Polynesian Panthers: A revolutionary, a reverend and a vege truck
Tuesday, 22 June 2021
A group of revolutionaries refused to let a belligerent state treat Pasifika as second-class citizens. But while the Polynesian Panthers devotion to change took a dark road, Brad Flahive and Alex Liu reveal for some it was also a path that led to spiritual enlightenment.
As a young student at Auckland’s Mt Albert Grammar, Wayne Toleafoa got noticed by his afro.
He also stood out because he was born in Aotearoa to Samoan parents.
So, while attending a traditional middle-class Pākehā school in the early 70s, Toleafoa was targeted for racial abuse.
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When a group of older students banned a friend because the soccer field was for whites only, Toleafoa stood up to them.
But it was not just the students he had to look out for – the school’s faculty also wanted its Polynesian students to keep to its monocultural clock.
At 16, seeking an outlet for his frustration, Toleafoa joined the Polynesian Panther Party and found an organised way to find his voice.
However, he was about to find those in charge weren’t ready to accept those who spoke out.
Toleafoa was part of the school’s liberal studies course, and it was during a democracy forum, he and fellow Panther Ta Iuli invited an exciting young activist to speak.
But after hearing the news, the headmaster stepped in and refused to let the activist onto school grounds.
The Panther duo defied school orders and rallied the class to assemble off campus where they could listen to what their unwanted guest had to say.
It was there on the backfield, resembling an Argentine revolutionary figure with his patchy beard and flowing hair, Sir Tim Shadbolt stood atop a vege truck to espouse his views of the world.
“He looked like Che Guevara up on the truck,” recalled Wayne Toleafoa, a former Panther who took part in Stuff’s latest podcast, Once a Panther.
Once a Panther is funded by NZ on Air and details the work of the Polynesian Panther Party, a New Zealand-based activist group inspired by the Black Panthers in the United States.
The stunt got Toleafoa suspended and the now Invercargill mayor arrested.
“I got arrested for saying b……t in a public place,” Shadbolt told Stuff.
Shadbolt was prominent in the Progressive Youth Movement, a radical left-wing organisation, and had been arrested dozens of times during political protests.
He refused to pay the ensuing fine and spent two weeks in jail. The incident would influence the title of his 1971 autobiography B……t & Jellybeans.
The pair would cross paths often during the 1970s.
At that time, New Zealand was hurtling towards a bitter clash as a post-war generation was desperate to halt an invasion of baby boomer ideologies.
“You never knew what was going to happen next, but it was an exhilarating time to be a part of this cultural expression,” Shadbolt said.
“We were saying we are all a part of this city [Auckland].”
Toleafoa worked with Shadbolt and other activist groups to successfully force landlords to treat its tenants fairly; they organised free bus visits to Auckland’s Paremoremo Prison; their food co-op brought affordable groceries to the then working-class suburbs of Ponsonby and Grey Lynn.
“Man, they stood out in a crowd, and they were so effective with what they did,” Shadbolt said.
“The Panthers had far greater numbers than you would’ve thought – six Panthers were arrested at Bastion Point, not many would necessarily know that.”
Toleafoa was the Panthers’ minister of information but is now a minister of a different kind. He is the reverend at St Columba’s Presbyterian Church in Havelock North.
But before donning the clergy’s attire, he tried the fit of other uniforms.
He went to Samoa to teach before returning to Aotearoa and joining the police.
“My brother, who was a police officer, put his helmet on me and said you’d look good as a police officer,” Toleafoa said.
“Little did I know I would be coming out at the most exciting time ever.”
It was 1981.
The country would experience the closest thing to civil war since the New Zealand Wars.
Deciding on a career in blue meant he would have to confront his panther brothers in black protesting against apartheid.
“My father was anti-tour, and he told my brother and me that we couldn’t sit on the fence; we had to choose a side,” Toleafoa recalled.
“I told him: ‘we’re not sitting on the fence, Dad, we are the fence between the rugby supporters and the protestors.”
After a short police career, Toleafoa returned to theological studies to become a minister, taking charge of parishes up and down the country – including a stint as the Navy chaplain.
He spent ten years preaching tolerance at a parish in Auckland’s Mt Albert, just one kilometre away from the school that suspended him for trying to enlighten his fellow students.
His brother Alec Toleafoa also became a minister after his time in the Polynesian Panthers.
“I’ve always felt the best form of protest is to be successful,” Toleafoa said.
“I don’t know if I’ve been successful, but I’ve tried to live by that and show the next generation what’s possible.”
The first five episodes of Once a Panther can be found on Stuff or through podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or via an RSS feed.