Road Trip

 


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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The myth of benign colonization

Image
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
Read more

Questions and Sources

Image
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
Read more

Interracial Marriage

Image
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
Read more