Monday, June 08, 2020

Akaroa's slaver



In the US & UK monuments celebrating slavery are coming down. The people of Bristol have thrown the statue of their slaver Coulston into the sea. Here in NZ we have a popular restaurant & bar whose name is a tribute to the most notorious of all the Pacific's slave traders.
Akaroa's Bully Hayes Restaurant & Bar takes its name from the American slaver, sadist & pedophile who preyed on the islands of the Pacific for years, from bases in Apia & the Marshall Islands. Hayes stole islanders & sold them to the plantations of Tahiti, Fiji, & Queensland.
Hayes raped many of the girls & young women he abducted. In his meticulous book The White Pacific, African American scholar Gerald Horne shows that the slaver was protected by high-placed relatives in Washington DC.
The website of the Bully Hayes Restaurant & Bar includes a short account of Hayes' 'colourful' career. Hayes' exploits during the Otago gold rush are noted, but not the slave raids that are still remembered with sorrow on islands across the Pacific.
I ran into Hayes & the restaurant that honours him when I was researching my book The Stolen Island. I was amazed that anyone imagined Hayes a romantic, even admirable figure. Now would be a good time for the restaurant to rethink its moniker.
Here's the website for the restaurant & bar. Here's their facebook page. I imagine that many New Zealanders would feel reluctant to eat and drink at the place, if they knew that its name celebrated pedophilia and slavery.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Te Rauparaha was a Ngāti Toa chief and warrior. He was at least as bad as Bully Hayes.

4:47 pm  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hello - I would like to talk to you about this for a news story if you are available. Please contact me on hollycarran@mediaworks.co.nz

10:15 am  
Blogger Quickenberry Food said...

Dear Scott
To be honest I find it ridiculous. You say if the people did know they would feel uncomfortable. The point is they do not know, at least they did not know. Change the name? What about Hamilton. Captain Hamilton. Even your name might be offensive to certain people. What about Auckland or Wellington? How far do you want to the this cleansing of history? Eradicate it all the monuments the statues? What about Gallipoli. It might be very offensive to the Turkish people. Where do you stop?
Kind regards
Robert Koller

11:25 am  
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11:31 am  
Anonymous Seo Whangarei said...

There is a new form of modern slavery. We didn't see it every day but it is surrounding us every day. There is also a so-called e-slavery!

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