03 October 2019 - UK expresses 'regret' over Māori killings after Cook's arrival in New Zealand
Britain expresses regret for killing of Māori during Captain Cook’s landing 250 years ago
(NewsNow, 02/10/2019)
The British government today expressed "regret" that British explorers killed some of the first indigenous Māori they met 250 years ago, but stopped short of issuing a full apology.
British High Commissioner Laura Clarke met with Māori tribal leaders in Gisborne as New Zealand marked the anniversary of Captain James Cook and the crew of his ship Endeavour arriving in 1769.
Clarke's words held historic significance but fell short of the full apology that some had sought from the British royal family.
Iwi to receive message expressing regret for Māori killed in James Cook meeting
(Stuff.co.nz, 02/10/2019)
Gisborne iwi are set to receive a message this afternoon from the British High Commissioner for the Māori killed when James Cook arrived in 1769.
The British High Commissioner is taking part in one of her first of two ceremonies in an expression of regret to iwi in Gisborne - in what is understood to be a first in New Zealand.
British High Commissioner Laura Clarke has been working closely with leaders of Gisborne iwi Rongowhakaata, Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, Te Aitanga a-Māhaki, Ngāti Oneone for many months to prepare for this meeting.
Captain Cook's legacy is complex, but whether white Australia likes it or not he is emblematic of violence and oppression
Paul Daley (The Guardian, 03/10/2019)
The British government has issued an oh-so-carefully worded expression of “regret” for the killing of Māori in Aotearoa, today’s New Zealand, at the point of first contact during Lieutenant James Cook’s “voyage of discovery” 250 years ago.
Regrets! The old empire certainly has had cause for a few when it comes to the violence it has meted out to the indigenes of the places it took during Britain’s colonial expansion.
For the deaths of a million Irish in the potato famine. For the Kenyans tortured and imprisoned during the Mau Mau insurgency. For the Indians killed in the Amritsar massacre. And, now, for the Māori, whose first contact with Cook’s HMS Bark Endeavour in 1769 was characterised by disastrous violence for the first Aotearoans.
How Captain Cook became a contested national symbol
Tracy Ireland (The Conversation, 11/05/2018)
Captain Cook has loomed large in the federal government’s 2018 budget. The government allocated $48.7 million over four years to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Cook’s voyages to the South Pacific and Australia in 1770. The funding has been widely debated on social media as another fray in Australia’s culture wars, particularly in the context of $84 million in cuts to the ABC.
Closer scrutiny suggests that this latest celebration of Cook may serve as a headline for financial resources already committed to a range of cultural programs, at least some of which could be seen as business as usual. These include the development of digital heritage resources and exhibitions at the National Maritime Museum, National Library, AIATSIS and the National Museum of Australia, as well as support for training “Indigenous cultural heritage professionals in regional areas”.