Human rights advocate takes Cook concerns to United Nations

Tuesday, 19 June 2018

A complaint has been made at the United Nations over the 250th anniversary commemorations of Captain Cook, while the Government pushes ahead with plans to roll out a 'First Encounters' programme in schools next year.

Indigenous rights advocate Tina Ngata laid the complaint in April on the grounds that New Zealand's discovery narrative, through the Tuia Encounters 250 events, 'underpinned the denial of indigenous rights'.

Ngata raised the funds to attend the UN's 17th Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues, in New York, through a Givealittle fundraiser, which raised $1618 of its $2700 goal.

Thirty-four people donated to the petition.

**READ MORE:

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* Celebrations to mark 250th anniversary of Captain Cook's landing

* Captain Cook commemorations, in Marlborough, to celebrate two cultures**

Ngata, who teaches indigenous and human rights at university level, said she felt New Zealand had failed to condemn the actions of Cook.

These actions included theft, abduction, genocide and imperial expansion, Ngata said.

'Trying to glorify this and memorialise this becomes problematic and goes against where we want to be heading,' she said.

Ngata said at the forum in New York that the 'Doctrine of Discovery' put New Zealand 'a step behind in realising indigenous people' because it went 'against human rights in the global community'.

The 'Doctrine of Discovery' was a document used by European monarchies to legitimise the colonisation of lands outside Europe, as it dubbed all non-Christian lands 'uninhabited territories'. 

Tuia Encounters 250 co-chair and former prime minister Dame Jenny Shipley said there would be 'no Doctrine of Discovery celebrations' happening next year.

'Quite the opposite, in fact,' Shipley said.

'We're celebrating our shared society and exploring that theme of what New Zealand has in common while facing up to realities, both good and bad.

'We're not seeking to mask or rewrite history. We're trying to rebalance our history and make sure where there are massive gaps that features are made available to ensure our dual heritage is understood and recognised.

'We still have lots to do. No-one is saying we're there yet, but we need to think about where our place is.'

Ngata, from Ruatoria near Gisborne, said New Zealand needed to address the human rights abuse that had occurred since Cook's arrival in 1769.

'If you take Cook out of his timeframe and look at just the action in terms of one nation sending a naval vessel out to another nation, claiming it and setting up a government, then in any other context it would be an act of war,' Ngata said.

'We're just now starting to wake up to the reality that we have some real race issues that we need to address. It would be counterintuitive to celebrate that act.

'To move forward and talk about dual heritage leapfrogs addressing the human rights abuse.'

Ngata said her statement was 'well supported' by UN officials.

She also said her statement drew support from many other indigenous rights groups from other nations in attendance.

Tuia Encounters 250 was being led by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, with a focus on the themes of dual heritage and shared futures.

The event's name was a blend between the Māori world, Tuia, to weave or bind together, and the European concept of time and commemoration, Encounters 250.

Ministry of Education deputy secretary of parent information and community intelligence Apryll Parata said the Tuia: Mātauranga programme being rolled out in schools would help support these themes.

The programme would help young people explore New Zealand's history and the history of voyaging and navigation, she said. 

Parata said it would also support the dual heritage and shared future themes through the documentation of stories with the four landing site trusts.

These included Gisborne, Ship Cove, in the Marlborough Sounds, the Bay of Islands, and the Coromandel Peninsula.

In Marlborough, Totaranui 250 Trust co-chair Raymond Smith said three stories from the Ship Cove region would feed into the national education programme, which was set to commence in 2019.

'The first e-book would focus on the careening of the Endeavour at Ship Cove,' Smith said.

'The second would focus on Cook's lookout on Arapaoa Island, and how Cook disproved the southern continent theory that New Zealand was just one big island.'

The third e-book would focus on Motuara Island, which was where Cook 'proclaimed the South Island on behalf of King George III', Smith said.

'It would explore the significance of place names before and after the arrival of Europeans.'

Sites of historical importance would be visited by a replica of The Endeavour in late 2019 to commemoration 250 years since Captain Cook landed in New Zealand.

Accompanying The Endeavour would be four waka, three waka houroua, the New Zealand navy and a range of other maritime vessels.

Nationally, the commemorations would 'recognise 250 years since the first onshore meetings between Māori and Europeans in Aotearoa New Zealand', Parata said.

'The Tuia Encounters 250 commemoration marks this pivotal moment in our nation's history, and recognises the extraordinary feats of the Pacific voyagers who settled in Aotearoa many hundreds of years earlier,' she said.

TUIA: MĀTAURANGA IN SCHOOLS

Easier access to existing resource materials, including digital or virtual resources.

New learning resources, including 'First Encounter' stories from each landing site trust.

Teaching and learning guidance for students, teachers and communities.

Event guidelines to help children, young people and local communities with events leading up to the commemorations.

Local programmes that explore both New Zealand's history and future.