High emotion on eve of Tuia 250

GISBORNE: Preparations in Gisborne are ramping up for the Tuia 250 commemorations, as the East Coast region confronts its fraught colonial history.

It has taken 15 years to get off the ground and it will begin today in Gisborne as more than 10,000 people are expected to converge on the city for the commemoration.

Te Ha Trust general manager Glenis PhilipBarbara, who has been organising the commemorations in Tauranga, said Tuia 250 was a turning point for the Gisborne community.

‘‘People in this community are seeing this as a turning point, the point at which Aotearoa New Zealand woke up to its dual heritage origins and began to think about what respecting the Treaty actually looks like. Now these are comments I’m getting not just from Maori people but from Pakeha people, too, in our community, so it feels like we’re moving towards something good.’’

But there have been calls from indigenous rights advocate Tina Ngata for the celebrations to be boycotted.

She is a leading a series of events every evening, called Wetewetehia, which will delve into the atrocities that Cook committed, including a mock trial for Cook and an international indigenous panel discussion about the doctrine of discovery.

‘‘In order for us to come together, we need to have a shared understanding first of our history, a clear shared understanding of our history that Tuia 250 has so far failed to provide thus far.

‘‘Wetewetehia 250 is actually about the pulling apart, the dismantling and the careful observation of what’s happened in our colonial history, going all the way back to some of the global forms of colonisation, so Wetewetehia 250 provides a platform to look at those histories.’’

There will also be art exhibitions at Tairawhiti Museum, such as ‘‘Ko au, ko matou’’, which features a sculpture of a hand giving the fingers to Endeavour.

Also at the Tairawhiti Museum are 37 taonga that were taken by the Endeavour crew and are on loan from museums around the world.

‘‘We know we are charged with the safe travel and care of taonga that are over 250 years old. They’ve got to travel 25,000km across to the other side of the world, and a whole range of institutions both in the UK and in New Zealand had to support that,’’ museum director Eloise Wallace said.

The commemorations will start today with a mass powhiri at Taranganui a Kiwa as the two waka hourua, Haunui and Ngahiraka Mai Tawhiti, and a Tahitian va’a tipaerua, Fa’afaite, arrive on the shores.

On October 8, the tall ships will arrive and join the waka to make up the flotilla, which will travel around the rest of the country together.

This time there will not be a powhiri, after the four Gisborne iwi declined to participate.

They will instead hold an interdenominational karakia to remember those who were killed by Cook and his men.

On October 9, the inner harbour will be opened up for a massive open day, where people can meet the crew, look at the waka and learn about voyaging history. — RNZ

❛ In order for us to come together, we need to have

a shared understanding first of our history, a clear shared understanding of our history that Tuia 250 has

so far failed to provide thus far