Essay
How Our Ghosts Become Our Guardians
Looking at our ancestors for the answers to a brighter future
Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua.
I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past.
This whakataukī or proverb speaks to Māori perspectives of time, where the past, the present, and the future are viewed as intertwined, and life as a continuous cosmic process.
When I, an ignorant Brit, landed on the shores of Aotearoa New Zealand 15 years ago, I thought this perspective was a recipe for disaster. Surely, looking forward is the only way to go, right? Looking backwards will just make us hold onto things that no longer serve us. We can’t change the past, but we can change the future, so why not focus our gaze forward?
Of course, I was wrong. Acknowledging our history is essential to fully appreciate where we are today and see how far we have come. I now understand that maybe our Western society’s obsession with forward thinking is because our past is too shameful and brutal to face head-on. I’m looking at you, Imperialists.
The actions of our ancestors are central to who we are and the world we now find ourselves in. In turn, we are the ancestry of tomorrow. Our lives are intricately woven with the continuation of tomorrow’s world. Māori were right all along…
In the words of the great historian and storyteller Ruth Goodman, who writes in detail about the lives of ordinary, everyday people from past eras: “We matter. How our ancestors — ordinary men, women, and children — solved the nitty-gritty problems of everyday life made the world what it is today.”
So, Who Came Before Us?
Well, this question led me to a deep dive into my own family history, which revealed a pretty consistent theme stretching back over at least the past 200 years: very poor to working-class Londoners on my maternal side — labourers, tailors, and market workers — and very poor Italian fishermen on my paternal side.
Since the 1800s, my family history has been scattered with moments of extreme poverty, including being sentenced to 6 years imprisonment in an asylum for the criminally insane for stealing a coat plus the change in the pocket. He must’ve really needed that coat. Not to mention the numerous admissions of various family members into union workhouses.
Workhouses were institutions established under the Poor Law system to provide shelter and employment to the destitute. People in workhouses in the 1800s typically did not receive wages for their work. The conditions were deliberately harsh to deter people from relying on public assistance. Instead of being paid, they were provided with basic food, shelter, and clothing in exchange for their labour. The goal was to make the workhouse an unattractive option, ensuring that only those who were truly desperate would seek its aid.
In today’s world, this would be like our soup kitchens and homeless shelters joining forces and then using their guests for free labour. For many, this was a life sentence, with people often becoming sick from being overworked or by picking up illnesses amidst poor sanitation, including some of my own rellies. Old Henry didn’t make it past 53 after living several years in this hell hole.
This fate wasn’t unusual. If you lived in London in the 1800s, there was a 40% chance you lived in abject poverty, according to Charles Booth’s famous London Poverty Maps. Injustices like child labour, minimal workers’ rights, gender inequality, racial discrimination, and class discrimination were as common as the sunrise.
Fast forward to today, London’s overall poverty profile according to the Trust for London is 24%. Still a way to go it seems, but definitely an improvement. Worth acknowledging that the standards of which we measure poverty have improved, but still — room for improvement nonetheless.
However, if I focus on my own family line, it looks something like this:
- 1850: Criminally poor (literally — thanks, Cheeky Charlie Boy and that stolen coat)
- 1900: Poor (but no more criminal records, phew)
- 1950: Working class (finally earning a wage, albeit a meagre one)
- 2000: Middle class (yes, I’m apparently middle class according to the Great British Class Calculator, thanks to my love for museums, art and owning our own home)
My father, in his lifetime, has gone from not being able to afford a pair of shoes to owning multiple businesses and properties. Weirdly enough, he thanks Thatcher for his success in life. Don’t have a go at me! He’s entitled to his opinion.
This leap on the social ladder didn’t happen overnight — it’s taken generations. It’s not just the actions of my direct family, but from everyone in society who understood that their behaviours and values make a difference — like the ripples from a stone on a pond.
Women’s rights? Thank the hundreds, thousands of average women who pushed and fought for suffrage. Without them, we wouldn’t have a place in democracy today. Slavery, apartheid, homophobia, colonisation? These have improved markedly because of the incremental actions taken by mostly ordinary, everyday people — our great-great-grandparents, aunties, and uncles who didn’t stand for hate and worked towards a just and humane society.
And it wasn’t just the big actions that mattered. The small, everyday choices made all the difference: how they raised their children, what they tolerated (or didn’t tolerate — our family hasn’t seen another criminal record since Cheeky Charlie Boy stole that coat in 1868), and how they treated each other in the street. Even the conversations they had — or didn’t have — contributed to shaping the world.
These incredible individuals — were they less valuable as human beings because they weren’t rich, famous entertainers, or sports icons? Quite the contrary. Their lives — often marked by poverty, hard work, and underpayment — were profoundly important.
So the answer to the question of who came before us? A group of hardworking, resilient individuals who, despite their challenges, played a crucial role in shaping a better world.
Now, let’s get acquainted with some better-known figures who share our place in the middle lane of life…
A Young Girl from Alabama Who Liked to Sew
In 1913, there was a young girl who grew up on a farm in Alabama with her grandparents. Her mother was a nurse, and her father a carpenter, though they separated when she was young. She had a brother and was often sick with tonsillitis, but her family couldn’t afford the operation to remedy it. She attended school and church and loved to sew quilts, which she continued throughout her life.
Later, she left higher education to care for her ailing grandmother and then her mother. She worked various jobs, from domestic worker to hospital assistant. Yet, this ordinary person changed the world on her commute home from work.
Do you know who this person is? Yes, Rosa Parks. The black woman who refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white person, as the law required at the time. Rosa Parks wasn’t the first to resist segregation, nor the last, but she became the face of the American civil rights movement.
Rosa Parks, a normal everyday hero, along with every other person whose names we don’t know but whose actions improved the lives of every black person who came after them.
The moral of this story resonates across countless examples of individuals witnessing injustices and bravely standing up against them, no matter how seemingly small. Whether in a school playground, workplace, or supermarket checkout queue, each interaction can ripple outward, creating a butterfly effect of impact on the world at large.
Now let’s spin around the globe and hone in on a humble bloke from England…
A Bricklayer’s Apprentice from Greater Manchester, UK
Then, there was a boy born in Altrincham, a town outside of Manchester, England, in 1927. A working-class lad who worked various jobs, including as a bricklayer’s apprentice and a truck driver.
In 1950, he joined the British Army’s Black Watch regiment and was soon deployed to Korea as part of the United Nations forces. On November 4, 1951, during the intense Battle of Hill 217, when his unit’s position was being overrun by Chinese forces, he grabbed a crate of grenades and charged forward, hurling grenades at the enemy with devastating effect. When he ran out of grenades, he picked up beer bottles and threw them at the enemy, all while under heavy fire.
These heroic actions inspired his fellow soldiers and helped stem the enemy’s advance, allowing his unit to regain control of their position. His fearless determination and selfless actions in the face of overwhelming odds saved many lives and turned the tide of the battle.
This is the story of Bill Speakman, whose bravery and quick thinking would earn him the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for gallantry.
After the war, Bill Speakman returned to civilian life, where he continued working in various roles, including as a pub landlord and later as a welfare worker. He lived a modest life and rarely spoke about his wartime experiences, preferring to focus on supporting veterans and their families.
And lets take another example, possibly the most impactful example of how awesome we are as average people, sometimes, without even knowing about it…
An American Woman Who Enjoyed Dancing and Cooking
In 1920, a young girl was born in Roanoke, Virginia. Her parents were Eliza and Johnny, and she was the ninth of ten children. When her mother died giving birth to her tenth child, her father moved the family to Clover, Virginia, where they lived with her grandfather. Growing up, she worked on the family tobacco farm and attended the local school for black children.
In 1941, she married, and they moved to Baltimore in search of better opportunities. They had five children, and she was known for her love of dancing and cooking.
In 1951, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital. During her treatment, doctors took a sample of her cancer cells without her knowledge or consent.
These cells, named HeLa, became the first immortal human cell line, crucial for medical research and breakthroughs, including the polio vaccine, cancer treatments, and in vitro fertilisation.
This is the amazing story of Henrietta Lacks. Her cells have lived on, contributing to countless scientific advances, even though she never knew. Henrietta Lacks, a hero in every sense of the word, whose unwitting contribution has saved countless lives and advanced human knowledge.
A more relatable comparison to this would be the people who give blood or donate their organs. Not much communicates a desire to make a difference to others for the better than giving away body parts posthumously.
Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Impact
These are stories of average people living ordinary lives who also happened to change the world. These are the examples of the one’s we know of, because they’ve been reported, turned into movies, or books. But there are countless untold stories happening every moment of every day, worthy of a standing ovation.
Since 1900, poverty worldwide has decreased from 80% to 10%, as reported by Max Roser’s Our World In Data. It’s heartening to see the impact of our predecessors’ actions in shaping the better world we live in today.
And the best part? You’re now a part of this ongoing story.
The answer to your value doesn’t lie in being instafamous, wearing Louboutins or attending fashionable gala’s. As Rosa Parks, Bill Speakman and Henrietta Lacks showed us, sometimes, the most impactful heroes are the ones who blend into the crowd, armed only with their values, courage, convictions, and in some cases, a good throwing arm for beer bottles.
