The Clouds Wept Too

ZHF’s Report on the Weeping Woman Protest.

By Mark

The wind did roar, and rain did pour at the Weeping Woman statue. And there, on the 3rd of February, ~40 kiwis stood to pay the monument her due.

We arrived and greeted one another at the protest at about 12:00pm. There accumulated around 40 kiwis from different backgrounds - locals of Wanganui and Wellington, of Auckland and even of the South Island and other regions. We met by the statue, standing strong as she always has, this time more sombre than in the past 158 years. In front of the statue, a platform for speakers and 15 temporal crosses planted firmly in the soil at her feet - each with the names of the brave men who faced the barbaric fanatics of the Hauhau religion who fought and lost their lives. Yes, this is Wanganui’s statue, these were her soldiers, and we commemorated them today.

Among the signs and placards was the phrase “Save Our Statues - SOS”. In a sense, to save our statues is to save our souls - to save the battle-hardened spirit of Wanganui and to save our dignity as New Zealanders who fought to keep what is ours. We knew this was more than a beautifully carved statue, adorned with her flowing robe and undying flowers. No - it is actually a representation of Wanganui itself. Because if those brave men hadn’t fought, Wanganui would be unrecognisable. Surely, if these men faltered, surrendered, obliged to the attackers, Wanganui would come back under its gruesome tribal predecessors. If they had not fought. If we had not fought.

The speakers atop the platform, event organisers Julian Bachelor and Ben, spoke righteously to the nature of our Weeping Woman. We were here in whatever number, in spite of the gruesome weather conditions in which even the clouds did weep (and yes, with the journalists with cameras and notepads, who smirked condescendingly), to gather and sanctify a moment in time. This was a moment of patriotism, pride and spirit. This was a moment which the journalists’ lens could simply never capture. Our unity is for a cause, dwarfed only by the cause itself. 

A woman representing the council came atop the platform, and began, nervously, to explain that indeed, the council will remove the statue, and placed the blame elsewhere to-and-fro. She apologised that the counsellor who was supposed to be attending to address the crowd could not serve us, because his pet had just died. “How convenient!” one protestor exclaimed. No comment. We had grown quite impatient with her reasoning, and begun to question her. One protestor asked what she thought of the removal of the statue, and grasping for words, muttered something about “just how well she’d been carved”, and “how beautiful the statue is”. But we aren’t here for beauty, dear. We are here for answers.

The protest ended, and we dispersed after saying farewell to one another, and perhaps forever to the monument?

The Zealandia Heritage Foundation would like to thank Stop Co-Governance, the organisers, and those who contributed, shared, and spread the word far and wide to all. The movement, to all extent that was possible, was a success. We gathered in righteous indignation, listened, and were heard. That’s all we can do - and that’s all that matters.

- Zealandia Heritage Foundation