Post by Kiwi Frontline on Aug 19, 2019 5:26:13 GMT 12
Otago Daily Times 19/8/19
PROUD TO LIVE IN A COUNTRY INFLUENCED BY COOK
NOBODY would deny that our own history has been poorly taught by our education system and we should do better.
The problem is whose version should we teach: the heavily revised history of today or the facts as they were written down at the time?
I would like to think that a historian’s role is to find and collate ‘‘facts’’ then analyse them with learned explanations as to the context of the day and events that lead to those ‘‘facts’’.
Sadly, today’s historians tend to ignore context. They refer to actions that happened 250 years ago, which we would find find abhorrent today.
The truth is the world was different then. What offends us now may have been commonplace and acceptable then.
How we treat Captain James Cook is a case in point.
He was a naval man where discipline was strict. He had three rules to govern him. They were to protect his men, his ship and to follow orders.
When his crew were accosted by a threatening group, one about to throw a spear, he had no time to analyse cultural issues or arrange a meeting. His senior man followed orders and shot to kill.
History recognises Cook as the most enlightened explorer of his time. He is regarded for the care of his people and the fair way he treated all he encountered. His voyages paved the way for our country to be colonised by the most enlightened country in the world at the time. For 200 years, New Zealand thrived, and became the most prosperous and admired country in the world.
I think we should be very grateful for Cook and those who followed. All eight of my greatgrandparents were in New Zealand before 1876. I have nothing but admiration for their contribution to the country’s success. [Abridged]
MURRAY REID, Cambridge
WE MUST TAKE CARE WHEN WE ASSESS HISTORY
JEAN Balchin (Opinion, 15.8.19) should take note of Barend Vlaardingerbroek’s quote ‘‘It’s the old story: people in the past behaving in accordance with the norms and mores of their own time and place, then being later condemned for not acting according to the norms and mores that came after them. It is a naive and absolutist approach to history that obfuscates rather than enlightens’’.
The benefits to Maori from colonisation were many: law and order, protection from foreign nations, property rights to name a few.
In just 18 years, tribal warfare reduced the Maori population from 120,000 to 70,000. Strange how we never hear about the ‘‘historical trauma’’ this surely caused.
Prof James Rutherford’s (Auckland University) research estimates that 13,000 Maori perished from disease over the period 1801-1840, less than a thousand a year. Ms Balchin is obviously blind to the medicines, hospitals, housing, clothing, blankets and medical/ surgical knowledge that the ‘‘wicked coloniser’’ also brought to New Zealand.
New Zealand wars? Or just a series of skirmishes in which the Crown/ Government quelled a few rebellious tribes who breached the Treaty? A total of 2,900 lost their lives (from both sides) over a period of 26 years.
GEOFF PARKER, Kamo
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers
PROUD TO LIVE IN A COUNTRY INFLUENCED BY COOK
NOBODY would deny that our own history has been poorly taught by our education system and we should do better.
The problem is whose version should we teach: the heavily revised history of today or the facts as they were written down at the time?
I would like to think that a historian’s role is to find and collate ‘‘facts’’ then analyse them with learned explanations as to the context of the day and events that lead to those ‘‘facts’’.
Sadly, today’s historians tend to ignore context. They refer to actions that happened 250 years ago, which we would find find abhorrent today.
The truth is the world was different then. What offends us now may have been commonplace and acceptable then.
How we treat Captain James Cook is a case in point.
He was a naval man where discipline was strict. He had three rules to govern him. They were to protect his men, his ship and to follow orders.
When his crew were accosted by a threatening group, one about to throw a spear, he had no time to analyse cultural issues or arrange a meeting. His senior man followed orders and shot to kill.
History recognises Cook as the most enlightened explorer of his time. He is regarded for the care of his people and the fair way he treated all he encountered. His voyages paved the way for our country to be colonised by the most enlightened country in the world at the time. For 200 years, New Zealand thrived, and became the most prosperous and admired country in the world.
I think we should be very grateful for Cook and those who followed. All eight of my greatgrandparents were in New Zealand before 1876. I have nothing but admiration for their contribution to the country’s success. [Abridged]
MURRAY REID, Cambridge
WE MUST TAKE CARE WHEN WE ASSESS HISTORY
JEAN Balchin (Opinion, 15.8.19) should take note of Barend Vlaardingerbroek’s quote ‘‘It’s the old story: people in the past behaving in accordance with the norms and mores of their own time and place, then being later condemned for not acting according to the norms and mores that came after them. It is a naive and absolutist approach to history that obfuscates rather than enlightens’’.
The benefits to Maori from colonisation were many: law and order, protection from foreign nations, property rights to name a few.
In just 18 years, tribal warfare reduced the Maori population from 120,000 to 70,000. Strange how we never hear about the ‘‘historical trauma’’ this surely caused.
Prof James Rutherford’s (Auckland University) research estimates that 13,000 Maori perished from disease over the period 1801-1840, less than a thousand a year. Ms Balchin is obviously blind to the medicines, hospitals, housing, clothing, blankets and medical/ surgical knowledge that the ‘‘wicked coloniser’’ also brought to New Zealand.
New Zealand wars? Or just a series of skirmishes in which the Crown/ Government quelled a few rebellious tribes who breached the Treaty? A total of 2,900 lost their lives (from both sides) over a period of 26 years.
GEOFF PARKER, Kamo
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers