1/7 Paul Verdon is a rugby writer. Altho he likes the All Blacks, he thinks the team should drop the Ka Mate haka, because its author Te Rauparaha was a 'murderer' 'on a par' with Hitler. Does Verdon also call for the abandonment of the NZ flag? It was authored by a mass killer.
2/7 In a piece for Muriel Newman's far right NZCPR site, Verdon calls Te Rauparaha a 'pathological monster'. He highlights Te Rauparaha's part in the Musket Wars, but ignores the facts that Te Rauparaha didn't start those wars, & in fact eventually helped end them.
3/7 Te Rauparaha's last years saw him repairing some iwi r'ships, & promoting Christianity. This final phase in TR's life makes him a somewhat more sympathetic historical figure than, say, Hongi Hika. But if we nevertheless abandon Ka Mate, shouldn't we also junk NZ's flag?
4/7 NZ's flag was designed by Albert Hastings Markham, an officer in the UK royal navy. In 1871 Melanesians from the tiny island of Nukapu killed the Anglican bishop JC Patteson, mostly likely in revenge for slave raids. Markham was sent on a revenge mission.
5 Patteson had been a persistent opponent of the bloody Pacific slave trade. But some slavers impersonated him, donning clergymen's robes & waving Bibles to persuade islanders to board their vessels. & it is possible that Patteson's white skin was enough to condemn him on Nukapu.
6 Markham took the British warship Rosario from Auckland to Nukapu. He shelled the island from a distance, then landed a party of marines on its shores. The marines shot at anyone they saw find & torched the island's village. One contemporary estimate said 70 Nukapuans died.
7 The raid on Nukapu was debated in Britain's parliament & criticised in a number of newspapers. In 1869 Markham had designed what has become NZ's national flag. In was initially used only on Crown ships.
8 If Paul Verdon were being consistent, then he would suggest the scrapping of NZ's flag as well as Ka Mate. But authors at sites like NZCPR tend to recognise bad only when it is done by folks with brown skins.
9 As a rugby historian, Verdon ought to be interested in the raid on Nukapu. During their stopover in Auckland to collect supplies for their revenge mission, the crew of the Rosario played a game of rugby with locals. It was NZ's first international rugby fixture.
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