1981: The Anderson Bay Hoax
June 29, 2019
By AHNZ
The grief the Children of Parihaka were told to feel in their 2012 documentary was generated from lies. And the Mayor hopped on board as politicians always will.
These people were sympathising with a myth, bonding with bullshit. It’s not authentic but contrived in every case, not just the Anderson Bay hoax.
[Ref. Extract from ‘The Children of Parihaka’ (2012)]
Now that Lefty mouthpiece The Spin Off has owned up surely this myth has jumped the shark now. So let the other dominoes fall too.
Cheer up poor pychologically abused Parihaka kids! This Stephen King Bad Santa Tale isn’t real.
The Legend of the Caves
Surprising to see Left-wing media giving ground on this. Does that mean they’re ready to stop lying about the rest of the Parihaka myth too?
“For decades, many Dunedin people have believed that a mysterious cave housed men taken prisoner during the 19th century Parihaka resistance campaign.”
“Now one historian seems to have finally uncovered the truth.”- The Parihaka prisoners and the legend of the caves; The Spinoff (2018)
“Now,” hah! Nice bit of back-peddling there. Actually the truth has long been known however the fibs of manufactured myth better match the Politically Correct sentiments of the last decade or three. That, and the urge to have excuses for Crown money-laundering under cover of apologetics.
Chief Judge of Maori Land Court, Edward Durie, repeated the myth as if it were true in c.1981 in a Law Society seminar paper. The Chief Judge made such statements as ‘hundreds were imprisoned without investigation or trial,’ ‘Many sent to Andersons Bay, Port Chalmers.’ and ‘Many dying of exposure and housed in caves’.
Utter balderdash. I visited Anderson Bay myself for a good look. Hopefully this twaddle has run its course now!
A “red herring”….it was just symbolic! A metaphor!
In which the author tries to rescue what has now been shown to be fiddlesticks…
“The cave is a red herring that is an important whānau memory. Its use, or otherwise, has no impact whatsoever on the Crown’s culpability… the symbolic status of the “cave” will remain”- A response to ‘The Parihaka prisoners and the legend of the caves, The Spinoff (2018)
The old myth has caved in but rather than come clean, admit it was nonsense, tear down the monument, we’re getting the old Jedi Mind Trick treatment.
A “red herring”….it was just symbolic! A metaphor!
How come everyone was dining out on it for so long then? And sending children there to hear ghost stories and make them cry? Why didn’t you metaphor-spinners own up and make it clear earlier that it was just story-telling and artistic expression? Did anybody tell the children of 2012? I don’t believe you.
‘The Parihaka prisoners and the legend of the caves’ draws on part of an interview that Bill Dacker conducted with my father, George Ellison
Family caught fibbing about persecution tries to save face after being caught with their pants on fire.
“It is amazing that any of this was taken seriously as factual occurrence based on the vaguest of statements made in an oral history interview thirty years back where the subject finished by clearly saying he didn’t really know. He may have meant exact details, possible truth, in general…potentially all three.”
“I wonder what they’re now going to do with the one ton memorial to something that never actually happened?”- History Always Repeats: Remembering New Zealand
I say let the Wrongo/Drongo/Rongo stone stay. It’s an important cultural fossil that just needs a ‘sub Reddit’ tagged on so people know what they’re looking at. It’s a monument to 1980s bullshitting not to 1880s injustice.
—
Note: See also
1881: Bloodless End to the Affair at Parihaka
1881: The Children of Parihaka (2012)
1881: Wait A Minute Chester! (or, After Parihaka)
1881: The Critic (or, After Parihaka)
Image ref. Andersons Bay; Google street view
Image ref. AHNZ photos, May 2018
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