Outgoing UK High Commissioner Laura Clarke speaks to Sam Sachdeva about acknowledging the pain of the past, New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements, and the worrying state of the world
As her time in Wellington draws to a close, Laura Clarke has little baggage left to deal with.
Movers have cleared out most of the family residence, while the British High Commissioner’s children are finishing school this week ahead of their return to the UK.
“We’re living upstairs in a home where it’s all completely empty – we’ve got a few sofas, but that’s about it.”
At least one permanent reminder of Clarke’s time in Wellington will remain: a Māori sculpture was installed outside the commission’s entrance this week in a tribute to the relationship between the United Kingdom and Aotearoa.
It, rather than a bust of Captain James Cook inside the foyer, is the first artwork visitors to the high commission will see - fitting, given one of Clarke’s most notable moments during her posting.
In late 2019, she delivered an expression of regret on behalf of the British government to iwi in Gisborne, for the deaths of nine Māori in their first encounters with Cook and his crew.
She went back to the East Coast last month to farewell the friends she made there, and believes the legacy of that moment has endured beyond the initial headlines.
“The story of those deaths in the first encounters was not a story that was told outside of the marae … the pain of it was handed down from generation to generation to generation, and the pain of it doesn't really dissipate if it's not acknowledged…
“I don't want to speak for them [Māori], but that's what they say to me … being able to talk about the past and understand it, then you can build a more trusting relationship to do important things together in the present.”
Exactly what the future holds is less certain. While other Commonwealth nations like Jamaica look to transition to a republic, the republican movement in New Zealand has been less prominent, with the implications for the Treaty of Waitangi a potential obstacle to change.
“For me, it's about always holding true to what actually matters in a relationship, and that's those people to people connections and the lived experience - it's not what's going on in constitutional terms.” – Laura Clarke
Addressing Commonwealth leaders in Rwanda last month, Prince Charles said each country’s constitutional arrangements were “purely a matter for each member to decide”, adding: “We should never forget the things which do not change - the close and trusted relationship between Commonwealth members.”
It is a sentiment Clarke endorses – both in steering clear of telling New Zealand what it should do, and in suggesting the country’s ties to the UK do not hinge on a common head of state.
“For me, it's about always holding true to what actually matters in a relationship, and that's those people-to-people connections and the lived experience – it's not what's going on in constitutional terms.”
That relationship is strong, she says, having been in London for Jacinda Ardern’s meeting last week with her British counterpart Boris Johnson.
The UK-NZ free trade deal stands as an obvious accomplishment, but there has also been collaboration on climate change, on science and innovation, and on security issues – the latter of which has become increasingly important in a volatile world.
In a foreign policy speech last year, Clarke noted the combined GDP of autocratic regimes was set to overtake that of democracies in the coming decade.
That sense of an impending challenge to the international order has, if anything, accelerated following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s efforts to sign security deals in the Pacific.
“It is a very, very volatile, quite dangerous time,” she says, with Covid restrictions in some countries making face-to-face interaction difficult and increasing the risk of miscalculation and misunderstanding.
Then there is the global cost of living crisis, along with similar predicaments around energy supplies, food security and climate change.
“My generation, we grew up thinking that things were just gradually improving, we grew up in this extraordinarily unprecedented time of stability and prosperity. Actually, when you zoom out, perhaps we're back to a bit more of the normal, where life is kind of scary.”
The end of history, interrupted
Francis Fukuyuma’s famous argument, that the rise of Western liberal democracy and the fall of the Soviet Union represented the “end of history”, formed the basis of her Kiwi husband Toby Fisher’s chat-up line when the pair met at a housewarming during her university days – but that thesis looks shakier than ever.
Despite that pessimistic outlook, Clarke says it is important to resist the “us and them-type dynamic” that is forming in some quarters, with the scale of global challenges requiring a joint response.
“We won't always have exactly the same sort of democratic DNA, we won't always agree on everything, but it's important that we are able to work together on shared priorities, whether that's global health issues, whether it's climate and environmental issues, whether it's trade … we need to have our values but also we need to engage pragmatically.”
That emphasis on values and pragmatism would seem to fit well with New Zealand’s much-touted ‘independent foreign policy’, a topic of much debate in the wake of Jacinda Ardern’s visits to the Nato summit and Washington DC.
While some see the Government’s diplomatic response to the Ukraine invasion as moving away from that independent approach, Clarke believes it is in fact a demonstration of it.
“When something egregious happens, like Russia invading Ukraine, New Zealand quite rightly works its absolute utmost to stay with the pack of like-minded [nations] in terms of how you respond to that diplomatically, in terms of humanitarian and lethal aid, in terms of sanctions … that’s a country making its decision based on its interests, its security, and its values.”
Clarke has not always been so complimentary of New Zealand’s policy decisions: addressing a conference in 2020, the diplomat said there was “a gap … between ambition and reality” when it came to the country’s rhetoric on climate change.
“We love this country and we love it here, and so we'll absolutely be back and if we can be back to live at some point in the future, then all the better.” – Laura Clarke
"The brand 100% Pure New Zealand lulled many into a false sense of security, when the environmental reality is far more challenging.
“I got in a bit of trouble for that,” she says with a laugh before reiterating her case.
“We are none of us as good as we like to think, and I think that's particularly dangerous on environmental and climate issues where there's a real risk of not computing quite how critical this crisis is and quite how short our time is, and there's a real risk of complacency…
“If diplomacy is always comfortable, you're perhaps not always getting somewhere.”
The British government has hardly done its utmost to make its diplomats’ work comfortable either. Clarke has had to face the media throughout the UK’s Brexit travails, as well as multiple leadership dramas.
“It is absolutely an interesting time in British politics, no question, and I probably shouldn't say much more about that,” she offers, before noting the “absolute constants” which endure across governments, such as a commitment to the rules-based order and tackling the climate crisis.
“There's a huge amount there that is incredibly important that stays constant, and it’s incredibly easy to get behind with all your ability.”
Exactly where Clarke’s abilities will be channelled next is unclear - but given her family ties and personal experiences New Zealand will not be far from her mind.
“We love this country and we love it here, and so we'll absolutely be back and if we can be back to live at some point in the future, then all the better.”
