Heather du Plessis-Allan: Land Wars need to be remembered

Otorohanga College students Rhiannon Magee, Leah Bell, Waimarama Anderson and Tai Te Ariki Jones, organised the petition. Photo / Mark Mitchell

I grew up just down the road from the Alexandra Redoubt. Our school took us there on a day trip.

The fort had lost a bit of its shape and grass had covered everything, but we could still clearly trace the lumps of old earth walls on all four sides. We could still imagine the British soldiers waiting in the trenches behind the walls.

I knew the old garrison had something to do the wars between the British and the Maori.

I knew Great South Rd - running through our district on its way from Auckland to Waikato - was built to supply the troops as they headed further south. I knew pretty much nothing else.

And, I'm ashamed to say, I still didn't, until this week,

But some Otorohanga pupils and the 13,000 people who signed their petition knew more than me. And they cared enough to ask the Government to set a day aside to remember the wars of the 1860s.

So I set about reading up on these wars. And just like that, the Otorohanga pupils proved their point.

Simply by raising the idea of commemorating the wars annually, at least one New Zealander - me - studied up on what the wars were about.

Imagine how many more of us would bother to find out what happened in those battles of the 1860s if we did decide to mark the event every year.

Some are worried a day of commemoration would only reopen old wounds - we weren't all fighting on the same side like we were in the battles that Anzac Day remembers.

Some are worried we already have too many public holidays and, quite frankly, all that time-and-a-half and a day in lieu gets a little pricey for the bosses.

Some probably just couldn't give a toss. We'll deal to these points in ascending order.

You should give a toss. These wars were significant. They were so significant we had to haul the Queen out here 20 years ago to get her to apologise to Maori for the unfair - and at times arbitrary - confiscation of Maori land after the battles.

We don't have too many public holidays. Since when did we start rationing holidays like war-time butter?

With much envy, I point you to Canada's holiday largesse. I count four public days off and as many as 11 regional holidays. That's 15 all up.

Then there is the awkward chat we should have about celebrating the birthday of a woman most of us have not met on a day that is not actually her birthday.

There is not a single other person on the planet whose birthday I observe without making their acquaintance. Apart from Jesus. But I get the presents on that day, so it doesn't count.

Surely, we could swap Queen's Birthday for something that has a little more relevance to our lives?

Which brings us to the final point. Marking these wars may reopen old wounds, but that would only be because those wounds aren't altogether healed yet.

Some say Hone Heke started all the troubles because of how much he hated the Union Jack. He wanted a different flag. So he chopped down the flag pole time after time.

The British sent more soldiers to the colony, rebellions sprouted here and there, and within fewer than 20 years it was full-on fighting.

It is strangely ironic that, 150 years later, we are having a debate over the very thing that started those wars.

Maybe, if we had been talking about it for decades instead of ignoring it, we wouldn't be in the position of being about to make the same mistake.

We're about to choose to retain the very flag that started the wars.