The Captain Cook Hotel in Dunedin is changing its name because “people are hurting.”

In a Facebook post, written by operator Mike McLeod, it says “people are hurting, and I didn’t do this to ostracise and hurt people, I didn’t want to remind people of oppression and suffering when they came to the venue. I wanted people to have fun, and I wanted the space to make some kind of positive difference to the community. Precisely the kind of place where you might, for a moment, forget about suffering.”

“At first, I was reluctant to be so bold as to re-write history – but come on – I’m not rewriting history, I’m not wiping James Cook out of the history books, or erasing his name from existence. That’s not my job. I started to think about little details, like wondering – is it really true that Cook was a pedophile? Or, was he really responsible for colonisation? It took a while for me to realise that a) I don’t know, and b) it isn’t really relevant anyway – not to me, I’m not trying to adjudicate on the details of history, and who did what to whom. I realised that Cook is a symbol of colonisation and oppression, and I don’t need to analyse whether or not it’s fair that he is such a symbol given historical details.”

The statement goes on to say “for some people, Captain Cook is as offensive as a nazi flag.”

“It doesn’t matter to me whether that is fair on old James, because I have no particular pride or association with James Cook.”

“I understand that he didn’t land in the South Island at all, apparently he was a bit scared, and turned around. He didn’t even come to this island, and I don’t even want to educate people on these matters.”

“I never really paid much attention in History classes, and the highlight of these classes was when I read in my high school History book that Rasputin had a very large penis which is now preserved in a jar.”

“I can’t see how removing the association of the name Cook from my music venue means anybody loses anything. I am not taking anything away from you. But keeping the name, a name which doesn’t mean anything significant to me, but hurts a group of people, would kinda just be cruel.”

Today I discussed matters with people for and against changing the name. I used to work in the philosophy department here at Otago University, and I’ve marked thousands of 100 level essays over the years, and I thought – there’s no good arguments for keeping the name. I’d have to grade these arguments at a C-, or maybe a C+ at best, if they were incredibly well structured. But they’re not good arguments. They would pass, but only just. The arguments for removing the name association are much better. People are harmed, there’s no need for that to be so. Why would I make people suffer unnecessarily? If these arguments were well written and articulated, expressing original thought, they’d get an A+.”

People were suggesting I change the name when I first took over the place, I’m no hero for taking two years to understand what they were saying. Thanks for persisting with me, and I’m sorry I didn’t understand better earlier. I know there will be naysayers, and I was one of you for a while. But you know, things change, things move on, get over it, come down to the same venue you used to enjoy going to, and enjoy some great music, forget about the name. Start up a private club in your garage and call it by that name if you really need to, make your man cave a homage to Captain Cook. I’m not stopping you, but I don’t need the association to continue to do what I believe in.”