Remembering land war history goes beyond bricks and mortar

Friday, 22 September 2017

Monuments that mark moments in a nation's history have come under fire around the world recently. Deena Coster investigates the legacy of land war memorials in Taranaki. 

When Wharehoka Wano looks around his rohe, he only ever sees one side of the story.

For 20 years, Taranaki was in the grip of civil war as colonial forces sought to take control and Māori battled back, trying to protect their land and way of life.

But the memorials which sprang up around the province in the decades following the land wars primarily tell European stories of courage and loss.

'They're not accurate, they acknowledge a side, a version of those that were involved,' Wano says.

An example of this chasm of experience is the treatment given to one of the most important places in New Zealand's military history - Te Kohia pā site near Waitara - where on March 17, 1860, the first shots were fired in the land war conflict.

'You drive past Brixton and it's acknowledged in no way,' the Taranaki Iwi chief executive says.

'There's a part of history which is basically invisible.'

New Zealand's civil war, fought between 1860-1881, left hundreds of Māori and European dead but few battle sites have been preserved and only a select group have been memorialised while the rest go forgotten, lying in unmarked graves.

Along with the death toll, the conflict left deep social, cultural and psychological wounds that have only recently begun to heal.

Taranaki Māori had to wait until 2001 to receive its public apology from the Crown, by way of a treaty deal for Ngāti Ruanui, the first iwi in the region to settle its longstanding grievances.

And it was only this year, that the Government said sorry for the atrocities suffered by the people of Parihaka, after the village was ransacked, and its women raped during the November 1881 invasion.

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Archaeologist Ivan Bruce says the land war monuments in  Taranaki 'are in many cases the only memorial to men whose remains were never found, or to our shame, now lie in the many unmarked or lost military graveyards.'

'We hold a social contract with our soldiery. Their dead are to be recognised, regardless of whether we necessarily agree with the causes of the conflict to which we send them. To be remembered is their unalienable right,' Bruce says.

But he argues this has to be balanced against a need to fully understand the history connected to the land wars, from both the Māori and European perspective.

'As part of our national identity, it's inescapable,' Bruce says. 

While the Treaty of Waitangi settlements for iwi are one plank for redressing the damage wrought upon Māori in the aftermath of war, Bruce says community organisations, councils and schools all have a role to play in becoming better informed about the province's past.

'Monuments are never just a tribute to an event, persons or period in history but they represent the collective values of those who erect the monument at the time it was erected.  As our values change the way we view these monuments also shifts.'

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In the United States, the removal of statues and monuments dedicated to Confederate soldiers has sparked fierce controversy recently.

Civil rights activists believe the statues serve as constant reminders of slavery, and more than 60 have been removed or renamed since 2015. This has resulted in a series of confrontations between activists and the far right. In August, Heather Heyer, 32, was killed in Charlottesville, Virginia while attending a counter-rally against white supremacists.

Last month, Captain James Cook's statue in Sydney came under the spotlight after Aboriginal leaders asked for the 138-year-old monument to be modified. The statue was criticised for making the indigenous  people invisible and calls were made to change the inscription to reflect that Aborigines had been in Australia 60,000 years before Cook arrived.

New Zealand's monuments have not escaped such attentions. Statues of Captain James Cook, including one on Gisborne's Kaiti Hill, were repeatedly defaced by vandals last year, who streaked red paint across the head and crotch areas.

This month, a petition to have the Nixon memorial moved from Ōtāhuhu to the Auckland Museum was launched.

Colonel Marmaduke George Nixon was an early settler to South Auckland and took part in the settler invasion of the Waikato in the 1860s. He died on May 27, 1864 from wounds he suffered in battle. Criticism about the memorial includes that it pays tribute to soldiers who died but makes no mention of Māori who perished.

Petition organiser Shane Te Pou says the Nixon memorial is an example of a 'Eurocentric' view of history.

Professor Michael Belgrave, of Massey University, says monuments and memorials can be a useful medium to confront and critique a nation's history.

Some memorials around the world are divisive, racist and historically incorrect, he says.

In light of this, Belgrave says it's important  that when a better understanding of history is reached, these learnings should then be reflected in the landscape which surrounds us as well.

This could involve incorporating new information onto existing memorials.

'It doesn't mean we have to knock down the ones that were there before,' Belgrave says.

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Fridtjof Hanson's hands have helped sculpt statues which are on public display in Taranaki, including a bronze replica of Lieutenant Colonel William Malone, which sits along Stratford's Broadway.

Malone was commemorated for his heroic actions during World War 1, at Gallipoli and  Chunuk Bair and was regaled for his qualities as a leader.  

At the time the statue was signed off by the Stratford District Council in 2010, there was mention made of how some Māori might object to putting up a statue of a man who took part in the invasion at Parihaka.

Trying to capture the full essence of his subject, is something Hanson grapples with for hours in his Cowling Rd studio, as he moulds wet clay into a human form.

Sculpting might be a hobby he took on after his retirement as a surgeon, but it's not a subject he takes lightly.

'I'm an artist and I'm here to represent history as I see it.'

He says war is 'a problem which has afflicted the human race from the very beginning' but the people who want to destroy, deface or vandalise statues are 'misguided'.

Hanson says by focusing on this aspect of conflict, the real lesson of war - how to avoid it in the first place - gets lost along the way. 

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Wano says of people publicly honoured in Taranaki, there will always be a Māori viewpoint on the role they played either on the battlefield or regarding the confiscation and selling off of land.

'There's certainly a part of me that's saddened and sometimes gets angry,' he says, admitting he struggles with seeing some people put up on pedestal while others are left out in the cold.

The main point Wano wants to make about history is that the right information should be told.

He is seeing a greater will within the education system to ensure the teachings are correct. This includes the launch of Te Takanga o te Wā, which is a new framework for teaching Māori history to Year 1-8 students.

'There's been a real push for New Zealand history to be told accurately,' he says.

'That's really important to us tribally.'

The Government's willingness to acknowledge the conflict  also moved forward this year when a date for the inaugural commemoration to mark the land wars was set for October 28. 

As part of reconciliation and moving into the post-settlement space, iwi are also beginning to 'take control' of their own truths to ensure they are being heard, Wano says.

'There's honesty and power and forgiveness in telling those stories.' 

Taking on history:

Marsland Hill memorial in New Plymouth 

On Waitangi Day in 1991, the Marsland Hill war memorial in New Plymouth, which had been at the site for 82 years, was vandalised.

In the early hours of the morning, protesters smashed the soldier, which sat at the top of the memorial, off. The stone soldier was never replaced and is believed to be stored in a garden shed in the city.

A large signed was erected on the memorial which said: 'In Remembrance of the Māori people who suffered in the military campaigns - honour the Treaty of Waitangi'. At the time, media reports stated there had no Treaty of Waitangi commemorations held in the region that year, as Māori felt there was little to celebrate.

The Whiteley Memorial 

Erected in 1923, a stone cairn memorialising the life of missionary The Reverend John Whiteley sat on land in Pukearuhe, north Taranaki. Whiteley was killed by Māori in 1869 near the site.

But in 2006, the memorial was demolished by New Plymouth's Methodist Church, a move which was made following an agreement made between the organisation and Ngāti Tama.

The land where the memorial had been was returned to the iwi as part of its 2003 Treaty of Waitangi settlement.

A plaque which had been placed on the cairn was relocated to the Whiteley Memorial Church in New Plymouth.

John Ballance statue 

During the 79-day occupation of Whanganui's Moutoa Gardens or Pākaitore in 1995, a statue of the 19th century premier John Ballance was beheaded and replaced with a pumpkin. 

The protestors believed Ballance, also  a former Whanganui MP,  had encouraged Māori land alienation. 

 A new bronze statue of Ballance was commissioned and unveiled outside of Whanganui's civic centre in 2009.

Something new

A new memorial marking the Taranaki land wars could be a reality, as ideas about how to development the Te Kohia pā site are underway.

In June 2016, the section of land at Brixton, near Waitara, was bought by the New Plymouth District Council for $715,000 and talks are ongoing with Te Kotahitanga o Te Atiawa about developing the site which could include a memorial or place to grow opportunities for cultural tourism and education.

In August, New Plymouth man Rex Ward pitched an idea to the council to erect a memorial to the land wars in the city, ahead of the inaugural national day of commemoration on October 28.

Ward believes it was more appropriate for a symbol or sculpture to show how far the province has come in terms of promoting relations between Māori and Pākehā, with a focus on peace.