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Hikoi Day Two: Waitomo Museum

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  The Waitomo Caves Museum & Discovery Centre   was a pleasant surprise with a treasure trove of photos, books, and archived records. The museum naturally has a lot of resources related to the caves with scientific and historic material as well as quite a collection of material related to early settler families.  Bridget is the museum director and since covid has significantly reduce tourist numbers the staff at the museum/education centre/ information centre have been reduced significantly and there is little time or resource for her to put into the collections.  Bridget seemed pleased to have a visitor interested in the archive and an excuse to “do some museum stuff” – her two associates at the centre had a good grasp on the archive and were able to give me some good leads for my research. Waitomo is an interesting case study in early settlement because of the caves and the hotel.   Tours of the caves were offered informally by local Māori through the mid 19 th century long

Hikoi Day Two Alexandra/Pirongia.

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  17 June 22 I visited two museums today and meet some fabulous people passionate about their local history, keen to tell stories, and share resources. At Pirongia Museum I meet Alan Hall a retired academic of from Waikato Museum.   Alan has a magnificent memory and a great grasp of New Zealand History and especially of Waikato Tainui and Maniopoto history back into the 18 th century.   Pirongia was known as Alexandra until 1896   when the name was changed to Pirongia (after the local Maunga) to avoid confusion with its namesake in Central Otago.   Many place names were changed as the provincial government system gave way to a central structure.   Alexandra was a frontier town and a military post during and after the Waikato war. In 1864 the Second Waikato Militia built two redoubts on either side of the Waipa River .   These were part of a series of fortifications between Alexandra and Cambridge designed to block possible attack from Māori living   in the Rohe Pōtae, which begi

Interracial Marriage

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Intermit relations between Maori and Pakeha has been a feature of race relations in Aotearoa New Zealand. Throughout the 19th century and through the first part of the twentieth century the vast majority of these relationships have been between Pakeha men and wahine Maori. From as early as 1820 sailors, sealers and whalers have formed intermit relations with wahine Maori and a number have lived as Pakeha Maori.  The signification of these relationships has changed with the political context and the agenda of the political players.  I wish to explore the role that interracial intimacy played in the coming together of Maori and settlers in the 'post-aukati' world of the King Country.   Angela Wanhalla has done important work on interracial marriages in the nineteenth century New Zealand and while her work focused on the South Island her insights and methodology will be useful in analysing interracial marriage within the King Country. Damon Salesa, following Alan Ward, elucidates

The myth of benign colonization

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Two major threads are evident in the telling of our nation's colonial history.  One thread perpetuates the popular myth that the colonists were benign; on the balance of things bringing more benefit to the indigenous people than costs.  This myth remains popular in some circles and has often been accompanied by the notion that race relations in New Zealand are among the best in the world, especially when compared with South Africa, Australia or the Americas.  This myth has its origins in the writing and work of Edwin Gibbon Wakefield of the New Zealand Company who believed that New Zealand could be colonized in an organised way to the benefit of Maori and settlers, making New Zealand a little England in the South Pacific.  (Part of Wakefield vision was the 'amalgamation' of the  Māori    race.  I will return to that in another post.) Erik Olssen has argued that the historiography of the nineteenth century European settlement in New Zealand seeks to offer an explanation and

O'Malley and SInclair

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 Vincent O’Malley’s work on the New Zealand Wars and especially the Waikato Wars is formative to my understanding of the context that led to the aukati and the deep suspicion that the Kīngitanga had toward the government. The sense of betrayal and injustice along with the material suffering of the Kīngitanga shaped the way they related to the authorities. Their desire for restoration of confiscated lands became an impassable barrier to negotiations for a peaceful settlement, which Michael Belgrave* illuminates. I am aware that O’Malley’s work tends toward polemic as he seeks to show the dark side of our history and legitimate Māori claims for recognition and compensation. Nonetheless, his work is an essential corrective to the earlier histories that focused on the advancement of civilization, the betterment of the Māori race and New Zealand’s superior race relations record. My work will interact with this broader sweep of historiography and offer insights from microhistories that will

Road Trip

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  So next week I am embarking on a scoping tour of the Waikato and King Country looking for sources that may help me with my PhD research project into the aftermath of the Waikato Wars. Can you think of anything that I should add to my list? I will be visiting these Museums: Cambridge, Kawhia, Mokau, Morrinsville, Otorohonga, Piopio, Pirongia, Te Awamutu, Waikato (Hamilton), Waitomo, and the archive of the Catholic Diocese of Waikato. I’m hoping to get to these historic sites (ideas from Ministry of Culture and Heritage) : Highwic,   Pukekohe East Church, Queen's Redoubt @ Pokeno, Mercer/Koheroa   (War memorial with NZ war gun), Whangamarino, Meremere, Rangiriri Pa, Te Wheoro's Redoubt,   Ngaruawahia,   Paterangi, St Paul's Anglican Church, Rangiaowhia, Rewi Maniapoto Memorial site @ Kihikihi,   Orakau battle site, Alexandra Redoubt, Pirongia .   Any thoughts welcomed.

Questions and Sources

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This like any good PhD project  is a significant endeavour with lots of questions that motivate research and the hope that there will be sufficient sources of information to adequately answer them.  Next week I will be visiting 10 museums in the Waikato and King Country region.  I will be looking for documentary sources, visual sources and objects that might shed light on my questions.   I will also peruse the official records of births, deaths and marriages, and the census, to see what they reveal about the living conditions of different communities. This may also give an indication of internal migration and transience. Among the early settlers were share-milkers, a particularly mobile population. I expect that such mobility had impacts on community building. How did changing demographics impact on cross-cultural relations? The opening of the aukati provided some opportunity for Māori, in terms of employment on the railways, improved land values and access to markets. Did this result