The Forgotten Wars: Why the Musket Wars Matter Today
By Ron Crosby Published 2020
In 1999 Ron Crosby wrote The Musket Wars, as a history of
inter-iwi conflict. The response to his book was that people thought the book was too long and too complex. People were mainly interested only in what had happened to their own iwi or hapu or in their own region, which is what you might expect. Years later, the author wrote another book – shorter, with lots of pictures, maps and diagrams: The Forgotten Wars: Why the Musket Wars Matter Today
As well as a shorter, easy to read history, this second book is a response to the Government’s recent New Zealand History Curriculum for schools; Ron Crosby could clearly see that the planned curriculum is incomplete. It covers the arrival of Maori in New Zealand, the initial contacts with Europeans, and early colonial history. Then there is a leap forward to the Treaty in 1840, colonisation, immigration and the New Zealand Wars.
And completely missing from the curriculum is what Ron Crosby describes as ‘the most tumultuous short period in our nation’s history’. The Musket Wars which took place between 1806 and 1845.
The impact on the whole of New Zealand of these wars was colossal. An estimated 33% – 50% of the population of New Zealand were seriously affected by permanent migrations, displacements, deaths and wounds. Ron Crosby details the brutal happenings and their significance, and in particular, why it is so important today to know about and understand some basic facts about the Musket Wars, along with comments on utu, wartime logistics, slavery and cannibalism.
The Forgotten Wars explains things like how settlers chose their settlements. For example, parts of the Auckland isthmus occupied by Ngati Whatoua and Ngati Paoa, suffered numerous taua from Ngapui led by Hongi Hika, driving the occupants into the Waitakere and Hunua ranges, or further south into the Waikato. This left Auckland with its sheltered harbour more easily available for purchase by settlers. There were similar happenings in other areas around the country where towns and cities grew up.
Alongside this book, I also read a small book called Rambles in New Zealand written by John Carne Bidwill, who visited New Zealand for a few months in 1839. Bidwill’s book covers what he observed of daily life of that time, but not any in-depth look at the wars.
John Bidwill’s book has great value as a contemporary account of life in New Zealand in 1839. Bidwill describing what he saw, how he imagined places might be in the future, and how he related to Maori.
Back to The Forgotten Wars – the author, Ron Crosby has a fine pedigree as a New Zealand historian: he has been a court lawyer in Treaty related and Resource Management cases. He is a hearings commissioner under the RMA and was appointed to the Waitangi Tribunal in 2011. He was brought up in
Auckland, and is married to Margy (Te Rarawa/Te Aupouri).
The Forgotten Wars is an interesting book of only 200 pages, with maps, diagrams, photos and paintings. There’s a glossary and an index as well as a bibliography. I found it an excellent, readable insight into an important part of our history that few people talk about and children are not usually taught about. Team it up with Rambles in New Zealand for an insight into a forgotten era and an excellent introduction to New Zealand history for your teens.