The Empire's Anomaly

Saturday 3rd March 2010, 9.25pm, Hot Rocks Hostel - Rotorua

I come from a country of conquerors. Of settlers and invaders, explorers and militia, sailors and governors, an ancestral legacy of men who found and claimed the remotest parts of the planet for their own. Whether I like it or not, I am descended from the Empire, the most successful conquering empire the world ever saw. There is very little in this for me to feel proud of - the history is chequered, the tactics underhand, the behaviour barbaric. I come from a country where the accruement of land came at a higher value than human life; indigenous human life.

There is no need for me to brief you on British colonial history, firstly because I am no authority on the subject and secondly because I acknowledge your intelligence dear reader - no one had to take a history degree to know the well documented catalogue of inhumanities committed by British settlers throughout the Americas, Africa, India, Australia... Yes, we were the winners, but winning came at far too high a cost for the communities throughout the globe which we "civilised", raped, stole from, imprisoned, cast out, disenfranchised, made slaves and circus freaks of. In New Zealand, I have found a gratifying and refreshing anomaly in a history so marred by cruelty and shame. Something happened here, something very different, and it makes me wonder why we couldn't have always got it this right.

When Captain James Cook moored these shores near modern day Gisborne, he brought with him a Polynesian friend who could communicate with the indigenous population - the Maoris. This proved to be an extremely beneficial decision to the Captain; the Maoris were a nation of warriors, fluent and accomplished in tribal warfare, guerrilla hit and run tactics and trench combat - they were progressively beyond their time in the rudiments of war, and a fearsome people under attack. But to friends, to people who claimed - as the Captain and Tupaia, his Polynesian translator, did - that they were coming in peace, they were and still are some of the most welcoming and accepting people on the planet. Guests are family, treated with respect and generous hospitality. Captain Cook did well not to make an enemy of these people, otherwise the course of history, and the nature of Cook's demise, may have been markedly different.

Thankfully for the eponymous Captain though, and for the Maori people, there existed between the two parties a mutual respect that was unique and so far unencountered throughout the colonised nations of the world. European immigrants in search of a better life soon began embarking upon this country in droves after Cook sent word back to the homeland of what a picturesque and habitable landscape this was, and these Europeans were rightfully impressed by what they saw. Not only the regimes of Maori warfare, but also their commitment to family and tribe, their advanced irrigation systems, their techniques for dealing with unpredictable weather conditions, and their early ideas and plans for tourism all garnered them the admiration of the settlers, this "uncivilised" nation taught invading white faces, for the first time in colonial history, what it really meant to be a civilian.

This was the first country in the world, where from day one, irrespective of race or religion, all men over the age of 21 were entitled to a democratic vote. It is also the first country that granted the vote to women. The year of 1840 saw the writing of a crucial historic document, The Treaty of Waitangi. This agreement was signed by the English dignitaries and ambassadors who had made the voyage out to the Southern hemisphere, as well as every chief from the 400 separate Maori tribes occupying New Zealand at that time. It decreed that this country would become part of the British empire, governed by English sovereignty, but the treaty similarly protected the Maoris' right to their country, stating that they would be the people who owned their land, it also gave Maoris the rights of British subjects. It was the first document of it's kind, the only written agreement in history which recognised the liberty of the indigenous race. It has been a subject of heated debate up until this present day, with many Maoris claiming that promises were not kept and using the Treaty as a legal document in which to reclaim land and money. For this reason the Waitangi Tribunal was established in 1975, to ensure the rules of this paper are adhered to and to take on any cases in dispute.

Compare this to the colonisation of Australia, where until 1970, Aborigines were not legally defined as human beings. Quite dramatically different stories I think you'll agree. In the 1860's, when a handful of Maori tribes decided they wanted rid of the settlers, the majority of Maoris fought side by side with the Europeans to quell the oncoming rebellion. And this is how it has been until this day, descendants of European settlers and Maoris, side by side, living, working, playing, celebrating their history together.

This causes me some sadness as I sit here and ponder on this now. What ills and atrocities in our world may have been averted if people had always shown each other such mutual compassion and respect? New Zealand just proves that it was possible, possible for England to expand her empire without the devastation to innocent people. Things could have been so different, the world could be so much better for the millions of human beings living under 3rd World classification today had their civil liberties not been so hastily and contemptuously removed from them. These wrong doings feel all the more painfully acute to me knowing that they were avoidable.

We arrived in Rotorua this afternoon to be greeted by hills of sublime rainforest greenery, gargantuan clouds of steam rising from the countryside in thick, fluffy white towers, landscape dotted with dozens of natural hot pools and the smell of sulphur, potent and odiously prevalent on every molecule of air - it's the capital of Volcanic geo-thermal activity. Tonight we have been on a Maori heritage trip to the Tamaki Village; a community of huts in the midst of the forest about 20 minutes outside of Rotorua town that is set up to precisely resemble a Maori settlement as it would have been before the colonisers arrived. We were entertained with music and dancing, taught about their culture, weapons and living conditions, fed a veritable feast of roasted meat and vegetables cooked in a Hangi - an underground oven - and treated to a performance of the Hakka.

Huge Maori men wearing grass skirts and facial tattoos, and carrying foot long machetes, chanted and stamped, grimaced and gurned, waggling their tongues and protruding their eyeballs in a traditional demonstration of how rival tribes would greet each other - showcasing their ferocity and hopefully striking fear in to the hearts of any possible enemy. The threat that this dance carries would not be followed through however if the invaders signify that they are well intentioned visitors. After the Hakka a leaf is placed on the floor between the opposing sides and a member of our group was instructed to walk slowly forward and pick up the offering; a sign of a peaceful guest. If this ritual was carried through you would be, as we were tonight, welcomed in to the arms of the tribe with warmth and laughter and kindness.

I come from a country of conquerors, of settlers and invaders, explorers and militia, sailors and governors, the Great British Empire. The Great, but not the Good. Goodness is what matters to me, and how I wish I could say that I am descended from people who more often than they did, put down their hatred, and picked up the leaf.