Cushla McKinney reviews Collision.
COLLISION
Joanna Orwin
Harper Collins, $36.99, pbk
In May 1772, French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne's
two ships, the Marquis de Castries and the
Mascarin, limped into the Bay of Islands.
Damaged some months earlier when they came together in the
fog (an accident blamed on the Castries' inexperienced
captain, Monsieur du Clesmeur), the ships were in urgent need
of repair and reprovisioning, as well as a place for the
weary and scurvy-stricken sailors to recover their strength.
Although both Cook and de Serville had reached northern New
Zealand three years earlier, their visits had been brief and
neither had spent significant time on shore.
Du Fresne's expedition, however, remained for several months:
the first extended contact between Pakeha and Maori.
Even in today's globalised environment, the tendency to
interpret the behaviours and beliefs of other cultures
according to our own social frame of reference is a frequent
source of conflict.
It is hardly surprising that initially friendly, if
tentative, relations between the sailors and local iwi
deteriorated rapidly as mutual misunderstanding, exacerbated
by the language barrier, accumulated.
Not only did the arrival of more than 200 Frenchmen strain
local resources, these uninvited guests did little to
reciprocate the food and other gifts provided to them.
Their trading with insubordinate chiefs began to shift the
local balance of power, and in an attempt to restore his mana
and placate the atua (ancestors) for French violations of
tapu, their host Te Kuri took up arms against "te iwi o
Mariou".
The disastrous result shaped relationships between European
and northern Maori for many years.
Although Joanna Orwin's account is fictional, she has drawn
extensively on the logs and diaries of du Fresne's crew, as
well as contemporary Maori descriptions of events.
All the characters (with the exception of the young ensign
who acts as narrator, and a Ngati Raumati youth who befriends
him) are real, and by interspersing French and Maori
interpretations of events she captures the greatest tragedy
of this encounter; the fact that each party was acting with
the best of intentions.
Although there was significant condescension on the part of
the French for the unspoiled "Naturals", du Fresne also
recognised their intelligence and resourcefulness, and
strictly enforced a policy of non-violence towards the Maori.
Similarly, Te Kuri welcomed these unwanted intruders as
befitted a conscientious host, and the use of force (coming
only after all other attempts to persuade these strangers to
leave had failed) was the only honourable way remaining to
redress the wrongs done to him and his people.
The legacy of this and other such cultural collisions have
shaped present-day New Zealand, and although they cannot be
undone, they remind us that no single reading of events can
capture the truth. Understanding requires us to see from
perspectives other than our own.
I was truly saddened by this story, and left wondering how
much of my own response to political and social debate today
is reflexive rather than reflective.
- Dr Cushla McKinney is a Dunedin scientist.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.