Gerry Brackenbury interviews James K. Baxter. October 1972

Rights Information
Year
1972
Reference
30622
Media type
Audio
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Rights Information
Year
1972
Reference
30622
Media type
Audio
Duration
00:10:12
Broadcast Date
1972
Credits
RNZ Collection
Baxter, James K., 1926-1972, Interviewee
Brackenbury, Gerry, Interviewer

Gerry Brackenbury interviews James K Baxter one week prior to his death in October 1972.
Baxter talks about his vocation of poverty, being unattached in both material and mental wants. He says most property is symbolic and unnecessary and speaks of the benefits of being free and unencumbered by physical and mental possessions. Baxter describes Ratana as a natural genius who grew out of Maori oral tradition.

He talks about church union and the need to maintain ones own beliefs and that any union would be founded on love rather than doctrinal unity. He is asked about his references to Te Whaea - Mother of God - The Source, who he holds as being an integral part of the mystical body.

He speaks of his attitude to death and how it is not a death wish but a symbolic want for change. He is asked about his pacifism and responds with "a bad peace breeds war as a dead body breeds maggots, that's the way it is. And so you go to the source, the bad peace rather than it's fruit, the war."

Replying to a question about French nuclear test at Mururoa he says" if the French regarded the Pacific Ocean as a holy place they wouldn't do it". Lastly he describes himself as a door in the fence between Maori and Pakeha and sees this as a flash point of the future, where the best results will come and the worst calamities.