New Zealand
New Zealand is known in Māori as Aotearoa, which means The land of the long white cloud.
It is a country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean that consists of two islands of
approximately 268,680 sq km, with a population of 4.9 million.1
The Māori people have inhabited New Zealand since approximately 1300 AD.
2 Its rocky shore coastline is approximately 15,000 to 18,000 km long.
3 Dutch navigator Abel Tasman was the first European to sight New Zealand in 1642,
followed by
James Cook’s arrival in 1769, when he claimed the land for Great Britain.
4Policies and practices from New Zealand influenced decisions made by colonizers in
Vancouver Island and
British Columbia, birthing a relationship based on a mutual responsibility to the Crown. For example,
in an effort to follow New Zealand’s scheme, the British colony argued, in
this despatch, for
the establishment of industrial Boarding Schools upon the model of similar institutions
in New Zealand
on
Vancouver Island, and,
in this document,
Governor James Douglas sought to procure information regarding New Zealand
in order that we may have the benefit of their experience in legislating for British Columbia.
Also, in the context of British naval superiority,
James L. Sinclair, a self-proclaimed
monarchist
of New Zealand, states,
in this letter to the Duke of Buckingham,
Now, what New Zealand will be in the South Pacific, British Columbia, in my humble opinion, may, by judicious management, be made in the North—A great
Naval Power.
New Zealand and
British Columbia’s relationship demonstrates the
interconnected and mobile set of imperial networks
forged during British global expansion.
5 New Zealand and
British Columbia’s connection is most evident when representatives of
British Columbia use precedents from New Zealand to introduce new legislation to the colonies. Some
examples of the colonial project in New Zealand include the coercion of Māori chiefs,
use of military force against Māori peoples, and the extinguishment of native title
to land.
6 Despite the negative impacts of colonization upon the Māori people, they remain the
traditional owners and custodians of Aotearoa.
- 1. Aotearoa, Maori.com.
- 2. Stats NZ, Population, New Zealand Government.
- 3. Carl Walrond, Natural Environment: Coasts, Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
- 4. John Wilson, European Discovery of New Zealand, Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
- 5. Helen Bones, Arthur H. Adams and Australasian Narratives of the Colonial World, Archiving Settler Colonialism (New York: Routledge, 2019).
- 6. Ranginui J. Walker, Māori Sovereignty, Colonial and Post-Colonial Discourses in Māori Sovereignty, Colonial and Post-Colonial Discourses (Auckland: Oxford University Press, 2000), 108-122.