Taranaki Heritage Month co-ordinator Rob Green outside the heritage-listed Taranaki Cathedral Church of St Mary in New Plymouth. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
The Race Relations Commissioner has praised the first Taranaki Heritage Month for being brave enough to tackle darker elements of the province's colonial history.
While it includes tours of colonial-era buildings and a behind the scenes look at Puke Ariki Museum - among dozens of events - it also features a visit to land war sites and a presentation about land confiscation and how it benefited settler families.
It also hosted a panel discussion exploring the definition of heritage.
Taranaki Heritage Month is the brainchild of former school teacher and Heritage Taranaki secretary Rob Green.
He wanted to widen the definition of heritage.
"Commonly, when people hear the word heritage, they start to think of buildings, they start to think of heritage buildings, colonial buildings and for us, it's not just that, that's only a small part of it."
The event gives different communities an opportunity to share their understanding of the province's history, and their hopes for the future.
"Our idea was to give this space, this Heritage Month space, for the community to reflect on its past and how it now meshes together to form the community we are today," Green said.
That has meant including hapū iwi, as well as the Chinese, Swiss and Polish communities who have had a significant presence in the province, alongside the British.
Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon took part in the panel discussion.
Race Relations commissioner Meng Foon. Photo: supplied
He liked the Taranaki model of heritage month as it explored how people felt about events - not just the physical forms of the past.
It was taking a clear-eyed look at what happened, Foon said.
"Good, bad and the ugly heritage is heritage. The history - it is important that it is documented firstly correctly. That's what happened in those days incarceration, oppression, raupatu - the taking of land - so that's part of the historical heritage of Taranaki."
Heritage meant different things to different people, he said.
"It could be stories, poems, it could be land, it could be the forest, it could be the environment."
It was important that people told their stories and that they were included in the new school history curriculum, Foon said.
This would help people better understand each other and help to eliminate racism and discrimination, he said.
Community leader Dr Ruakere Hond says taonga and languages carry a sense of shared identity through generations and can express heritage. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
Taranaki te reo Māori advocate and community leader Dr Ruakere Hond also took part in the panel discussion.
The Western concept of heritage was too narrow, he said.
"If we think about more broadly, it comes down to things such as the area I'm involved with - heritage language - and the way in which language can express heritage, but is also to carry a sense of shared identity through generations.
"So, languages do that, buildings don't do that. Taonga do that as well as such things as political movements."
Dr Hond hoped heritage month In Taranaki would be a celebration of identity and relationships.
Taranaki Heritage Month continues until 5 November.
