Waking up to our history

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

It’s a jarring start to the day — a newsreader’s clipped tones breaking the reverie of sleep. Drowsy and frustrated by the prospect of leaving a warm, comfortable bed, the voice emanating from the radio can catch me off guard. Sometimes I’m left wondering if I haven’t woken up at all.

“Australian rugby star Israel Folau is under fire after posting an image on his Instagram account which says hell awaits drunks, homosexuals, liars and other so-called sinners who do not repent.”

Huh?

“The number of measles cases reported worldwide in the first three months of 2019 has quadrupled, compared with the same time last year, as concern grows over the impact of the anti-vaccination movement.”

Really?

“International polling shows the United States has the highest proportion of climate change doubters and deniers in the developed world.”

Aargh! It’s enough to make you want to pull the covers over your head.

We seem to love making sense of the world through grand narratives offered by things like religion, conspiracy theories and propaganda, which have lulled us into a false sense of certainty over right and wrong, and driven us to war, genocide and hatred, for centuries.

Surely by now we’ve worked through the shortcomings of these big stories. Surely we can’t be fooled when we’re surrounded by so much information. But then there’s just as much misinformation out there, like the fairy tale that the measles vaccine is linked to autism — an idea which arose through fraudulent research by struck-off British doctor Andrew Wakefield, who was reportedly planning a rival vaccine and diagnostic kit for autism that could have made him millions.

Now public health officials must fight to convince parents a problem which never existed really doesn’t exist, and in the meantime children are unnecessarily contracting the nasty, potentially life-threatening disease.

How about Folau’s version of the universe? As one commentator noted: “Heaven must resemble the Chatham Islands and hell the Tokyo subway at rush hour.”

Folau is free to believe in what he wants to, but it is hard to fathom that in 2019 a 30-year-old international rugby player can view homosexuality as a bad lifestyle choice, and I worry about what kind of influence he might have on people who look up to him.

Closer to home, I’ve heard rumblings of discontent over an indigenous rights advocate’s stance on impending commemorations for the 250th anniversary of James Cook’s arrival in New Zealand and his contact with Maori.

Tina Ngata says Cook’s landing is no cause for celebration, so the naysayers call her a grandstanding troublemaker, someone whose views should be shut down rather than given an airing.

Maori have every reason to feel aggrieved at the outcome of Cook’s first voyage to Aotearoa, which landed at Turanganui-a-Kiwa/Poverty Bay on October 8, 1769.

On that day and the next, several Maori were killed in “encounters” the commemorations aim to acknowledge. Evidence suggests these deaths were the result of misunderstandings, such as when the perceived aggression of a wero (ritual challenge) was met with gunfire.

Cook’s voyage opened up New Zealand to European settlement, and the country’s land and culture were soon dominated by Pakeha, setting the stage for persistent inequities in health, education, socio-economic status and crime, among other things.

It’s heartening to hear that the Government sees the Tuia – Encounters 250 programme as a chance to recognise this less palatable side of history, with Maori-Crown Relations Minister Kelvin Davis telling RNZ the commemorations were “an opportunity for us to honour those tipuna (ancestors) who were killed and to tell their story”.

The value of doing this might be greater than we realise.

In his latest book, Upheaval, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jared Diamond argues the countries best equipped to deal with crises are those with strong national identities and core values, and that these rely on all groups being brought into the fold.

Diamond told the Listener he thought New Zealand was doing better than Australia, in terms of bridging the gap between cultures and building an empowering identity, but it had a way to go. The negative reaction to Ngata’s standpoint proves this to me.

Tuia means “to weave or bind together”, and publicity for the Government-led programme, which will be launched in Gisborne in October, promotes the idea of it providing a platform for “honest conversations”.

With more than $20 million being spent on Tuia, I hope that happens. I hope people welcome a diversity of views on our history and listen to those views with open, reflexive minds. Maybe then we can address some of the stumbling blocks to a national identity and ensure 250-year-old misunderstandings don’t persist.