Crumbling Victorian concrete falls to the ground.
The crunch of rubble, levelling histories to dust.
All this is “progress”, “a bright opportunity” and “good for the economy”.
Yeah, but for who?
Those who live there? The communities forged from years of migration?
Those who take pride in the shape and feel of their own unique milieu?
It seems, no.
Look closer and you’ll find a hidden clue - the quietly mouthed magic word: “apartments”.
It won’t be long before a weekly shop will need a pay-day loan.
Or the late night fish supply shop turns into a swishy niche café.
WINZ offices relocating to where its denizens have been priced off to.
Meanwhile the newly whiter-than-whitewash feel of our once beloved suburbs,
present themselves as bastions of modernity and “progress”.
What lies in the rubble is not just dust, it’s the debris of pākehā civility.
Written in response to the (near) demolition of the original Stewart Dawson shop on the corner of Lambton Quay & Willis Street in Wellington. Now reduced to nothing more than a façade waiting on whatever ugly modern lump is placed against.
Glossary:
Fish Supply Shop - Cross between a fishmonger and a fish & chip shop.
WINZ - Welfare benefits office.
Pākehā - Māori word for European settlers & their culture.
