Captain Cook and my own voyage of discovery
Shock, horror! After hundreds of years of colonising the world, the British have officially apologised for something. Irish famine? Partition of India? The 1920s Middle East carve-up which I hear has led to the odd problem today? None of the above. The British high commissioner to New Zealand, Laura Clarke, recently went to Tu¯ ranganui-a-Kiwa, also known as Gisborne, and expressed ‘‘regret’’ for Captain Cook’s men killing nine Ma¯ ori in 1769.
The apology was nothing to do with the New Zealand Government. The relatives of the Ma¯ ori involved approved, and many of us thought it a nice, if minor, gesture. However, some people were enraged, and felt that Cook’s reputation was being besmirched.
Don Brash, a self-appointed authority on our history, reckoned only four or five Ma¯ ori were killed, and called on Clarke to resign. Dame Anne Salmond, a real authority on our history, agreed with local iwi historians who believed the number was nine. But does the number really matter, Don?
This incident was news to me, as I am a product of the 1960s and 70s New Zealand school system. It taught me that Cook ‘‘discovered’’ New Zealand and was a wonderful man who gave citrus fruit to his crew to fight scurvy. The only violence that occurred in his entire life was when some nasty Hawaiian ‘‘savages’’ killed him at Kealakekua Bay. I never knew, for example, that his first voyage was essentially a spy mission under the cover of observing the transit of Venus.
I was just a kid during the 1969 bicentennial celebrations of Cook’s ‘‘discovery’’, but I can remember that it was all Cook, and not a mention of Tupaia, Polynesian discovery, or navigation by the stars. Though I can also vaguely remember that the Australian Cook celebrations were far bigger and more triumphal.
The apology occurred at the same time as many events were celebrated in Gisborne as part of Tuia 250, including the arrival of a replica of the Endeavour. Tuia 250 is a strange beast. On one hand, the 250 in the name points to Cook’s arrival, but the organisers have also been at pains to celebrate Ma¯ ori culture and achievement.
I suspect what happened is that some bright spark in a government department, or perhaps a politician, said ‘‘We’ve had lots of fun celebrating World War I, now let’s have a fund celebrating Cook’s ‘discovery’ of New Zealand.’’
A concerned bureaucrat would have pointed out that one cannot use the ‘‘d’’ word in these enlightened times, and that a monocultural event only celebrating Cook would go down like a cup of cold sick. So, a Ma¯ ori element was clipped on.
But the ‘‘250’’ focus on Cook is the reason that some iwi have refused to welcome the replica Endeavour. To be fair to Tuia 250, they have suggested that, unlike in Cook’s time, the replica should only stop where it is welcome. And under no circumstances must they shoot anyone.
Because of the British apology, and because of our Government’s intention to make New Zealand history compulsory in schools, some Pa¯ keha¯ are worried that Captain Cook’s achievements will get lost amongst ‘‘Ma¯ ori stuff’’.
As I was waiting in Wallace St in a Mt Cook traffic jam recently, a little hungover from too much Cook’s Chasseur the night before, as the cold southerly blew up over Mt Cook and Banks Peninsula and through Cook Strait, I wondered if these people had a point. Then, as I prepared to drive to Whitby to tell kids at Adventure and Discovery School about James Cook High School’s recent research into Peter Snell’s famous mile record at Cooks Gardens, I despaired that in 50 years’ time the glorious achievements of Captain Cook might be completely forgotten. Yeah right.
Many of us are not only woefully ignorant of pre-European history, we don’t know much about our colonial history either. I didn’t know who Gisborne was, and my wife, who was born and bred in the city, wondered if he was ‘‘some sort of missionary’’. In fact, William Gisborne was the colonial secretary in the late 1860s and suggested the town be named after him, as Tu¯ ranga had been confused with Tauranga due to a clerical bungle.
Most of us have heard of the Duke of Wellington and Horatio Nelson, but did you know Warren Hastings, after whom the town in Heretaunga is named, was governor of Bengal around the time 10 million died in a famine?
With New Zealand history to be compulsory in schools, and with historians like Vincent O’Malley helping us to learn more about wars that occurred in our own country, I suspect our race relations will improve as a result.
I also suspect some Pa¯ keha¯ will feel resentful and fearful as a result of an increasing commitment to biculturalism. Not to worry. As Sir Charles Napier, a British general in India after whom Ahuriri is named, once said, ‘‘the human mind is never better disposed to gratitude and attachment than when softened by fear’’.
This incident was news to me, as I ama product of the 1960s and 70s New Zealand school system.