Time to fix the gap in our history

An adult has 32 teeth. If those teeth are healthy and wellmaintained, then a smile is not only a thing of beauty but also a beaming symbol of symmetry and harmony.

A gap, a missing tooth, can be disconcerting, even jarring. Something missing can seem not quite right.

Parliament’s debating chamber has 33 memorial plaques and wreaths on its walls to commemorate New Zealand sacrifice in various wars and battles around the globe, and campaigns to keep the peace. It’s an effort that should give all Kiwis pause for thought and maybe even a smile to recognise the courage of so many, the contribution of a small, proud nation, and a valued reputation earned in war and in peace.

But there is a gap, something missing; an oversight that is jarring. All of these plaques recall the actions of brave Kiwis in fields far from here, but there is no plaque to remember the pain and death on our own soil, in a civil war that played a key role in New Zealand history.

We remember Passchendaele but not Parihaka; Malaya rather than Ma¯ hoetahi; World War I and II but not Waioeka Gorge or Wairau.

The Greens are right to seek that recognition of the Land Wars (1845-72), the 3000 or so people on both sides who died and the many, many more displaced.

Frankly, we need to go further; it’s a nonsense we have recognised and are in the process of reconciling a campaign of shameful, illegal land grabs and confiscations through a tribunal and settlement process, but not the armed conflict that played a big role in that campaign.

It’s a nonsense that many New Zealanders, through our education system, have gained a greater knowledge of various obscure historical monarchs rather than the real and sometimes still raw history of their own neighbourhoods, communities and country.

It is promising the Government has allocated $4 million to help commemorate the conflicts, but it’s arguable that just a few hundred dollars to erect a plaque in its own House would be just as impactful.

This is not about apportioning blame; none of the plaques in Parliament seeks to relitigate past wrongs or revise history. They simply recognise our role in those conflicts. And some official recognition of the Land Wars, in the chamber that symbolises our shared democratic ambitions, would not only be appropriate, but would display our growing maturity in the face of potentially divisive issues.

That maturity was itself demonstrated three years ago when a group of O¯ torohanga College students, inspired by the stories of local kauma¯ tua, organised a 13,000-strong petition for a national day to remember the Land Wars.

It was not done out of anger or a desire for retribution but, as student Leah Bell said, out of pride in New Zealand ‘‘and of who we are – that we will pull together and support each other in this way’’.

So we have an opportunity to properly acknowledge the past and reward the hope of the future.

That hope inspires pride in the partnership we have built, and continue to build, from the ravages of past conflict. It is a relationship we can smile about, but some work remains. And that glaring gap.