How long is too long New Zealand?

Auckland’s War Memorial Museum, ANZAC Day 2016

Yesterday was ANZAC Day and I took my kids to the Dawn Service at Auckland’s War Memorial Museum. It's become an annual trek for me.

I prepare the night before, pinning my father’s medals to the jersey I will wear in the morning, making sure they go on the right hand side. I pin a poppy to the left chest of my jersey and below that is pinned a Mururoa Nuclear Veterans Group badge.

My Dad’s medals 2016 ANZAC Day.

I am proud of the service my father gave to his country. He was called upon in 1973 by then Prime Minister Norman Kirk and he, like his shipmates, answered that call. As a nation we were proud of them. Heading off to French Polynesia in the middle of winter to be New Zealand’s official on-site presence as France commenced another round of nuclear testing.

They were sent there to remind France that New Zealand and other South Pacific countries did not approve of what the French were doing. By sending our sailors there we forced the world’s spotlight to be shone on France and their nuclear testing at Mururoa.

That spotlight proved too bright and like startled bugs when a rotting log is lifted, the French government hastily retreated, taking their nuclear testing underground. We had won! 

Our boys had shown the world the shameful and embarrassing, not to mention scandalous, actions of the French government and military on that little Pacific atoll. It was a victory for right and justice and became the foundation upon which our nuclear free stance has been built.

HMNZS Otago is welcomed home after her Mururoa duty. 

However in the ensuing years, as a nation, we have forgotten what happened in that fateful winter of 1973.

We attend ANZAC Day commemorations and we say “we will remember them”. But that is becoming simply lip service.

How can we stand there on ANZAC Day and repeat those words when we have forgotten a whole campaign?

We remember South Africa, both World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, Malaya, Thailand, Falklands, East Timor, Kuwait, Afghanistan. All rightly so.

But to neglect the Mururoa veterans as we have, does them a disservice. 

It says to them that their service and sacrifice (and the ultimate sacrifice that many of their shipmates have made) was for nothing.

It says that their medals mean nothing to the country that have dished them out. The neglect in the annual ANZAC Day services turns those medals into little trinkets not worth the ribbon that they hang off.

It’s almost as if we as a nation don’t want to remember them because it is deemed too hard. It forces us to ask of ourselves whether we willingly sent our men to be exposed to nuclear radiation. So instead we collectively say, “here’s a fancy medal. Now go away. We don’t want to remember you”.

They are the forgotten heroes. They’ve had to fight for everything they have got thus far and there are more battles yet to come. 

Harsh words? Perhaps. But then these sailors are suffering and dying thanks to their service of their country. Health complications and cancers are common amongst these veterans and anecdotally, occur more regularly than the general population of their age.

During the annual get togethers their society organises, talk often turns to how the health of each veteran and their descendants is before the inevitable talk of who crossed the bar in the past year.

They suffer, we fail to remember or even acknowledge they exist. Norman Kirk promised those men that a grateful nation would remember them. Instead we have discarded them on the scrap heap of history.

It’s been forty-five years of neglect. How much longer will it take for us to get it right and properly acknowledge these heroes as we should?

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DISCLAIMER: I sit on the executive committee of the Mururoa Nuclear Veterans Group Inc as the co vice-president as well as the Media Officer. The group is made up of former sailors on the HMNZS Otago and Canterbury and the HMAS Supply, wives, partners and children of those sailors who served during the 1973 "tour". The group provides support and assistance to veterans and their families as well as continuing to ensure that the health of families and children (affected by the veterans service at Mururoa) are taken care of including generational testing to prove a link between nuclear exposure and illness. 

What's the Truth About Waitangi?

I’ve read and watched a lot of the media reports on Waitangi this year. As someone who worked full time in broadcast news till last year, and is now a contractor whilst studying, I am always intrigued and interested in how the media portrays and reports on our national day. After all, it is the way that many of us experience our national day and how we understand what goes on at the birthplace of our nation. I once thought that overall those reports were reasonably accurate and represented what happened up north. This year I finally had the opportunity to see for myself what happens and to be honest, I am deeply disappointed by how our national day is presented to us. I also don’t want to forget what I saw and learned while up there, so here are my personal reflections and observations of Waitangi Day.

I have been on a journey of discovery of late. I’m not sure when it began but a key moment for me was watching Whale Rider in Singapore where I heard snickering and laughter directed at Māori culture. It was then that I realised how much Te Ao Māori (the Māori world) had influenced me and become a part of who I am as a Pākehā New Zealander. It has laid dormant for years since then but has re-emerged like a sleeping volcano waking up over the last two years. So it was with a desire to learn more that I headed up to Waitangi with a Christian group called Karuwha Trust (in Te Reo Karuwha is “four eyes”, the affectionate nickname local Māori gave to Henry Williams the missionary who lived amongst them for years and who, along with his son, translated Te Tiriti into Te Reo) to learn more about what Waitangi is, what the significance of Te Tiriti is and how do the events of early February 1840 affect and shape us today and heading into the future?

My Waitangi journey was late in starting this year because I had a commitment on Saturday night, but in reflection it was the perfect time to go. As I weaved my way up SH1 from Auckland I prepared myself by listening to a range of beautiful songs either bilingual or completely in Te Reo. As I swung over the hill on the outskirts of Kawakawa, I saw a hitchhiker looking for a lift to Paihia. Normally I drive right on past - the voice of my father echoing in my head about picking up strangers. But I stopped this time to offer him a lift and what a true blessing it turned out to be. That was because he was a direct descendant of Henry Williams and he was heading to the same place I was. Our conversation was like the road between Kawakawa and Paihia, weaving and winding its way through history and the land but always coming back to the story of Te Tiriti, Henry and the iwi who allowed him to setup a mission station in the middle of their rohe.

After saying farewell to my hitchhiker, I helped out in the kitchen of Te Tii Marae as they prepared dinner for the hundreds of guests. Now in the national sphere Te Tii has a reputation of being the place of trouble-making. It is perceived to be where all the raruraru occurs. In the past protesters have thrown mud at politicians, aggressively confronted politicians, and one protestor even threw a dildo at a politician last year. However, to label the marae as the place of trouble-makers is to do it and the people there a huge disservice. The people I met and interacted with were beautiful, gentle and big hearted. They were serving and were grateful for the help that myself and others gave. They didn’t judge us on the colour of our skin but sought to look after us if others did. After all, in their eyes, were we their Kaimahi (workers) and they wanted to look after us.

The day ended with a three hour korero (talk) with a group of men who were equally on a journey - two Māori, one Pākehā. All on a journey of understanding better the significance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its impact on our nation. That was the first big take away - Waitangi is a place to learn, to understand and to grow. Those who are students and willing to sit, engage and listen are welcomed with open arms. Others are welcomed too, in the hopes that their trip to our nation’s birthplace will start them on a journey of learning and engagement.

The next day I had the opportunity to head up to the Treaty grounds themselves to observe the official side. I saw powhiri on Te Whare Runanga (“The House of Assembly” or more commonly known as the upper marae) on the Treaty grounds. I saw our Prime Minister, a woman, being allowed to speak from the verandah of the wharenui (meeting house). I heard her speak of working together, of changing things for all New Zealanders, of opening herself and her government up to be challenged, of wanting to earn the right that Nga Puhi had extended to her of speaking on the marae. I heard the words of one who had sat and listened and engaged for five days with locals, with iwi and with those at the front lines. I heard the spontaneous applause from the public who were simply observers. And I heard the kaumatua who responded to Ms Ardern’s speech with respect and who acknowledged the public - something out of the norm for that kind of gathering. At the end of proceedings, people emerged with tinfoil containers filled with hangi food and all on the Treaty grounds were invited to come and eat. Manaakitanga (hospitality) in a very tangible and practical way. That were the second and third take homes: change and manaakitanga. Waitangi is where the winds of change were blowing and that change was embedded in manaakitanga.

Everywhere I went I heard calls of “Kia ora”; “morena”; “hey bro!” People happy, some reconnecting after decades, some catching up since the previous year. I saw people highlighting their concerns in the Forum Team on Te Tii Marae, people eating, drinking (boy it was hot up there), swimming, sitting, and enjoying themselves. Kids (and some adults) ignoring the small sign on the bridge to jump off into the gloriously cool water below. Laughter, smiles, joy. It was all there. The fourth take away was celebration. Waitangi was swelling with celebration. Heading to bed that night early I went to sleep with gratitude and excitement in my spirit.

4:00am. In tents all around me alarms went off and zips were opened. Thus began the hikoi across the bridge to Te Whare Runanga. The dawn service was beautiful. Prayers offered, waiata sung, scripture read. The Māori bishop of Te Tai Tokarau led while other clergy prayed as did representatives of the Navy, Police and local government, MPs read scriptures and CIndy Ruakere (accompanied by Jay Ruka on guitar) sung beautiful Christian waiata before leading us all in a heart warming powerful rendition of our National Anthem. So I learnt the fifth take home: Christian heritage. Whether we like it or not, want to deny or embrace it, the reality is that the Christian faith played a huge part in the foundation of our nation. It was the missionaries who the Māori chiefs trusted, it was missionaries (and the members of the Clapham Sect back in England who were in the Foreign Office) who saw Māori as their equal and saw the importance of an agreement between tangata whenua and the Crown to prevent the exploitation of Māori by the increasing numbers of British settlers moving to New Zealand, it was the missionaries who translated the negotiations and then Te Tiriti, it was the missionaries who traveled the length of Aotearoa convincing iwi and hapu of the importance of signed Te Tiriti. Whilst there were wrongs and injustices done in the name of the faith, we cannot deny the desire and passion of the likes of Henry Williams, William Williams, Edward Williams, William Colenso of wanting to do right by Māori (see https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/henry-williams for a brief overview, but I highly recommend Jay Ruka’s book “Huia Come Home” and Keith Newman’s “Bible and Treaty” to learn more).

Having my time in Waitangi come towards a conclusion with the PM’s BBQ breakfast - following in Nga Puhi’s steps in manaakitanga - before involving myself with the celebrations and also having time to reflect on what I would take home from Waitangi was the perfect way to say farewell to the deeply significant place that Waitangi is.

So what will I be taking home and trying to put into practice after Waitangi? Seeking to learn, understand and grow. As a Pākehā I truly believe that that requires us to get off the pedestal that we have been placed on by our forebears, and sit at the feet of our Māori brothers and sisters, elevating them to the place of being a true partner (as Te Tiriti was original intended to provide). I do not believe that we can truly advance as a nation until we embrace and listen to tangata whenua with grace, honour, love, respect and humility. I learned that we are in a period of change as a nation. That we have an opportunity to do things differently from now on and if done with what I mentioned above, will steer us into unchartered but beautiful waters of true reconciliation, true partnership, real investment in each other and surrounded and infused with manaakitanga. I learned that what happened at Waitangi is something to be remembered and celebrated. After all, it was a radical covenant between two peoples which was unheard of at the time. Yes it has been ignored, primarily by Pākehā and the government, in the years since (the land wars were a direct result of the British ignoring Te Tiriti and just taking land), but it is still worth celebrating. And I learned that our Christian heritage is a part of that story and needs to be included in the remembering and celebrating.

I truly believe that things are going to get better and better for Aotearoa if we continually seek to keep Te Tiriti at the heart of all we do. After all, as a man I hugely respect said, the Treaty is like a marriage covenant. A healthy marriage is one where a person puts aside their desires and wants to allow room and space for the other’s desires and wants. A true marriage sees both parties serving the other to create opportunities for them to be all that they are created to be. That is what we should be doing. If we grasp that then the world is our oyster and we can guide the world into true partnership and reconciliation. Kia Kaha whanau.

A quick addition note: Check out the video on this link. It shows well what Waitangi is about. https://tehiku.nz/te-hiku-tv/haukainga/6437/another-waitangi-video