The New Zealand Wars - Episode 1, The War that Britain Lost

Television (Full Length) – 1998

We need to see the real lives and real history behind these images. They are not mementos hanging on walls or hidden away in dusty photo albums, but real flesh and blood. The last vestiges of the men and women who fought the New Zealand Wars. They made history. We forgot it.

– James Belich reflecting on the photographs of veterans from the New Zealand Wars

Between July 1844 and January 1845, Heke cut down the British flag three times. Each amputation asked this question: If the British could not protect their own flag in the midst of one of their largest settlements, what could they protect?

– James Belich on Hōne Heke cutting down of the flagpole at Kororāreka

My friend, the new Governor, we are strangers. God made this country for us, it cannot be sliced. If it were a whale it might be sliced.

– Extract of a letter from Hōne Heke to Governor George Grey

This was the first full war between British and Māori, and despite the odds in their favour, the British did not win it. Their victory came in the history books — won by the pen when the sword had failed.

– James Belich reflecting on the Northern Wars