Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy is calling for a wider understanding of history in New Zealand as the debate continues over whether to remove colonial statues.
The Black Lives Matter movement has sparked calls to take down colonial and slave trader statues around the world. The movement reemerged after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a US police officer knelt on his neck for nine minutes.
In the wake of Floyd's death, demonstrators have toppled statues with controversial backgrounds while in New Zealand, a statue of Captain John Hamilton - a regiment leader at the Battle of Gate Pā during the New Zealand Wars - was removed by the Hamilton City Council.
But Dame Patsy says it's important all parts of New Zealand's past is understood.
"I'm very excited that we are finally having New Zealand history taught in our schools and part of New Zealand history is colonial history, as well as the pre-colonial history," she told The AM Show on Friday.
"I think the idea is that we're going to have a much better and wider perspective on what has shaped our nation; where we come from, [and] who we are - and so in that context - we cannot wipe away our colonial past, we need to understand it.
"They [the statues] represent a time in our history and I think they need to be put into that context."
Paula Southgate, Mayor of Hamilton, told The AM Show on Monday the statue of Capt Hamilton, who the city is named after, should never have been installed in Civic Square outside the council building and was removed last Friday.
"I got advice from staff about a credible threat to public property that might occur during the Black Lives Matter march on Saturday," she said, referring to protesters threatening to knock the statue down.
"We were aware there would be an attempt to take the statue out, and that could lead to some other public unrest, so we had concerns for public safety.
"It would have been irresponsible of me to ignore solid advice from a team of people dealing with city safety to have left the statue there."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hasn't expressed a strong view on the matter, saying it's ultimately up to locals what they do with their statues.
"I'm not going to remove the rights of local people to make those decisions."
The city of Hamilton was founded in 1864 after colonists confiscated the land formerly known as Kirikiriroa during the Battle of Gate Pā. There have also been calls for Hamilton to be renamed back to Kirikiriroa.
