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”)