Late last year, with lockdowns, Vaccine mandates, and V passports becoming mandatory, it was a very lonely place with no future, if you weren’t getting vaccinated for whatever reason.
The social ostracisation was enormous. People were fired from their jobs, churches turned away their own members, families been torn apart, and all of this happened just before Xmas when families traditionally get together.
One particular couragous man stood up against the segregation and discrimination, and decided to do something about it.
This man was Brian Tamaki and the destiny church.
https://www.destinychurch.org.nz/
They formed The Freedom and Rights Coalition, which went on to organize protest marches around the country every week. Some of these had as many as 10,000 in attendance.
The government started taking notice, and their response was to arrest any of the organizers.
Brian was arrested several times, and was threatened with a jail sentence if he continued.
Eventually, he was put under house arrest for 78 days.
https://www.tfrc.org.nz/post/tamaki-finally-free
Brian is routinely criticised in the MSM and is viewed as a bit controversal. However, his church has always done a lot of good for the community, and is well known for helping the less fortunate get on their feet.
He’s not perfect and as he admits, sometimes they made tactical mistakes. For example, ‘the great gridlock’ protest just pissed the public off and the message was lost. However, I give him 10 out of 10 for effort and determination.
In December last year, NZ was in a very dark place. The government and the media had turned the public against the unvaccinated. They even made threats to ‘hunt down the unvaccinated’, with groups going door to door.
https://www.brighteon.com/d1fa04ce-07b6-4e83-af89-91a416fdd092
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/regional-nzs-hunt-for-the-unvaccinated
Brian stood as a beacon of hope, and showed us that we weren’t all alone, that there was hope, and that we had a voice.
His weekly protests were very family friendly, and we usually had a picnic, before the protest walk.
After months of social isolation brought upon us by lockdowns and mandates, we finally had like-minded people to interact with, and to our relief, so did our kids. Our kids had really struggled with social isolation, but that’s a story for another day.
Brian has disappeared from the public eye somewhat these days. He wasn’t part of the large Wellington protest that went on for weeks, because he was under house arrest at the time.
His contribution to the cause shouldn’t be forgotten though.
Brian stood up with his integrity intact, and stood against discrimination, when just about everyone else was selfishly just thinking of their own mortality or the next pay packet.
Brian helped us make our kids lives normal again and gave us hope when it all looked hopeless.
Thank you Brian.
Uncoffined 
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