Bearing witness in 40 years of Greenpeace chronicles
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DR DAVID ROBIE is director of the
Pacific Media Centre (AUT).
Bearing witness
in 40 years of
Greenpeace
chronicles
Rainbow Warrior Mon Amour:
Trente ans de photos aux côtés
de Greenpeace, by Pierre Gleizes.
Paris: Glenart, 2011, 379 pp. ISBN 978-
2723484558
Warriors of the Rainbow: A chroni-
cle of the Greenpeace movement
from 1971 to 1979, by Robert Hunter
[40th anniversary edition]. Perth: Greenpeace
and Freemantle Press, 2011, 451pp. ISBN
978-1921888809. One of the original Greenpeace
environmental crusaders, journal-
Y DOG-EARED yellow-co- ist Hunter provided a powerful and
M vered copy of the late Robert
Hunter’s Warriors of the Rainbow
insightful tale of the Canadian birth
and early years of the global move-
still has pride of place among my ment ‘from Amchitka to Moruroa’.
bookshelves. It was inspirational in Even before the corporate trend to
many respects before I embarked on mission statements, Greenpeace had
Rainbow Warrior I’s journey to the one provided by the Cree Indians and
Marshall Islands in May 1985 which popularised by Hunter.
led to the bombing in Auckland’s It told the story of when envi-
Waitemata Harbour two months later ronmental disaster threatened, ‘the
and my own book Eyes of Fire about medicine men were sent forth to deal
that ill-fated humanitarian voyage, with it’ (Hunter, 2011, p. 15). Only
so very different from most Green- when they failed to set things right
peace campaigns.
232 PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 18 (1) 2012
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Naidoo puts it in this 40th anniversary
edition.
This publication includes an
additional chapter (author’s note)
discovered in 2011 among his papers,
six years after he died in May 2005,
and supposedly written about a dec-
ade after the book was first published.
It was a rather prophetic statement
about the state of the global environ-
ment. Hunter recalled that during the
first seven years of the movement, he
experienced many miracles as part
of what he termed the ‘Greenpeace
phenomena’.
With the launching of the Green-
peace movement in the West Coast
of Canada, a trace of long dormant
shamanistic magic wafted over the
on Earth did the warriors emerge. The continent and ocean that Europeans
prophecy of the warriors was related had long ago swarmed across. This
by a grandmother named Eyes of Fire dew of magic moved backward over
and this inspired the title of my own the checkerboard plains where today
book (1986, 2005). only a handful of buffalo survive. It
The original Warriors narra- passed the nuclear reactors leaking
tive gave a glowing account of the into the Great Lakes. It skudded
early Greenpeace campaigners sailing through the carbon dioxide clouds
and above the acid rain-eaten forests,
around the Pacific in the Phyllis Cor-
over the Love Canal and across the
mack, James Bay and Vega (Hunter, Sea of Slaughter in the St Lawrence,
p. 6) ‘consuming excessive amounts whispering over the bloody ice packs
of recreational drugs, bickering over of Labrador. The magic crossed the
internal politics, risking their lives, lonely North Atlantic where you can
developing arguments about whales voyage for a week now without see-
being sentient beings and staving off ing a single whale, and reaching at
bankruptcy’, as current Greenpeace last the shores of Europe, whence the
international executive director Kumi carnage and poisoning began, like the
PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 18 (1) 2012 233
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ghost of the Red Man holding up his from Canadian, Russian and Spanish
hand and saying: No more! (p. 14). campaigns in Eyes of Fire.
Greenpeace was launched in Van-
But, as Hunter noted, during the couver, Canada, in September 1971.
Greenpeace campaigns, ‘miracles Nine years later, at the age of 23,
were not only commonplace—we Gleizes embarked on the campaign
got quite a few of them on film and ship Rainbow Warrior as a crew
on tape’ (p. 15). member and photographer.
This sleek new edition contrasts He was a witness to many of the
with the bulky original version (which non-violent campaigns at the heart of
was devoid of illustrations) and in- the environmental movement. And
cludes 16 pages of archival iconic through his photography, he was a
images in black and white and colour key contributor to international public
from 1971 to 1977, including two of awareness.
Paul Watson who broke away and His images have often been more
formed the more radical Sea Shepherd effective in denouncing environmen-
Conservation Society. tal violations than words. As well as
It is the images that drew me to working for Greenpeace, Gleizes was
Pierre Gleizes’ own new book, Rain- a news photographer for Associated
bow Warrior Mon Amour, a play on Press for nine years and for other
a book by Kon Tiki raft adventurer media.
and later nuclear-free campaigner Gleizes has been on the scene
Swedish-born Bengt Danielson and campaigning against the culling of
his French wife, Maire-Therese. The whales and slaughter of pup seals,
Danielssons chronicled the nuclear- struggle against pollution, combat-
free struggles and tribulations of the ing pirate fishing boats, exposing
Tahitians in Moruroa Mon Amour, the impact of climate change and
Moruroa being the main testing atoll challenging the nuclear industry and
for France’s force de frappe. bomb tests.
This book also chronicles Green- Rainbow Warrior Mon Amour
peace environmental adventures, this tells of his adventures on board the
time for three decades through the Rainbow Warrior, Sirius and Esper-
lens (and words) of French photojour- anza. He relates his experiences with
nalist Pierre Gleizes. I never actually humour, packed with insight and com-
met Gleizes, but had long admired his mitment to the environment.
work and used three of his pictures An intriguing feature of his book
234 PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 18 (1) 2012‘BACK TO THE SOURCE’
© PIERRE GLEIZES
Yves Lenoir, a French spokesman for Greenpeace, grimaces as he holds a copy
of Mission Oxygène about the Rainbow Warrior bombing on 10 July 1985. In
the backgrond is a portrait of Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira, who
drowned after the second explosion on the ship.
PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 18 (1) 2012 235‘BACK TO THE SOURCE’
is a chapter devoted to insights from Warrior in the Netherlands long
four French-language books about before the bombing. But Gleizes says
the bombing by French secret agents she was wrong on both counts—she
in Auckland Harbour on 10 July 1985 probably meant the MV Greenpeace
while preparing for anti-nuclear pro- because the Rainbow Warrior was
tests off Mororoa Atoll. (Nuclear in Jacksonville, Florida, at that time
tests were eventually abandoned by (p. 152).
France in 1996.) Un amiral au secret, by Admiral
Mission Oxygène by Patrick du Pierre Lacoste, director of the DGSE
Morne Vert (1987) was believed by at the time of the state terrorist attack.
many readers to be an ‘investigation’ Although this book did not confirm
by a former DGSE secret agent. But outright then President François Mit-
du Morne Vert (writing under the terand’s blessing for the operation, it
pseudonym Patrick Amory) denied has been confirmed since this book by
this, saying in spite of the appearance other sources (p. 154).
it was a ‘work of fiction’ although ‘This massive political mistake,’
many key protagonists in the so-called reflects Gleizes, ‘was mostly due to
Greenpeace affair had been named the fact that the French authorities
(p. 147). did not understand what Greenpeace
Carnet secrets d’un nageur de was. In all those books, this ignorance
combat: du Rainbow Warrior aux remains utterly shocking. If they had
glaces de l’Arctique, by Alain Mafart bothered to learn more about us, they
(with Jean Guisnel, 1999): ‘Ten years would never have felt the urge to plan
after its appearance, I found the cour- this unimaginable act. We were only
age to read this book by one of the two a bunch of noisy people – not so well
French secret agents, tried and found organised! In 1982, the Russians
guilty in New Zealand for the attack were much smarter in dealing with
on the Rainbow Warrior. However, Greenpeace.
after reading this book I found it was ‘A few years ago, when I read
the only one that touched my heart’ about the Greenpeace affair in the
(p. 148). book, L’Histoire de France pour les
Agent secrète, by Dominique nuls (French history for Dummies),
Prieur (with Jean-Martie Pontaut, I realised the scale of impact this sad
1995). Posing as Mafart’s wife on a event had on my country.’
honeymoon, Prieur proudly declared
she had made two visits to the Rainbow
236 PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 18 (1) 2012‘BACK TO THE SOURCE’
References
Hunter, R. (1979). Warriors of the
Rainbow Warrior: A chronicle of the
Greenpeace Movement. New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Robie, D. (2005). Eyes of Fire: The
last voyage of the Rainbow Warrior
[Memorial Edition]. Auckland: Asia
Pacific Network.
Robie, D. (1986). Eyes of Fire: The last
voyage of the Rainbow Warrior. Auck-
land: Lindon.
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