2021: Rotorua Boys High Goes Woke

November 20, 2023

By AHNZ

Today in history, 20 November, 2021, Rotorua Boys’ High deleted their once proud House names after 93 years. As recently as 2013 the names of great British men had been celebrated anew with the addition of portraiture. As we know, in 2016 our culture took a turn for the Victimhood…

“The “Black Lives Matter” movement of 2020 provided the School with the opportunity to re-name the Houses for the first time in ninety-three years. It was also felt that the names of the Houses could be made more meaningful and relevant for the boys of today. The decision was therefore made to re-name the Houses and this was officially announced at the Senior Prize Giving Ceremony held on 12 November, 2020.” – Kevin J. Lyall, School Historian (2022)¹

“For 93 years the names of four colonial explorers have proudly rung out through the halls of Rotorua Boys’ High School…Principal Chris Grinter said they did some research into the actions of Sir Walter Raleigh/Ralegh, Admiral Horatio Nelson, Sir Martin Frobisher and Sir Francis Drake…He said the school hadn’t been fully aware of the four men’s pasts as they hadn’t researched them before. But the Black Lives Matter movement…” – Rotorua Boys’ High School changes house names following slavery link discovery, Herald (2020)

Frobisher, Drake, Raleigh and Nelson, which had been the names of the boys’ Houses since 1927, were “retired”. The new House names, place names, Te Akitu a Raukura, Ngongotaha, Utuhina, and Te Rotorua-nui-a-Kahumatamomoe replaced them.

This new, Woke, branding is in keeping with the current Aotearoa New Zealand Culture that has captured the fancy of the elites and been supercharged by government money. For example, new signs have sprung up out of the blue around New Zealand that say ‘Kura’. Sometimes they also say ‘School’ but that part is likely to be redacted later. ‘Kura’ means you’re in the vicinity of what used to be called a school.

AHNZ has already written about Hawera High School being rebranded Te Paepae o Aotea. Its Houses replaced by Whares.  Ref. 1901: Hawera High School, AHNZ

Examples like these have been breaking out all over the country. Another example is that Kaiapoi North School once named its houses/syndicates after Canterbury’s First Four Ships: Sir George Seymour, Randolph, and Cressy. If you guess that this has changed you’d be right: The heritage has been replaced by Raupo, Akeake, Hinau, Totara.

Whose lives matter? Black lives matter!

Whose culture doesn’t matter? Anglo Zelandians doesn’t matter!

It’s remarkable that the Rotorua Boys’ High principal, Chris Grinter made out that the school didn’t “fully” know who Drake, Raleigh, Nelson, and Frobisher were. These men had been the rallying call for students for 100 years, the example they were to know and follow. “Nelson House” would have been given specific instructions such as to gather for assembly. Or, “Frobisher! Frobisher!” shouted at sports days to encourage house mates for generations. Students were encouraged to be proud of Nelson House and not let their fellow house-mates down. Were these just mindless slogans? Until Grinter came along everyone living in Zombieland going through the motions without ever knowing who these men were or why they were singled out as the school icons?

“All of New Zealand itself is currently being edited, redacted, and re-written according to a new paradigm called Aotearoa New Zealand culture. Older generations and their ways of being a New Zealander are subject to Othering and alienation by a new Conformity. There’s nothing new about this process. Every new cultural era seeks to oust the previous one by claiming to be more true, pure, and elder; True heirs to the nation.” – AHNZ

Rotorua Boys’ High School’s principal has been appointed a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education and Māori after spending the “vast majority” of his career dedicated to schools with high Māori populations… seeing young Māori achieving equal or better than their non-Māori peers is a challenge that I’ve tried to embrace…Grinter said his educational leadership journey had been “very much focused” on addressing the gap between the achievement of young Māori and non-Māori.” – New Year Honours: Chris Grinter appointed a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, Herald (2022)

“In 2013, high-resolution digital copies of portraits of Frobisher, Drake, Raleigh, and Nelson from the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, were obtained. These portraits were then hung, in pride of place, on the main staircase of A Block.” – Lyall (2022)

Grinter’s change was an ambush rather than something he consulted the school community on. He said at the time that he wasn’t sure what the reaction would be and expected blow-back.

Apparently his career is dedicated not to helping students but Maori students. He has tried to get Maoris to achieve equal or better than others and ‘close the gaps’ along racial lines. The Affirmative Action Principal received the New Zealand Order of Merit in the year following his successful cultural coup. How about that.

Cultural hegemony is always sought after and changing. It is unfortunate that New Zealand never got to have a debate about the new Aotearoa Culture. Instead, people like Grinter slip it in by stealth. He pretends that in 30 years in the job he never knew the biographies of the school icons he was impressing upon students of that school. Our Colonial Heritage would thrive in a fair fight and come out stronger. The take-down is coming from within by agents working in the shadows while those who ought to defend their own identity don’t even know a culture war is going on so put up no fight.

Frobisher, Drake, Raleigh, and Nelson’s supposed ties to slavery are tenuous but not even debated. They are held to a ridiculous standard of post-2016 morals supposedly applying to Elizabethen sailors! Those generations brought us along a path of what Social Justice they could during their own day. Certainly they were doing more for liberty and equality than the “black lives” who lived in those days. While the British were making social reforms the black people carried on selling black people into slavery. Instead of being thankful that our ancestors carried us as far as they did we’re supposed to be upset they didn’t live the values of 2020s Millennials. Since Horatio Nelson didn’t do anything for Climate Change or speak out against Microplastics he’s apparently been redacted as some kind of embarrassment. This is called Presentism.

Our schools, our whole country, is being colonised this way. Funny thing is that those doing it call it “de-colonising.” They pretend to be suffering from trauma of being on the receiving end of someone else’s hegemony and demand sympathy and shame. How can it ring true that they appreciate how this feels when they are now the ones inflicting it? Wouldn’t a more logical interpretation be that this process is deliberate? The age-old process of groups trying to elevate themselves and put others down rather than in an Open Society where everyone is free to choose their own heroes.

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1 This passage in the history has since been re-written to now say “partly in response to the “Black Lives Matter”” and “with degree of excitement that had not been anticipated.” The photo used in this post has been totally redacted. Lyall keeps updating Rotorua history with new editions/revisions that change the story. Reminds me of how Mt Egmont slowly inched its way toward becoming Taranaki Maunga. New Zealand history is being re-written in an Orwellian on-the-fly fashion.

Ref. Rotorua Boys High School An Historical Introduction, Lyall (2022)

Ref. Kaiapoi North School: Houses now called Syndicates. Kaiapoi North School (2023)

Note: 9 February, 1927, was official opening date of Rotorua High School according to NZ Herald. Ref. Papers Past and Lyall (2022)

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