There’s a Māori whakataukī (proverb) that says, “Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua. / I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on the past.”
The loop of past, present and future speaks to New Zealand Wars: Stories of Tauranga Moana, the latest in Aotearoa Media Collective’s documentary series on the land wars that shaped us as a nation.
It’s a loop that traverses the bloody 1843-72 struggle for control and sovereignty of Aotearoa to the consequences of that struggle: mass confiscation of Māori lands, collapse of the Māori economy, institutional racism, inter-generational trauma. All of it evidenced by the litany of negative statistics that still afflict Māori, and, by extension, the rest of us, too.
But many of us have little or no idea of just how much that past informs the present: what happened and why? Who was involved? At what cost?
New Zealand history is only now being mandated in schools. That wasn’t my experience. I learnt about the unification of Germany and Garibaldi instead, and what I did know of the 19th century wars was via the dominant Pākehā version of events.
My crash course in the real thing has come through researching, writing and directing the New Zealand Wars series. Roughly a decade ago, after a long career with TVNZ, largely in current affairs, I was invited into the world of Māori current affairs. Before, I was an outsider looking in. These days, I’m on the inside looking out – a rewarding and exhilarating view.
To be part of that and the New Zealand Wars series is incredibly exciting. It means I get to work alongside a highly talented and motivated production crew led by Mihingarangi Forbes and Annabelle Lee-Mather on this series.
Relearning our history
It’s not the definitive history – we would never pretend to offer that. We’ve framed our series as the stories of rather than the history of the New Zealand Wars. And what compelling, drama-filled stories they are: stories of courage, compassion, greed, military innovation, loss and tragedy.
Eminent historian Vincent O’Malley delivers fresh understandings and perspectives. So do a raft of iwi oral historians. They offer very different versions of the New Zealand story to the one I grew up with. And they can be confronting. But, as O’Malley argues, we need to own our history, warts and all, if we are to mature as a nation.
For me, the story of Pukehinahina/Gate Pā comes to life through the characters on both sides: Rāwiri Puhirake, the Ngāi Te Rangi fighting rangatira who led his small force of warriors to a humiliating defeat of the overwhelming British assault on April 29, 1864; Henare Taratoa, the fighting Christian scholar who helped author an astonishing code of conduct for fighting which mirrored the first Geneva Convention that would emerge months later; Lieutenant-General Duncan Cameron, who personally led the Tauranga campaign after the brutal fight for Waikato. He oversaw the most extensive bombardment undertaken in the wars. He was deceived. Puhirake and his engineer had designed a remarkably innovative network of bunkers and tunnels that not only withstood the barrage, but provided cover for the victory that would follow.
Then there’s Colonel Henry Greer, who gained retribution for the British on April 29, 1864, by surprising Puhirake at nearby Te Ranga and inflicting a crippling defeat. Puhirake and Taratoa were among those killed. The events there are remembered by Ngāi Te Rangi as a massacre.
I look forward to us as a nation properly acknowledging the wars that shaped us. I feel the battlefields should be made more of: turned into destinations for us and tourists to commemorate and learn from.
And I agree with Vincent O’Malley, that remembering our past in an honest and upfront manner is not about ascribing guilt or shame about what our ancestors did. It’s not something to be scared of. It doesn’t have to be divisive. On the contrary, it’s a real opportunity for unity.
My time as foreign correspondent for TVNZ in the 1990s and 2000s took me to trouble spots including the Middle East, Bosnia and Ivory Coast. I still get stopped every now and then and asked, “Aren’t you the war correspondent?” Well, though I work mostly behind the lens these days, I suppose I am still a war correspondent: it’s just the conflicts I cover are the battlefields of 19th century New Zealand. l
New Zealand Wars: Stories of Tauranga Moana, produced by Aotearoa Media Collective, is on rnz.co.nz/tauranga-moana from April 29. Previous episodes from the series are available on TVNZ+ and Māori+ and are available as a podcast via RNZ.
Journalist Cameron Bennett is executive producer of Whakaata Māori current affairs programme Te Ao With Moana.
