This website presents aspects of the New Zealand Wars fought between Māori and the Crown throughout most of the 19th century, emphasising Māori histories of these engagements in the global context of wars fought against native peoples.
Now also on TV, this recent movie by acclaimed New Zealand director Toa Fraser, The Dead Lands is a terrific film. The movie is totally recounted in Māori, too, appropriately since the action occurs in the days before Europe encountered New Zealand. The movie was released in New Zealand in 2014 and is now available on DVD. James Rolleston (Hongi) and Lawrence Makoare (The Warrior) are also terrific in their… Read more »
New Zealand history is fraught with myth – things that never happened, or at least, the evidence is sketchy. ‘Hobson’s pledge’ is one example. Was there ever such a thing? During the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840, we are told, Lieutenant Governor Hobson (right) shook hands with each Māori signatory, saying ‘he iwi tahi tatou – we are now one people’. But did this actually happen? Where is… Read more »
The New Zealand Wars ended in 1872, at least, according to most historians. And, militarily speaking, this makes perfect sense. But for Māori, the wars never ended, with the conflicts over land and te tino rangatirantanga – or sovereignty – moving from the battle fields into the Courts and Parliament. The Native Land Court, in particular, proved to be a blunt weapon used by the Crown to acquire customary Māori… Read more »
On 9 June 2017, the Parihaka community met with Crown officials to receive a reconciliation apology, and $9m restitution for past Crown actions. Looking back over the history of Parihaka since the invasion of 1881, this was a truly momentous occasion, as many have rightly said. Enormous credit must go to the Parihaka negotiators and people who made this possible; history was certainly on their side, as it was on the… Read more »
There is no doubt true that the movies possess an enormous power to shape historical images, and memories. We see this of course in the USA, where popular perceptions of the West – and how it was won from Native Americans – continue to influence how ordinary American folk see their founding years. We don’t have anything like this in New Zealand, given that our movie industry isn’t as all-encompassing… Read more »
It can be revealing to compare historic sites, as they once existed, to see how they appear today. This allows us to observe how much the sites have changed, over time – or, how much they remain the same. Landscapes change over time for many reasons, not least which is agricultural development, a real feature of this country’s past of course. # This page illustrates some of the New Zealand Wars sites – then and now…. Read more »
If you are planning to visit the USA sometime soon, you must visit Washington DC. It’s a busy town right now of course; but, if history and monuments are your thing, then Washington is second to none when it comes to its array of memorials and monuments, to say nothing of its great museums, like the Native American Museum and National Archives. Not all of Washington’s memorials signify past battles, but many do… Read more »
‘Māori history’ can be defined in many different ways – it depends on which historian you are talking to, and whether that historian is Māori or not. But it doesn’t end there. In this book, Huia Histories of Māori. Ngā Tāhuhu Kōrero, Danny has written an Introduction entitled ‘Land, Culture and History Interwoven’ (edited by Danny, Huia Publishers, Wellington, 2012, pp. xviii-xl). In this introduction, Danny discusses different aspects and forms… Read more »