No serious historian claims Cook was perfect. He was an eighteenth-century Royal Navy officer operating in an era when encounters between European and Indigenous societies often involved fear, misunderstanding and sometimes violence. But judging him solely through the moral standards of the twenty-first century risks replacing historical analysis with modern political judgement.
Ballantyne repeatedly describes Cook as a "harbinger of colonisation", as though his primary purpose was to prepare New Zealand for British settlement. That is an oversimplification.
Cook's principal mission on his first voyage was scientific: to observe the Transit of Venus in Tahiti. Only after completing that task did he open sealed Admiralty instructions directing him to search for the southern continent and chart lands in the Pacific. Like other European explorers of his era, he carried instructions allowing him to claim territory for Britain under certain circumstances. That reflected eighteenth-century international practice, not some unique plan by Cook himself.
More importantly, Cook did not establish a colony. He did not bring settlers. He did not sign the Treaty of Waitangi. He died in 1779, more than sixty years before organised British colonisation of New Zealand began in 1840. To attribute everything that followed to Cook personally is to confuse exploration with later political events.
The article focuses heavily on the deaths that occurred during Cook's voyages but gives limited attention to the circumstances surrounding those encounters. Many involved confusion, cultural misunderstandings, theft of essential equipment, or attempts by both sides to determine whether the other posed a threat. The loss of life is regrettable, but presenting Cook simply as an aggressor removes the complexity of first contact.
Ballantyne quotes nineteenth-century critics of Cook's use of force but gives little recognition to the equally significant historical record praising Cook's restraint compared with many explorers of his era. Cook frequently instructed his crews to avoid unnecessary violence, sought peaceful exchange wherever possible, and recorded detailed observations of the peoples he encountered.
The article also overlooks Cook's enduring achievements.
His charts of New Zealand were remarkably accurate and remained valuable for generations. His observations of geography, astronomy, plants, animals and Māori society contributed enormously to scientific knowledge. His voyages transformed European understanding of the Pacific and remain among the greatest achievements in maritime exploration.
Equally absent is recognition that Cook's journals contain genuine respect and curiosity towards Māori. He recorded their intelligence, courage, agriculture, craftsmanship and seamanship. This does not erase the mistakes or conflicts of his voyages, but it demonstrates that the historical record is far more complex than the one-dimensional portrayal offered by Ballantyne.
Two different forms of historical memory
It is also important to recognise that Kupe and Cook occupy different categories of historical remembrance.
Cook is a documented eighteenth-century historical figure whose life and voyages are supported by extensive contemporary records, including journals, maps, correspondence and Admiralty documents.
Kupe, by contrast, is preserved through Māori oral traditions. These traditions are an important part of New Zealand's cultural heritage, but accounts vary between iwi and historians have interpreted them in different ways. Some regard Kupe as a real Polynesian navigator whose story has been passed down and expanded over generations; others consider him a composite ancestral figure or a cultural hero whose story explains origins and connections to place.
Acknowledging this distinction does not diminish Kupe's importance. Oral traditions are an essential part of New Zealand's heritage and deserve respect. However, a balanced historical discussion should also acknowledge that Kupe and Cook represent different forms of historical remembrance. One is preserved primarily through ancestral tradition; the other through extensive contemporary documentary records. Recognising that difference is not a judgement on either figure — it is simply an acknowledgement of how history is recorded and transmitted.
A balanced discussion should be able to hold both truths: Kupe is a significant figure in Māori tradition, while Cook is a documented figure in world history.
The purpose of the ferry names
Ballantyne argues there is a "fundamental tension" in placing Kupe and Cook together because their encounters with these islands were different. But that misunderstands what the ferry names represent.
The naming of one ferry Kupe and another Cook does not claim that the two men did the same thing, arrived in the same circumstances, or should be judged by identical criteria. It recognises that both have become important symbols in New Zealand's story.
New Zealand has always contained multiple histories. A mature nation does not need to erase one history to acknowledge another.
Many countries honour figures whose lives contain complexity and controversy. The answer is not cancellation; it is understanding.
The issue is not whether Cook should be praised without criticism. The issue is whether history should be reduced to a list of accusations while ignoring the wider context.
Captain James Cook deserves neither blind hero worship nor ritual condemnation.
He deserves what every significant historical figure deserves: to be judged in full.
Geoff Parker is a passionate advocate for equal rights and a colour blind society.
Cook's principal mission on his first voyage was scientific: to observe the Transit of Venus in Tahiti. Only after completing that task did he open sealed Admiralty instructions directing him to search for the southern continent and chart lands in the Pacific. Like other European explorers of his era, he carried instructions allowing him to claim territory for Britain under certain circumstances. That reflected eighteenth-century international practice, not some unique plan by Cook himself.
More importantly, Cook did not establish a colony. He did not bring settlers. He did not sign the Treaty of Waitangi. He died in 1779, more than sixty years before organised British colonisation of New Zealand began in 1840. To attribute everything that followed to Cook personally is to confuse exploration with later political events.
The article focuses heavily on the deaths that occurred during Cook's voyages but gives limited attention to the circumstances surrounding those encounters. Many involved confusion, cultural misunderstandings, theft of essential equipment, or attempts by both sides to determine whether the other posed a threat. The loss of life is regrettable, but presenting Cook simply as an aggressor removes the complexity of first contact.
Ballantyne quotes nineteenth-century critics of Cook's use of force but gives little recognition to the equally significant historical record praising Cook's restraint compared with many explorers of his era. Cook frequently instructed his crews to avoid unnecessary violence, sought peaceful exchange wherever possible, and recorded detailed observations of the peoples he encountered.
The article also overlooks Cook's enduring achievements.
His charts of New Zealand were remarkably accurate and remained valuable for generations. His observations of geography, astronomy, plants, animals and Māori society contributed enormously to scientific knowledge. His voyages transformed European understanding of the Pacific and remain among the greatest achievements in maritime exploration.
Equally absent is recognition that Cook's journals contain genuine respect and curiosity towards Māori. He recorded their intelligence, courage, agriculture, craftsmanship and seamanship. This does not erase the mistakes or conflicts of his voyages, but it demonstrates that the historical record is far more complex than the one-dimensional portrayal offered by Ballantyne.
Two different forms of historical memory
It is also important to recognise that Kupe and Cook occupy different categories of historical remembrance.
Cook is a documented eighteenth-century historical figure whose life and voyages are supported by extensive contemporary records, including journals, maps, correspondence and Admiralty documents.
Kupe, by contrast, is preserved through Māori oral traditions. These traditions are an important part of New Zealand's cultural heritage, but accounts vary between iwi and historians have interpreted them in different ways. Some regard Kupe as a real Polynesian navigator whose story has been passed down and expanded over generations; others consider him a composite ancestral figure or a cultural hero whose story explains origins and connections to place.
Acknowledging this distinction does not diminish Kupe's importance. Oral traditions are an essential part of New Zealand's heritage and deserve respect. However, a balanced historical discussion should also acknowledge that Kupe and Cook represent different forms of historical remembrance. One is preserved primarily through ancestral tradition; the other through extensive contemporary documentary records. Recognising that difference is not a judgement on either figure — it is simply an acknowledgement of how history is recorded and transmitted.
A balanced discussion should be able to hold both truths: Kupe is a significant figure in Māori tradition, while Cook is a documented figure in world history.
The purpose of the ferry names
Ballantyne argues there is a "fundamental tension" in placing Kupe and Cook together because their encounters with these islands were different. But that misunderstands what the ferry names represent.
The naming of one ferry Kupe and another Cook does not claim that the two men did the same thing, arrived in the same circumstances, or should be judged by identical criteria. It recognises that both have become important symbols in New Zealand's story.
New Zealand has always contained multiple histories. A mature nation does not need to erase one history to acknowledge another.
Many countries honour figures whose lives contain complexity and controversy. The answer is not cancellation; it is understanding.
The issue is not whether Cook should be praised without criticism. The issue is whether history should be reduced to a list of accusations while ignoring the wider context.
Captain James Cook deserves neither blind hero worship nor ritual condemnation.
He deserves what every significant historical figure deserves: to be judged in full.
Geoff Parker is a passionate advocate for equal rights and a colour blind society.
7 comments:
If British historical figures are judged by today's woke standards, why aren't Maori leaders judged the same way? Why do we name places in NZ after Maori who were murderers, slave owners and very un-PC?
Picking up on just one point mentioned here in an excellent summation of Cook's voyages and intentions; maoris were colonisers and their legacy is atrocious. Never let this be forgotten in attempts to denigrate the extremely brave European seamen and navigators that came to these islands. Also never forget the simpletons and wreckers who in modern times benefit from the exploits of the settlers and colonisers but do all they can in their fevered imaginations to try and change the reality of history. A pox on them and their like.
NZ was never going to exist isolated from the rest of the world - if wasn't Cook it would have been any other European, many of whom were rather dastardly.
Be grateful that it was Cook.
"Cook is a documented eighteenth-century historical figure
...............
Kupe, by contrast, is preserved through Māori oral traditions."
And herein lies the most significant difference between them. In my view, undue weight should not be given to oral history, which can preserve evidence of a low technological complexity only. We know about Cook, because his life and achievements are documented. Kupe, on the other hand, may not even have been an actual figure, but rather a facet of an origin myth. Oral history is unreliable: it may be embellished in the retelling, and often is.
Cook was a remarkable and talented man. His abilities were recognized early in his life, with his father's employer, Thomas Skottowe (a name which crops up in my ancestry, though we have no connection with him that I know of) paying for his education. Not mentioned in the account above was Cook's success in preventing the deadly disease, scurvy, in his crew.
"...the deaths that occurred during Cook's voyages..."
I wonder if Ballantyne referred to the murders of Abel Tasman's crew members during their visit to Golden Bay, prompting Tasman to name it Murderers' Bay. Maybe that history would have been contrary to the thrust of Ballantyne's narrative?
But Cook was a man of his times: nobody should be surprised at that. In the view of this family, his humaneness has been the undoing of non-Maori. Had he foreseen the trouble which his return trips would eventually cause, he would likely not have brought megafauna for the indigenes, so as to provide them with food, which was running short here at the time. And we present-day non-Maori citizens would not now be being blamed for alleged events which happened long before any of us now alive - Maori and non-Maori alike - was born.
As a long time sailor with over 70,000NM of open ocean voyaging in my own 3 yachts, I can tell you right now that Cook was hands down the greatest sailor and navigator in all History.
I agree that Polynesian navigators were skilled; but their kind of navigation methods were limited compared to Cook's.Cook was an extremely humane person for a man of his times. For example when Maori killed and ate 12 members of his crew in Queen Charlote Sound, he refused to do utu on the tribe even though he was begged to do so by other Maori tribes and his own men.
I've personally sailed through a category 9 cyclone in the Coral Sea in my 12m steel ketch during which time I hand steered for 18 hours non-stop in 13-16m seas. There is NO way a polynesian canoe could have survived in those conditions. And the claim by 2 Maori women "acedemics" that Polynesians sailed to Antartica is total B.S.
Cook accomplished more in his life than the very vast majority of us could ever hope to lay claim to, and that's a fact. He rightly deserves to be honoured.
As for Kupe, his record lives only in people's imaginations and we have no real knowledge of how he conducted himself or related to those he came across in his travels, but we most certainly know how many of his ancestors behaved like, say, those of Ngati Mutunga and Ngati Tama extraction that travelled to the Chatham Islands. Then we have the likes of Te Rauparaha, who also got around a bit undertaking similar activities, and yet look at the modern edifices we have bearing his name?
I don't know about you, but Allen above, sums my thoughts.
I have just viewed the movie "The Odyssey." It was always pretty barbaric in those days. Do we judge today's norms as being the same as those in centuries past? It all seems a bit illogical to me. We have to live in the present not the past. James Cook was a product of his times as was Te Rāuparaha. One thing which seems on a par with the mythological views of the Odyssey era, is the mythological views of Maori which the New Zealand populace is embracing.....
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