'You cannot know who you are as a society unless you know your history' – Jim Bolger
Former Prime Minister Jim Bolger’s death last week sparked a wave of tributes from across the political spectrum, including warm words of remembrance from many iwi, including Waikato-Tainui and Ngāi Tahu.
It was Jim Bolger’s government (1990-1997) that negotiated settlements of historical Treaty of Waitangi claims with Waikato-Tainui in 1995 and Ngāi Tahu two years later. Challenged by members of his own Cabinet as to why a National government should be going down this path, Bolger famously responded ‘Because it is the right thing to do’.
I got to know Jim a bit later in his life and we had some good talks over the years about how his own Irish ancestry influenced and shaped his support for Treaty settlements. Ultimately, that, I believe, will be his greatest legacy. It shouldn’t be underestimated just how significant it was that the leader of a right-wing political party, historically not exactly renowned for its embrace of Māori interests and causes, initiated the modern process of Treaty settlements.
And he was also a huge advocate for more of us learning the history behind these claims. Back in October 2016, as my big book on the invasion of Waikato was about to be launched, Jim Bolger spoke out in support of the New Zealand Wars being taught in all schools. Later that month he spoke alongside Rahui Papa and others at an event held at Te Papa’s Rongomaraeroa Marae to mark the launch of The Great War for New Zealand.
And in April 2017 Jim and I appeared in conversation at Wānaka’s Festival of Colour, speaking to this history in conversation with Paul Diamond. Besides many stories of his negotiations with Waikato-Tainui and his dealings with figures such as Robert Mahuta, we also got to hear how growing up not far from Parihaka but learning nothing of the history of what had taken place there during his own school years, had also had a profound influence on him in later life.
Bolger himself said in 2016 that:
Like most New Zealanders brought up in the education system in the 40s and 50s we were essentially taught nothing on the colonial, land war period. There was little if any if I recall on the injustice that Māori had suffered from having their property stolen. There was a period in our education where we just didn’t teach that aspect.
I’ve been arguing for the last few years that we need to write an honest and complete history of the colonial period, including the land wars. I’ve made that point on many public occasions, most recently at the Anzac service in Waikanae this year where I gave not the Tainui experience but the invasion of Parihaka, which is where I really grew up, in coastal Taranaki.
As others have noted, Bolger was a well-read man. In 2017, he and another former Prime Minister, Sir Geoffrey Palmer, backed a campaign for New Zealand history to be taught in all schools, Bolger telling RNZ that:
I've bored so many audiences by saying we should teach our colonial history, because we don't, and this is a huge mistake. You cannot know who you are as a society unless you know your history.
Look out across the world and see the extraordinary divisions within societies. Frankly, the rise of white racism is partly because people don't understand their history.
That campaign, of course, ultimately bore fruit when then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced in September 2019 that Aotearoa New Zealand history would be in future be taught in all schools.
As John Campbell wrote last week:
Bolger had been a sheep farmer in the King Country. Pākehā as. Conservative as. As far from woke as an alarm clock on speed.
And when he shepherded the Tainui and Ngāi Tahu Treaty settlements over the line on behalf of the Crown, he declared something about our history and our responsibility to acknowledge and respond to it that was meaningful in ways that have endured and made us better.
He never resiled from that. There was something deeply honourable about his belief in Te Tiriti, and our collective obligation to honour it.
The kind of bi-partisan consensus around facing up to our history, actively promoted by Jim Bolger and others like Palmer, is now under threat as the current government pursues virulently anti-Māori policies such as the appalling Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Amendment Act, passed into law last night. But that’s a story for another day.
Aku mihi
Vincent O’Malley