Later this month, Willie Jackson will be taking part in the Oxford Union debate on the motion that “British Museums are not Very British”. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Later this month, Willie Jackson will be taking part in the Oxford Union debate on the motion that “British Museums are not Very British”. Photo / Mark Mitchell
OPINION
The history of European nations plundering the taonga of other peoples and taking them back to put in museums has been coming under increased scrutiny in recent years. It’ll be a topic that Willie Jackson will take on when, later this month, he’ll become the first Māori, and onlythe second New Zealander, to participate in the Oxford Union debate on the topic “British Museums are not Very British”.
For New Zealand, the most important taonga sitting in foreign museums are the mokomokai – the preserved heads of Māori, adorned with moko.
From Cook’s first visit, Europeans were fascinated by the heads, which had traditionally been preserved to remember honoured ancestors (and enemies). Such was the level of European demand to take mokomokai back home as curios, and such was the need of iwi to barter for muskets to defend themselves during the musket wars, that an awful trade in the mokomokai of slaves grew up until it was banned by Māori and British leaders.
For 200 years, the remains of our ancestors have lain in distant lands, in the archives of museums and other collections. Many have been returned but the British Museum still holds seven mokomokai. There is a fear in the UK that returning them will open the door to returning other plundered taonga from all over the colonised world.
Get on that slippery slope, the thinking goes, and who knows where it ends? After all, that big diamond in the British crown jewels? That’s Koh-i-Noor, taken from India as a spoil of war, and which India would very much like back. When David Cameron was Prime Minister, he revealed a bit too much when he said of returning the diamond: “If you say yes to one, you suddenly find the British Museum would be empty.”
Or, on the other hand, maybe it’s time for a faded empire to give back the stuff it took. Certainly, as former colonies grow in economic and diplomatic power and the old centres of empire start to look very shabby, continuing to say “no” is getting harder.
So, it’s a hot topic that Jackson is heading to Oxford Union to debate. A topic that hits on justice, past wrongs of colonisation and the damaged pride of a once-mighty empire. If the UK does give back what it took, is it admitting it is just one country among equals and no longer the globe-striding power it once was?
It’s a great honour for Jackson to have been selected for this debate – for New Zealand and for Māori – and I can’t think of anyone better to represent us (churlish remarks from Winston Peters aside).
Willie Jackson has mana among Māori, despite what NZ First leader Winston Peters might say about him, writes Shane Te Pou. Photo / Michael Craig
I’ve known Willie for decades. We’ve been in the union movement together. We were in Labour, we left Labour, we returned – or rather, it came back to us. Not only has he got the gift of the gab – a fast wit combined with great oratory – he’s got values that are grounded in justice. Fighting for what’s right, taking on the powerful and giving a voice to those who have none, is something Willie picked up from his activist whānau, including his mum, Dame June, dad Bob and uncles Moana and Syd.
People know Jackson from his leadership for urban Māori, his rollicking Eye to Eye political interview show and his years on the radio with John Tamihere, taking a Māori perspective to mainstream radio. But, for me, his crowning achievement is the funding he secured as Minister for Māori Development for building and repairing whare, for boosting kura, kaiako and ākonga, for getting more resources to frontline Māori-led medical services and for enhancing our culture with events like Te Matatini.
The Oxford Union debate has a special place in New Zealand politics. It’s where David Lange made his famous “I can smell the uranium on [your breath]” speech that so clearly and strongly cut down the argument that small countries like New Zealand were safer under the “nuclear umbrella” of the United States. He put Aotearoa’s nuclear-free position on the world map, which has been so important to our national identity and international reputation.
Some big shoes for Jackson to fill. But, then, he’s been filling big shoes all his life, with such revered tupuna, and filling them well. I’m sure he’ll do the country proud at the Oxford Union.
Shane Te Pou (Ngāi Tūhoe) is a commentator, blogger and former Labour Party activist.
