pn895. Hamilton street name change not 'erasing history'

 The Kiingitanga is supporting Hamilton City Council’s decision to replace location names that have "caused anguish" for iwi Māori.

Von Tempsky Street in Hamilton is being changed to Putikitiki Street (Source: Te Karere)

By Aden Miles Morunga, Local Democracy Reporter

The decision to rename Von Tempsky Street to Putikitiki Street and the nearby Dawson Park to Te Wehenga Park, is supported by the Kiingitanga and Waikato-Tainui.

It comes after debate for the city to revisit street names honouring colonial figures such as Gustavus Ferdinand von Tempsky, Sir George Grey and John Bryce.

pn736. Dame Anne Salmond speaks on the proposed new History curriculum

Distinguished Professor Dame Anne Salmond has spent most of her academic life researching the Treaty of Waitangi. Her views are very different from Hobson's Choice and many opposed to the introduction of the proposed history curriculum. 

While she sees some merit in the proposed curriculum, she thinks its drafters need to go back to the drawing board and consult with people from all ethnic backgrounds and mixes.  In this Newsroom article she reflects on key questions on how Aotearoa New Zealand can design a new institutional order which takes account of the Treaty of Waitangi and whakapapa. Instead of seeing Māori ways as an either/or with existing thinking about the world and its governance, she argues it's time to bring them together for new institutional forms of order for Aotearoa-New Zealand.

Read what she has to say by clicking here. 

Beware tarring or whitewashing either Treaty partner in our school NZ Histories (pn667)

The British slave trade

The NZ Musket Wars

Re. Guest  Post: Compulsory History in Our Schools A guest post by Hon Dr Michael Bassett in Kiwiblog: 

Former  Labour Cabinet Minister Hon. Dr Michael Bassett writing in David Farrar's right-wing Kiwiblog seems to question whether we should make NZ history compulsory in schools.   He  thinks there's a danger it will idealise Māori society, and make Pākehā feel guilty—a "bleeding heart version of our history." 

New Zealand Government Acknowledges 175th Anniversary of Battle of Ruapekapeka (pn667)

Reasons as to why the Maori had abandoned the site and then tried to re-enter it have been debated over the years. People have suggested they were at church as many of them had converted to Christianity. Knowing that the British were also Christians they had not expected an attack on a Sunday.

Friday, 8 January 2021, 8:40 am.      Press Release: New Zealand Government

The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan.  Copy and paste link to continue. 

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2101/S00012/new-zealand-government-acknowledges-175th-anniversary-of-battle-of-ruapekapeka.htm

IV. A history and a memorial: Ōrākau, Waikato, Rewi Maniapoto's last stand (pn663)

This article from the government's  NZ History website shows the sort of balance one hopes will be taught in schools.  Te Ara, the encyclopedia of New Zealand,  is another excellent source. -- ACW

The Ōrākau battle site memorial obelisk is located on Arapuni Road, 4 km south-east of the Waikato town of Kihikihi, which is 4 km south of Te Awamutu on State Highway 3. The memorial marks the site of one of the best-known battles of the New Zealand Wars, popularly remembered as the last stand of Rewi Maniapoto.

III. Maxwell, South Taranaki: What history will be taught here? (pn662)

I went to Teachers' College and shared a flat with Val Maxwell, and I visited Maxwell with him before his marriage.  I can only assume he was the great (or possibly the great-great) grandson of George Maxwell, after whom the small township is named.   

Ironically, Val, a pale, skinny Pākehā was a keen member of the Maori Club and had many Māori friends. I  doubt he knew his ancestor's history. I know I didn't at the time.  Pākehā  families and schools did not teach that sort of history to their children. 

II. Emotional challenge: They'd "never heard of the (Māori) New Zealand Wars " (pn661)

Yesterday we asked what NZ history would be taught (pn660);  today we look at possible student reactions.

Students face emotional challenge confronting NZ history, study warns

The compulsory study of Aotearoa New Zealand history is set to generate strong emotions for some students, a new study warns.

Taita College head of social sciences Dr Michael Harcourt asked 1889 students at 20 high schools around the country for their main feeling after reading a passage about the effects of the land wars on Waikato Māori.

The largest number (39%) chose sadness, followed by anger (11%), frustration (10%), shame (6%), grief, resentment and guilt, presumably the remaining 34%.

Harcourt said teachers, who will be required to teach NZ history from 2022, should be alert to those emotions and actually draw them out.

He told Tim Dower he found a lot of students aren't being taught much about our history at all. "I was amazed at how many students I spoke to had never heard of the New Zealand Wars before, including young people in the Waikato."

I. The thorny question of what history to teach in NZ schools (pn660)

 On 12 September Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced that New Zealand’s histories will be taught in all schools and kura by 2022. [Note, "histories", not "history".  Sounds promising.]

The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa will be updated to make learning New Zealand’s histories explicit, so that all learners and ākonga are provided with opportunities to learn about the events that have shaped our nation, and the different perspectives New Zealanders have of these events.

Book Review. Alison Jones, "This Pākehā Life, an unsettled memoir" (pn659)

Book Review

This Pākehā Life: an unsettled memoir
by Alison Jones (Bridget Williams Books, 2020) $39.99

Scoop Reviewed by Lindsay Shelton

I have been recommending this book to everyone. And those who have accepted my recommendation are now recommending it to others. Its story may at first seem to be a modestly low-key one, but it quickly proves to have a powerful impact, with resonances that will be personal for every reader.

As Alison Jones writes: “Most Pākehā people seemed to know nothing about Māori history, and they did not know what they did not even know. In my experience, Pākehā people like my father who denigrated Māori things knew nothing about Māori. On the other hand, I too knew next to nothing about Māori though my ignorance was tempered by curiosity and attraction rather than rejection and fear.”

pn631. Is apologising for racial wrongs really the point? UPDATED NOTE.

 

Media giant Stuff, after a protracted study of its own history, has announced that much that it has published on Maori has been racist.  It has apologised for this and introduced guidelines (a Treaty of Waitangi-based charter) to improve its record.

  Surprisingly, left-leaning journalist Chris Trotter has condemned these initiatives, saying apologising for your history is to admit you don't understand it (with which I disagree) and that the apology is likely to result in a White backlash, with which, unfortunately,  I cannot disagree.

Why Teaching Our History is so Important for Vital Citizenship

pn367

This article presents a case for (1)  the teaching of our history to all students; (2)  for the teaching of the history of science and maths within science and maths (and other) degrees, and (3) for the inclusion of relevant histories as part of non-history courses in general.

For many years now NZ's secondary  education has been drifting  towards teaching "practical" skills useful in business and the service economy, to the neglect of the broad-based education of English, History, Geography, Science and Maths that once prevailed. As one English teacher said, "Schoolchildren will only learn history if we stop denigrating the humanities and try to end the ingrained apathy to their past."

The same has been happening in tertiary education where once a  sound education in Arts .was equated with a broad base in years 1 and 2, leaving specialism to year 3,  a post-graduate diploma, honours or masters.  Subjects like Philosophy and logic, Religious Studies, and even Psychology became less "relevant" as more of our young people studied business and IT.