The Margins Review · Culture-Centered Approach

When parliament defines a woman, whose woman are they defining? The Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill has passed its first reading in our parliament, with National and ACT lining up behind New Zealand First to write into Aotearoa's law that a woman is "an adult human biological female" and a man "an adult human biological male." Jenny Marcroft, the MP whose name the bill carries, told the House that what it means to be a woman is "under attack," and that this legislation will deliver clarity and consistency by reflecting reality in the language of our laws. Winston Peters framed the bill as Aotearoa "catching up" to the United Kingdom's Supreme Court. New Zealand First vowed to fight what it calls " cancerous social engineering " and "woke ideology." This is the script. The same script, almost word for word, that the transnational far right has been circulating through its ecosystem for ...

  When the "lone blogger" amplifies the far right: Ani O'Brien, Tommy Robinson, and the mainstreaming of Islamophobic conspiracy in Aotearoa By Mohan J. Dutta Yesterday in central London, tens of thousands of supporters of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — better known as Tommy Robinson — packed Parliament Square as he asked them: "Are you ready for the Battle of Britain?" The framing was deliberate. The "Battle of Britain" invokes wartime mythology of national survival against an existential foreign enemy. In the grammar of the contemporary far right, that enemy is Muslims. As the BBC reported , the rally extended a militant trajectory that began with September's 150,000-strong "Unite the Kingdom" march, at which Elon Musk told the crowd by video link: "Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or die." This is the political ecology in which I want to situate a question that is increasingly ...

  "I Need to Hang": Wāhine Māori MPs Testify of Extremist Violence at the Waitangi Tribunal. The Free Speech Union's Council Member Calls Them Buffoons. Mohan J Dutta Dean's Chair Professor of Communication · Director, Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE) Massey University · Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa · Aotearoa New Zealand 15 May 2026 I. The juxtaposition I want to place two things side by side this week, because I think the juxtaposition does most of the work the analysis needs to do. On one side , the evidence given to the Waitangi Tribunal's Mana Wāhine Kaupapa Inquiry over the past five days by wāhine Māori in political leadership. Three news pieces document what was said. RNZ's Pokere Paewai , under the headline "'The violence that I experience is not casual': Māori women tell Waitangi Tribunal of abuse," reported the testimony of Green MP Tamatha Paul. The Post , under the headline "'Ri...

  From the "Remigration Clause" to "Hung untill death": Dane Giraud, the Petition, and the White Supremacist Lineage of the Hanging Threat Mohan J Dutta   On the evening of 10 May 2026, Dane Giraud — sitting Council member of the Free Speech Union and host of the Free To Speak podcast — posted a selectively cropped screenshot of a single sentence I had written on X, paired with a sarcastic invention: a fictional "remigration clause for quarrelsome local folk of European descent" that I had supposedly authored. The post excised the actual context — a Catholic-integralist account self-aligned with Nick Fuentes had told me to "go home" — and substituted a fabricated charge that I was advocating racial-removal policy. It reached roughly 2,700 views, 143 likes, 29 reposts, 37 replies within 14 hours. Two days later, on 12 May 2026, an account styled " The Anglo Saxon (Ngati Æthelstan) " — an account whose handle laundered Māori gramm...