Mere Montgomery speaks about her involvement with the
Polynesian Panthers. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.
For Dunedin woman Mere Montgomery, today is the chance to
meet one of the men behind a movement which has helped shape
her life.
Emory Douglas, the official artist of the United States'
Black Panther Party and its first and only Minister of
Culture, is in Dunedin today to speak at the Dunedin Public
Art Gallery about the art of revolution.
Mr Douglas is the Elam International Artist in Residence at
The University of Auckland.
In the 1970s Mrs Montgomery became involved with the New
Zealand Polynesian Panthers, a group which sought to emulate
the work done in the social justice area by its American
counterpart.
When the group started in Auckland, Mrs Montgomery, who now
works for a Government social work agency, was still in high
school, but was acutely aware of the social injustice which
faced many Pacific Island immigrants to New Zealand.
The group set up homework centres to help disadvantaged youth
from, what were at the time, the poor suburbs of Grey Lynn
and Ponsonby.
It accessed legal aid, before legal aid was officially set
up, took elderly women to visit family and visited prisoners
at Mt Eden and Paremoremo.
In 1973 Mrs Montgomery moved to Dunedin to study law and
started the Dunedin Polynesian Panthers, becoming distracted
from her degree with the pull towards social justice.
The group had about 10 dedicated members who would visit
prisoners, organise legal aid and who set up an education
centre in Burns Hall.
Mrs Montgomery said Maori and Pacific Islanders in Dunedin
soon came to recognise her "afro" hair and that she was the
woman to go to for help.
She said the group was aware it was watched by the SIS and
scrutinised by police, who would make friends with her pakeha
flatmates so they could get close to her.
People accused her of inciting "racial disharmony" but she
became known as an advocate for people throughout the city.
The group "petered out" when Mrs Montgomery was married.
Emory Douglas and Fiona Jack of the Elam School of Art,
University of Auckland, will speak at 3pm today.
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