We were lucky to get John Minto to visit Columba College on his current tour of the country.

The former Halt All Racist Tours national organiser has been in Dunedin this week, marking the 40th anniversary of the Springbok Tour protests 1981. 

John gave the class the context of South African apartheid, building on their knowledge from Social Studies. He then explained the context of All Blacks/Springbok rugby tours at a time when many countries were boycotting South Africa because of this apartheid policy. It was fascinating to hear his account of being on the field at the Hamilton match with a 300 strong group facing a hostile crowd of 30,000 rugby fans eager for the game to start. As he explained, fighting for human rights is no popularity contest! This was a great introduction to the topic that we will be looking at in more depth over the coming weeks.