Knowing past will lead to better future, says historian

4.00 pm - By ADAM GIFFORD

A blind spot about its colonial history led New Zealand to misdiagnose its economic problems in 1984 - and respond inappropriately, according to historian James Belich.

Dr Belich told the Knowledge Wave Conference today that the country needed to understand its history and identify its strengths if it was to move forward.

He said New Zealand experienced "progressive colonisation" from 1840 to 1882, when the mainly-British settler population grew from 2000 to half a million.

In 1882, the economic bubble burst and the country underwent almost a century of "recolonisation", when it tightened links with Britain.

"Recolonisation's economic centrepiece was the protein industry, which by 1940 pumped 500,000 tons of frozen meat, cheese and butter into old Britain, especially London," Dr Belich said.

"New Zealand became a town supply district of London, 12,000 miles removed. London became the cultural capital of New Zealand."

The recolonial system lasted until 1973 when Britain ran off and joined "a Franco-German commune". He said the country's isolation began to dissolve and a process of decolonisation began.

Historians and analysts have been reluctant to recognise recolonisation, and therefore the full implications of decolonisation.

In 1984, rather than recognising the town supply district had its arm amputated, New Zealand focussed its energy on "placing the amputee on a strict diet and fitness regime, and not on supplying prosthetic limbs."

He said recolonisation gave New Zealand a deep experience of trans-nationalism, which was valuable in a modern globalised world.

Recolonisation had also created cultural overproduction - a tendency to produce more than its share of talent.

"It's not just education but attitudes that made New Zealanders aspire to be rocket scientists even when their country made no rockets."

While much of this talent then went overseas, Dr Belich questioned whether is was a "brain drain" or a well-placed global network of people ready to help New Zealand?

"Are the 450,000 New Zealanders in Australia rats leaving a sinking ship, or a friendly Kiwi takeover of the West Island?"

Dr Belich said when it came to international relations, New Zealand had learned to have its eggs in more than one basket, but the network needed to be connected by strong links.

And as New Zealand sought to sell itself to other countries, people overseas needed some idea of what New Zealand was, "and that idea has to be interesting and at least a little distinctive," he said.

"New Zealanders are historically well-equipped to be both national and international citizens.

"The current cultural renaissance flowing from decolonisation, if it does not falter, can deliver the distinctiveness, just as the recolonial legacy can deliver the hybridity."

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