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Replica of Captain Cook’s Endeavour is BANNED from landing in New Zealand

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Replica of Captain Cook’s Endeavour is BANNED from landing in New Zealand

Replica of Captain Cook’s Endeavour is BANNED from New Zealand port during anniversary of explorer’s visit due to Maori protests

  • Replica of Captain Cook’s ship Endeavour will set sail around New Zealand
  • It was due to dock at the fishing town of Mangōnui at the top of the north island
  • But the visit was scrapped after a Maori tribe protested against the idea

By Charlie Moore For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 19:44 EDT, 16 September 2019 | Updated: 01:36 EDT, 17 September 2019

A town in New Zealand has stopped a replica of Captain Cook’s ship Endeavour from visiting due to protests by local Maori.

The ship was due to sail around the country from October with dozens of other vessels to commemorate 250 years since the British explorer arrived in New Zealand.

It was due to dock in the fishing town of Mangonui at the top of the North Island – but the visit was scrapped after the protests.

A town in New Zealand has stopped a replica of Captain Cook’s ship Endeavour (pictured in Sydney) from visiting

An iwi – or tribe – called the Ngāti Kahu strongly opposed the visit because they said it commemorated the ‘perpetrators of atrocities’.

Maori rights activists in New Zealand point out that European colonisers shot at, killed and abducted Maori when they arrived in 1769. 

Indigenous campaigner Tina Ngata described Cook as an oppressor.

‘He was a murderer, he was an invader and a vanguard for British imperial expansion,’ she said when the trip was planned last year.

The tribe claimed it was not properly consulted by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage before the visit was arranged, reported RNZ.

The Ministry said it understood the ill-feeling and called off the trip.

‘We always knew that [the commemorations] would cause some mixed responses,’ a spokesperson said. 

‘We fully appreciate the hurt that exists very strongly still in some communities. Our job is to open the books, let’s look at all the history, and let’s start to talk about this.

The ship was due to dock in the fishing town of Mangōnui (pictured) at the top of the north island – but the visit was scrapped after a Maori locals protested

‘What I hope people will see through the voyage is a visual spectacle and an experience that captures our dual heritage but makes us think about our shared future.’ 

A flotilla of Pacific and European vessels will still dock in dozens of New Zealand ports from October as part of a three-month voyage.

A petition was set up to cancel the commemorations altogether – but it only got 3,000 signatures.

Organiser Sina Brown-Davis told Newshub: ‘To indigenous people in the Pacific, the Endeavour represents imperialism, it represents very much a death ship,.

‘(We) honour the people that were killed by Cook and the people that died in the resulting genocide … by opposing this re-enactment in our times.’  

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