Jacinda Ardern, page 18
‘What I want to share with you now is that we do in New Zealand, through ACC [Accident Compensation Co.] have a form of support that ensures that, over weeks, months, and years, individuals who are left with children to care for are provided support on an ongoing basis for the loss of those who provide income to their families. I know that for many this won’t be an immediate concern but I need you to know we are thinking about those issues.’ It was announced soon after that funeral grants would be given to victims’ families, and the government would cover expatriation costs for those whose families wished to bury them in their birth country.
After spending some time answering questions and conversing, Ardern met with victims and their families. Media were not told the details of these meetings and were not permitted to film, but some of those who met with Ardern captured footage on their phones.
In a crowded room on the opposite side of Hagley Park to Masjid Al Noor, Ardern spoke to the friends and families of those killed the day before.
‘Al salam Alaikum,’ she began, holding a microphone in one hand, and placing her other hand over her heart. ‘Peace be upon you, peace be upon all of us.’
‘My immediate concerns are twofold. You want your loved ones back, and I know that there are religious considerations with their burial.’ Ardern was referring to the Islamic funeral custom of burying a loved one within twenty-four hours of their passing. As she spoke the words, it had been twenty hours since many of the victims had died, and most of the bodies still lay within the mosques. ‘One of the issues that we’ve had in the mosque is that we had to ensure that it was safe to retrieve those who had fallen within it.’ She promised that the police were working as quickly as possible, and that updates were imminent.
Phones were raised as Ardern spoke, and faces of family members from overseas could be seen on the screens, watching and listening over FaceTime. She reiterated her government’s commitment to providing support ‘regardless of the immigration status of those who have lost their lives, and regardless of the immigration status of their families and loved ones’.
She asked the community to be patient and support each other in potential language barriers as they worked with social agencies over the coming days. She ended her short address by speaking on behalf of all New Zealanders. ‘You have our love and our support. You have it now, you have it for the coming days, you have it for the coming weeks. You have it because this is your home. Al Salam Aliakum.’ Her voice had wavered while announcing the death toll the night before but this time it broke.
A mere 300 metres down the road at Christchurch hospital, doctors and nurses were under pressure. Gunshot wounds were rare cases, and almost always accidental – perhaps someone shot in the foot or the hand. But on Friday afternoon, as one nursing shift was about to end and another begin, two men had walked into the hospital on foot, covered in blood from broken windows. They told emergency staff about the shooting and warned of many more injuries to come. Almost fifty patients would be admitted with traumatic injuries that afternoon. Nurses from all over the hospital were reassigned to cover the influx, and those whose shifts had just ended wouldn’t go home until the next morning. Seven operating theatres opened; usually only three were in use at one time.
Ardern visited survivors in hospital on Saturday afternoon, alone, without media or other politicians. She embraced those who could do so and held the hands of those who couldn’t.
Across the road at Hagley Park, media were gathering. The local and national outlets had arrived early that morning, and by the afternoon reporters and camera crews from all over the world had set up temporary studios. As families of victims and those injured visited their loved ones, media shared their stories.
Over the course of the weekend, week and months following the attack, New Zealand and the world would learn of the lives and final moments of those who’d perished. Salway Mustafa talked of her sixteen-year-old son Hamza, who called her from Masjid Al Noor as the attack was happening. They spoke for a moment before he stopped answering her questions. Mustafa waited on the line for twenty-two minutes before someone, not Hamza, spoke into it from the other end. ‘Sorry, your son can’t breathe. I think he’s dead.’
A large portion of the New Zealand futsal community gathered on Deans Avenue to remember Atta Elayyan, twenty-four, the national goalkeeper. One man recounted how Elayyan had tried to chase down the gunman but was shot. He got up and was shot again.
Mucad Ibrahim, just three years old, was the youngest victim. He was at Al Noor with his father and older brother. Mucad would become the face of the tragedy. A pure embodiment of innocence and life snatched away.
At each end of Deans Avenue, orange road cones became centrepieces in floral displays as mourners used the cordons as settings for their tributes. Thousands were left and hundreds of locals gathered in silence throughout the day. The local chapter of the Mongrel Mob, New Zealand’s most notorious gang, offered to act as security outside mosques in the area if any worshippers wished to pray. Neighbours who lived on Deans Avenue, within the cordon, made coffee and baked biscuits for the officers on duty.
Ardern flew back to Wellington that evening, where Robertson was still at the Beehive, having begun the process of drafting materials for gun law reform proposals.
Overnight, when the city of Christchurch was quiet again, road crews came out to adjust cordons and cones around Deans Avenue. Thousands more flowers had been placed right across the road, but with bodies expected to be removed the next day the path needed to be cleared. On a shift that night, Jay Waaka picked up the nearest bunch of flowers and moved it to the side of the road, being careful to place it upright against the fence. He went back and picked up another, relocating it to the fence line. Over the next hour, he and his crew delicately moved thousands of flowers, teddies and tributes so that they lined the road rather than blocked it. Any messages of support were positioned facing out so they could be read easily by mourners.
Road crews would complete the same ritual every night for the rest of the week.
On Sunday, forty-eight hours after the shooting began, Ardern, Robertson and Gayford visited a mosque in Kilbirnie, Wellington. As she had the day before, Ardern dressed in black and wore hijab. The front steps were filled with floral tributes and the parking lot crowded with locals paying their respects. Ardern added a wreath to the flowers and spoke with many Muslim women who were present and grieving. One woman gripped her tightly, her son in her other arm, and wept into her shoulder. Ardern held her. In the background the words of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ could be heard, sung in te reo Māori by a group of schoolgirls.
The embrace was filmed by an Associated Press cameraman, and the footage made its way around the world. The group then walked by Naima Abdi, who was greeting people as they arrived. Abdi hugged Ardern, who told her ‘we will get through this together’. The moment was captured by photographer Hagen Hopkins, and the resulting photo would become one of the most recognisable images of the year. Ardern, eyes closed, arms wrapped tightly around Abdi, who was still holding a box of tissues she’d been offering to crying mourners.
Islamophobia has been increasing in the Western world since the events of September 11, 2001. Experiencing anti-Muslim sentiment was nothing new for immigrants and refugees, including those who called New Zealand home. But only a slim few reacted to the events of 15 March with racist, dangerous rhetoric; overwhelmingly New Zealanders had followed Ardern’s lead and wholeheartedly embraced the Muslim community. In literally embracing them, Ardern showed, very simply, how a small act of compassion from a leader can affect a community.
The image seemed to embody the words Ardern had been saying for the past forty-eight hours. Those living overseas in countries that had experienced similar attacks, shared the photo and video from Kilbirnie as an indictment on their own leaders whom they believed had failed in their responses.
One week later in Dubai, the world’s tallest building would be illuminated with the image. The Burj Khalifa, 829 metres tall, was lit in full with the image of Ardern and Abdi. Above them, the Arabic word ‘salam’ and its English translation, ‘peace’. Sheikh Mohammed, the prime minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates, tweeted a photo of the illuminated Burj Khalifa, with a message of gratitude. ‘Thank you PM @jacindaardern and New Zealand for your sincere empathy and support that has won the respect of 1.5 billion Muslims after the terrorist attack that shook the Muslim community around the world.’
As support poured in from around the globe, conservative Australian senator Fraser Anning shared his thoughts on the attacks. Thoughts that included suggestions the Muslim community was to blame. During her fifth press conference since Friday, Ardern was asked about Anning’s comments. She refused to discuss them, except to say that ‘they were a disgrace’. Anning was censured by the Australian senate and roundly condemned by leaders around the world. But someone felt the senator deserved a little more. When Anning spoke to press in Melbourne a few days later, Will Connolly was there. Connolly, seventeen, stood behind Anning and ever so calmly smashed a raw egg over his head. Anning struck Connolly across the face before his security tackled the teenager to the ground. A GoFundMe page raised just shy of $100,000 to help with ‘Egg Boy’’s legal fees, all of which Connolly subsequently donated to the Christchurch Foundation and Victim Support Fund. The Victim Support Fund had been set up via GiveALittle, a local crowdfunding platform. The fund received over $10 million in donations.
On Monday, as New Zealanders returned to work and school, more bodies were being removed from the mosques. They still needed to be identified; some families were holding out hopes that their missing loved ones were okay. When Ardern addressed media once again from the Beehive theatrette in Wellington, she announced that ‘in principle decisions’ had been made by cabinet around gun law reforms. Although she’d already said gun laws would change, confirmation of a practical step in that direction was welcomed by everyone.
At 2 pm on Tuesday, parliament rose for the first time since the mosque attacks. Usually Speaker Trevor Mallard entered the House alone, but this time he was joined by a group of religious leaders from all the major denominations. He held the hand of Imam Nizam ul haq Thanvi before they entered the chambers together. Thanvi said an Islamic prayer, which was then repeated in English, and followed by the parliamentary prayer in te reo.
Following the prayers, Ardern stood to give an address. She spoke about the collective responsibility of social media platforms not to broadcast hate: ‘They are the publisher. Not just the postman. There cannot be a case of all profit no responsibility.’ She spoke of the nation’s aspirations: ‘We wish for every member of our communities to also feel safe. Safety means being free from the fear of violence. But it also means being free from the fear of those sentiments of racism and hate, that create a place where violence can flourish. And every single one of us has the power to change that.’
She spoke of many things, but she did not speak the terrorist’s name. ‘There is one person at the centre of this act of terror against our Muslim community in New Zealand. A 28-year-old man – an Australian citizen – has been charged with one count of murder. Other charges will follow. He will face the full force of the law in New Zealand. The families of the fallen will have justice. He sought many things from his act of terror, but one was notoriety. And that is why you will never hear me mention his name. He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless. And to others I implore you: speak the names of those who were lost, rather than the name of the man who took them. He may have sought notoriety, but we in New Zealand will give him nothing. Not even his name.’
If anyone hadn’t picked up on the mood of the nation in the past four days, it had been set by Ardern throughout the week and was laid out clearly and emphatically in her speech that day.
Later that evening, the first bodies of victims were released back to their families, four days and four hours after the first shot was fired.
Ardern returned to Christchurch on Wednesday morning as burials began. Bodies had been washed and shrouded according to Islamic custom, and were buried, often in groups, with heads turned to forever face Mecca – the same direction they had faced during their last karat at Friday prayers.
At Cashmere High School, Ardern spoke to students who had just lost two of their friends, Sayyad Milne and Hamza Mustafa. Ardern had spoken a lot since Friday, mostly to the media, but also to the Muslim community and those mourning with them. She hadn’t spoken much to kids, and these teenagers were kids.
She was welcomed by a whole-school haka. There had been many haka performed outside mosques all around the country and even overseas. Often impromptu, haka around Deans Avenue would begin with a handful of people and end with dozens lending their bodies and voices to the cry of solidarity. But of them all, it was those started by young people that seemed to resonate the most. A video showing a small group of students performing a haka on Deans Avenue was viewed millions of times around the world. When the students of Cashmere High School welcomed Ardern, they did so with pride and in grief.
When Ardern spoke, she got straight to the point. ‘In these times it’s hard to know sometimes how to express how you’re feeling,’ she told the packed gymnasium. ‘One of the messages that I want to share to our young people in particular is that it is okay to grieve. It is okay to ask for help even if you weren’t directly affected.’
She asked them to continue to show love, and to drive out hate, to ‘let New Zealand be a place where there is no tolerance for racism, ever’.
When she opened up the floor for questions, it was with the intention of giving the young people information around the attacks in a digestible way. She explained the legal reasoning behind the man being charged with just one murder so far, and assured them that ‘many more charges’ would follow. She gave sparse details about the terrorist, and instead walked them through what was happening with gun laws.
She was prepared for all their questions, except one.
‘How are you?’
‘How am I?’ Ardern paused. ‘Thank you for asking,’ she said.
Unsurprisingly, she hadn’t been asked that during her press interviews so far. But during one question round, in the halls of the Beehive, a veteran reporter grumbled at her, in a moment that seemed straight from an episode of Veep, ‘Do you ever cry at night when you go home?’ Then, Ardern hadn’t given him an answer, saying instead that those were private details. Now, however, she answered honestly. ‘I’m very sad.’
As Ardern stood with her team to leave, the school stood too. She noticed someone in the crowd was trying to get her attention and motioned for them to come towards her. A young girl, thirteen years old, emerged and greeted her. They hugged, and Ardern left.
Ardern had assured the students, as she’d assured the House the day before, that gun law reforms would be confirmed by the end of the week. But she didn’t wait that long. On Thursday, six days after the attack, she announced a national ban on all military style semi-automatics and assault rifles. The sale of these weapons was now illegal. An amnesty was put in place to allow gun owners to surrender any now-prohibited firearms, but the legislation was moving under urgency.
On Friday in Christchurch it was sunny again: the perfect time to visit Hagley Park. Thousands of people gathered, after Ardern announced that a nationwide call to prayer would be broadcast at 1.30 pm on national radio and live-streamed on all major news sites. It would be the first Friday prayers since the attacks, and Ardern called on the people of New Zealand to observe it and show their support for the Muslim community. Her invitation, given at the behest of the community itself, was consistent with her actions throughout the week. Those who took issue with it were largely ignored, while international outlets expressed disbelief that the nation would so readily support such a notion.
The call itself would come from Hagley Park, where hundreds of Muslim men had formed lines in preparation, with the women and children behind them. Mongrel Mob gang members stood at the ends of each row of men, on guard. Behind the women and children were thousands of non-Muslim New Zealanders, there in solidarity. Some women covered their heads with scarves and some didn’t. As the words rang out, vocalised by a young man on a makeshift stage, across the country, everything slowed down. Schools, offices, even airports, stopped to acknowledge what was happening in Christchurch.
Al Noor’s Imam Gamal Fouda spoke after the prayers had been observed. His speech on behalf of the Christchurch Muslim community was heartfelt, full of love and forgiveness.
‘The terrorist tried to tear the nation apart with evil ideology. Instead we have shown that New Zealand is unbreakable,’ he said to the thousands gathered, and many more around the country. ‘We are brokenhearted but we are not broken.
‘To the people of New Zealand, thank you for your peace. Thank you for your haka. Thank you for your flowers. Thank you for your love and compassion.
‘To our prime minister, thank you. Thank you for your leadership. It has been a lesson for the world’s leaders. Thank you for holding our families close, and honouring us with a simple scarf. Thank you for your words and deeds of compassion. Thank you for being one with us.’
Ardern was there, along with a number of MPs. They sat at the front, near the stage. Ardern had spoken more to the country that week than she ever had before. She had held almost a dozen press conferences and answered over 300 questions from reporters. This time, she did not speak.
On Friday, 22 March, exactly one week to the minute after the worst act of terrorism New Zealand had ever experienced, Ardern returned to Christchurch and Hagley Park, just across the road from Masjid Al Noor. She stood alongside the Muslim community and New Zealanders around the country, and there was silence.
14
HIGHS AND LOWS
