97-year-old veteran John Middlemas, whose photo"taking the kneel" has been seen by 20 million people on Twitter, with a portrait of his Kiwi grandfather Thomas Middlemas. Photo / Maile Auderson
97-year-old veteran John Middlemas, whose photo"taking the kneel" has been seen by 20 million people on Twitter, with a portrait of his Kiwi grandfather Thomas Middlemas. Photo / Maile Auderson
A British settler who spoke out against "mean and nasty" treatment of the Maori 150 years ago has inspired his 97-year-old American grandson to "take a knee" for the Black Lives Matter movement.
A photo of World War II veteran John Middlemas kneeling in his garden in solidarity with Afro-American protests against police killings has become an internet sensation with more than 20 million views on Twitter.
His daughter Maile Auterson, who took the photo at their home in Springfield, Missouri, said her 97-year-old father still tells her "at least once a month" about his grandparents Thomas and Elizabeth Middlemas, who settled at Hawera in 1866.
Elizabeth Middlemas cried when she told her American grandson how she missed her Māori friends. Photo supplied
"He always tells these stories of sitting on his grandmother's lap and her crying and missing the Maoris," Auterson said.
"My dad will still shed a tear when he thinks about his grandmother missing the Maoris."
Thomas Middlemas was shunned after he let seven Māori sleep in his house. Photo supplied
Thomas Middlemas, who with his brother Andrew were later described as "the fathers of Hawera", was shunned by other settlers when he spoke out in 1872 against "mean and nasty" treatment of Maori by the local British military commander Major Maillard Noake.
The Wanganui Herald's correspondent wrote that Middlemas drew the settlers' "deserved contempt" for allowing seven Maori, including a follower of the chief Titokowaru, to sleep in his house.
Middlemas wrote back to the paper: "I could not very well refuse them shelter, as the weather was cold and they had nowhere else to go."
"The Hawera publicans were quite willing to sell them drink, but not to give them beds, and as hospitality is one of the Maori virtues, I would rather run the risk of offending such men as your correspondent than be meaner than a Maori," he wrote.
Auterson, a co-founder of the Springfield Community Gardens, said her great-grandparents' compassion had been passed down through the family.
"It's almost a genetic memory for us, a collective generational memory for us that we have a love for everyone," she said.
"It's just that inclusivity, it's in our genes, it's who we are, and it's because we have been told those stories, we know those stories."
Brennan Gilmore, who tweeted his aunt's photo of his 97-year-old grandfather "taking the kneel". Photo / supplied
Her nephew Brennan Gilmore, who posted the photo of his grandfather on Twitter from his home in Charlottesville, Virginia, marched with a friend, former Auckland rugby player Chris Mahony, against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville last month in which a car ran down 20 people.
He said his grandfather, who farmed land near Springfield just down the road from where Thomas and Elizabeth settled after leaving New Zealand in 1880, also marched in the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
"He was always proud of the values of that struggle. That has always been core values of my family that he taught my mum and she taught us," Gilmore said.
He said his grandfather was angry when President Donald Trump tweeted last weekend that football players who kneeled rather than standing for the flag at National Football League games should be fired.
If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see change take place fast. Fire or suspend!
