When we all got here

Details: Category: News; Published: 13 September 2019

Author: Glenn McConnell

Article Index

Page 2 of 6

Archaeologists say Aotearoa was settled more than 700 years ago. Kāinga dating back to the 1300s are dotted all around the country.

More than 400 years later, James Cook arrived from the UK in 1769.

Professor Margaret Mutu, of Ngāti Kahu, says Cook's modus operandi gave birth to many of the issues we see today.

British explorerers such as Captain Cook operated based off a papal bull and royal proclamations which led to the Doctrine of Discovery.

We are at risk, she says, of continuing to repeat our past. To make a change, we'll need to start looking back to understand the present.

Her thoughts aren't new. A well-used Māori proverb (whakataukī) sums it up well. It's said that we walk backwards into the future; "Ka mua, ka muri".

According to Ip and activists, former politicians and everyday people who have found themselves at the centre of some of New Zealand's most divisive and important moments in history, we need to start living by the whakataukī. According to them, the people who have witnessed history and spoke to Stuff for this story, we need to pay attention so as not to make the same mistakes.

So, to clear things up, let's go back before 1842. When did we all get here?

The Tuia 250 flotilla looks back at our history of voyaging.

The British explorers were sent out with the blessing of the Pope in Rome and the British King to convert and colonise.

"Basically, you had papal bulls issued to give authority to invade, enslave, exterminate and remove all of the resources of people who are not white and not Christian. Those were the instructions given to the likes of Christopher Columbus and all the others. Captain Cook came out here with a royal proclamation allowing him to do the same here," she says.

In 1842, the first Chinese people arrived in Aotearoa. But, as Ip said, it wouldn't be until 1987 that New Zealand's immigration law relaxed its focus on allowing only white people to settle here.

The Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, five years after the Declaration of Independence.

Between 1842 and 1987, Asian people faced discriminatory laws such as the "poll tax" which specifically taxed Asian people coming into the country. Early immigrants, who worked in the South Island as goldminers, were not allowed to bring their families to New Zealand but Ip says a handful of those early goldmining families did settle regardless.