New Zealand Listener – August 10, 2019

42 LISTENER AUGUST 10 2019

S

ir Edmund Hillary

was the role model

whom we Kiwi

males aspired

to emulate, the

quintessential New Zealander.

He represented the

purest expression of a male

stereotype that emerged

in early 20th-century New

Zealand and came to define

our national identity in

largely male terms until the

1970s.

At the turn of the 19th

century, Britain faced a crisis:

the old country was becoming

urban and soft. Men recruited

for the South African War

(1899-1902) proved to be

physically-inept weeds. Yet

the Empire expected to face

a struggle against powerful

foes – Germans across the

channel, yellow

men across

the seas. In

this crisis, who

might step up?

The answer

was New

Zealand men,

made taller,

stronger and

tougher by life

on a frontier. In

the South African War, in the

triumphant 1905 All Blacks

tour, in World War I, their

reputation and image became

established: New Zealand

men had a crucial role as the

saviours of the Empire.

Hillary was a son of these

Anzacs – brave, strong and

doing it for Mother England.

What better tribute from the

most loyal dominion than to

have one of their sons “knock

the bastard off” on the eve

of the coronation? Prime

Minister Sidney Holland saw

the feat as a triumph of “the

British people”.

Yet the image of New

Zealanders was not just as the

saviours of Empire. We were

British, yes, but

“better British”:

we could beat the

Brits at their own

games – rugby

and war and ...

climbing moun-

tains. Just as it

was the Kiwis

who got to the

top of Chunuk

Bair, it was

Hillary who beat the other

Brits to Everest’s summit.

We also believed our

superiority was partly because

we were not ruled by class

or red tape. Just as Kiwi

soldiers refused to salute

officers, so Hillary refused to

bow down to the dictates of

his commanding officer in

the Antarctic, Vivian Fuchs.

Just as New Zealanders

were believed to be do-it-

yourselfers, so Sir Ed got the

old Kiwi standby, the Massey

Ferguson tractor, to the Pole

with No 8-wire ingenuity and

hard work. He achieved, not

through birth or pretension,

but because, as with All Black

Brian Lochore or soldier

Charles Upham, VC & Bar,

he was a modest “natural

gentleman” who led by

example.

Free of class prejudice, we

considered ourselves to have

a sympathy for the underdog.

We established a welfare state.

We were strong and tough,

but with a humane instinct.

In both world wars it was part

of the Kiwi stereotype that we

were great at looking after the

women and the kids. When

Hillary followed his conquest

of Everest with service to the

Sherpas of Nepal, it confirmed

his essential NZ identity.

Today, we are very different

from the country that made

Hillary. If he was our hero

in the 20th century, the

question is now, who will

be the quintessential New

Zealander in the 21st?

• Jock Phillips

attitudes have not entirely

disappeared, but New Zealand

has become a bicultural

society in a way it was not in

1939.

“COUNTRY LADS”

In July 1941, the new

National Film Unit released

its first film, Country Lads, a

After

Ed

At 11.30am on May 29, for the first time, someone stepped

onto the world’s highest point, and that someone was a New

Zealander. Edmund Hillary – “Sir Ed” to us all these days – had

scaled Mt Everest with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. After a night

at 8500m, the pair awoke to an “icy silence” and walked into

the unknown. And, upon descent, into the roar of worldwide

acclaim. The news arrived the morning a queen was crowned.

January 1, 1962. When

Western Samoa gained

independence, a quota was

established allowing 1000 or

more immigrants a year into

NZ, on top of those coming

to join family. Independ-

ence for the Cook Islands

and Niue followed, with their

people retaining NZ citizen-

ship. These policies and the

growth in industry offering

well-paid, unskilled labouring

jobs turned a postwar trickle

of Pacific migrants into a

steady flow by the end of the

60s. Manufacturers and poli-

ticians invited islanders in,

expecting them to be tempo-

rary workers. The immigrants

had different plans, however,

staying and overstaying even

after many were laid off as

unemployment bit. The issue

peaked in 1976 when PM

Rob Muldoon ordered “dawn

raids” to find overstayers, and

police burst into homes at

sunrise to make arrests. The

public disliked such tactics

and the policy lasted less

than a week. Pacific Island-

ers now make up 7% of the

population and Auckland is

the largest Polynesian city in

the world.

Talofa lava,

Samoa

80 YEARS