The New Zealand village of Mangonui has banned a replica of Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour from docking in its port in response to objections from the Māori community to the "barbarian" explorer.
The replica is part of a fleet circumnavigating the country as part of a series of events commemorating the 250th anniversary of Cook’s arrival in New Zealand and the early contact between the Māori and Europeans.
The head of Northland’s Ngāti Kahu tribe, Anahera Herbert-Graves, told Radio New Zealand that Cook was “a barbarian”.
“Wherever he went, like most people of the time of imperial expansion, there were murders, there were abductions, there were rapes, and just a lot of bad outcomes for the indigenous people… He didn’t discover anything down here, and we object to Tuia 250 using euphemisms like ‘encounters’ and ‘meetings’ to disguise what were actually invasions.”
The Hon Kelvin Davis, New Zealand’s Minister for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti, said the government "completely accept and respect Ngāti Kahu’s position as mana whenua (the right of a Māori tribe to manage a particular area of land)".
"Tuia 250 is about having honest conversations about our history. We’ve always been open about the fact that these are not easy conversations to have – there is real hurt that remains for many of our people. The first encounters in our country between Cook and Māori were not a fairy tale, and this is not a celebration of Cook – it’s a commemoration of those first encounters.
"This is also a chance for Māori to share their true history, to tell of their loss, and to do so on a national stage. Māori will be the ones driving the events at each landing site – and the Māori perspective, Māori stories and history will have rightful prominence," he said.
Eleanor Bentall
The ban drew support from First Nations people in Australia, where there has been fierce debate over Cook’s legacy, re-ignited last April when the government announced a new memorial to the Royal Navy captain would be built at Botany Bay as part of a $50 million redevelopment to commemorate the 1770 landing there.
Noongar Elder Ben Taylor, a leader among the Aboriginal people of South-West Western Australia, told The Daily Telegraph that a similar ban should be put in place across Australia.
“He was an invader, a coloniser. He put that flag up and all that flag has brought is misery, the loss of land, the loss of culture, the loss of our religion and everything – and all the massacres. That replica ship is the symbol of dispossession,” he said.
In Gisborne, 800km from Mangonui, Rongowhakaata Trust representative Amohaere Houkamau said a ceremony would be held for the nine local Māori people who were shot or otherwise injured when the British landed in October 1769, and that it would be more appropriate for “descendants of the colonialists” to welcome the fleet.
Tensions around Cook have been rising in Gisborne for more than a year, in part because Poverty Bay still officially carries the name given to it by Cook, rather than its original name Tūranganui-a-Kiwa.
A statue of Cook in Gisborne on New Zealand’s North Island was removed recently by the local council after it was repeatedly vandalised.
Many other communities in the region have expressed concern about Cook’s place in history and the official representation of his legacy.
Eleanor Bentall
Debate has continued in the Cook Islands, a nation in the South Pacific, over changing its name, with “Avaiki Nui” a favoured alternative.
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s Deputy Chief Executive, Tamsin Evans, said the Government had acknowledged the concerns of Māori community concerns, and the fleet would stop only at communities “where a welcome is clear”.
“We know there are groups of people that have strong feelings. Tuia 250 is a commemoration in which we can have honest conversations about our history,” she said.
Dr David Robinson, a historian at Edith Cowan University in Perth, told The Telegraph that the ban was “fantastic”.
“They are exercising their right to historical autonomy in a way. They feel strongly about that kind of impost and have the ability to influence events – good on them.”
Dr Robinson said an “honest national conversation is needed about colonial history."
“I don’t think that forcing a conclusion on communities will lead to harmony or reconciliation of any kind. An active conversation and an honest appraisal of history is healthy and necessary,” he said.
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