Leave colonial statues alone - they remind us of our past

Friday, 31 August 2018

Gate Pā historian says monuments to history like the Captain John Hamilton statue should be left as reminders to the past.

A Māori historian with close ties to the Land Wars is calling for statues to our colonial past to be left alone.

Tauranga's Buddy Mikaere, who is preparing to launch a book on the Battle of Gate Pā, said there are more important issues.

Richard Swainson didn't intend to provoke (file photo).

'There are probably bigger things in the world to get upset about,' Mikaere said. 'If you are going to protest something, go and bloody protest the massive increase of P use amongst Māori. That seems to be the proper place to expend bloody excess energy. History will look after itself.'

On Thursday, Huntly's Taitimu Maipi hammered and sprayed red paint on the statue dedicated to Captain John Charles Fane Hamilton in Hamilton's Civic Square.

Maipi said he was motivated by Hamilton opinion columnist for Stuff Richard Swainson's August 25 column, Statues of Colonial White Guys, although Swainson said his column was not designed to provoke a physical response.

Captain Hamilton was a naval commander who transported troops to Tauranga and died leading a detachment of the 43rd Regiment over the palisades at the battle of Gate Pā, Mikaere said.

'I feel a little bit sorry for Captain Hamilton,' he said. 'How he ended up getting his name over there when he was in Tauranga, I have no idea.'

The wording on plaques and memorials in Tauranga is being looked at to see if anything needs to be done to 'correct the imbalance' - or as Mikaere puts it: 'Fixing things rather than destroying things.'

'Let's not forget that history is mostly written by the winners, but the correction comes from the survivors, and that's who we are.'

Swainson regrets his words were misread.

'It [column] wasn't a challenge and I'm not happy that this gentleman has taken the action that he has. But that's not to say he hasn't got some legitimate gripe,' Swainson said.

Swainson said his August 25 column was inspired by a recent talk by historian Vincent O'Malley, who advocates for the New Zealand Wars to be taught in secondary schools.

The council should also give consideration to erecting a statue in honour of Rewi Maniapoto or Wiremu Tamihana, he said.

'If we have representations of both sides of the conflict, we will increase the dialogue and debate around the issues, rather than a one-note endorsement of a particular reading of the colonial past.

'I certainly wouldn't be in favour of any kind of removal of Captain Hamilton. We should be bigger than that.'

Swainson said the erection of the Captain Hamilton statue came at a time more or less when cities and towns in the United States were removing some statues.

'In a different context, where statues have been up for a long, long time, they are in themselves kind of artefacts of that colonial past.

'This is a different case. It's only been there about five years, but I think legitimate questions can be asked around the degree to which the community was consulted about it.'