Nineteenth-century European settlement is often depicted as a triumphal ‘taming of nature’. But does that collective memory impede more honest appraisals of the environmental risks we face today?
A 19th century image of Parihaka, New Zealand, with Mount Taranaki in the background.
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While tracing his own family’s journey from Ireland to Aotearoa New Zealand, Richard Shaw encountered how much ‘selective amnesia’ about the colonial past still shapes our lives today.
Mt Taranaki on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand.
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Like it or not, many Pākehā New Zealanders are the beneficiaries of a colonial settlement system based on dispossession and alienation. How can the past and present be reconciled honestly?
An 1880s illustration of the village at Parihaka, sitting beneath Mt Taranaki.
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This year marks 140 years since Parihaka pā was sacked. As He Puapua reignites the debate about the impacts of colonisation, how do the descendants of early European settlers respond?
Supporters of the campaign to stop commercial development at Ihumaatao.
Qiane Matata-Sipu
New Zealand is the last major landmass to be settled. One of the sites of earliest occupation is under threat from development, despite its cultural significance for Māori.