Rivers of poo protest

Written By: - Date published: 10:16 am, May 7th, 2017 - 13 comments
Categories: activism, water - Tags: , , ,

An effective protest:

Protestors float poo shaped inflatables in Waikato River

Inflatable poos have been floated on the Waikato River in protest of the Government’s new freshwater standards.

Campaign group Action Station hastily organised the stunt to capture a visual message in advance of a meeting of environmentally conscious National Party members.

A team of seven scattered 50 poo emojis on Lake Ohakuri to demonstrate their views on the Government’s adjustment to freshwater standards. …


Photo: Fairfax / T Manch

13 comments on “Rivers of poo protest ”

  1. adam 1

    Great Photo! Well done.

  2. bwaghorn 2

    i swam in ohakuri 15 years ago approx and it was a fetid bath then ,i only point this out so it’s current state isn’t all blamed on the recent dairy explosion up river.

  3. The decrypter 3

    Love it. Well done and taking the piss in a very very public way. Apparently some poo’s are for sale on trademe. On going potential here.

  4. Cinny 4

    Rock on Action Station, will show your emoji poo work to my girls, they will love it, they are very vocal re water pollution. Excellent idea and on point. More power to you 😀

  5. greywarshark 5

    If they scatter things on the lake are they technologically responsive ie can they decide to call them in and bring them to shore with a radio-controlled device?

    I think this is very clever Action Station, and effective visually!
    Worth giving them a koha from all of us who couldn’t be involved.

    https://contribute-actionstation.nationbuilder.com/
    NZrs contribute here –

    Donate via internet banking through our BNZ account: 02-0560-0155430-01 or our Kiwibank account: 38-9012-0571645-00.
    f you choose this method, please follow these steps:
    1) Make your donation via internet banking using your full name as the reference and
    2) Drop us a quick email at nina@actionstation.org.nz so we can be on the look out for your kind donation. Thank you!

  6. What a great visual! So many floaters…

    Somewhat related article that turned up in my inbox
    http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/about-massey/news/article.cfm?mnarticle_uuid=F855D50F-A8DE-F7EE-91AA-7A48CB46C658

  7. Chris 7

    It’s a great protest, but protests against a National/ACT/Maori Party/United Future government these days must incorporate an acceptance that they will not listen to citizens therefore are no longer relevant and no longer worthy to govern. This needs to be the message that is conveyed.

  8. lprent 8

    Reading the international media on my cell this morning, it is surprising how far this protest was reported.

    I first read about it on BBC.

    As an observation, reading the NZ Herald and Stuff on my cell is almost a waste of time. They prioritise trivialities over their interesting articles. I seem to be able to get the NZ Herald articles with value by scanning ads on the New York Times app. What is it with that?

  9. Rae 9

    I really appreciate the sentiment, but was protesting with huge plastic whatevers the way to go? Plastic is one of the major environmental issues of our age.

    • Rosemary McDonald 9.1

      Brave, Rae. That was exactly my first thought. But we are living in the age of grand gestures that grab the attention of the media…..

      Merely presenting the evidence to the wider public is not enough these days…you’ve just gotta have a gimmick.

  10. Brendan 10

    Where can I get an inflatable poo emoji?