Parihaka
Norightturn wrote an interesting post about Parihaka, and ended with this:
Why should we remember Parihaka? For the same reason we remember any event in history: to avoid repeating it. Parihaka was a gross injustice, but it is also a warning of what happens when government acts on fear and without respect for human rights. Only by acknowledging and remembering it can we hope to avoid making the same mistake in the future.I don't remember Parihaka to try and avoid it happen again; I remember Parihaka to make it happen again.
I never looked at history and think of the implications for those in power. I'm on the opposite side from them. For me, the point of studying history is to learn about resistance, to remember that we can fight and win, and that it's worth fighting, even if you lose.
well said
ReplyDeleteParihaka is of far more relevance to Aotearoa than some miserable 400-yr old failure to blow up the Houses of the English Parliament
Let the memory of British brutality at Parihaka (for the soldiers were not born here, many only came for the conflicts & left empty-handed to go to another colonial battlefield) be a stir to non-violent resistance and protest on every topic, but especially with regard to colonialist policy, and issues where honouring te tiriti is the only true solution.
a lot of people talk of remembering parihaka.
ReplyDeletea lot of people seem to have forgotten it's yet to be concluded.
war is not ended by proclamation of victory; but rather by concession of defeat.
if you're a parihaka descendent... move home. the ploughs have been still too long.
oh, and people should stop giving the british so much grief for new zealand's history. the english government was as much a victim of corporate fraud as the settlers that thought they had rightful claims.
hint: try cross-referencing the governers, native ministers and other pro-settler nz parliamentarians of the time against the board members of the new zealand company. then read through some of the correspondences of the british officers sent here to assist. the first wave declared it all to be corrupt land-grab and ordered all their soldiers home.