2015 marks 100 years since the battle and thousands of New Zealanders have made the voyage over to Turkey to commemorate the event. There has been a lot of publicity leading up to this years ANZAC day, with immense government support. It is after all a very important part of New Zealand history.
Last Saturday I flicked on the television to catch the end of a Q&A section where they were discussing the celebrations. Imagine my surprise when the presenter then proceeded to discuss the New Zealand land wars. A topic that was quite refreshing to see on mainstream television but more importantly a topic that isn't widely known by New Zealanders.
The land wars is a series of wars between the NZ government and local maori from the 1840's and lasted nearly 30 years. The land wars initially began as a result of maori being reluctant to sell their land to the increasing number of settlers arriving to New Zealand. Maori had become wary of the NZ government and saw that any agreements between both parties such as the Treaty of Waitangi, were largely benefiting the settlers and rapidly becoming less and less beneficial for maori.
To maori it was important to hold onto their values, their land and their culture but also wanted to work peacefully alongside the settlers. Maori saw the potential of working with the settlers and were thriving economically within their own regions. Prior to the land wars, they were already shipping and selling goods to the settlers in Auckland and overseas, therefore in effect, maori had established their own international trade agreements, without the assistance of the government. It was a system that worked well for maori and the settlers at that time.
By the 1860's the land wars escalated after maori introduced the Kingitanga movement as a means to unite maori and collectively work with the british monarch to seek a common ground where they could live long side each other. The intention was always a peaceful one. The NZ government saw differently and were convinced that the movement was a form of rebellion against them and tens of thousands of british troops arrived in NZ with the intention to defeat maori. Over the 30 year period, tens of millions of acres of land confiscated from maori, and tens of thousands of men, women and children perished.
The land confiscations resulted in the NZ government selling land to the increasing volume of settlers, including the british troops who had arrived for the NZ land wars. The monies gained from the sales of confiscated land was used to finance the NZ land wars.
To the NZ government, this was a successful campaign and the NZ economy began to thrive without maori involvement. To maori, it was devastating Through the land wars, they were stripped of everything of value and so began a very long period of despair and isolation. It would take 150 years for maori to receive the first apology and for the NZ government to acknowledge the wrong that had been inflected.
To a large percentage of New Zealanders, the NZ land wars is not something they know a lot about. In fact, NZ history is a topic that is not taught widely in the NZ education system unless of course a school chooses to incorporate it into their curriculum. Q&A stated that something like 70% of schools choose english history instead of NZ history and this choice only happens at a stage in a students life when the student chooses to study history at school.
NZ statistics state that only a small percentage of the future leaders of NZ choose to learn history at school... therefore a lesser percentage who are lucky enough to have their school choose NZ history over english history. I don't claim to know everything about NZ history, but you don't have to be a scholar to realise it's not a promising outlook for the future of NZ if we choose not to embrace our history - good or bad.
2015 marks 100 years for the battle of Gallipoli and 170 years for the NZ land wars.
Happy learning peeps!
No comments:
Post a Comment