More graffiti has appeared on Ōwairaka/Mt Albert, just two weeks after words hitting out at the chair of Auckland’s Tūpuna Maunga Authority appeared. Days after a protest camp was removed, the words “Majurey lies”, referencing TMA chair Paul Majurey, were spray painted on the maunga’s toilet block. The group of tents was set up by protest group Honour the Maunga, who have been occupying the maunga since November in opposition to plans to cut down 345 non-native trees on the mountain. Now, a large Star of David symbol with a dollar sign has appeared in the car park in front of the toilet block, the phrase “WAI”, another dollar sign and “5G” appearing on the block itself. At the time of the first attack, Honour the Maunga’s Anna Radford denied it was responsible for the graffiti and said it was “abhorrent”.
The Tūpuna Maunga Authority (TMA), which co-governs Ōwairaka/Mt Albert with Auckland Council, plans to replace the trees with about 13,000 native trees and plants. Majurey said the repeated anti-Semitic and “supremacist use” of the Star of David and other symbols showed the protest group had lost control of its campaign and it had taken a dangerous turn – regardless of whether it was directly responsible for the graffiti. He said “WAI” is a common prefix on records for Treaty of Waitangi settlements and the circle encased in a triangle is similar to the Eye of Providence, often used by conspiracy theorists to represent the all-seeing eye of God. The use of “5G” could be linked to an online hoax linking 5G phone networks coronavirus, many of which have seen cell phone tower’s vandalised. Honour the Maunga once again denied responsibility for the “nonsensical” graffiti. “It looks like a bizarre and ham-fisted way to make us look bad. Why would we be so stupid to paint something like that, right by our base?,” Radford said. “Does someone think we’d be silly enough to do that?”
She described the graffiti as “ridiculous” and said it had “all the feel of someone trying to set us up here”. “There is no more proof someone sympathetic to our cause or that somebody sympathetic to the authority did it to make us look bad.”Councillor Alf Filipaina, deputy chair of the authority, also condemned the latest attack.
“Hate speech has no place in our society, yet we have seen this increase as the protest group continues to provoke their following with misinformation and messaging that undermines the Treaty of Waitangi settlement that returned the Maunga to the iwi of Marutūāhu, Ngāti Whātua and Waiohua,” he said. “The ‘5G’ reference in the graffiti is one example of the bizarre conspiracy theories that are being fuelled. They claim the authority is planning on placing 5G towers on the Maunga as a way to make money.” Radford had three words in response to Filipaina’s claims: “For God’s sake.”
