Who are New Zealand's statues, monuments and places named after?

Friday, 12 June 2020

It doesn't have to just be 'retain' or 'topple'.

That's the message from a leading historian, in relation to monuments in New Zealand that celebrate colonial figures, with little regard to Māori heritage.

On Friday, Hamilton City Council removed a statue of Captain Hamilton, a day after Huntly kaumātua Taitimu Maipi​ told Stuff he intended to remove the bronze figure during a protest march in the city on Saturday.

It came a day after leaders of the Māori Party called for an inquiry into colonial monuments and statues, in the wake of the George Floyd death in the United States, and resulting Black Lives Matter movement.

**READ MORE:

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* Leave colonial statues alone - they remind us of our past

**

Several statues overseas have been pulled down or removed - in the UK city of Bristol, a statue of slave trader Edward Colston was rolled into the harbour.

In the US, a statue of Christopher Columbus in Boston was beheaded, and government officials decided to remove a monument honouring Confederate officer John Breckenridge Castleman.

But the picture doesn't have to be so black and white, according to acclaimed author and historian Vincent O'Malley.

He said it was important to have open discussion and debate around history - even if some people felt uncomfortable with it - and acknowledge that a lot of these monuments and memorials were relative in another era.

'I think the question today is, 'if those monuments don't reflect the values and aspirations of society today, how can we change that?'' he told Stuff. 'And that's not simply a question of retaining them or toppling them. There are other ways of dealing with that as well.'

Instead, O'Malley believes in adding information panels at monument sites that provide wider context.

He cited the example of one in Lower Hutt marking Boulcott's Farm: 'It acknowledged it's the British who died there but it says nothing about the Māori who fought there and it says nothing about what caused that war, which was basically the New Zealand Company's fraudulent Wellington land dealings, the fact that Māori in the Hutt Valley were evicted from their lands at gun point, their homes were torched and looted and so on.'

The other option is to erect new statues, to sit separately or alongside existing ones. O'Malley said someone like Wiremu Tamihana - a 'remarkable figure in New Zealand history' - could be a prime candidate.

There's no national policy on monuments across New Zealand. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage told Stuff most were initiated or installed by local authorities and communities.

Deputy chief executive Tamsin Evans acknowledged 'that history has been imbalanced in the past'.

'So it’s not surprising that we continue to have conversations about the monuments we have inherited,' she said. 'I see the current debate as an opportunity to learn more about the history of our own regions.

'While we consider whether or not existing monuments and memorials should be removed we should also think about how we might bring balance to the stories we tell through new monuments, memorials or other public artforms.'

The ministry provides a memorial register on the NZ History website for the public to enter in details of memorials around the country, though it is not a complete list as it relies on public contribution.

Here's who some of New Zealand's statues, monuments and place names celebrate:

AUCKLAND

Colonel Marmaduke Nixon monument, Ōtāhuhu

Nixon led attacks on Waikato Māori in what are now known as the New Zealand Wars. In 1864, he took 1500 colonial troops into the village of Rangiaowhia where elderly men, women and children were living.

Nixon was shot and his troops set alight the town church, killing 12 people who were hiding inside. He died about three months later. Settlers thought he was a hero. Māori see him as a war criminal. There have been protests in the past demanding the monument's removal.

Zealandia sculpture, Wakefield St/Symonds St

The memorial is a tribute to the imperial and colonial soldiers who fought for Britain during the New Zealand Wars between 1845 and 1872. The statue, which was attacked in 2018, is one of three in the country, with the others located in Waimate and Palmerston.

Sir George Grey statue, Albert Park

Grey was New Zealand's 11th prime minister and two-time governor. He was governor during the initial stages of the New Zealand Wars where many Māori were killed and land was confiscated. He was considered a 'pioneer scholar' of Māori culture, and wrote a study of Māori mythology and oral history. A Waitangi Day protest in 1987 saw the statue's head broken off, but it was later replaced.

The suburb of Grey Lynn is also named after him, along with Greytown in the Wairarapa, the Grey River on the South Island's West Coast, and thus Greymouth.

WAIKATO

Captain Hamilton statue, Civic Square

The statue of Captain John Fane Charles Hamilton, who the city is named after, was gifted to Hamilton by the Gallagher Group in 2013. Captain Hamilton was a navy commander who never set foot in the city and who died at the battle of Pukehinahina (Gate Pā) in Tauranga (then known as Te Papa) in 1864.

On Thursday, Huntly kaumātua Taitimu Maipi​ told Stuff he intended to remove the bronze figure during a protest march in the city on Saturday. On Friday, Hamilton City Council removed the statue, with chief executive Richard Briggs saying the decision was made following a request from Waikato-Tainui, who they had been working with for more than 12 months to review culturally sensitive place names and sites.

Hamilton also has a Grey St, named for George Grey (see above)

Bryce St

In 1881 John Bryce led troops to Parihaka, supervising the destruction of much of the settlement.

Von Tempsky St

In 1864 Captain Gustavus Ferdinand von Tempsky attacked the Waikato village of Rangiaowhia)

TARANAKI

Colonel Malone statue, Stratford

William George Malone was a WWI hero, commemorated for his heroic actions at Gallipoli and Chunuk Bair. But at the time the statue was signed off by the Stratford District Council in 2010, there was mention made of how some Māori might object to a statue of a man who took part in the invasion at Parihaka.

MANAWATŪ

Massey University

The university is named after William Massey, who was New Zealand Prime Minister from 1913-1925. 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.

Feilding sculpture of shepherd and dog

Makes mention of shepherds and drovers being “the lifeblood of Feilding and district” for more than a century, which some have said infers those before them (e.g. Ngāti Raukawa) do not matter.

Moutoa Gardens NZ Wars memorial, Whanganui

New Zealand’s first war memorial speaks of colonial men dying “in defence of law and order against fanaticism and barbarism”. The weeping woman, a personification of Grief, commemorates 15 kūpapa (Māori fighting on the government side) and one European who were killed at Moutoa Island, 80km upriver, in 1864.

John Ballance statue, Whanganui (also at Parliament)

Ballance was the Premier of New Zealand from 1891 to 1893. He 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.

GISBORNE

Captain James Cook statue

The statue of James Cook was erected on Titirangi in 1969, to commemorate 200 years since the explorer arrived in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa.

Titirangi is a sacred maunga to Ngāti Oneone and was a spot where Cook's crew killed nine iwi members following a misunderstanding. A second Cook statue, on Gisborne's waterfront, has also been repeatedly vandalised.

WELLINGTON

The Wakefield monuments

These are a bronze bust of Edward Gibbon Wakefield at the Mt Victoria lookout, and a monument built in honour of his brother William Wakefield 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.

Picton Ave

Named after Sir Thomas Picton, the Welsh military associate of the Duke of Wellington. He was a slave trader and colonial governor of Trinidad, who was convicted of illegally torturing a 14-year-old girl. There have also been calls for statues of him in the UK to be removed.

Picton the town, in Marlborough, is also named after Sir Thomas.

Martinborough

Named after John Martin. He was openly proactive in his pursuit to kill off Māori, supplying ammunition to the colonial militia in the Hutt Valley in the 1840s.

CANTERBURY

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.

Queen Victoria statue, Victoria Square (others in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin)

Queen Victoria was the monarch from 1837 to 1901, and the statue remains an expression of values held in New Zealand's colonial past.

Captain Cook statue (also see Gisborne)

Unveiled in 1932, the statue was then moved in 1989 to a more central location in Victoria Square along the Avon River.