Korero Toi: P. Walters

COLUMN | ISSUE FIVE | PUORO O AOTEAROA / LOCAL MUSIC

By P. Walters | Contributor

I never liked getting my haircut as a child. I don’t remember when that started, maybe 5 or 6. I don’t know why - I just didn’t like it. The whole thing. The drive there. Getting out of the car. Walking into whichever cursed place, Salon or Barber. It need not matter - for my crown is sacred. I never minded growing my hair out - but no one asked me what I wanted. 

This is the first time in my life that I have long hair. Like long, long hair, like it is touching my ass, and I’m a tall motherfucker. This is the most I’ve felt like myself. 

I wish I had been taught how to love and protect my hair growing up, but I am learning this all now. 

“I CANNOT HIDE WHO I AM. DO NOT HIDE WHO YOU ARE" - Lady Gaga, The Mayhem Ball 2026 

DISMANTLE THE HOUSE 

DISARM THE WEAPON 

DESTROY THE BODY  

Integration VS Disintegration 

LOVE THY ENEMY 

LOVE THY ENEMY 

LOVE THY ENEMY 

“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” - Audre Lorde OUR CHILDREN ARE NOT DISPOSABLE PLAY THINGS FOR THE UBER RICH 

Worship of the Written Word is one of the many characteristics of White Supremacy culture, as written by Tema Okun. 

I’m suspicious of how Worship of the Written Word manifests in the Documents of our daily lives. All these papers, both physical and digital, are stored in files and archives of knowledge. Knowledge of people, of places, of bodies, of lives, and of deaths. 

I’m compelled by the contradiction of White Supremacist culture; how the colonial nation of NZ, upholds an active Worshipping practice towards: The Birth Certificates, The Death Certificates, The Passports, The Contracts, The Acts, The Laws, The Receipts and The Emails, The Degrees, The Diplomas, The Prescriptions; yet continues to fail to honour the constitutional and founding document of the nation itself. 

DEATH TO ISRAEL 

DEATH TO THE CROWN 

DEATH TO COLONISERS 

DEATH TO RAPISTS

DEATH TO ZION 

DEATH TO ZIONISTS 

DEATH TO WHITENESS 

DEATH TO WHITENESS 

DEATH TO COLONIALISM 

DEATH TO THE WHITE FALSE GOD 

DEATH TO BILLIONAIRES 

DEATH TO PAEDOPHILES 

DEATH TO WHITE SUPREMACY 

DEATH TO EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM 

DEATH TO IMPERIALISM DEATH TO ALL FRIENDS AND ALLIES OF ALL THESE GODLESS CREATURES. 

“NO ONE'S GONNA TAKE MY SOUL AWAY - GOD'S DEAD! I SAID BABY THAT’S ALRIGHT WITH ME.” - Gods and Monsters by Lana Del Rey 

”TO PUT OUT A MANIFESTO 

YOU MUST WANT 

A B C 

to fulminate against 

1 2 3.” 

TO BE A 3RD GENDER 

THERE NEEDS TO BE A 2ND GENDER 

THERE NEEDS TO BE A 1ST GENDER 

WHO DICTATED THIS ORDER 

WHAT IS THE 2ND GENDER 

WHAT IS THE 1ST? 

I AM NOT A 3RD GENDER 

I AM NOT IN 3RD PLACE (LAST) 

I AM PRIMORDIAL 

I AM ANCIENT 

I AM NOT NEW HERE 

NOTHING IS NEW UNDER THE SUN

Antidotes to Worship of the Written Word can look like alternate forms of documentation. It can be valuing the different forms of knowing and expressing knowledge and communication; verbal storytelling and oral histories, image making, trace marks, photos and video, movement, meditation, dancing, etc. 

Employing the bodily and somatic practices of painting, mark making, and image production to illustrate bodies, the body, my body.