as pointed out to me by @mizrashkiphardi, the now popular sea shanty ‘Wellerman’ is based on the Weller brothers who were Pākeha (European) colonizers and whale-hunters in Aotearoa New Zealand in the 1800s.
They kept Māori people, my people, as hostages, and traded preserved Māori heads (which are considered sacred to my people). They “bought” land off Māori people (which always was 100% legal and consensual, totally /s). They contributed to the colonization, genocide, and harm of indigenous land and indigenous people.
this song should not be sung, it should not be shared.
most people probably don’t know the meaning of the song, or who it’s about, but it should not be spread. their names should not be spread, sung about, or celebrated.
Trust me… when I heard “Sugar and Tea and Rum,” I knew what else was traded in that era. I took history classes in high school. The Triangle trade route took a lot of human chattel with it. Thank you for reminding everyone to think critically about what media gets pushed into the spotlight. Just because something sounds jaunty and fun doesn’t make it so.
To the people arguing in the notes about whether this song is actually about the Wellers (hint: it is) or whether it makes you a bad person for singing/enjoying it (hint: it doesn’t)… It’s important to be critical of the media we consume and cognizant of how even things rooted in history might continue to be harmful to marginalized groups today.
Does this mean you can’t enjoy the jaunty tune? What if you put new, woker, even explicitly anti-colonialist lyrics to it? Is it okay then? I don’t have the answer to these questions, but I’m trying to resist the urge to just ignore the issue altogether, because that’s not a responsible thing to do when you have privilege.
There’s no ethical consumption under colonialism, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find any product of white western history, especially in the 17- and 1800s, that didn’t benefit from the exploitation of Indigenous resources. That’s not to say that we have to wipe all traces of these things from existence—and that’s not to say we don’t have to, either—but we do have to remain vigilant about how history and the stories we tell about it, like Wellerman, like Hamilton, affect people. Culture doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
