Liberation Library NZ

For our ākonga preparing to become social workers and practitioners, learning about social inequality is one thing. Hearing directly from people who fought for it – and who organised their communities to challenge the status quo – is another.

That opportunity came to Waitākere Campus earlier this month when Polynesian Panther Party members Lupematasila Associate Professor Melani Anae and Rev Alec Toleafoa were invited to speak to the Talanoa Pasifika class at School of Social Practice.

“Educate to Liberate”: Polynesian Panthers bring the struggle for equity to the lecture room for Social Practice students. – Unitec Polynesian Panthers members Associate Professor Melani Anae and Rev Alec Toleafoa shared firsthand experiences of social activism with future social workers. Learn more about the Talanoa Pasifika course that brought them to campus, and the importance of history in modern social practice here.

✊🏼💙✊🏽 Polynesian Panthers Niu Dawn Murals will feature as part of the Karangahape Road Art Weekend.
✊🏼 Saturday 19 September @ 1:00pm
✊🏽 Meet at Whakaako Kia Whakaora Educate to Liberate mural, Gundry st Carpark.
💙 Karangahape Art Weekend runs from September 18 to September 20, 2026, featuring live performances, sound art, moving image screenings, artist talks, guided tours, and workshops. Weblink for the three day event: (https://www.karangahaperoad.com/karangahape-art-weekend)
The schedule includes public art tours, including the Liberation Library Murals Tour led by Tigilau Ness and Chris McBride. Meeting at the Gundry Street carpark on Saturday, the tour covers Karangahape Road's murals and the history of the Polynesian Panthers, including their activism around the Dawn Raids, housing, education, and social justice. ✊🏼💙✊🏽
Karangahape Art Weekend 18–20 September 2026
Friday Late Night 5pm - 9pm / Saturday 11am - 3pm / Sunday 11am - 3pm - FREE EVENT
☀️ After the mural kōrero, head on down to the "March for Nature" (https://www.marchfornature.nz/) rally at Te Komititanga which leaves from Albert Park around 1:30pm.

Three-day art takeover set to transform Auckland’s Karangahape Road Karangahape Art Weekend runs from September 18 to September 20, 2026, featuring live performances, sound art, moving image screenings, artist talks, guided tours, and workshops.

"If you’re interested in transforming society, you need to understand it."

The Young Lords: A Radical History, a deeply researched history of one of the most vibrant and fascinating social movements of the 20th century.

From their origins as a Chicago street gang in the early ’60s, the Young Lords became an effective grassroots radical movement, the Puerto Rican counterpart to the Black Panthers. They helped produce an early version of the “patient’s bill of rights” in medicine, organized lead testing for children, protested inadequate garbage collection, and demonstrated a model of how to fight for the rights and dignity of a marginalized community. Though short-lived, the Young Lords offer a great many lessons for those in our own time who want to work on the same kinds of issues.

When Fred Hampton (Black Panther Party) heard about the Young Lords, who were Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, he thought this was a real coalition that could be called the Rainbow Coalition. The Rainbow Coalition was a coalition of people at the bottom of society coming together across racial lines. He called on Black Americans in the Black Panther Party, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans in the Young Lords, and poor whites from Appalachia in the Young Patriots to come together to fight against poverty and for their common interests as working class and poor people. That political transformation came about by the Black Panthers, but also the intervention of housing activists and many others who came together and transformed the Young Lords from a gang into a political organization and also into the university of kids who had dropped out of high school. It became a school where people read, debated, and discussed the root causes of social problems, the origins of racism in the United States, and a strategy for transforming society for the better.

Lessons in Organizing from The Young Lords Historian of social movements Johanna Fernández explains what we can learn from the Puerto Rican counterpart to the Black Panther Party.

The Black Panther Party Heritage Trail in Illinois is a place-based public history project that teaches the Illinois Chapter’s history through significant sites during its active years, 1968–1974. The inaugural trail includes thirteen sites across Chicago and Peoria.

This statewide project spans multiple neighborhoods, cities, and counties. Explore sites at your own pace as the trail grows and you visit different parts of Illinois. The Heritage Trail combines historical markers with digital materials to preserve and share the history of the Illinois Chapter and its impact. The Historical Marker Program is underway, and each site will be updated once installation is complete.

Black Panther Party Heritage Trail in Illinois Explore the Black Panther Party Heritage Trail in Illinois, a place-based public history project documenting significant sites associated with the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party.

New Dawn Raids resource published
Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage has announced the release of a new online resource which shares stories, videos and personal accounts about the Dawn Raids. Hosted on the NZ History website, Understanding Dawn Raids features over 200 resources of various formats and perspectives, giving New Zealanders new ways to engage with this important chapter in our history.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/understanding-dawn-raids

More than 65% of the members of the Black Panther Party were women. Women of all ages, many of them young—teenagers, even. They taught at community schools, registering voters, handing out free food and running free medical clinics.

‘Comrade Sisters’ elevates the women of the Black Panther Party ‘Comrade Sisters’ elevates the women of the Black Panther Party: New museum exhibition preserves history through photos and stories.

Solidarity Forever! The Union Makes You Strong!

☘️Cumhacht na ndaoine 💙Power To The People ✊🏼
✊🏼💙 Polynesian Panthers 💙 55 Years 💙✊🏼