In this Mirror World,
this perpetual Freaky Friday,
where colonisers play victim,
and privilege is more sacred than our very Earth,
where guns outweigh the right to a child’s life,
and human rights language
becomes a weapon itself,
where freedom costs lives,
and democracy is bought,
and in the smithy of hate,
wrought into absurd parodies
some kind of Temu Liberty,
justice by Amazon.

But not like the river, no,
nor the forest.
More like that seismic survey vessel
that blasted our seabed in search of oil.
I remember…
when it rocked up to our shores, I thought
“E kii, e kii, Amazon Warrior.
You don’t deserve that name”,
but then I remembered
Amazon is a baptismal name
from a fearful conquistador
confronted by Indigenous women-warriors
on the banks of the mighty Xingu
whom he called Amazons.

And then I remembered
that in their Indigenous tongue,
Amassona means “boat destroyer”.

And thinking back, I remember
how so many said
that in the face of big oil
and Crown power,
there was nothing we could do.
So we prayed to our ancestors for help
and they sent the sharks
who gnarled on them seismic streamers
while we readied our canoe.

And I remember
The words of our people
who sent us to hunt it down
“You must do what our ancestors would have done”
“You must tell it to get out”

I remember,
when we caught up to it,
the sick seismic pulse beneath the deck
Every few seconds
Boom. Boom. Boom.
And so we told them to get out,
as our ancestors would have:
with haka,
we remembered them,
re-calling them
to our side,
and in that moment
we became all of our ancestors
and Tangaroa, too.
And we dwarfed. Their. Ship.
Drowned out their pulse
with our own seismic takahi
to tell Tangaroa
Kei kōnei tonu mātou, e ngunguru nei!
To tell Hinemoana
Ka whawhai tonu mātou, ake, ake, ake!

And I remember
the gift from Tāwhirimātea
of a cyclone
ironically named Cook
(that Atua sense of humour, though!)
And their Amazon Warrior boat fled,
lest it break.

And I remember
how Tāwhiri and Tangaroa
Bore us home safely in their embrace
And that broken-spirited boat never returned

I remember
Two years later, on my birthday celebration
Hearing they’d abandoned their operation
And handed back their licence
And Te Ikaroa was safe, HŪRŌ!

And I thought hmm…
Perhaps you did deserve that name.

In this Mirror World
This perpetual Freaky Friday
Where wrong is right
And peace demands we fight
Just remember when they declare the war won
That in the Mirror World this means
The battle has just begun.
Don’t ever be daunted by Empire
Just remember, across history
It has fallen, many times
To the power
of the righteous many

Remember our histories
Rejoice in our victories
Re-call our ancestors
For across time,
we are the righteous many.
And with our truth
We can shatter
Their Mirror World

(he mihi tēnei ki a Naomi Klein me ōna mahi nānā i ahu mai te whakaaro o te “mirror world”)