SAVE ORATIA
In this next installment we see Watercare abdicate their role as facilitator of the process, abandoning the leadership of the discussion to the community and the politicians. Let’s see how that works out for them!
This chapter took longer to get up than expected, my apologies for the delay. As previously, 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 second public meeting of 1 March 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.
Chapter 2, March 2017
To be continued…