Some Sober Thoughts

This is not something I speak about very often.  I have dear friends on both sides of this debate and I am inclined to get upset when they argue about it.  Maybe I have my head in the sand, but I prefer my world to be filled with love and happiness.  

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On 8 October 1759, 250 years ago today, the explorer Captain James Cook first made landfall in New Zealand and claimed it as a new land for England.  The event is being marked this week with celebrations and protests – celebrations for his “discovering” New Zealand (Abel Tasman was here before him, but never made contact with any local people), and protests because this event marked the beginning of “imperial colonisation” and the “destruction of the sovereign rights” of the indigenous people he found here. 

It is a tricky situation and, like religion and politics, discussion about it frequently ends in fierce arguments as people often hold very set opinions on the matter.  On the one side are people who say forget the lot, it is past and gone and has no bearing on living today.  On the other side are people who (rightly or wrongly) harbour deep resentments and seek compensation as reparation.  In between are a lot of apathetic people who would rather the problem just went away, but will usually side with their particular race when it comes right down to it.  Officially, the sailing around New Zealand by a replica of Cook’s ship, the Endeavour, and a flotilla of waka (Maori canoes) is to promote unity and harmony between these widely differing opinions.  Whether it does or not still remains to be seen.

There is no argument that hostility and suspicion was present on both sides during the time of colonisation, and atrocities and injustices were committed by both settlers and Maori.    However, it has to be asked if concentrating on these is useful.  It is easy to forget that settlers were often openly welcomed in many areas and many Maori became highly successful traders with the foreign ships that visited them.  It is also easy for many descendants of settlers to forget that their ancestors were sometimes directly responsible for the shedding of innocent blood.

The British High Commissioner recently expressed regret that Captain Cook and his crew had killed nine men on his first landing in New Zealand.  Our deputy prime minister, Winston Peters (himself a Maori), says the track record of Maori “has not been as pure as the driven snow.”  It seems that both sides need to take responsibility for all the bad things that happened.

Unfortunately there is a growing impassioned movement that claims European “invaders” were entirely at fault for everything.  A lot of white people are now reacting to this claim and making spiteful remarks about those who claim they were the original settlers of this country – especially when archaeology suggests there were already people present when the Maori settled here in the early 1300s and that those original settlers were then systematically annihilated by the more aggressive Maori.

I feel it is a great pity that the people of our nation cannot put their differences behind them and work together for the good of our country.  Such illogical hatred between races only brings division and, ultimately, results in a civil war that benefits nobody.

So much for my thoughts,

Margaret