Roadside tea and sympathy

DEAN KOZANIC/The Press

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An obsessive cross-stitcher, an expert crocheter and a quilting guru talked politics over cups of tea yesterday morning.

The group of twelve craft-crazed friends who call themselves the Addington Women's Revolutionary Craft Circle shared a brew outside the civilian United States Antarctic Programme base at Harewood in support of the Waihopai spy base protesters who appeared in court yesterday.

Protest spokeswoman Anna-Claire Hunter said the group had become more politicised and radical since it had formed about a year ago "to do craft things".

The women had gone from making teapot warmers to crafting jersey patches resembling the Maori sovereignty flag.

The group was impressed by the Waihopai activists' actions, so decided to host a morning tea with fruit, biscuits and tea, to show their solidarity, she said.

"We are just a group of friends who got together to do craft stuff and have just been inspired to take action to support them. It was really inspiring and a really successful non-violent, direct action to bring attention to the US presence in New Zealand. We wanted to make the Christchurch connection -- there's the US military base here."

The group's "nana-core" activities were a way of reclaiming crafts their grandmothers had lived by, she said.

"It does have that political slant, think global, act local. "We are reclaiming skills so we can be more self-sufficient and self-reliant."

- © Fairfax NZ News