SAVE ORATIA
In February 2017 our peaceful existence in the Oratia Valley in Auckland was rudely shattered by a leaflet drop in the next road. Our neighbours over the ridge discovered that the local water utility, Watercare, had designs on their land for a large scale water treatment plant. Up to 30 families would have their homes bulldozed if it goes ahead. Many of the families affected have been there for a long time, some for 6 generations and well over a hundred years. As I walked down our drive and looked over the ridge through the Kauri forest with our Tui’s, Kereru, and Ruru, I tried to imagine an industrial complex on that site. I couldn’t do it.
My wife Moira attended the first meeting of the alarmed community on one of the affected properties. 250 people turned up. Watercare had given very short notice for the first public meeting which would take place the following week. 700 people turned up and we were there. A week later the second public meeting took place and 1000 people turned up and again we were there. In an astonishing show of bad faith, Watercare didn’t come as promised to their second meeting, pulling out just 48 hours beforehand.
The meetings were recorded and have earned thousands of views, but watching the videos is many hours of long work. I figured a comic might be another way of getting our story out. Normally I would draw my comics, but this story is moving much too fast for that, so I have resorted to using photographs instead.
This comic is the story of my experience of what is happening in my community of Oratia. It is not officially endorsed by the Oratia Heritage Society in any way, although they are free to use and share it if they wish, as is anyone else who wants to. Any views expressed are my own. I have had to take certain liberties with what people actually said in order to fit words onto pages. People have therefore had their quotes shortened, paraphrased, cut and hacked, grammar marks have been inserted and I have even changed the order in which things have been said. I also had to leave many people out altogether, apologies. I have tried to be faithful to what I perceived as people’s intent with what they said, but I may have misheard people. If so, please get in touch. To be clear, this story is not an attempt at journalism. If it is journalism you are looking for, then I humbly suggest this is not the place to find it. If you disagree with what I have put into my story, that is of course your perfect right, and you also have the perfect right to put up your own version of events. However, please do not expect me to justify or alter my actual experiences in order to suit any opposing points of view. My version of the story does not alter the public record. A full recording of the first public meeting of 21 February 2017 can be found here courtesy of The Western Leader.
I wish to offer my thanks to all of the contributing photographers who have allowed the use of their images either by direct consent or by making their images available license free. Any copyright ownership of these images remains with the original creators. If I have made any errors in this regard, or with attribution, please contact me to get any issues fixed.
I think it is fair to say that I’m a reluctant activist. I have only ever attended 2 protests in my life, both in recent times. I am sorry to say that it is time to get involved and I can see that in the near future I will be attending many more protests. if there is one thing that motivates me it is that I react very badly to bullying. This has bully tactics written all over it. I don’t know exactly how this story is going to end, but I am optimistic. Shaun Craill,
Chapter 1, February 2017.
To be continued…