Ensure you whanau/family/friends are enrolled: https://vote.nz/2026-general-election/about/overview
If they are 18 between the enrolment cut off date and the election they can enrol now and vote.
People who moved overseas in the last three years can vote.
People who live overseas who visited in the last three years, can vote
See here for key dates: https://vote.nz/2026-general-election/about/key-dates
O Weeks
Thursday February 26th we were at AUT Orientation. We ran out of electoral enrolment forms! We celebrated over 100 people already enrolled with the sticker below
Wednesday March 5th we are at UoA Clubs Day. Meet 11.30 by the Albert Park Fountain.
We are unofficial, mix ‘n’ mingle, holding two placards: Enrol here to Register to vote Nov 2026; And Protect Papatūānuku. We celebrate everyone who is already enrolled presenting them with the sticker below.
We are going frequently to other places such at Komititanga Sq,. K’Rd festivals etc. Do you know of a community festivals, markets and the like where XR can be encouraging people to get on the electoral roll and to vote
Tauiwi Tautoko – challenging racism
1st of March
As we work together building a movement in our bi-multicultural pluralistic society we need to increase our awareness of how we can inadvertently be exclusive. this is an excellent course stepping us towards higher inclusiveness.
Tauiwi Tautoko (non-Māori in support) trains tauiwi (non-Māori) to tautoko (support) Te Tiriti transformation by challenging anti-Māori racism from within tauiwi communities. Over 8 weeks volunteers learn and practice a set of proven strategies from the anti-racist toolkit to ‘call in’ racist comments and gently challenge and change racist views online.
If you are interested in anti-racism and keen to add tools to your kete (basket), a new Tauiwi Tautoko cohort for tauiwi pākehā is starting soon, on 1 March 2026.
Sign up here! https://www.tauiwitautoko.com/contact
Ecofest
22 March
Join the myriad of workshops helping us to Take The Jump https://www.takethejump.org.nz/ With less stuff and more joy in our lives as we transition to a low carbon society.
March 22 at Pt Chevalier Community Centre.
XR Workshop focuses on political change to get the big changes of a post carbon society: Transport, agriculture, energy – the big polluters limiting our effectiveness in the transition. We depend on people power. Thus the XR workshop is making placards for the next protest!
Enjoy a hands-on workshop, together dreaming up slogans, making placards and maybe even a banner. Design badges and stickers. Take your placard home for the next protest march/rally/picket. Let XR use your design. Best of all enjoy being with like-minded people equally concerned about the climate and wanting to get more effective action.
26 of June: The Reality of Everything Symposium
https://realityofeverything.org/
9.30 – 5 pm Rutherford House, Pipitea Campus, Victoria University of Wellington
The Reality of Everything Symposium is a one-day, in-person event bringing together leading experts to lay out what is actually happening, especially as it affects Aotearoa New Zealand, and to help build the foundations for informed, collective action.
XR is hopeful that this Symposium could be part of the catalyst for a wider movement for effective change.
21 to the 26 of March – Tiriti Based Futures
Te Tiriti-based futures + Anti-racism is an innovative online and off-line, anti-racism and decolonisation event in Aotearoa. Based around the Te Tiriti, this event seeks to teach and inform people on how Aotearoa can move forward into a more inclusive future. Sign up below!
https://www.tiritibasedfutures.info/about
Climate news
The government’s plan to abolish the Environmental Ministry has gone largely unreported in the media. The plan to create a ‘Mega Ministry’ which would absorb the current Environmental Ministry is a worrying sign of possible things to come.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/25/new-zealand-plan-to-abolish-environment-ministry
Ecocide
Changes to how cases of ecocide could be prosecuted could herald change for protecting natural spaces and preventing habitat and species loss.
https://earth.org/uk-intelligence-services-just-made-the-case-for-criminalizing-ecocide/
Waiheke
Native birds are returning to Waiheke! With the help of dogs which have been given special new training …
Extinction Rebellion News
Saturday Feb 28th XR were guests at the Palestinian rally. Two activists joined the speakers today at an Auckland protest over Israel’s genocide and ecocide in Gaza and occupied Palestine, condemning the “apocalyptic” assault on both people and their living environment.
Adam made strong casual links between the ecocide we are experiencing and the genocide in Gaza. Thanks to Dave Robie for this article:
Matike Mai
Extinction Rebellion’s Third Demand is Kai Muri o te Awe Māpara/Go Beyond Politics, advocating constitutional change by means of citizens’ assemblies, which of course closely resemble the wānanga process often followed by marae.
And here’s our Fourth Demand: Whakamanatia te Whenua/Restore the Mana of the Land, requiring the government to “urgently implement Te Tiriti o Waitangi 1840 (including recognition of He Whakaputanga 1835 and active protection of hapū sovereignty and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [UNDRIP] as critical for climate, ecological and social restoration and justice”.
There’s an excellent Māori-run course available which can help the wider public of Aotearoa understand these concepts.
https://matikemai.maori.nz/ gives details of a free wānanga of 6 monthly 1.5-hour (approx.) zooms, where small groups of attendees freely discuss the Working Group Report of Māori deliberations over several years on the constitutional transformation of Aotearoa. The reading material, approx. 150 pages, is divided so you read a portion for each zoom.
Its scope and generosity are moving and transformative. It asks for a willingness to examine concepts that in some cases may be unfamiliar.
For a detailed explanation of wānanga, please see
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