A Vocabulary ... a heinous episode

.. a brutal dispossession

.. the captions to these two images from the artist book ‘A Vocabulary’ are below .. one of the more heinous episodes of Aotearoa New Zealand’s colonial wars .. the gravestone of Col Marmaduke George Nixon and the iwi pou whakamaumahara on the site that became whenua raupatu, confiscated Māori land, part of a brutal dispossession.

‘Gravestone, Col Marmaduke George Nixon, commander Colonial Defence Force Cavalry, with Capt Gustavus Ferdinand von Tempsky, No 2 Company Forest Rangers, 65th Regt, under Lt Gen Duncan Alexander Cameron, colonial and British forces, fatally wounded in the attack against Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Hinetū and others, kāinga o Rangiaowhia, 21 February 1864. Triangle Reserve, Ōtāhuhu.’

‘Pou whakamaumahara (2015), attack against Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Hinetū and others, kāinga o Rangiaowhia, by Col Marmaduke George Nixon, commander Colonial Defence Force Cavalry, with Capt Gustavus Ferdinand von Tempsky, No 2 Company Forest Rangers, 65th Regt, colonial and British forces, under Lt Gen Duncan Alexander Cameron, kāinga o Rangiaowhia, 21 February 1864. Rangiaowhia.’

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