In this special episode of Black Sheep, William Ray looks at the history and controversy of historical statues in New Zealand.

Statues have become a focus of global protests following the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States.

In New Zealand statues of Captain Cook and Governor George Grey have been targeted for graffiti, while a statue of Captain John Hamilton was completely removed.

In this episode of Black Sheep, William Ray uncovers the stories behind some of these problematic monuments - and looks at different ideas of what should happen to them next.

When I was little, I used to play in the fountain next to Centre Place mall in Hamilton.

So when I saw the news that a statue of Captain Hamilton was being removed from that spot, I was confused. I couldn't remember that statue standing there when I was younger.

It turned out, I was right to be confused - the statue was actually only erected in 2013. An action which Tom Roa (Ngāti Maniapoto) says "defies belief".

My hometown was named after Captain John Hamilton. It was built on the site of the Ngāti Wairere Pā, Kirikiriroa after that settlement and much of the surrounding area was unjustly confiscated by the Crown under the New Zealand Settlements Act.

Captain Hamilton never got anywhere near Kirikiriroa; he died at the Battle of Gate Pā in Tauranga in 1864.

As historian Vincent O'Malley's report on street names and statues in Hamilton makes clear, Captain Hamilton was an obscure figure who only spent a few months in Aotearoa before he was killed. It was a reasonably heroic kind of death (he was shot while leading a column of men to relieve the troops who had been trapped in the Pā) but he certainly wasn't a significant player in the wars.

The same can't be said for other statues that have been a focus of protest in Aotearoa. Men like Colonel Marmaduke Nixon, who led a raid on the peaceful village of Rangiaowhia, and Governor George Grey who played a major part in instigating the Waikato Wars.

Interestingly, Governor Grey also instigated the building of a lot of the statues which are now the focus of so much anger and grief.

"Grey himself was a great enthusiast for statues and memorials," said historian Jock Phillips, author of To The Memory: New Zealand's War Memorials.

"He believed we were a 'new' country. All we had was Māori culture, and that didn't count ... So a new society needed to get to work and start to put up a few heroic figures to develop a new tradition and a sense of colonial pride."…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details