Come on Shore and we will Kill and Eat You All

Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All

A New Zealand Story
By Christina Thompson
2008
260 pages, hardback

This is my second book about New Zealand.  The first was written by a man, who in his 60's, has made New Zealand his home and he is ecstatic to tell his readers why, and along the way he shares a bit about how he sees New Zealand's history, its landscape and people and a general sense The book is called Slipping into Paradise.  And now this one is from the view point of a white, privileged, intellectual woman from Boston, who while studying in Australia visits New Zealand, charmed by its differences, marries a handsome Maori man and from that perspective continues to research the history and customs of the land.  It is only when I came to the end of the book that I realize to whom the book is primarily written: to the three young sons that will one day grow up to see that the gift their parents have to offer is their interesting history that will become the heritage for each of the boys.  

Christina Thompson does a good job at using narrative to breathe life into people who have long ago lived, fought and have died from both the perspective of the conquers and of those being conquered.  Although most of the Maori people alive today are living on the Northern Island, and we have spent our time in New Zealand on the Southern Island, I experienced enough rustic hikes in which I tried to image what life here was like before sheep, electricity or a vast variety of delicious restaurants.  What was it like for the Maori to first come to this land, perhaps as the first people to inhabit these beautiful and yet harsh mountains?  What did the Maori think of the first "others" to come and how have their lives changed drastically since those days?  And how do the assimilation and the mixture of ideas, culture, dreams, and opportunities continue to play out many years later in the lives of the author's family in particular?  

The book covers a wide range of topics including history, development, the growth and decline of a particular people, and how the change for good and for bad continues to effect the physical land.  

As I read Come on Shore... what also stood out was the process of how some children grow to adulthood; some move about and take on bits from the places they have been and the people that have influenced them. All along choices are made and each choice directs the next path and consequently the next choice. Although many of the book's pages seem remote from how life is lived presently, the very thought that life is lived in certain ways today is because of the choices made by others years ago.  Whether with Europeans inhabiting New Zealand and displacing the Maori or Europeans doing the same to those first living in the Americas, personal and societal choice affect the generations living in these lands today.  Just as the choices I have made affect the lives of my children and so will it be with each generation yet to come. This book did not come to me through a personal recommendation, but when I looked on the internet for options to read about New Zealand, the title caught my attention and then later I saw it in the library so I chose it as a good option for our trip.  The title actually is explained on page 112ff about the voyage of Charles Darwin aboard the Beagle and how he formed his initial opinion of the Maori from a misunderstanding of what was written about what Cook (an early explorer) had written years before.