The radio podcast begins with a story about Ngati Toa chief Te Rauparaha writing the famous 'Ka Mate' haka whilst hiding from enemies in a kumara pit around 1820 during the 'Musket Wars'. According to the narrators, it was his 'instinct for survival' that saw him "rise to power during the Musket Wars, forging alliances and trade and marriages with arriving Europeans; an instinct that would eventually see him standing on the Wairau Plains in June 1843 in a showdown with the New Zealand Company..." Apparently, all good; don't mention his cruelty and massacres in every Maori settlement along his way.
The Wairau showdown, known by various terms including 'The Wairau Affray' and (more accurately) 'The Wairau Massacre', was claimed by the narrators to be "...sparked by dodgy schemes and even dodgier deeds...and fundamentally different ideas about land". Apparently, Maori "had no idea that what William Wakefield was really saying was "I'm gonna give you this stuff and then we're gonna own all that land". Yeah right, by 1843, after many decades of selling land to settlers who then treated it as owned according to European models, and even after the process around Te Tiriti further clarified the idea of future land purchases by the British Crown, astute Maori chiefs had no idea what selling land meant.
The narrators (who also wrote or participated in the writing of the script) then introduced themselves. Justine Murray referred to her Maori ancestry but didn't include anything about her European ancestry. Narrator Mr Rae said he was "..born in Hamilton, Kirikiriroa..." and expressed thanks, with both he and Ms Murray giggling ironically, that his ancestry didn't include anyone from the New Zealand Company.
Kirikiriroa was the name of a Maori pa (settlement) on the western side of the Waikato River, part of the area over which the town then city of Hamilton developed. Use of the name 'Kirikiriroa' is entirely appropriate in referring to that pa and land around it that was defended at times by Maori groups, but 'Hamilton' is a municipality established on the basis of European models. Using the name 'Kirikiriroa' is disrespectful of the European knowledge and heritage that created the entity 'Hamilton', an entity incomparable to that of Kirikiriroa. And that's in no way to imply superiority of one form of settlement over the other, simply that the two are very different entities and the name of one does not equate to the name of the other.
The podcast is replete with forest sounds and includes enacted dialogue and claimed direct quotes. Fair enough to bring the story to life but it would have been honest and accurate to include some acknowledgement that all the dialogue and quotes were approximations to what was believed to have been said. This might sound like nit-picking but such matters added to the bias in the podcast's whole portrayal of the history.
Substantial attention is given to Te Rauparaha's birth and background. A great man apparently, and no need to mention his bloodthirsty habits. The background information about one of the main white people, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, focuses almost entirely on a crime he was involved in and a scheme he thought up in prison allegedly designed to keep poor people out of affording property and thereby enslaved to work for rich people, narrator Ms Murray describing it disdainfully as "Ah yes, a new Brittania". Actually, Wakefield's published article was titled 'Cure and Prevention of Pauperism by Means of Systematic Colonization'. That sounds like a plan to overcome poverty rather than to entrench it. The sarcastic commentary, accompanied by ominous, threatening music, alleged that plan led to the establishment of the New Zealand Company headed by Wakefield. All references to terms involving 'colonize' were made in a disparaging way.
The podcast tells us that British trader Blenkinsop was allowed to marry a young Maori woman of high status from an iwi in alliance with Ngati Toa. There is some interesting explanation of the value to an iwi in those days of associations with white people who could procure muskets and other desirable European assets. The narrators also refer to there being various conflicting histories of the events pertaining to the woman, but for most other events they did not acknowledge that they were simply accepting one of many possible portrayals, and that they clearly preferred accounts from Maori oral history and particular English writings consistent with those accounts.
Through the marriage Blenkinsop gained access to various Maori leaders including Te Rauparaha. Blenkinsop may or may not have stolen a cannon that he used to buy land from Te Rauparaha and other leaders, but narrator Mr Rae portrayed the possible cannon theft as a certainty, saying it "wasn't the only dodgy part of this deal". No, it seems also that the detailed, specific and accurate legal deed that Blenkinsop provided was a deception, signed by the chiefs who didn't know what it said because it was in English. The chiefs later claimed that they thought it was only a rental agreement allowing Blenkinsop access to the land to take water and timber. Te Rauparaha is said to have later had someone translate the deed whereupon he destroyed it in anger (Ms Murray asserted that she didn't blame him, accompanied by the sound effect of paper being ripped up...) Yeah, well, perhaps so according to oral history. Or perhaps he had been very keen to get hold of the cannon etc and didn't care about the content of a deed that he never intended to respect. Regardless, it seems unlikely that astute Maori leaders would sign a deed they didn't know the contents of, or that they did not have some understanding of the significance of English legal agreements, or that they didn't have someone available to translate the deed for them before signing.
The land ownership deed was later sold to the New Zealand Company.
Then there's a case against Richard Cook who the narrators were absolutely certain had committed a murder of a Ngati Toa woman and her baby, but whom the English law Court acquitted of the crime in 1843. Apparently, Maori believed they were better than an English law Court at deciding if there was sufficient evidence to convict and punish, and the narrators seemed to agree. They also seemed to agree that Te Rauparaha's nephew Te Rangihaeata's unhappiness with the Court's verdict added to the righteousness of his Wairau massacre about 6 months later.
Part 2 of the podcast stated that "In 1839 the New Zealand Company's first expedition arrived in the waters of Aotearoa". This is silly. New Zealand was never called 'Aotearoa' until late 19th Century. One might as well say that Caesar conquered the last parts of France in 51 BC even though it was actually Gaul and didn't become France until around around 1500 AD. Calling current New Zealand 'Aotearoa' is disrespectful until the name might be democratically changed, but applying that name to New Zealand in 1839 is either ignorant (believing, as many people have been led to believe, that 'Aotearoa' was the original Maori name for New Zealand) or brazen woke propaganda.
Narrator Mr Rae told us that the New Zealand Company wasn't allowed by Governor Hobson to buy land where they wanted it so "...they had to settle for land at Whakatu, also now known as the city of Nelson". What? More woke nonsense. The city of Nelson is the only thing known as the city of Nelson. Whakatu was never the city of Nelson and 'Nelson' was never a name given to a piece of land or a Maori settlement; Nelson is the name given to a municipality established on European models, an entity that did not exist in Maori times.
Anyway, the podcast claimed that the New Zealand Company didn't own the land that the Maori chiefs had been paid for and for which they had a clearly worded and signed ownership deed. No, that was all just devious scheming by the nasty white people, while Maori chiefs would never have sold stuff they intended to take back by warfare or trickery, now would they? The narrators called the deed "dodgy" and "a joke" and claimed Blenkinsop had "pulled a fast one", based it appears on self-interested Maori oral history rather than the written, signed document. In fact, the deed appears to have been very clear and precise, not dodgy. Anyway, Te Rauparaha appealed to the Colonial Land Commissioner William Spain who was appointed to review the validity of pre-Tiriti land sales, then Te Rauparaha warned the New Zealand Company to halt further activity on the Wairau plains until Spain had investigated and pronounced on the sale.
Regarding the surveying that the New Zealand Company was undertaking on the now disputed land, narrator Ms Murray asserted that "Ngati Toa needed to send a message that this was unacceptable". So a group led by Te Rauparaha went to the surveyors' camps, pulled out the pegs and burned down their huts. Yay! Fully justified and morally righteous according to the narrators. We are later told that Te Rauparaha claimed he had burned the branches and ferns he owned that the huts were made of, so it wasn't arson. The narrators didn't seem to recognize that this was strong evidence of Te Rauparaha's duplicity. According to him he had believed the land deed was to allow taking of timber and water yet he now denied his need to honour even that claimed version of the agreement.
The settlers in Nelson were angry because they had paid the New Zealand Company for their plots of the land in question. They demanded that Te Rauparaha and his nephew Te Rangihaeata be arrested for arson and the Nelson magistrate provided a warrant accordingly. A posse of armed settlers with some constables traveled to arrest Te Rauaparaha who positioned warriors hiding in the bush. Leaders of the posse with a few supporters meet with Te Rauparaha, telling him they have come to arrest them and bringing out handcuffs. A historian who takes over the narrating admits he's putting words in Te Rauparaha's mouth concerning the dialogue, but assures us it's true anyway. Te Rauparaha is portrayed as trying to defuse the situation, the voice of reason etc. But voices are raised and somebody's shot kills Te Rangihaeata's wife nearby, probably by accident.
The scene erupts into battle, killing and wounding some on both sides. The European posse soon realizes they are no match for the better placed, more numerous and much more experienced warriors, so they run away. Nine including the leaders of the posse (including another Wakefield representing the New Zealand Company) surrender and are taken prisoner. After some discussion between the Maori leaders Te Rangihaeata murders the prisoners one by one with a mere, a Maori clubbing and cutting weapon. Of course, the podcast narrators and experts find that all ok because it's tikanga. No mention that if the prisoners had been treated humanely and returned to their people, Ngati Toa would probably have gained respect from the European settlers and the battle forgiven. No mention that allowing tikanga and utu to preside as law is more likely to result in never-ending back and forth retaliation than to resolve matters. No recognition that the podcast's state-funded justification of lethal violence under tikanga might inspire many more Maori youth and gang members to commit serious crimes believing in their righteousness and thereby ruin their own lives as well as the lives of their victims.
Robert Fitzroy, the new governor who arrived soon after the massacre, expressed understanding of the Maori response to the attempted arrests and ordered no further action. Here, the narrators refer to his decision as potentially averting a war. Actually, refraining from clubbing to death nine prisoners would possibly have averted a war. Regardless, Fitzroy doesn't last long in the face of settler and New Zealand Company revolt against his position. The next governor, George Grey, takes a different attitude and demands that the Maori hand over the Wairau land as payment for their crimes. Te Rauparaha is arrested, Te Rangihaeata battled but was overwhelmed and retreated, although he was involved in subsequent warring elsewhere. The podcast plays some statements by a Maori teacher and students he has brought to the site of the massacre; the students have been told that Te Rauparaha was "kidnapped" by the Crown in order to coerce Ngati Toa to give up the Wairau land.
Interestingly, the podcast tells us that the Waitangi Tribunal in 2010 determined that Ngati Toa never had cultural rights to the Wairau land, this leading to compensation to the value of $25 million to the Rangitane iwi even though they had been defeated in battle by Ngati Toa in the 1830s. Regardless of the Waitangi Tribunal's mental gymnastics in upholding cultural ownership by conquest in some cases but not others, the podcast narrators showed no recognition that under the Tribunal's finding Te Rauparaha had always been fraudulent in entering any agreements over that land or to claim later that he still owned it!
Some of this podcast's account may be true, much of it appeared to be based on oral history that is almost certainly uncertain, and there was almost nothing to promote understanding towards the white players in the events, those evil colonists, except perhaps the customers of the New Zealand Company who are also portrayed as victims of that Company. This kind of exclusively white-blaming portrayal of history appears to be what our children are now being fed at school, and we're all funding it.
A.E. Thompson is a working, tax-paying New
Zealander who speaks up about threats to our hard-fought rights, liberties,
egalitarian values, rational thinking and fair treatment by the state.
9 comments:
All is progressing according to plan..... with no real opposition from political parties.
For the public, apathy is the usual climate. If ever people do wake up, it will be far too late.
Labour has likely done a deal with the Maori caucus - and Party - for action to continue underground till 2026 if the 2023 election is lost.
How easy is this process!
I heard this programme some time ago and was dismayed but not surprised at the tenor. I was tempted to complain to RNZ but all very time consuming and futile. And Willie would certainly not be concerned. No Letter to the Editor of Herald or Stuff would ever be published. The colossal loss of maori life during the musket wars was attributed in large part to sickness. Yet the early missionaries, seamen, settlers did not report any epidemics other than wholesale slaughter for heads and hangi or just fun. Fitzroy was regarded as far too lenient about Wairau; the Maoris were mystified by the lack of severe utu and Fitzroy lost any mana he had. I recently reread Polack Vol 1. Unlike Wakefield, Maning, Logan Campbell, he wrote immediately after leaving NZ and severing ties so memory was fresh and he had no cause to ingratiate. He describes land deals in the North pre 1840. The chiefs implored settlers to buy land and declared it no longer used by them. Polack reckoned some prices rivalled Europe. The numbers claiming association, often just because they had passed there sometime, and requiring payment were remarkable. Anecdotes made it very clear they understood the enduring nature of sale, compared with the money/muskets/tobacco paid. (Many who have sold property in NZ for mere money of the day will know the situation). Burial grounds of enemies had been deliberately ransacked and were declared of no interest, but later were utilised for more extortion. For any that might have been partly convinced that all maori life was cosy pre Treaty, a very revealing 9and troubling) read. (Many modern traits traceable to then. The perpetual try on, constant revising and upping of demands, as with the Waitangi Tribunal, are long established tikanga.)
The program not very prominent on air. I suspect it intended primarily to be wheeled out for the new curriculum indoctrination. The typical teacher very unlikely to have read the true background.I was long past retirement before I found time to read such.
Only what is to be expected in this woke world. I always understood that the murdering cannibal, Te Rauparaha hid in the equivalent of the women's latrine - kumera patch is certainly news to me, and ask yourself, if you were on a kill, rape and pillage mission, wouldn't you clean out the larder? After all, food was hardly abundant? But
a kumera patch does sound much more wholesome when discribing the exploits of a murderous reprobate who was being a coward.
To paraphrase Disraeli -
Lies, damn lies, and bullshit.
But it is really annoying that we paid for this tosh.
Haven't listened to RNZ for more than a year now. Sad.
I find it interesting that New Zealand is now going thru the same "party pathway" when it comes to Colonization, settlements, history etc, et.al that England has done in the past 2 - 3 years, led by people whose origins are not English, some are born in England, only after Parents migrated, raised, educated, etc within England, and they have decided that The English (white ones) are Racist, puerile, have a history of Colonization that included slavery, and I am sure that most readers, here will have an understanding of the direction (those) in England are promoting, tis the same here.
I came across the following statement, from an American source, Author Unknown, and it reflects what those who see their Nation being torn asunder, by those who "dwell on the Left"-
"In the every passing moment, the more patient we are, the more radical they become.."
Following on from 'Unknown' above, England is an excellent example of what happens when we cave in to all this Woke marxofascist bullshit. Just over a hundred years ago, Britain was the world's hyperpower (in today's language) and the most influential European power by far in areas such as enlightened governance and justice. Now, the capital has been aptly renamed 'Londonistan'. the British people have committed cultural suicide. Progress? No way!
Happened last weekend to stop at the place where the events culminating in this disgusting act of Maori barbarism took place. (That's not to deny that the white posse were foolish and culturally disrespectful.) There is a stone memorial to the district's pioneer families and two surveyors contracted in 1843 to survey the area. Wonder how long that memorial will last! Then there is a board giving a very biased account of 'The Wairau Affray' (the name of the roadside memorial area and the title of the board, a euphemism designed to minimize the appalling Maori violence involved). Interestingly, the board's account states that 18 Europeans were taken prisoner and killed, while the RNZ portrayal mentioned only 9 such victims.
In a local newspaper here in Taupo it was given that Te Rauparaha hid in a kumara pit in this area and a woman sat on the cover to avoid its examination.
Problem is of course that kumara didn't grow in this climate- it was far too cold and even in the best of seasons the growing season would have much too short.
Of course to suggest that such a story is basically untrue because the main facts cannot be correct is simply unacceptable with the media and true to form the local paper would not publish such a letter and indeed did not even acknowledge receiving it.
"Now, the capital has been aptly renamed 'Londonistan'. the British people have committed cultural suicide. Progress? No way! "
So, everyone happy that Enoch Powell was quite correct? There's plenty of scope for "I told you this would happen.."
Australia is starting down this road with The Voice, a law to set up a new aboriginal 'board' to do unexplained things in Parliament and peopled by unexplained aboriginals. Apparently all will be explained AFTER the legislation is in place!
The white race is committing suicide, but providing they have their iphones and 6 lattes in the morning they are not worried. Sad, but amusing..
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