The History Poker Blog
We saw in Facebook a page that said "The Samoan Mau Movie Project" and the only problem was that it was from New Zealand, and who knows who's idea it was. Some of the History in it looked like it was taking notes from Wikipedia and from some pro-British websites in New Zealand.
Isn't that like if a Catholic writer wrote a Christian or Mormon History? Or like a Nazi German writing British History. Why would a Euro-New Zealander want to make a movie about Western Samoan history? There's a few reasons I can think of ...and they aren't nice or purely academic reasons.
Even if you're Samoan and live in New Zealand and want to make a movie, the information available from New Zealand is one sided. AUT.. what can they provide? The New Zealand Government is the main source of history and that's really telling you something bad. In the USA the academics who attend Universities (ex. Harvard, Yale, SMU, Berkeley University) earn their credit through published works, career position, historical organizations and society, and points are openly and fiercely debated throughout their careers.
Even if you're Samoan and live in New Zealand and want to make a movie, the information available from New Zealand is one sided. AUT.. what can they provide? The New Zealand Government is the main source of history and that's really telling you something bad. In the USA the academics who attend Universities (ex. Harvard, Yale, SMU, Berkeley University) earn their credit through published works, career position, historical organizations and society, and points are openly and fiercely debated throughout their careers.
In New Zealand the 'NZ Ministry for Culture and Heritage' actively keeps a website of NZ history on the top Google searches. At this time under National Party PM John Key the NZ Ministry for Culture and Heritage doesn't seem to like it's New Zealand Socialist, Democratic Socialist, or Labor Party History, H.E. Holland, Maori Wars History, and at times wants to be seen as a "Pacific Colonial Power". It's suggested leaving the project alone for a good long while until a good group of minds can create a REAL history version, not some dramatic tragedy.