The Meeting Place - A New Zealand History Blog

The history of Māori travel and engagement with the outside world is a remarkable one. It is explored in a new work to be released as part of the BWB Texts series in March 2015. Here is some information on the work from the publisher's website . The Māori monarch and his entourage found sympathetic ears in the British press and public. Newspapers published tips on correct pronunciation of his name, explained his illustrious lineage and the troubled history of war and confiscation suffered by the Waikato tribes and printed sketches of the party. Socially, too, they were in high demand. London’s bobbies found it impossible to control crowds gathered to witness some of the party’s early outings. From the late eighteenth century, Māori travellers spread out from New Zealand to Australia, Britain and the world. Most travellers eventually returned home, bringing something of their own ‘new world’ experiences with them. This book is a series of vignettes of this histo...

KARORI HISTORICAL SOCIETY The next meeting will be held on Tuesday 2 December 2014 at St Ninian’s, Newcombe Crescent, Karori at 7.45 pm. Members and friends welcome Talk Our speaker is Vincent O'Malley, who will speak on 'The Waikato War in Public Memory'. The Waikato War was a decisive turning point in New Zealand history. Yet the recent 150th anniversary passed by most New Zealanders largely unnoticed. That stands in contrast to earlier anniversaries of the same war and more especially to the current World War One centenary. This talk examines how and why the Waikato conflict has been remembered (or forgotten) historically and asks what that says about its place in current public memory. Vincent is a Pakeha New Zealander of Irish and Scottish Highland descent. He has a BA (Hons) in History (1st Class) from the University of Canterbury and completed his PhD thesis at Victoria University of Wellington in 2004. Vincent has published widely in the area of Crow...

The Waitangi Tribunal yesterday released its report on Stage One of the Te Paparahi o Te Raki (Northland) Inquiry. Stage One of this inquiry was solely concerned with two key agreements: the 1835 Declaration of Independence of New Zealand/He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni; and the 1840 Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi. The Tribunal's own press release summarises the report's findings: Treaty Signatories Did Not Cede Sovereignty in February 1840 – Tribunal The rangatira who signed te Tiriti o Waitangi in February 1840 did not cede sovereignty to the British Crown, the Waitangi Tribunal has concluded. The Tribunal today released its report on stage 1 of its inquiry into Te Paparahi o te Raki (the great land of the north) Treaty claims. The report concerns the ‘meaning and effect’ of the Treaty in February 1840, when the first signings of te Tiriti took place in the Bay of Islands and the Hokianga. Stage 2 of the inquiry, which is under way, w...

Date: 7 November 2014 Time: 12.10 pm Venue: Murphy Lecture Theatre 101 (MY101), Victoria University of Wellington The History Programme is pleased to host Professor Antony Hopkins, who will speak on his forthcoming study American Empire: An Alternative History . American Empire: An Alternative History seeks to rethink the United States and empire in an international setting, using the UK  as the prime comparator. Conventional wisdom suggests that ‘empire’ applies to the United States before 1783 and after 1945. Professor Hopkins suggests, instead, that the decades between require reconsideration. While in 1783 the USA achieved formal independence, what followed was a long struggle to secure real sovereignty, during which the US remained heavily dependent on the UK. The conventional narrative of the pioneering nation and its progress towards liberty and democracy can be seen instead as an increasingly fraught ...

Thanks to all those who attended the launch last night. It was a great occasion. Here are a few photos of the evening.

  Over the next six weeks, BWB has a range of events taking place around New Zealand: Wednesday 24 September, Wellington Book launch:  Vince...

MEDIA RELEASE 22 September 2014 Devastating impact of the Waikato War revisited by leading historian  At a time of great focus on World War One, a new book by prominent historian Dr Vincent O’Malley draws startling comparisons with the Waikato War of 1863–64. Taking a new approach to analysing evidence on the war, O’Malley’s book challenges previous assumptions made about casualties suffered by the Waikato tribes. ‘This new approach to estimating casualty figures suggests that the scale of the losses suffered by the Waikato tribes was much greater than previously thought,’ says O’Malley. ‘Indeed there is every indication that the numbers killed a...