A history professor canceled his lecture at New Zealand’s national library after staff asked him to remove a quote over fears it “could be seen as us agreeing with Britain conquering the world”.
Respected historian Paul Moon was due to give a lecture at the National Library of New Zealand in February and recently shared a summary of his speech with organisers.
The topic was British policy leading up to the Treaty of Waitangi with New Zealand, an area Professor Moon has researched for three decades.
But the library repeatedly asked him to remove parts of his speech.
On Thursday, a staff member contacted Professor Moon saying the library director wanted him to remove a quote from historian John Seeley, which described the British Empire as being “acquired in a fit of distraction.”
“It could be seen as us agreeing with Britain conquering the world,” the staffer said.
“Nowadays everything can be interpreted as political.
‘Personally, I didn’t see anything wrong with the quote, but I convey the director’s wish that it be removed. Hopefully this can be done easily.”
National Library staff contacted Professor Moon on Thursday to ask him to remove a quote from historian John Seeley.
Paul Moon is a professor of history at Auckland University of Technology and the author of several books.
But Professor Moon told Daily Mail Australia the quote was intended to demonstrate the chaotic and haphazard nature of British colonization of New Zealand.
Britain’s plans to take sovereignty of New Zealand with the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 were put into practice in a matter of months, he explained.
“Seeley summed that up in the quote and I thought it was quite useful – it’s been used by a lot of historians,” Professor Moon said.
‘There was absolutely nothing controversial about what he was going to say. There’s nothing particularly new or radical about it.’
Interpreting the quote as supporting British colonization was an “extraordinarily ill-informed view.”
“But what possibly makes matters worse are attempts to control what someone the library has invited as a speaker says or writes.”
The library had previously objected to Professor Moon’s use of the term ‘whakapapa’, the Māori word for genealogy, in the speech and asked him to remove it, which he reluctantly did.
No reason was given and Professor Moon was surprised, given that incorporating Māori terms was “one of the things we were encouraged to do”.
Professor Moon said he had canceled his lecture at the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington as a matter of principle.
When the library asked Professor Moon to remove Seeley’s quote, he canceled his lecture as a matter of principle.
‘Given these efforts by the library to force some aspects of my speech, I had no choice but to cancel my flights and appearance in Wellington in February.
‘The easiest thing for me would be to say Ok, I’ll accept your request, I’ll censor myself and people won’t understand the whole story, because that’s what the library wants.
“They’re obviously extremely sensitive to criticism and here’s the irony: Now they’ve opened themselves up to a lot of criticism.”
The library had previously objected to Professor Moon’s use of the term “whakapapa”, the Māori word for genealogy, in the speech and asked him to remove it, which he reluctantly did.
The historian said he has been giving talks for decades – including up to 15 marae this year – and has never before been asked to remove material from his speeches.
It is unclear which of the several library directors disagreed with the quote.
Professor Moon is a professor of history at Auckland University of Technology and the author of dozens of books, specializing in the Treaty of Waitangi and the first period of Crown rule in New Zealand.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted New Zealand’s Department of Home Affairs, which runs the National Library, for comment.