Tommy Kapai: Day to remember all injustices

All over Aotearoa, Kiwis will wear the poppy proudly on their lapel.

There are many forgotten heroes in the history of our country's fallen warriors and many of them will be remembered this Friday on Anzac Day.

Many of us had fathers, grandfathers and koros who fought for the freedom of this wonderful country we are blessed to call home. Some of us will stand at cenotaphs and in the stillness of the moment's silence we will remember. Others will reflect while they walk a mile in the steps of their ancestors who fought in bygone battles such as Te Ranga and Gate Pa.

All over Aotearoa, Kiwis will wear the poppy proudly on their lapel, many not knowing what war was all about other than that there are no winners, just sorrow and sadness - and a few stories and korero about heroes who carried the torch of peace and reconciliation in the form of forgiveness.

We have many heroes who followed the pathway of peace in bygone battles, none moreso than those who fought for their lands up on the Pukehinahina battle site of Gate Pa. Next week Tauranga will have its own opportunity to remember, commemorate, understand and honour the war heroes of a battle some say Maori were victorious in, even if it was only short-lived.

Rawiri Puhirake and Henare Taratoa, Pene Taka Tuaia and Hori Ngatai are, in my opinion, worthy recipients for Victoria Cross commendations and deserve their rightful place alongside those we have named streets and townships after (General Sir Duncan Cameron and Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Harpur Greer who the township of Greerton is named in honour of.)

It was General Cameron who rode into town to take Tauranga, but three short days after Gate Pa he rode back out again and his days of battle were over.

He had seen enough injustice to last him a life time in the preceding battles at Rangiriri, Orakau and Rangioawhia where innocent women and children were burnt alive in the raupo church they sought refuge in.

In some ways he was spared the sadness of what happened up the road from Gate Pa at Te Ranga, where Colonel Greer took charge and ordered his mounted soldiers, bayonets drawn to slaughter innocent women and children for no other reason than they were trying to hold on to their land. Land that they had been willing to share with their new-found fellow citizens.

Is it by co-incidence or divine appointment that within a matter of days we have Easter, Anzac and Gate Pa to learn from?

All of these events carry their own message of forgiveness if we are open to them.

Being non-believers or supporters in any of these awful acts does not exclude or excuse us from the opportunity to find an avenue of forgiveness. Nor can anyone living today be blamed in any way for what happened back then.

When the father of the Rainbow Nation came to Aotearoa and was asked by Sir Hugh Kawharu, "what did you learn after being locked up in Robben Island for 27 years", he left a message with Maori that has more meaning than ever as we remember what happened at the battle of Rangiriri, Rangioawhia, Orakau, Pukehinahina - Gate Pa and Te Ranga.

"All I learned was how to forgive and, until Maori can forgive - your country just like my own cannot go forward."

Whether it's 150 years or 27 years - the sadness and the memories seem like yesterday for the Nelson Mandelas and Maori of this world.

Perhaps it is a good time to remember another unsung hero of our dark days who carried the same message of forgiveness in a song we sing more than any other in this country.

Dunedin Central MP, Thomas Bracken was also a lyricist who wrote the waiata we sing every time we stand and salute our national flag.

The sad side of our national anthem is Bracken died penniless behind an old tram shed having devoted his life to standing side by side with Maori MPs of the time and denounced the way they were treated by the land grabbing colonists.

"Hear our voices we entreat, keep us from envy, strife and war."

No one is being asked to forget but perhaps now as we grow up as a culturally cool country, in a week where injustices are remembered, it is a time like no other before where we can say sorry, even if it is in the quiet confines of our own conscious thoughts.

Next Friday and again next Tuesday we can all walk side by side and remember Gallipolli and Gate Pa. It will be a historical moment that could well be a turning point for Tauranga that the rest of Aotearoa can follow.

Kei wareware tatou - Lest we forget.

broblack@xtra.co.nz

Tommy Kapai is a Tauranga writer.