As it Was

Kind messages, historical considerations, and plugging a new show.

In this world, it's just us
You know it's not the same as it was

Songwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam Johnson

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Yesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, with her kind permission:

Hi Nick,

I thought I'd message you here since I'm just catching up on last week's Korero. I'm so glad to read your account of Waitangi. What a special experience. So often, all we hear is the one side, but this year at work, we've had a couple of whānau who went as well. I guess we can credit this government with giving people more reasons to go?!

Anyway, I've never been to a Waitangi day celebration, but have several times been to Waitangi, Kerikeri, etc. I love the Stone store and Kemp house, but especially the mission house at Waimate North. We took our children up there a few years ago. My tūpuna was a missionary who signed as a witness the Manukau-Kāwhia Te Tiriti o Waitangi. He started out in Waimate North, and regularly used to walk from there to Kemp house - which, as you're driving on the road (from memory about 1/2 hr at 100km/hr) you get a new appreciation of what they did.

We loved seeing the copy of the treaty with his signature at Waitangi and the remains of his house at Waimate. The guide at Waimate was tickled that:

1. We had found our way there and

2. We were descended from the missionaries who built the houses.

He'd never met any of the descendants before.

It's so special spending time in places that are key in our history. And all that is just to say, thank you for writing so well about it.

Waimate North Mission House, around the 1830s or 1840s. Image: https://northlandhistory.blogspot.com/2021/01/te-waimate-north-mission-house.html

I replied:

Thanks for your lovely message, Caty. The North is a special place; our colonial history is a big part of that. I'd love to know how many people went to Waitangi or took more of an interest in it as a result of the government this last year - an unintended side effect, no doubt. I'll probably write more historical content, as people seem open to that. Thanks for sharing your connection.

And she, in turn:

Great idea. I think talking and writing about our history is pretty critical to ensuring our children learn more about it.

My father passed on an excellent book called The Unsettled by Richard Shaw. It's about acknowledging the actions of our ancestors during colonisation while working out our own place now. My father has struggled a lot with feeling proud of his ancestor whilst also acknowledging the wrongs of colonisation and his part in that at the same time.

My thoughts are I can't judge him by my 21st century standards, but I can take responsibility for myself and the advantages I have as a result. I can hold sacred the witnessing of Te Tiriti and do my part going forward. And I stated as such in my Treaty Bill submission - our whānau are witnesses to the Te Reo version and, therefore, will continue to uphold the rangatiratanga of Tangata Whenua.

I love receiving messages like that; they’re interesting, make you think, and it’s nice to know that others feel the same about things.

Some in our government would have you believe that these things I write about are only of interest to a minority of woke tree-hugging socialists - not that I have an issue with those attributes.

But that’s not the truth, although I can see why they would want you to think it was, and so sycophants in the media use phrases like rent-a-mob.

The truth is, and you only need to look at the polls to verify this, fully half of the population, on average, every second person you meet wants to get rid of this government and replace it with a left-wing one.

Half the people in this country want a government that cares about equality and fairness, will honour the treaty, and govern for all Kiwis. And if it’s depressing to think that half don’t, give them time; we’re only halfway to the next election.

Katy’s messages made me think about what I write about and what might interest you. Chances are that if you’re reading this, you’re quite interested in politics, and if I might be so bold as to say, you’re clearly someone who cares about others. But what else interests you? Would you be interested in reading the occasional newsletter about historical matters rather than political ones? The two are certainly related.

I’ve been thinking of doing more road trips, perhaps a longer one next summer, to meet some of you lovely people, hear some stories, and learn about some places, so it’s probably worth checking whether you’re interested in History or perhaps some other topic. Rest assured, I will still mostly write about politics and current events.

So what of history or other topics?

What’s your go-to category in Trivial Pursuit? All else being equal, you roll the dice, and you can choose the subject. What is it?

Do you back your knowledge of Art and Literature, the brown segment, or how about Science and Nature, the green one?

I always thought I’d do better on the Orange ones, Sports and Leisure, but it was often an American sport I didn’t follow and there was bugger all about cricket. Entertainment in Pink was ok, provided it was music-related or a recent movie, but things didn’t go so well if it was theatrical figures or much older movies.

The Blue of Geography was my second favourite. I was the sort of kid who knew all the flags and capitals and enjoyed looking at maps. The only danger was a question about English counties, which I knew hardly anything about until I lived in the UK, and even then, nothing like a native.

History, though, the yellow piece of pie, was my favourite. In between looking at maps, I spent much time reading non-fiction history as a kid. Although much like the counties in geography, I wasn’t good at Kings and Queens.

Many years ago, when Fi and I used to do quite a bit of travelling, we’d sometimes play a game of trivial pursuit, just making up questions to fill in the time as we waited hours in third-world bus terminals or long-distance trains. Which is pretty dorky, but it gets worse.

We also had our own colour category, Black, and if the person chose that, the question would pertain to our travels. It could be something simple, like “where did we watch Princess Diana’s funeral, and what were we doing?”, to which the answer is “drinking in a bar on Koh Samui and losing Connect Four badly to the bargirls”.

Or something more tricky like, “One country we’ve been to together, but missed the plane, and the other country we’ve been to separately, but not together - this week one of these countries tried to buy a part of the other.”

The obvious answer, and there was often a pitfall, would be that the USA wants to buy Greenland from Denmark and rename it Red, White, and BlueLand. Damn I wish I was making this up.

However, the real answer is actually that Denmark is looking to buy California and rescue them from Trump’s war on liberals.

If you think this is a joke, it is, but it’s also serious, and you can even sign the petition here, so it must be legit, and as you can see below, they already have a lot of support:

Ok, so a task for you: tell me what you’re interested in - apart from seeing the end of this government. It would help if you could drill down a little, too.

So, for example, rather than simply saying, “Yellow”, perhaps something like “, History, I’ve always been fascinated in the similarities between the persecution of modern-day female politicians and so-called ‘witches’ in the middle ages, tell me more”.

Maybe there is a period in New Zealand’s history, a tale of migration, some historic court case, or something you’d like to know more about or think others would find interesting?

Vince starts tonight.

Tonight on TV3, a new show called Vince begins with two episodes back to back from 8:35 - 9:35 pm.

From the Sky guide: Vince, a charming Breakfast TV host, endures a grave trouser malfunction at the children's cancer ward on live TV, and must navigate the aftermath to save his reputation.

So, it's not good for poor Vince or the unfortunate kid in a wheelchair right before him at the moment of malfunction. Played by one Matty Rockel, our youngest lad, here in the wooly hat:

Matty, Fi, and Matty’s GF went to the premier last night where they showed the first three episodes; alas, two tickets were our allotment. I’ll be seeing it for the first time tonight. You can see a trailer for it here:

The lady in the, I want to say, green shirt at the end of that clip is Chelsie Preston Crayford, daughter of Gaylene Preston.

She was also the director of the movie Matty was filming when I went to the arrival of the hikoi in Wellington and stayed in the curious little house that some of you might remember. It’s a small place NZ, and I’m sure you’ll recognise other cast members.

Well that’s about it for me for this morning, do yell out if there is something you’re keen to read more about. I can’t promise to cover everything, but it would be good to get some ideas and an indication of what might be of interest.

Have a good one all you lovely people - and thanks very much to Caty for the messages and the inspiration.

If you’d like to subscribe to Nick’s Kōreo, and after a grim couple of months on that front it would be great to have some new subscriptions, today it’s 20% off for the first 12 months. It’s a couple of dollars a week, but it all adds up to enabling me to do this.

If a paid subscription is not realistic financially then please message or email me and I’m happy to give you a free one. I don’t want money to be a barrier, and I know many are doing it tough, the hope is that those who enjoy reading Nick’s Kōrero and can afford to subscribe do so, and it all works out for everyone. 🙂

For the end song today I thought of the Harry Styles song, “As it Was”, given the History theme. There were some good versions of it, but this instrumental version was the one I really liked. It’s quite lovely.