When Dr Nicole Perry spoke to us a few weeks ago I felt very much apart from her seminar. German sensationalising of Native American culture didn’t spark much of a connection with me. That is, until, I began a history assignment this Monday past.
Similarities began to pile up the moment I began to read in-depth about the Spanish colonisation of the new world and the systematic stripping of culture and cruelty the Native Americans suffered at the hands of the Spanish. I couldn’t help but parallel the suffering of New Zealand’s own indigenous cultures at the hands of the British.
The source we were given for the assignment Albert Hurtado’s ‘Sexuality in California’s Franciscan Missions: Cultural Perceptions and Historical Realities’ discussed Father Luis Jayme’s 1772 ‘Letter of Luis Jayme’ detailing two cases of sexual assault on Native American women. It is made clear that assaults of this nature were common within the mission and it was this which led me to think of our own colonisation.
Parihaka is a small settlement in western Taranaki where in late 1881 the settlement was destroyed and atrocities committed against the vulnerable women and girls of the community by Crown troops. The men of the settlement had prior been arrested for peacefully protesting land rights and the army left to. Parihaka was left in ruins with an outbreak of syphilis devastating the already shattered settlement. Sixty-four years later my own father was born in west Taranaki to a generation born barely past the attack.
Going back to Dr Perry’s lecture it is interesting to note just how much colonisation has ripped and parodied indigenous cultures and it does well to remember that no matter how far apart we are we’re very much connected.
