Two reminders that we’re woefully unaware of history.
First, I received an email from a recently discovered DNA “cousin.” From the DNA results, we appear to be connected through a common ancestry perhaps four or five generations back. Discovering the actual connection will likely be impossible, at least that’s how it looks to me.
Did I mention that Betty and her family are Maori? In any case, she emailed a brief description of some of her recent activities. Here’s an excerpt. Note that the term “iwi”, commonly meaning bone both in Hawaiian and Maori, has a modern meaning there as well. From Wikipedia: “According to the glossary definition of the National Library of New Zealand, “iwi” is a “M?ori word for a set of people bound together by descent from a common ancestor or ancestors.”
Our Iwi in Ngati Ruanui, the next town to where I live here in Manaia, is organising a big journey to the South Island in the next month. I am hoping to go on that. Our Iwi here in Ngaruahine did the same journey 3 yrs ago. Just amazing. This journey followed the path that our Ancestors were taken as prisoner from here to the South Island when the English invaded Taranaki (the Province here). Many of them never came home. They were housed in caves in the South Island and when our Iwi travelled down there, we visited the places that they were imprisoned in, and this was a very emotional time for us. I know that our family were very closely related to some of the prisoners that were there at that time in 1880. But we continue to survive, don’t we.
That should send me scurrying to find a good book on the history of New Zealand and the Maori wars. If you know a good one, please share.
And then this morning, there was an email waiting from a high school friend. She forwarded a column published a couple of days ago in the Washington Post (“In Winston Churchill, Hollywood rewards a mass murderer“). This was definitely tough reading.
Again, an excerpt:
Words, in the end, are all that Churchill admirers can point to. His actions are another matter altogether.
During World War II, Churchill declared himself in favor of “terror bombing.” He wrote that he wanted “absolutely devastating, exterminating attacks by very heavy bombers.” Horrors such as the firebombing of Dresden were the result.
In the fight for Irish independence, Churchill, in his capacity as secretary of state for war and air, was one of the few British officials in favor of bombing Irish protesters, suggesting in 1920 that airplanes should use “machine-gun fire or bombs” to scatter them.
Dealing with unrest in Mesopotamia in 1921, as secretary of state for the colonies, Churchill acted as a war criminal: “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against the uncivilised tribes; it would spread a lively terror.” He ordered large-scale bombing of Mesopotamia, with an entire village wiped out in 45 minutes.
The list of atrocities goes on.
And from the column’s conclusion:
This week’s Oscar rewards yet another hagiography of this odious man. To the Iraqis whom Churchill advocated gassing, the Greek protesters on the streets of Athens who were mowed down on Churchill’s orders in 1944, sundry Pashtuns and Irish, as well as to Indians like myself, it will always be a mystery why a few bombastic speeches have been enough to wash the bloodstains off Churchill’s racist hands.
History. It’s important, isn’t it?
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Wow ! he really educated me about a side of Churchill I never knew- and I learned a new word “hagiography” (adulatory writing about another person)
Churchill was very racist, The Boar War and Churchills participation would be another learning experience, a good example of the British hierarchy, little regard for other races or even those that were born what the hierarchy considered a lower class.
Hard to know how to deal with clay feet. All that is true about Churchill, but I shudder to think of how the war in 1940 might have turned had he not been PM. Along those lines, I’ve recently seen lots of disturbing accusations about Elie Wiesel — sexual harassment, racism, and indifference to suffering– but would worry if his legacy were erased.
Yes, most adults realize that history is full of surprises and disappointments.
At any rate, it should be noted that the Oscar in question was awarded for the film, rather than to the odious man himself, and that the film was not a critical examination of the odious man’s entire life or subsequent actions.
The film depicted a specific point in time in which the odious man, using a few bombastic speeches, greatly strengthened the resolve of his people against the very real threat of imminent invasion and annihilation as Europe was ruthlessly crushed under the Nazi boot. Self-righteous disassociation would have counted for little in that context.
It’s really not that hard to understand.
Ian, I am wondering if your are related to the Robinson – Sinclair – McHuthenson Family which went from Glasgow to New Zealand in 1840 then to Hawaii in September 1863. They had many famous dealings with the Hawaiian Alii. It may be worth a look. Aubrey Robinson was the most famous, they are still large land holders in Hawaii today.
That’s a very interesting comment, in light of this info from my newly found “DNA cousin” in New Zealand. Here’s her summary of her family history.
“I did go online looking for relatives a couple of years ago, and once I did my DNA through the same channel as you, and having received quite a bit of information from cousin Allison, I found that I had relatives all over the world. I am in New Zealand and am Maori. My mother was full blooded Maori but my father was of Scottish, English Maori descent. Our Great Great Grandfather William Robinson came from England and is of English/Scottish descent. He came as a soldier with the English Army. When they came to our province of Taranaki, they did not like what was happening with our ancestors, and so they left the Army. He married one of our ancestors, Roka Matarau from here in Manaia, New Zealand in the Hokianga, on 1 February 1862. Our Tribe is Ngaruahine and our (Hapu) Sub-Tribe is Ngati Tu. Their son William Pire Robinson was sent by his mother Roka to Ngati Tu (Manaia), when he was a teenager to find her people and her land. He was 18 when he filed for her land in the court here in Taranaki, but unfortunately this was unsuccessful. Our Great Grandfather William Pire married our Great Grandmother Te Rawanaki from here in Ngatu Tu. From this marriage my Grandfather was their first born. There were two more brothers and a sister. I believe our Great Grandmother passed away and as was the norm in those days William Pire married the Niece Te Araroa. They had 3 sons.
The Robinson name is quite well known in Taranaki. Possibly because our Grandfather (Koro) and our Grandmother (Kui) had quite a big family (whanau).”
The London Review of Books featured reviews of the two films in question. One writer made the point that the Cult of Churchill is more prominent in the US.
The Brits are apparently more contrite about their imperial legacy.
Speaking of hagiography and reassessment, what to make of the recent public denunciation of Saint Dan as an alleged serial rapist?
Does the obvious fact that the denunciation was made by a craven political opportunist seeking publicity —and quite likely shamelessly lying about “discovering” the very old and widely known allegations only recently — really justify the blanket refusal in some quarters to consider the potential underlying truth, or the VERY careful tiptoeing around the topic?
And had this all panned out very differently if present-day standards had been applied at the time, would we all be better off now or worse?
Lots to think about.