The Forgotten Coast

by Richard Shaw

‘You approach family stories with caution and care, especially when a thing long forgotten is uncovered in the telling.'In this deft memoir, Richard Shaw unpacks a generations-old family story he was never that his ancestors once farmed land in Taranaki which had been confiscated from its owners and sold to his great-grandfather, who had been with the Armed Constabulary when it invaded Parihaka on 5 November 1881.Honest, and intertwined with an examination of Shaw's relationship with his father and of his family's Catholicism, this book's key focus is how, in a decolonizing world, Pakeha New Zealanders wrestle with, and own, the privilege of their colonial pasts.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, History

214 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 11, 2021

About the author

Richard Shaw is Professor of Politics at Massey University whose research is published in leading international journals. He is a regular commentator on political issues.

Reviews

[Liv Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

All up a good book. Bit boring in the middle, but would still recommend to all my fellow Pākehā mates with that intergenerational privilege.

I just wrote a whole big paragraph and then this app fucked out so in short I will say, the author wrestles with intergenerational wealth accumulated by his Pākehā family at the expense of whānau Māori still being isolated from their land to this day and enduring ongoing intergenerational trauma. Land that was stolen was Parihaka and along the Taranaki Coast ended up being a breeding ground for Catholicism (particularly for the authors whānau) and collective forgetting of history by Pākehā. In the space of a few years, Māori Taranaki land was transformed by Pākehā into colonial weapon for Eurocentric religious ideals.

Ngl - the cadastral maps at the front and end covers are alarming. We had one of these maps on our living room wall in my childhood home. I never thought about how this map served as a tool designed to make Ngai Tahu hapū homeless in their own rohe. Lots of reckonings to come from this book and always more shit to learn as a white person in this brown country.

Toitū te Tiriti
Toitū te mana
Toitū te Māori Tino rangatiranga

Mana motuhake for whānau Māori always and most importantly LAND BACK

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a remarkable book firmly anchored in the current context in New Zealand. If you are a Pakeha New Zealander, like myself, looking to see a solution to our colonial past, you will be disappointed. As Shaw’s journey reveals, both on a personal level, as well as perhaps the wider context, there are no easy answers or solutions. I think he suggests we get used to sitting with what we uncover.
I liked the way he weaves many threads into this process; all the quotes showed evidence of him circling this story, history, and our history, perhaps unconsciously? for some time.
He seems to be deftly examining the narratives that are the foundations of his understanding of his own family history. But he is on the well trodden path where we all create our own sense of who and where we are.

[Julene Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up because it was about Parihaka and a Taranaki family history. It’s a thought provoking read - a little indulgent in some places because it is the authors family history but I really liked the challenges to thinking about colonisation, what history we need to own and how much the state can do to cover things up.

[Tihema Nicol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite only rating this 3 stars, I found this a really good read. I particularly enjoyed the way in which the author took us on a journey of realisation that his family had direct links to Taranaki land confiscation, loss of culture, language and identity of Māori. Sitting with an uncomfortable truth and the realisation that there is not much that can be done as atonement aside from acceptance and acknowledgment. For me, it lost its way in following the story of his grand uncle going to Rome in becoming a priest. Perhaps I don’t resonate with it as a millennial brought up without Christianity. Another reader described the book as being self-indulgent and I have to agree - although why not? It’s not my journey after all. It’s instances like these where I wish I could give half stars - it would be a 3.5 for me.

[Sonya Cameron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tells a really important personal story about the authors grandfather's involvement in the invasion of Parihaka and subsequent benefit from the confiscation of Māori land, which has made me curious about my family's own history in the context of colonisation. Rated down as the bits about his uncle were not so interesting.

[Shefalika · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is an interesting read on what happened at Parihaka and how deeply it was interwoven with the author's own family history. The author did a great job of raising unsettling but right questions, yet I'm unsure what the answers are and where that leads us to.

[Kate J · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for Pakeha especially with 19th Century settler roots. This memoir is powerful and strongest on the fraught topic of maori land confiscation, subsequent sale to british settlers and what responsibilities those both descended from these settlers and wider NZ have to not forget the atrocities of the past.

I also have settler family history in the Taranaki region and similar myths and narratives which involve a degree of amnesia and excessive focus on provincial leadership roles in dairy companies, school trust boards. But increasingly I am conscious of the burden of privilege and continuing inequities for the indigenous people who were displaced. This book has provoked me to do some more research on the history of the land my ancestors farmed.

The memoir has also reinforced my political views of the importance of continuing efforts to address the modern consequences of colonisation in Aotearoa. This is critically important when questions like 'co-governance' are actively being debated and can easily be either demonised by the right or seen as the easy answer by the left. The author is a professor of politics so while he rightly acknowledged that he is not a professional historian, there is so much more he could have offered from his specialism.

Where the memoir falls down is in structure and confusion of purpose. Richard Shaw has chosen to focus on 3 of his ancestors including one who became a catholic priest. At the end of book it becomes clear it was originally meant to be focused on this priest. However, once the author discovers the earlier irish settler ancestor was almost certainly present at the destruction of Parihaka, the structure of the book was changed. Shaw could have focused entirely on this story and spent more time on examining the messages for those of us in the present who live with the consequences either directly - sharing this moral burden - or indirectly as part of a society with deeply structural inequalities.

It wasn't clear what messages we should take (if any) from the stories of the other ancestors. Clearly the catholic priest was a deeply thoughtful and moral person who suffered from ill health. The author's father had a difficult start in life but became a quietly decent man. Perhaps there was a theme of the the impact that wider social context and fate has on any life.

The book regains its power in its summary messages. That we need to live with the discomfort and avoid the easy mistaken absolution of 'apology'. That we as Pakeha must end the forgetting.

[Dan Organ · Rating 3 out of 5]

What happens when you discover that your ancestors were on the wrong side of history when Parihaka was invaded and the land confiscated?

This is a really honest journey to examine how his ancestors were involved, the benefits they gained as the author comes to terms with his origin story in Aotearoa.

Why do we learn about wars fought in far away places but we dont learn about wars right here in Aotearoa?

“ The answer, I think, is that there is little honour to be had from claiming an ancestor who was part of the invasion and occupation of Parihaka, as there is in acknowledging one who was at Gallipoli …..

We do so because while we can find the courage and heroism that happened over there, we struggle to confront the violence and the violation that took place here.

We are unable to live with what lies waiting for us just beneath that surface. Not so much lest we forget, then as best we forget.”

[Susan Wilson]

I picked this book up because of the mention of Parihaka and wrongly assumed it would be a history book focussed on redressing the balance, telling the uncomfortable nature of the Pakeha involvement. I am disappointed because it wasn’t what I expected. The real discussion in earnest regarding the confiscation of Māori land starts on page 199 of 224 and seems to me to be more the view of a dispassionate bystander, and conflicts in tone with the more personal nature of the rest of the book. It was more a plotted history of Shaw’s ancestors(well a few of the male ones), somewhat self indulgent, and I suspect far more interesting if they were your own relatives. I am about to start my first Niall Williams novel though, so excited to hear Shaw considers his books “some of the most beautiful I have read” because what kept me reading was how beautifully this book was written. I appreciate that for Shaw this was the end of “a personal silence” but I just wish he had more to say that advanced the narrative of our collective (Māori and Pakeha) history. I do, however, wholeheartedly agree that the past is “the place we inhabit every day”.

[Cassie W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating memoir / exploration of family colonial history.. I enjoyed sections of this book very much, probably particularly Shaw’s writing about his great grandfather’s role in Parihaka, and the land confiscation and intentional alienation of Māori from their land around Taranaki..

Other parts of the book - particularly around Shaw’s catholic background, and his relative’s catholic priesthood, I was less interested in.

Felt like this book could have been a series of essays? As a whole book, parts feels a little disconnected from one another.

I think Richard Shaw’s latest book “The Unsettled” Is a more successful exploration of the themes he begins exploring in this book.

[Nat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really impressive family history, all about three of the authors ancestors: his great-grandfather who was in the Armed Constabulary that invaded Parihaka, his great uncle who was a Catholic priest before becoming sick with TB, and his father who grew up in an orphanage. While parts of the story are really detailed family history that sometimes drags a bit, the book is overall an amazing perspective of "becoming Pākehā" in Aotearoa New Zealand - what it means to be part of your own family's colonial history.

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sparked by the death of his Dad, Richard, a political science academic, looks into his family history and about the stories forgotten (or untold). I liked this book: it was interesting (although depressing) to learn about the history of Taranaki (eg what happened at Parihaka) and how his great uncle trained as a priest in Rome. He also raises important questions, particularly around NZ history, and insights into losing a parent, but I couldn’t quite figure out the main thread or key message that ran through his story.

[Peter Gerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting take on NZ Colonialism mixed with politics in the Catholic Church. Catholic guilt at the land confiscations, particularly in relation to the clearances and colonial land theft at Pirihaka in Taranaki.

[Anna Carr · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the most eloquently written memoirs of Kiwi life Ive ever read; the underlying family history that RS examines in this book resonated with me as my own heritage intertwines with parihaka and taranaki. wish i could write like richard shaw

[Megan Clemance · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deeply personal look at a challenging history of how a NZ Pakeha's ancestors became established in this country.
Something many of us " pakeha" are thinking about as we see our futures as NZ families.
Thank you Richard Shaw, for your honesty, and intense research.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

A family's colonisation. #3wordbookreview

[Sarah McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really really interesting and eloquent.

[Samantha Hickey · Rating 4 out of 5]

intimate | confronting | reflective | important

[Mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

quite good, the first third is the most interesting

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Family history based on Parihaka and the wider Taranaki area and the effects of colonialism in this area.