Harry Walker Book Launch & Author Talk

On 22 May at 6.30 pm Harry Walker will be in the shop to talk about his book 'A Voice for the Silenced.' Published this year, the book features 'Stories from Inside and Outside the Cells of Aotearoa/New Zealand.'

There is a need for those voices to be heard. We have one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the OCED and Māori are imprisoned at an extremely high rate, Māori constitute 17% of the general population but are 52.8% of prisoners. Despite these statistics though, NZ governments consistently call for more prisons and tougher sentencing and the current government is intent on creating a mega prison, expanding other prisons, lengthening sentences and banning the rights of people inside to vote.

Harry's book 'A Voice for the Silenced' gives voice to those people who fill New Zealand's prisons. As Harry says in the introduction: "the intention of these narratives is to give a platform, a taumata korero, a paepae, to those who have been marginalised and oppressed. It aims to share the korero, the stories, experiences, and perspectives of people who have been silenced by societal and systemic injustices. These narratives are from individuals and their families who have faced colonial heritage, racism, oppression, and the punitive realities of incarceration. ... These are stories, essays, snippets of lived experiences, thoughts, ideas, dreams crafted from the 'hood, the streets, and the universities of hard knocks. They come from the cells in the many jails the Crown has built. ..."

Please come along and join the conversation with Harry on Thursday 22nd May at 6.30pm in Book Haven.