RIP Dame Judith Binney

Dame Judith Binney has died and my aroha goes to her whanau and friends. A great person and a big loss for this country.

From Radio NZ

She specialised in the history of Maori and Pakeha engagement and produced acclaimed biographies and histories. Dame Judith believed it was important that New Zealand's story should be known, making it accessible to the general public with her well-written and well-researched books. She won several awards for her work, including the 2010 New Zealand Post Book of the Year and General Non-fiction Award for Encircled Lands: Te Urewera 1820-192. The book documents Tuhoe's quest for self-government of their lands, granted to them in law more than a century ago. The Tuhoe people honoured her by bestowing a Maori name, Tomairangi o Te Aroha. Dame Judith was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006, was a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and an inaugural Fellow of the New Zealand Academy of Humanities. She served on the Waitangi Tribunal and the Historic Places Trust Board.

Maps says it all with this post from December 2009

Despite her relatively low public profile and her relatively small bibliography, Binney has exercised more influence over New Zealand's intellectual and arts communities than any other contemporary historian. She is revered by anthropologists and sociologists as well as by historians, and her work has energised poets, painters, and film-makers, not to mention museum curators.

Rest in Peace Dame Judith Binney

Dame Judith gives key a history lesson

Good to see Dame Judith Binney coming out with a historical perspective on the Tuhoe negotiations. It is a pity that john key is so underdone in his knowledge.

From Stuff

"Historian Dame Judith Binney has slated John Key's refusal to return ownership of Te Urewera National Park to Tuhoe, saying his claim that it created a precedent was "quite wrong".

Tuhoe's situation was unique, and Key "could have responded to it if he'd understood the history clearly". The Crown had not acted honourably in its dealings with Tuhoe and it was time it did, Binney said.

The Crown's confiscation of large amounts of Tuhoe land during the wars in 1866 and 1867 "was not justified and neither has it been compensated for".

Moreover, in 1896 the Liberal government of Richard Seddon had passed a law giving the tribe a large degree of self-government or tribal authority over its area – a measure that was "absolutely unique", Binney said.

After Seddon's death in 1906, the government moved further away from the concept of Tuhoe tribal authority, and by "awful pressure and brutality" had acquired about 330,000 acres of Tuhoe land by 1921.

The government passed an act in 1916 "to retrospectively legalise all the purchases up till that point". In 1958 the Urewera National Park was formed out of land that Tuhoe had owned in 1896.

The government should now "give back the land or a form of authority over the land", Binney said.

Well there it is all laid out in black and white. The land was stolen and confiscated illegally in a unfair, exploitive way. It is time to sort this out and it is time for the government to stop trying to wriggle out of it's obligations to right wrongs.
 
I am very pleased that Dame Judith is healing well from her accident.

and then the land was taken

I thought I would write some thoughts after finishing Redemption Songs A life of Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki. I was left with a great feeling of sadness. So much was hoped for: so much belief and faith. Yet, in the end, the tide came in and the land was lost. These are just some small thoughts that have stuck in my head. Obviously a lot could be written.

I found the Old and New Testament biblical references difficult to digest. I am not a christian. But as I was reading, I began to see the deeper picture. The real battle was of mana and atua. IMO Te Kooti skillfully wove maori atua and christian gods into a new form. And that new form, made up of a synthesis of maori/christian/jewish, then battled with the existing christian gods of the colonizers. There was a realization that you had to fight fire with fire. You had to use your enemies strength against themselves. Quotes below from Redemption Songs.
Details of how the land was taken were harrowing. When Donald Mclean arrived in 1865 at Turanga his terms to the people were, “All maori had to take an oath of allegiance; all malefactors and those who had ‘fought against the government’ were to be surrendered; everyone who did not belong to the district was to be expelled; and all arms were to be surrendered. If these terms were not complied with, then the ‘lands of the promoters of disturbance’ would be confiscated.” But, as was always the case, the decisions’ behind the facade were always to get the land.

In 1868 another confiscation Act was passed. “This was the East Coast Act, which stated that, because a considerable number of natives in the district had been or were in rebellion, it was proper that land should be taken. Anyone who had been engaged in rebellion, singly or cojointly, or had counseled or advised such acts since 1863, would not be permitted to obtain title in tribal land. Moreover, the court was empowered to divide tribal land and to confiscate any that had belonged to ‘rebels’; it was purposefully different from the previous legislation in that it created an ostensibly acceptable framework for establishing claims to ownership, as well as being confiscatory. It aimed to defuse the protests by maori that the court was simply land-taking, in order to gain their participation in its processes. In fact, it created an environment where Maori contested ownership rights with one another. At the same time it sought to curtail any movement of sympathy for the whakarau by defining all supporters as ‘rebels’ and then punishing them by stripping them of their land. In such a manner, Te Kooti, along with so many others, was rendered landless.”

This is where it all began. This process of colonizing maori and taking all of the resources can be traced back to starting points like this. The law. The law is written by those who wish to use the law to get some gain for themselves. The law is not infallible. It is written by people, and because it is written by people, it can be rewritten. The law is not the law when it deprives people of their rights. That law is false. This is where some of my sadness while reading the book, comes from.

I'm reading Redemption Songs

As I've mentioned i am a voracious reader but I've had a bit of an issue with the library and haven't been getting books out. It has meant that I've been able to re-read some books – which has been great. But i was ready for a new really good read. First i had to sort the library issue out. And the issue was that I usually take out 9 or so books at a time. I had forgotton to return them on time and had accumulated overdue fines of $120 – and I didn't want to pay it. Eventually I went and and had a lovely chat with a librarian – we sorted it out (halved the fine) and I was able to get some books out.

The book I am reading is, “Redemption Songs – A life of Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki”. I chose this book because of the internet. A blog called Reading the Maps had a list of great NZ books and this was number one. I hadn't read it before – I know it seems remarkable – it does to me too, but I hadn't even know the book existed – let alone the contents. I tend to believe in fate and that I have come across this book at exactly the right time for me. I'm 50 pages in and then I remember something interesting.

I once attended a Ngai Tahu meeting and during the discussions a lament was made that it was difficult to tell our stories. A Wahine toa spoke and said that she used whatever was at hand, be it a superman doll or whatever and used them to tell the stories for her tamariki. The point was that we just have to use what we have got in front of us. Yes we always try for more but what we have is enough to do something, to keep moving forward.

So I'm going to start the book again and read out loud all of the interwoven maori. This is my way of trying to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. I'm using what is at hand. It is also my way of marking respect, to the subject and to apoligise for my lack of knowledge. It's a personal thing. But the real advantage is the change in my consciousness as I read the book. I believe that intent creates mauri. How do we learn? Maori traditionally have learned orally. The spoken word has power. Speaking out loud is powerful. How are our stories and legends passed down now? We don't really have the opportunities to get together to korero; the western based society that has been created here dissuades it. But stories are so enriching. My brother is a great storyteller, he is funny and you become immersed in the story, reacting as each event occurs. It times gone past he would have told our Ngai Tahu whanui stories. Our history, our heroes, our journeys, our legends. In future times he might very well do that. I don't know if we give enough respect and kudos to our storytellers within our Ngai Tahu whanui.

I'm not going to write a review of the book – I think that would be a bit persumpuous for the book of the year 1996, but i will write about the insights I get from the book.

I feel like Witi Ihimaera who wrote in a review in the Listener, 1995 that, “I had Redemption Songs in the house for seven days before I had the courage to read it. I circled it warily, watching the way the sunlight glowed on the cover and the moonlight surrounded it with a halo. It was only when i saw the rainbow on the eighth morning that I decided the time was propitious.”