{"id":67586,"date":"2011-01-24T08:59:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-23T19:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?p=67586"},"modified":"2024-12-03T09:39:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T20:39:25","slug":"the-power-of-bearing-witness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/the-power-of-bearing-witness\/","title":{"rendered":"The power of bearing witness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
A dictionary definition of ‘bearing witness’ reads: to show by your existence that something is true. This seems to me to be only part of the story.<\/p>\n\n
Bearing witness is one of the founding principles of Greenpeace, up there with Direct Action. Unlike direct action, however, it doesn’t rely on directly stopping something bad from happening. <\/p>\n\n
The power of bearing witness comes from the story it tells and, poignantly for me, the empowerment it brings to those who see the story and then feel compelled to act. While it doesn’t offer instant gratification for the activist chained to the bulldozer \u2013 its effect can be broader, quicker and more powerful \u2013 inspiring millions of people who simply look at a photo and are awakened to something that they didn’t necessarily know even existed. Once they know, they usually act in numbers.<\/p>\n\nLinda Ingham with Pacific white-sided dolphin caught in Japanese driftnet, north Pacific. (Greenpeace Witness book page 146)
\u201cOnce you have witnessed an injustice, you cannot claim ignorance as a defence for inaction. You make an ethical choice: to act or not.\u201d\u00a0–\u00a0Ben Metcalfe, one of the original Greenpeace crew.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
Bearing witness, while being a philosophy, is also a tool \u2013 just like direct action, and every tool has the right application at the right time \u2013 bearing witness isn’t always the right tool for the job, neither is direct action, or a court case, but sometimes it is perfect.<\/p>\n\n
The best example I can think is the drift net campaign back in the 1980’s. Here was a practice which was happening thousands of miles out at sea, which was indiscriminately killing millions of fish, marine mammals and birds but not a lot of folks back home knew about it. They just enjoyed the obvious canned results on rye bread, with mayo.<\/p>\n\nGreenpeace ship SIRIUS join Spanish longliners in protest against the introduction of driftnet fishing in the Mediterranean. Cartagena, Spain.
There were a bunch of NGO’s, Greenpeace included, who ran a fantastic and sustained direct action campaign against these ‘walls of death’. Hindering net setting operations by various direct means, cutting trapped animals out of the nets, and literally pulling hundreds or thousands of kilometres of ‘ghost nets’ out of the water to stop the killing. <\/p>\n\n
This all contributed to the eventual win, but I reckon the biggest contribution probably came from a camera. Activists got onto drift net boats and covertly filmed this horrendous practice,\u00a0 the images they captured travelled the world and woke tuna eaters up to the ugly side of their lunch. People back home didn’t know \u2013 but when they saw the images they got well and truly mad and wanted to do something. And they joined the efforts of all these groups, direct actions, political work, consumer work (dolphin friendly cans!). Finally the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution which banned drift net fishing in international waters – effective in December, 1992.<\/p>\n
<\/section><\/div>\n
My experience of bearing witness has really woken me up to the power that can come from being at the scene of a crime and letting people at home know all about it with photos and video. <\/p>\n\n
In 2005, I was aboard the Rainbow Warrior in the middle of the Tasman Sea. We had been\u00a0campaigning on Bottom Trawling\u00a0for a year or two already and were looking for a breakthrough. <\/p>\n\nA banner that reads: ‘Protect Deep Sea Life’ on the side of the Greenpeace ship SV ‘Rainbow Warrior’ protests at the destruction of deep sea life by fishing trawlers. Greenpeace along with more than a thousand scientists are supporting the call for a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling, because of the vast amount of marine life that is destroyed by this fishing method.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
Much like drift netting, bottom trawling happens miles out to sea, places where only the fishing industry goes, and it is unlikely that they would volunteer their personal snaps of the destruction they cause.<\/p>\n\nGreenpeace activists attach bouys to the end of the trawl net from the deep sea bottom trawler Ocean Reward. The Rainbow Warrior is in the background. The activists display banners reading “Protect Deep Sea Life.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
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![\"Crewman](\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2020\/04\/bdf1d428-gp0oc7_web_size_with_credit_line.jpg\" "\\"Crewman")
![\"Red](\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2024\/12\/a04c8f71-gp03w7r_medium-res-1200px-1024x736.jpg\" "\\"Red")