Ignoring history

My perspective

I admit to being concerned by the lack of leadership from our leaders during the current period of extremism.

Defacing and pulling down statues smacks of the Taliban destroying the Buddahs of Bamyan. Or ISIS destroying many ancient sites in Syrian and Iraq. The Nazis burnt books and Chairman Mao's Red guards destroyed hundreds of cultural sites. All of this horrified rational and reasonable people. Yet we are now somehow racist if we object to the desecration and removal of statues instigated by the BLM movement.

Following a complaint from the local Maori tribe (iwi), the city of Hamilton NZ council rapidly removed the statue of Captain John Fane Charles Hamilton, RN after who the city was named. In addition to wanting the statue removed the CEO of the Iwi has suggested renaming the city. This is the same Iwi that approved the statue seven years earlier. Moreover there was a threat to desecrate it by local Maori activist Taitimu Maipi who had previously vandalised the statue in 2018.

Maipi stated “This guy here, he murders all of our people at the Battle of Gate Pa and he gets a statue celebrating his achievements.”

Others chimed in. Kip Ormsby said the statue needed to be removed from public areas because it represented a painful time in history for Maori. “We believe he is responsible for a lot of the atrocities that happened to our people”. The New Zealand Herald newspaper declared Hamilton “killed Maori in the Waikato land war”.

Hamilton was the captain of HMS Esk, which arrived at Tauranga on 21 April 1864, having been sent to reinforce General Sir Duncan Alexander Cameron in preparation for moving against Maori in the Waikato.

The local Maori leader had created a clever ambush at Gate Pa and the british fell right into the trap. As an officer Hamilton was armed with a sword when he led a combined party of soldiers and sailors to storm the Pa (fort). Hamilton sprang onto the parapet calling out "Follow me men" before being shot dead with a musket ball through the head. He was on NZ soil for 12 hours and killed no one!

These claims against Hamilton false. They are either lies or ignorance of history.

I'm also reminded of the UK Channel 4 interview of Lorraine Jones, a solo mother of seven, chair of the local police advisory group and ordained minister. When asked about the defacing of Churchill's statue she blamed it on "far right" activists. When pressed on whether the statue should remain she said

"I've heard many arguments on both sides. Some say that he's a racist, some say that he's a hero. I haven't personally met him, but what I would say is that that question of whether he should remain should be put to the community."

Obviously becoming an ordained minister doesn't require much knowledge about history.

I have three points to make

1. Those who advocate defacing or tear down statues are on the same moral level as the Taliban, ISIS, Nazis and Red Guards.

2. Erasing history will doom you to repeating it.

3.  If you want to be credible, then do your research and make yourself familiar with the facts.

 

I know… I’m getting too annoyed and should simply ignore all this nonsense.  But history matters!  However I do need to return to more interesting subjects.