(The imagining of New Zealand in ways which gloss over the unpleasant bits has been going on for a long time. In 1867 Sir George Grey addressed a crowd in Timaru, and suggested that ‘this colony is what may be called a colony without blame. Our greatest enemies cannot say that anyone ever came here either to destroy the native race or to seize their land.’ This was just three years after Rangiaowhia and two since virtually the entirety of Taranaki had been confiscated by the Crown. But Grey had clearly convinced himself that it was all good — because if the land was empty, surely we needn’t feel bad about taking it?)

The Unsettled: Small stories of colonisation -- The Post