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?
Armed constabulary gather at Parihaka.
Wikimedia Commons
Almost 140 years after armed government troops crushed peaceful protests at Parihaka, New Zealand is beginning to make amends with the signing of a reconciliation law and a compensation agreement.