PM’s presence big step for NZ Wars

AUCKLAND: The Prime Minister’s attendance at an official commemoration of the New Zealand Wars is an important step to helping people understand the country’s history.

That is the belief of a spokesman for Jacinda Ardern, who will be attending the event in Taranaki on Monday.

This is the third time the event has been held. This year, it will be held at Te Kohia pa in

Waipa, where the first shots of the New Zealand Wars were fired.

In the mid1800s, there was a series of bloody battles between Maori tribes and the Crown over sovereignty — these are commonly referred to as the New Zealand Wars.

The commemorations are on the same day as the anniversary of the signing of the 1835 Declaration of Independence.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said the Government was focused on ensuring New Zealand understood its own history and commemorated it.

That was one of the major reasons she would be attending the event on Monday.

The spokesman said there would be many people across the country that had limited knowledge of the land wars, and the commemorations were a good way to ensure New Zealand’s history was understood.

The national day of commemoration came about after a group of students from Otorohanga College started a petition, urging the Government to officially mark the day.

The petition, which received 12,000 signatures, was delivered to Parliament in December 2015.

Ms Ardern’s attendance at the commemorations comes after Parliament yesterday passed into law an apology from the Crown for the land invasions of Parihaka in the late 1800s.

There were emotional scenes in the House after the Bill — which formalised an apology first given two years ago — unanimously passed its third reading.

About 200 people from Parihaka were in Parliament to witness what Greens coleader Marama Davidson called ‘‘an historic day’’.

The Bill apologised for responding to ‘‘peace with tyranny, to unity with division, and to autonomy with oppression’’.

In 1881, about 1600 soldiers raided and evicted Maori who had gathered to resist the Crown. — The New Zealand Herald