In Memoriam: Dame Joan Metge and Emeritus Professor Keith Sorrenson
In this post I pay tribute to two scholars who made significant contributions to our understanding of Aotearoa New Zealand culture, society and history. Dame...
Kīngitanga Q+A
With the Koroneihana this week marking the first anniversary of the ascension to the Kīngitanga throne of Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po, and large...
Kīngitanga and Crown: The Māori King Movement’s Historical Relationship with the British Royal Family
Back in 2014, when I was the J.D. Stout Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington, writing what would eventually become The Great War for New Zealand:...
The Meeting Place: Māori and Pākehā Encounters, 1642-1840 – New Edition
I’m pleased to say that later this year Bridget Williams Books will be publishing a new edition of The Meeting Place: Māori and Pākehā Encounters, 1642-1840,...
Takutai Moana
Another week, another constitutional and legal outrage from the government. Not to mention another Treaty breach. The latest this week was news from Treaty...
History Cuts
Following my last post a week ago responding to news that the Ministry for Culture and Heritage had confirmed the axing of most historian roles at the...
The War on History
News that the Ministry for Culture and Heritage is to press ahead with sweeping cuts that will abolish the jobs of most of its historians represents yet...
Early Māori Travel Beyond Aotearoa
Traditional narratives of early Aotearoa New Zealand history that emphasise European travel and voyaging but ignore the contemporaneous Māori exploration of...
The Invasion of Waikato and the 9 July 1863 Proclamation
In July 1863 the Crown launched a premeditated war of conquest and invasion directed against Kīngitanga supporters in Waikato and their relatives living...
‘Native Districts’ and the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852
Asked to nominate the point at which relations between Māori and Pākehā had really begun to turn sour in the nineteenth century, many historians would likely...
Reminder: Aotearoa New Zealand History Online Workshop
Mānawatia a Matariki. A reminder that my online Aotearoa NZ history workshop will take place this Friday, 27 June, from 10am to 12pm. Everyone on a premium...
NZ Listener on Papers Past
Following agreement between the National Library and the publishers of the New Zealand Listener magazine late last year, a programme to digitise copies of...
Aotearoa New Zealand History Online Workshop
I have recently been developing an Aotearoa New Zealand History workshop that will cover Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty but also explore Māori and Tangata...
New Zealand Connections to Caribbean Slavery
A recent article in the Post by journalist and author Denis Welch caught my interest. In it Welch wrote about discovering that Ellice Street in Mt Victoria,...
Teaching Aotearoa New Zealand Histories: The Forgotten History Syllabus Claim
In September 2019 Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that New Zealand history would be taught in all schools from 2022. It felt like a momentous...
An Uncommon Land
I recently read the proofs of a book to provide comment on it. An Uncommon Land: From An Ancestral Past of Enclosure Towards a Regenerative Future, by...
Pukehinahina (Gate Pā), 29 April 1864
On the 161st anniversary of the battle of Pukehinahina (Gate Pā), fought at Tauranga on 29 April 1864, I am posting a review which first appeared in the...
An historically-aware Aotearoa
Anzac Day, marking the anniversary of the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25 April 1915, is nearly upon us. It has...
Making History on Screen
In 1977 the most ambitious historical drama for television ever produced in New Zealand screened on TV One. The Governor was a six-part series based on the...
The Treaty Principles Bill Rejected
In the end sanity finally prevailed last week and all submissions made on the Treaty Principles Bill will be processed and preserved as part of the official...