The war memorial on the corner of Symonds Street and City Road in Auckland CBD was attacked by an anti-colonial activist group in the early hours of the morning. The statue of ‘Zealandia’ pays homage to ‘Mother Britain’ a figure of British colonialism, and was erected specifically as a memorial to the New Zealand Wars. This Auckland statue is one of three depicting the figure of ‘Zealandia’ in the country, the others located in Waimate and Palmerston. The group have attached an axe to her head and a poster to the plaque that reads: “Fascism and White Supremacy are not Welcome Here.” The anonymous group taking responsibility for the attack have issued the following statement:
“The ‘Zealandia’ war memorial is an ode to the violent and brutal occupation of Māori lands. It celebrates the ongoing colonisation of Aotearoa, its lands and its peoples. The settler capitalist system imposed on this land is a poison that works to systematically oppress indigenous peoples throughout the world to the benefit of corporations and the super-rich. It is a system that is doomed to fail.”
The Memorial is a tribute to the imperial and colonial soldiers who fought for Britain during the New Zealand Wars. Taking place between 1845 and 1872, these wars paved the way for mass confiscation and forced sale of Māori lands.
Good!
Well, they are not wrong.
And lets face it, The Victoria League was/is a fairly marginal group.
The one thing in its favour, apart from the draped flag which always fascinated me, is that it maintained a reminder of a War that was pretty much deleted from public consciousness by the 1920s. I know that as a kid in the 70’s I didn’t have a clue what it was referring to.
Would that be the morallly superior left-wing intellectuals known as Antifa?
Do you know something about Antifa?
About bloody time.
They have a political economic message spelt out as well. Good work people.
Antifa activists are doing a good job trying to draw comparisons to the Maori experience and the Jewish one at the moment. It was all kicked off by David Cohen some years back. Very evident in Jewish social media accounts pushing teo reo and Maori separatism at the moment.
Plan B South Island.
Oh no you don’t.
Piss off. The South Island is just fine as it is.
No more JAFAs down here thanks.
😀 😀 😀
“Maori separatism”, eh? Well, that’s loaded code indicating your agenda…
While they have a point, where does this stop. What was acceptable many years ago may be no longer acceptable but does that mean we have to revisit and, in some cases, apologise for the actions of our ancestors? Do the Danes have to feel bad because their Viking ancestors created havoc? Do the descendants of Genghis Khan do the same? Are we still doing things which will be viewed differently in 100 years time and will no longer be acceptable – yes we are, but it is not the things we are knowingly doing such as polluting our waterways, but it is the things we are unaware of?
I’m concerned that we are atomizing instead of coalescing, and it is a real pity to see. Whatever the answer may be, unceremoniously trashing historic monuments can’t be it. The only attention it will get is from the likes of Brash or Ansell. It’s clear that their views have little currency, we’re in the kind of climate now where nobody could entertain the notion that the continued existence of old monuments amounts to public endorsement of the land wars. We face a shared challenge to understand and contest the power games of global corporatism, and there can be no hierarchy of outrage when it comes to the deliberate exploitation of billions of people.
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