By David Robie
On 10 July 1985, French secret agents bombed the Greenpeace campaign flagship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, Aotearoa New Zealand. Portuguese-born Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira died in the sabotage outrage that shook the world. The bombed ship was scuttled off Matauri Bay in 1987 to form a living reef and Rainbow Warrior II was commissioned.
Eyes Of Fire tells this story, and also the story of nuclear testing in the Pacific. In 1954, the United States government tested a nuclear weapon in the Marshall Islands that poisoned Rongelap Atoll. Thirty years later the people of Rongelap, who were still suffering from radiation poisoning, asked the crew of the Rainbow Warrior to move them to Mejato, 180 kilometres away.
This was the Warrior’s last and most dramatic mission, before it sailed to Auckland to meet its fate.
The 30th anniversary edition has a Little Island microsite with plenty of Rainbow Warrior resources. We have created this site in the lead-up to the 30th anniversary of the bombing to provide context and capture interviews with the Warrior’s crew members.
We think that it’s a fantastic resource, made with the help of AUT University and Greenpeace.
- Publisher: Little Island Press, Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa New Zealand, 2015, 196 pages
- ISBN: 9781877484285
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