The stone and bronze idolising Aotearoa colonisers

Features

Apr 7

Content warning: Mentions of violence

There are stone monsters who live among us, relics of colonisers who hope we forget everything but their names.

Memorials honouring colonisers who carved their legacies in brutal conquest tower over town squares and lounge in quiet reserves. They’ve painted their names across the country — on road signs, town names, and even our own Massey University.

British imperial culture was stamped onto our landscape, ensuring its legacy became an unquestioned part of our national identity. Despite public memorials being built to help us remember, they are often designed to help us forget. These memorials silence the perspectives that expose their darker truths.

The debate over removing colonial memorials is deeply divided. Some argue these monuments are painful symbols that distort history, while others fear their removal will erase history altogether. A middle ground suggests adding historical context to each memorial.

Marmaduke George Nixon and his Ōtāhuhu memorial

Lieutenant-colonel Marmaduke George Nixon is responsible for committing some of the worst acts in the Waikato War.

Yet, in the small South Auckland reserve of Ōtāhuhu, a memorial stands for Nixon and three men under his command who died during the 1864 invasion of Waikato.

The monument reads: “In memory of the brave men who served their Queen and country in the Māori War. Waikato Campaign 1864.”

Nixon led a surprise attack on the undefended village of Rangiaowhia in February 1864. Nixon and his men burned down a whare where unarmed women, children, and elderly had taken shelter. Other Māori were killed as they fled or tried to surrender.

In June 2020, The Spinoff asked five Kiwis to choose local monuments, statues, and names they wanted removed. One suggested tossing the “Colonel Marmaduke George Nixon monument in Ōtāhuhu into the ocean”.

The Wakefield brothers and a bronze statue

Should two kidnappers, criminals, and racists be memorialised? On Mt Victoria, a bronze bust of Edward Wakefield looks over Wellington. And at the Basin Reserve, a concrete gazebo stands honouring his brother William Wakefield.

Honoured as founding fathers of Wellington, the two brothers were leaders of the New Zealand Company. This company is widely considered to be responsible for cheating Māori out of their land.

Between 1840 and 1852, the New Zealand Company brought 15,000 settlers to Aotearoa. Māori were under the impression they were only sharing land with European settlers when they signed land deeds and entered land negotiations with the New Zealand Company.

None of the Treaty of Waitangi principles were honoured by the company. This led to land wars, such as the 1843 Wairau Affray. This was the first significant armed conflict between Māori and British soldiers after the signing of the Treaty. Here, an armed party of the New Zealand Company settlers clashed with Ngāti Toa over the purchase of land in the Wairau Valley. Four Māori and 22 settlers were killed.

As well as cheating Māori out of their land, Edward was a serial eloper. In 1816, Edward eloped with 16-year-old heiress Eliza Pattle and became rich by inheriting her dowry. However, Eliza died in 1820 during childbirth.

A decade later in 1826, both brothers abducted 15-year-old heiress Ellen Turner from her boarding school and forced her to marry Edward. They kept her from contacting her family and took her to France. Edward was hopeful Ellen’s father would be forced to help them with his political career. However, both brothers were arrested and sentenced to three years in prison.

Wellington city councillor Nīkau Wi Neera, whose iwi were part of the Wellington land negotiations with the Wakefields, told Stuff he wants the memorials removed.

“This one [Basin Reserve memorial] flies under the radar because it’s an abstract shape, so people don’t realise who it is about… a kidnapper extraordinaire,” he said.

“I would relegate to where this belongs… in the history books.”

Thomas Picton — the namesake of a whole town

Every day, hundreds step off a ferry and into the South Island’s small town, Picton. The picturesque port town is filled with cafes, galleries, and restaurants. But few stop to consider its namesake — a man so infamous that a method of torture bears his name.

Thomas Picton was the highest-ranking British officer to die at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. Like many, he made his fortune from slave trade and was involved in slave catching. He was most known for his brutal treatment of slaves as the first British governor of Trinidad.

In 1803, Picton was brought to London to be put on trial for authorising the torture of 14-year-old Luisa Calderon after she was accused of theft. To obtain a confession from her, Picton used a form of torture known as ‘Picton-ing’ or ‘picketing'.

Picketing is when a victim has one arm tied to a ceiling pulley while the other arm is bound to a foot, forcing the leg to bend. The free foot rested on a dull wooden spike, supporting the body’s full weight. It is not designed to permanently injure or maim, however it causes severe pain. Testimony in Picton’s trial suggests he subjected Luisa to this torture for 22 minutes.

During the trial, Picton was also investigated for torturing, decapitating, and burning alive slaves accused of magic and necromancy.

He was convicted in 1806, but his sentence was overturned in 1807 when the Privy Council decided there were no grounds to the charges against him.

From statues to street and town names, memorials of Picton are scattered across Aotearoa and the United Kingdom. However, controversy over his use of torture was revived in recent years. In 2020, the City Council of Cardiff, Wales, voted to remove Picton’s statue among the ‘Heroes of Wales’ in Cardiff City Hall.

In a press release, they say: “The behaviour of Picton as Governor of Trinidad was abhorrent, even in his own era.”

“To remove the statue will send a message to Black people in Cardiff and across the world that the city recognises the role people like Picton played in slavery.”

George Grey and Greytown

Standing tall over Auckland’s Albert Park, and leaving his mark on the colonial homestead of Greytown, Sir George Grey was a man that forced war on Māori and stole their land.

After campaigning to erase Aboriginal culture in Australia, Grey became governor in New Zealand in 1845 during a period of rising tensions between settlers and Māori. Ignoring peace negotiations, Grey issued an ultimatum to Māori chiefs: Comply with British demands or face war.

The 1846 Battle of Ruapekapeka was technically a draw, but Grey spread the myth that the British were victorious. He wrote, “the rebel Chiefs had been defeated and dispersed” and “made their complete submission to the Government”.

In 1848, Grey enacted the Canterbury Purchase, one of the biggest land deals in Aotearoa’s colonial history. He forced Ngāi Tahu to sell eight million hectares of land for only £2,000 – less than $700K today.

Grey returned as governor in 1860, overseeing the bloodiest conflicts of the New Zealand wars. Following the wars, he ordered the confiscation of three million acres of land from ‘rebel’ Māori chiefs, punishing and imprisoning those who resisted.

Perhaps his most brutal act was the 1863 Invasion of Waikato. Grey ordered 14,000 imperial troops to attack 4,000 Māori who opposed the Crown’s claims to land and sovereignty. The battle lasted three days and estimates of Māori fatalities range from 80 to 160. Around 26 wounded Māori were taken prisoner, and the Crown seized over a million acres of Waikato land.

Grey was head of the Government from 1877 until 1879, where he remained a symbol of violent suppression.

William Massey, his mausoleum, and entire university

On top of Welly’s Miramar Peninsula, a mausoleum built from white Tākaka marble and Coromandel granite has looked over Wellington harbour since 1930. Beneath its surface lies a racist — Aotearoa’s 19th Prime Minister, William Massey.

Massey served as Prime Minister from 1912 until he died in 1925. He founded the Reform Party and supported Aotearoa’s farming industry. This is why Massey University, once a small agricultural college, bears his name.

In a 1920 parliamentary debate, Massey is quoted saying: “Clearly, we want to keep the race as pure in this Dominion as it is possible to keep it.”

Then, a year later, he wrote in the Evening Post, “Nature intended New Zealand to be a white man’s country, and it must be kept as such. The strain of Polynesian will be no detriment.”

Massey is also responsible for the mining and devastation of Nauru, now known as Pleasant Island. The island was rich in phosphate, which Massey lobbied for a share of.

After World War I, Nauru was split between Australia, Aotearoa, and Britain. For decades, Nauru was mined and carved up, with a complete disregard to the environment or people of the island. By the time Nauru gained independence in 1968, more than 35 million metric tons of phosphate had been mined. One-third of Nauru had been strip mined, leaving Nauruans to live on a narrow ring around a plateau of sharp coral and limestone.

In 2021, Massive published an article named William Massey was a Racist, questioning whether the university should rebrand after a series of racist remarks made by William Massey resurfaced.

When Massive asked vice-chancellor Jan Thomas whether Massey University should consider changing the name, she claimed to be “ambivalent” about the debate.

“It’s what we do rather than what we’re named that matters, and I’ve got a real sense of urgency about the work that we’re doing, and I really want to focus on that.”

___________________________

Whether we like it or not, Aotearoa and its colonisers have a brutal and violent history — but yet we continue to honour those who caused it. Perhaps we cling to heroic narratives because the reality is too unbearable.

However, it is becoming more and more common to switch out English place names for their original Māori name, particularly for our two main cities, Te Whanganui a Tara and Tāmaki Makaurau. Many places hold dual names, like Aoraki/Mount Cook and Matiu/Somes Island.

So, if two things can be true, we can include historical context to these memorial sites. We have these stone monsters living among us, and we should never forget what they did.

Jessie Davidson (she/her)