Bomb damage to the Wanganui computer centre, 1982 Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library Ref: EP/1982/3990. Used with permission.
Graffiti left near the bomb site Photo: The Wanganui Herald, 18 November 1982, edition no. 35198. Courtesy Wanganui Chronicle
On November 18, 1982 a young anarchist punk, Neil Roberts, graffitied a quote from the revolutionary Junta Tuitiva of La Paz, which fought against the Spanish for the freedom of Bolivia in 1809:
“We Have Maintained a Silence Closely Resembling Stupidity”
he then blew himself up outside the Whanganui Computer Centre.
Thirty two years later New Zealand’s only suicide bombing continues to reverberate.
There is a Facebook page
An art installation by Ann Shelton,
Playwright Michelle Bright has just been awarded a $30,000 grant to turn the event into an opera;
There’s a film - The Maintenance of Silence:
...and this month Victoria University Press published Dear Neil Roberts - a book of poems by Airini Beautrais.
Jeremy Rose talks to Airini Beautrais and anarchist activist Sam Buchanan about Neil Roberts and what they think motivated him to carry out such a violent and self-destructive act.
Suicide Prevention Line 0508 TAUTOKO (0508 82 88 65).
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- Tim McBride - author of The New Zealand Civil Rights Handbook on a lifetime opposing surveillance
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David Leyonhjelm on opposing security legislation in Australia
- A 1975 Insight programme about the Wanganui Computer
- A 1982 news report about the Wanganui Computer Centre bombing
Historic audio supplied by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision.
