The Forgotten Coast
- 12 August 2024
A book I thoroughly enjoyed, one for its history and story, and second, I felt a strong recognition of his perspective. Richard Shaw is Pakeha, and his great-grandparents were settlers. Richard grew up focused on family farming history and was proud of the stories. But behind the scenes, another story had been forgotten.
p.21
"In this country you can no longer simply put statements like these quietly aside (although that is exactly what I have done for the better part of fifty years). They must be comprehended and made sense of. Above all else for me, they need coming to terms with."
And so for me. Shaw does this by writing, and I hope to do this with my painting practice.
p.22
Shaw describes where his great grandfather comes from - poor, Irish, one of 10 children, paying rent to an Englishman to farm 29 acres. My great grandfather was Scottish, came to NZ when he was 22, farmed, married and had 13 children. His father was a blacksmith.
p.44
Shaw quotes a French priest, Michel Quoist: "It matters not whether you are among those that hit or among those that watch, among those that perform or among those who let it happen. You are guilty, actors and spectators." Something to remember, great words.
p.45
"Forgetting is rarely innocent. People have to work hard not to know, not to recall, not to see, to be truly ignorant." Rachel Buchanan, Ko Taranaki Te Maunga (Wellington: Bridget William Books, 2018), 63
p.57
"Early in the piece there will invariably be an origin sentence such as 'My family arrived in Taranaki in 1883 and has been there ever since.' or some such. But what came before these sentences almost always remains untold. History begins with the purchase of the family farm." And so for my family - our story begins with the 1910 land ballot.
p. 63
"Maps are hard working things whose job is to control space and give it meaning."
I want to paint, recreate the old maps around the Hauraki Plain area. I want to point out that taking control, taking over that the new government did.
"...the purpose is to impose Pākehā order on te ao Māori..."
p.65
"The maps have done the political work of Bryce, Rolleston and the AC, slicing open the acres, roods and perches, obliterating the presence of Māori and erasing the history inscribed on the land."
More to follow.
Richard Shaw. The Forgotten Coast. Massey University Press Auckland New Zealand 2021