telling the history

I agree that the histories of the Land Wars should be taught in our schools.

newshub

Calls are growing for more to be taught in schools about the New Zealand Land Wars.

Last year a petition was taken to Parliament to call for a day of recognition and for the events to be part of the school curriculum, but historians say it's a part of our history that's been brushed over.

...Prof Mulholland -- who will also make a select committee submission on a day of recognition for the wars -- says it's a vital part of our history and we need to do more to recognise it.

Personally I cannot see what objections there would be to this. It is a part of our history and it has helped form us to what we are today. The more we know and learn about these histories the stronger we will be. There is so much emotion around those times and that is an indication that healing is needed. Being able to share histories is healing for all concerned. And share is the operative word - share -- listen and learn and clarify and listen and learn - we learn more by listening in the moment rather than thinking of what rebuttal we will use when they stop speaking.

I think it should be compulsory. And as you'd expect I'd widen the areas that need to be covered. The Treaty of course, and histories of tangata whenua should also be taught. From those histories will come understanding and a coming together. It will not right all the wrongs but ignorance is blighting us and causing distrust and fear and we cannot allow that to continue.

For me I'd keep everything discrete as in separate. So the histories of The Land Wars and their effects are one topic and each area is another topic rather than putting everything together - this would maintain the Mana of the issues and keep the focus on those issues. They will naturally lead to the next issues which can then be looked at in detail.

Imagine the opportunities if this was done - the connections built between peoples and generations, 

156 years ago the shot was fired

A day to remember - our history is us and until we acknowledge our history we will not move on. Change the flag??? - change the attitudes, the attitudes to remembering out history.

156 years ago today, the first shot in the Taranaki land wars was fired. The conflict resulted in Taranaki iwi suffering massive loss of life and land. This flashpoint was also the precursor to the NZ Land Wars where millions of acres were confiscated from tribes throughout the North Island. Today, the event was commemorated in Waitara, the site where fighting first broke out.

The beautiful thing is if we do remember we can  bind us all together tighter as a country, as a people.

the way to do it and the way not to do it

This is the way to do it. So much history just under the surface and Māori will reveal it when it can be accepted - which it has been in this very effective research and name change.

Stuff

For more than 110 years Hawera-based Matangarara Rd has wrongly been called Matangara Rd and although the slight error was overlooked by just about everyone else, Normanby resident Henare Ngaia was not going to let the issue slide. "Because of the wrong spelling the word meant nothing. But with `ra' added to the end of it a piece of our history can be remembered." The story goes that a woman rejected the man she was betrothed to because of his looks, and the union, perhaps designed to unite two marae, didn't take place. "She called him lizardface: `Mata' means face, `ngarara' means lizard."

He then met with both the Iwi Liaison Committee and the Hawera Community Board with a signed petition and a detailed history. "There was no objection to our proposal. In fact the Iwi Liaison Committee consisted of descendants from both the lady and the lizardface so they all knew the story." Mr Ngaia has now set his sights on roads in Normanby and Manaia.

Yes very good Mr Ngaia - thank you for your hard work in getting these spellings correct and revealing the history within. How many streets and names in this land have hidden history waiting to be revealed? Just about everywhere, just about everywhere.

The ownership of Māori names and intellectual property should be vested with Māori - end of story and the sooner the Wai 262 recommendations are implemented the better - then we won't have shockers like this french effort. I wish they would just leave Māori alone - they embarass themselves and insult all Māori.

History from Maps

I enjoy history, learning about the past and this post from Maps is extraordinarily. There is so much to learn - the issuing of maori bank notes and the setting up of a maori parliment. If you enjoy learning then this post from Maps is essential.

As well as hosting Te Peeke o Aotearoa, Rewehetiki became the site, in the early nineties, of Te Kauhanganui, the parliament of the Kingite movement, and of the printing press which produced Te Paki o Matariki (The Girdle of Pleiades), the official newspaper of the movement. The functions of these institutions were carefully connected. Te Kauhanganui passed laws and levied taxes, Te Paki o Matariki made these laws and taxes known to Tawhiao’s still-scattered followers, and Te Peeki o Aotearoa was a place where the income the King received from levies and fines and the like could be stored.

The story of Tawhiao’s restoration of his sovereignty in the northern Maungakawas in the 1880s mocks the old thesis of Maori acceptance of Pakeha hegemony. Decades after the Kingitanga was supposedly irrevocably defeated at Paterangi and Orakau, Tawhiao and his followers emerged from their exile in the south and took up residence in these hills and in other fragments of the old kingdom, establishing a set of institutions – a bank, a currency, a police force, a parliament – which represented, together, a concerted symbolic attack on the authority of the settler state.

Enjoy reading this excellent example of the history that many of us do not know. Thanks Maps.

Takapūneke Historic Reserve created

The creation of a historic reserve - that is great. I wonder why it was a set aside as a historic reserve though and not given back to Ngai Tahu.

From Scoop

"The creation of the new Takapūneke Historic Reserve in Akaroa. The ceremony marks the return of historically significant land back to the nation in the form of an historic reserve.

Speaking in Maori, Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said: “I gave an oath to return Takapūneke back to the people of this land. My heart is full of joy as my promise is now fulfilled.”

Yes the historic and shameful events surrounding this site is nationally important but it is Ngai Tahu history and Ngai Tahu land.

“The return of Takapūneke symbolises the return of the mana to the people of this portion of land. This is also the time to make right all wrongs of the past.” Mr Parker said.

Don't worry about symbolically giving the mana back and it does not not 'make right all the wrongs of the past'.
 
Don't get me wrong it is good that this site is no longer a rubbish dump or being 'developed' - it is significant and it is where one of the most shameful episodes in our history occured.
 
Ngai Tahu have the knowledge of what happened but what is available to the general public on the history of this site.
 
From professional historians

"Takapuneke (also known as Red House Bay) was the site of a kainga of Te Maiharanui, upoko ariki of Ngai Tahu. In the period immediately after the ending of the Ngai Tahu ‘civil war’ known as the Kai Huanga feud, Te Maiharanui was spending much of his time at Takapuneke because it was a convenient base for trading with Europeans, especially in flax."

From NZ Histoty.net

"In 1830 Captain John Stewart of the brig Elizabeth entered into a commercial arrangement with the Ngati Toa leader Te Rauparaha to ferry a taua (war party) of 100 warriors from their base on Kapiti Island to Banks Peninsula."

and back to the historians

"the fact that Takapuneke was a major rival to Te Rauparaha’s Kapiti Island as a source of supply of flax may add a rational economic calculation to the motive customarily assigned to Te Rauparaha for his attack on Takapuneke – a lust for revenge."

Now who knows the mix of motivations but 'lust for revenge' nicely fits the 'red-native' stereotype.

NZhistory.net

"This was a business deal for Stewart. In return for his services, he would receive a full cargo of flax. ...Stewart's motivation in 1830 was primarily economic.

The arrival of a European trading ship would not have raised any particular alarm among Ngai Tahu. Stewart lured the Ngai Tahu chief Te Maiharanui (Tama-i-hara-nui) aboard by offering to trade flax for muskets. Once aboard, Te Rauparaha and his men seized the chief, his wife and daughter. Ngati Toa warriors attacked and destroyed Te Maiharanui's settlement, Takapuneke.

The brig returned to Kapiti with Te Maiharanui and his family held captive. Rather than see his daughter enslaved, Te Maiharanui strangled her and threw her overboard. Once on Kapiti, Te Maiharanui suffered death by slow torture at the hands of the widows of the Ngati Toa chiefs slain at Kaiapoi; his wife met the same fate.

Governor Ralph Darling of New South Wales, who was responsible for British subjects in New Zealand, put Stewart on trial in Sydney as an accomplice to murder. In keeping with contemporary European attitudes, however, Ngai Tahu were deemed 'incompetent' to act as witnesses because they were 'heathens'. As a result, Stewart and his crew escaped punishment.

The fact that no Europeans were killed in this incident meant that most Europeans took little interest. It did intensify demands, though, from humanitarian groups such as the Church Missionary Society (CMS) for the British Colonial Office to improve law and order in New Zealand."

How significant was this - the professional historians say in a paper called 'A place as important as Waitangi'

"As a direct consequence of Stewart’s actions, James Busby was sent to the Bay of Islands as British Resident in 1833, the first direct intervention by the British Government in the affairs of New Zealand, which was to culminate in the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi."

So there can be no doubt of the significance and tapu of this site. It is now a historic reserve but what does that mean when we see that nationally significant sites can be destroyed or damaged whenever they like - I hope they never find coal or gold - they'd dig it up without a second thought.