Calls for colonial statues to go start to pick up in New Zealand
Thursday, 11 June 2020
The push to remove monuments to colonisers and other controversial historical figures is gaining traction around New Zealand after successful movements overseas.
A statue of British slave trader Edward Colston was toppled by protesters in Bristol, UK, and a number of confederate monuments in the United States have been taken down by both state authorities and protesters.
Several statues and memorials across New Zealand have come under fire in recent years, most notably a statue of James Cook in Gisborne erected on Titirangi, a sacred maunga to Ngāti Oneone.
A second James Cook statue on Gisborne's waterfront has also been repeatedly vandalised.
**READ MORE:
* Time to reassess flawed historic figures
* 'We can't be blind to racism': Māori Party seek review of historical monuments
**
In the wake of a revitalised movement, even more monuments and place names are being brought into question.
Lucy Telfar Barnard had lived on Picton Ave in Newtown, Wellington, for years without realising that it was named after a slave trader.
'Like most people, you don't think too hard about where you live, you just go about your life,' she said.
It was only after seeing a news story about calls for a Thomas Picton statue in Cardiff to be torn down that she realised where her street's name came from.
Picton was a military commander in the Battle of Waterloo and was known as the 'Tryant of Trinidad' due to his brutality while governor of the island. He made a fortune in the slave trade, and was convicted of torturing a 14-year-old girl, though the sentence was later overturned.
The Marlborough town of Picton is also named for him.
'This person does not deserve to be memorialised,' Telfar-Barnard said. 'I wasn't shocked, I know our history, but I was disappointed. This is a little thing we can change to show we are looking forward to a different future.'
She contacted the Wellington City Council and was urged by councillor Fleur Fitzsimons to start a petition to rename the street so it could be submitted for a vote at council.
Elsewhere in Wellington, memorials to a pair of brothers who colonised New Zealand are also under fire.
A bronze bust of Edward Gibbon Wakefield is mounted at the Mt Victoria lookout, and the William Wakefield Memorial is located at the Basin Reserve.
The brothers were leaders of The New Zealand Company, which settled Wellington, and are widely considered to have cheated local Māori out of large swathes of land.
Both brothers were arrested in 1827 for their role in the abduction and kidnapping of 15-year-old heiress Ellen Turner, who was forcefully married to Edward.
The brothers were 'problematic people who caused terrible pain to whole cultures', Councillor Jill Day said.
She wanted the bust of Edward Gibbon Wakefield to be removed. 'I don't see any benefit in it staying. I don't want to see him held up as a good example to society.'
Councillor Iona Pannet said Pakeha needed to take leadership on issues around historical racism.
'I think it should be Pakeha taking responsibility on this. We have to own our stuff, and acknowledge that colonisation obviously benefited Pakeha more than Maori… I don't want to open up Maori to attacks, this has to be approached carefully.'
Leaders of the Māori Party are calling for an inquiry into colonial monuments and statues located around the country.
Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer told Stuff the request wasn't about 'wiping out' New Zealand's colonial history, but correcting it.
'Removing them doesn't mean that we forget them, what we're saying is that when you have someone in the main street, you're glorifying them.'
Ngarewa-Packer said many statues erected were glorifying acts of rape and murder.
Canterbury University history academic Peter Field had no problem with monuments to 'objectively bad people' being torn down but warned it would be hard to achieve 'ethical purity'.
'If people feel giant 10 foot, phallic [statues] are an insult to the landscape and offensive, then rip them down.'
But he said it would be difficult to reach agreement over 'many others'.
History had shown such movements were typically driven by younger people, critical of older generations. 'When they're old, they should realise that their children and children's children will look at them as ethically compromised.'
Field, a New Yorker who has spent 14 of the last 20 years in New Zealand, urged tolerance. 'If we judge a little bit less perhaps we will find more beauty, commonality and goodness.'
Canterbury
The rural backwaters of Canterbury do not escape from controversial place names. Eyreton (originally Eyretown) and West Eyreton, in North Canterbury, were named after the Eyre River, which was in turn named after Edward John Eyre.
Eyre was a 19th Century lieutenant governor of the South Island, then known as New Munster, for five years, before becoming governor of several Caribbean island colonies.
As governor of Jamaica, in 1865 he brutally suppressed an uprising, leading to more than 350 people being executed, and 600 flogged. He was recalled to England following a campaign for justice by, among others, Charles Darwin, but was cleared by a later inquiry.
Waimakariri Mayor Dan Gordon said he had not given the matter any thought until now.
'I am not aware of the significance of every historical name in the district,'' he said. 'The council has not considered the matter and as I understand it does not have jurisdiction over place names.”
It's more than just the rural settlements of Eyreton that could be up for a name change if public consensus called for time on referencing Edward John Eyre. Residents the length of South and North Eyre Rds could also be up for a change of address.
One of those is Mark Brown, who also sits on the Oxford-Ohoka community board, the same body which would agree to any name change.
Brown said with what was happening worldwide it was a topical debate, and one he was very much open to, despite it meaning a potential address change for him.
'I think we do need to sit down and take a look at its historical context. If it warrants a change, it warrants a change.''
Brown said New Zealand would not be immune to trends currently playing out elsewhere, and it was 'good to have a healthy debate within the community''.
Picton
Originally called Waitohi by local Māori Te Ātiawa, the town at the Top of the South was known by a number of European names before being named in memory of Sir Thomas Picton in 1859.
Picton was a high ranking British officer who was celebrated for his part in the Napoleonic Wars, but later denounced for his treatment of slaves and the authorisation of torture while Governor of Trinidad in the late 1790s and early 1800s.
Branded as “the Tyrant of Trinidad”, it is understood Picton was a slave-owner, and acquired much of his wealth from dealing slaves
Marlborough Museum historian John Orchard said in the mid-1800s when the New Zealand provincial government system was established, names of famous British people were chosen.
'Such as Admiral Nelson, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of Wellington, Sir Thomas Picton and General Havelock were also chosen for town names.'
New Zealand's Morally Suspect Monuments
Captain Hamilton statue, Waikato
Hamilton took its name in 1864 from Captain John Charles Fane Hamilton - the naval commander who led a detachment of the 43rd regiment over the palisades at the Battle of Gate Pā during the New Zealand Wars.
In 2018, Huntly's Taitimu Maipi took to the with red paint and a hammer.
Bryce Street, Taranaki
Bryce Street, in Southern Taranaki, is named after John Bryce, who led the invasion of Parihaka.
Abel Tasman, Nelson
A statue of Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in Nelson was vandalised with blue spray paint during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Massey University
The university is named after William Massey, who was New Zealand Prime Minister from 1913-1925, but lecturer and recent PhD scholar Steve Elers has called for the university to consider a name change after discovering Massey made racist comments towards Chinese people.
Bully Hayes restaurant, Akaroa
The long-standing Christchurch restaurant announced this week it would change its name, which honoured a notorious Pacific pirate and slave trader.
Eyreton, North Canterbury
The towns of Eyreton and West Eyreton are named for Edward John Eyre, who was lieutenant-governor of the South Island (then known as New Munster) and later governor of Jamaica, where he was brutally aggressive to uprisings, killing hundreds of black peasants.
John Ballance statue, Whanganui and Wellington.
Ballance was the Premier of New Zealand from 1891 to 1893, issued in a number of land reforms, some of which came at great cost for rural Māori. A statue in his hometown of Whanganui has been repeatedly defaced and even beheaded in protest.
Christchurch's Victoria Square
The square is home to statues of Captain James Cook - who has been called a barbarian, a racist, an invader, a white supremacist and a syphilitic destroyer of indigenous cultures - as well as Queen Victoria, who reigned during a period of British global imperial expansion.