The Meeting Place - A New Zealand History Blog

Victoria University of Wellington is proud to announce the eighth annual New Historians Conference to be held 26/27 August at the University.  Although primarily held for postgraduate history students to present their research, the conference organisers welcome expressions of interest from further afield.  It would be greatly appreciated if print outs of the attached poster could be posted in appropriate locations and/or circulated to any staff within your institution that might be interested. For further information on conference details and registration please visit newhistorians@myvuw.ac.nz Any inquiries can be directed to newhistorians@myvuw.ac.nz

New Zealand is gearing up to commemorate a number of significant anniversaries concerning our involvement in foreign wars over the next few years – the centenary of the outbreak of World War One next year, Gallipoli on 25 April 2015 and so on through to 1918. But does that willingness to commemorate wars extend to those fought closer to home? The Lottery Grants Board has set aside $17 million to mark the World War One centenary in a multitude of ways. There are websites, a major new multi-volume history of New Zealand’s involvement in the war, memorials, the usual raft of ministers and dignitaries visiting Gallipoli and elsewhere, besides a range of community initiatives and projects. On 12 July this year it will be the 150th anniversary of the invasion of Waikato, a conflict rightly described by Alan Ward as the ‘climactic event in New Zealand race relations’ history. Waikato was the largest and most significant of the New Zealand Wars fought between 1845 and 1872. British victo...

VUW History Programme Seminar, Friday 3 May 2013  The History Programme at VUW warmly invites you to attend a seminar by Dr Vincent O'Malley, HistoryWorks: Te Riri ki Waikato: The Waikato War revisited This year marks the 150th anniversary of the invasion of Waikato, rightly described by Alan Ward as ‘the climactic event in New Zealand race relations’ history. It is tempting to assume that, between James Cowan’s sprawling narrative and James Belich’s more contemporary, concise and insightful analysis, we know all we need to about that conflict. In fact, there is a great deal more that can be explored. Drawing upon recent research for the Waitangi Tribunal’s Te Rohe Potae inquiry, Vincent O’Malley will discuss some of his new (and sometimes surprising) findings concerning the war, its origins and aftermath.  Vincent completed his PhD in NZ Studies at VUW in 2004 and has published widely in the area of Crown and Māori historical relationships, i...

Later this year I will be attending a conference at the University of Bern, Switzerland, on the theme of 'Cooperation under the Premise of Imperialism'. Many of the papers to be presented at the conference will be exploring the role of indigenous agents in imperialism throughout Africa and Asia. In my case, I will be discussing the role of kupapa in New Zealand history. I hope to write more about this later on, but meanwhile, by way of providing some insight into my main arguments, what follows is the abstract to my paper. +++++++++ The term ‘collaboration’, used in its historical sense, carries unquestionably pejorative connotations. One thinks immediately of those who collaborated with the Nazi regime during the Second World War. Depending on one’s cultural context, the Campbell’s role at Glencoe might also come to mind, or any number of other examples of groups seen as acting in a manner contrary to the national interest. In the New Zealand context, the label i...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage Seminar: Please join us on Wednesday 3 April, 12.15pm (just after Easter) at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, L4 ASB House, 101 The Terrace, to hear Professor Geoff Rice on: Christchurch 's Temple of Truth: Religion, Sex and Fraud in the 1890s .   Christchurch in the 1890s was visited by the extraordinary phenomenon of a much-married American evangelist, Arthur Bently Worthington, who proceeded to set up a new cult of revivalist Christianity. He gathered a large and enthusiastic following, whose liberal donations enabled him to build an impressive ‘Temple of Truth’ on Latimer Square. However, opposition from the established churches and rumours of sexual scandals, together with a controversial change of ‘wives’, made him flee to Tasmania. Amazingly, he returned and tried to make a comeback, but only caused public disorder and the only time the Riot Act has been read in Christchurch. This illustrated talk is...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage Seminar: We're delighted to invite you to hear Ewan Morris at our first public history seminar in 2013 at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, L4 ASB House, 101 The Terrace, Wellington at 12.15pm on Wednesday 6 March. Māori Monument or Pākehā Propaganda? The Memorial to Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui , Whanganui Statue in memory of Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui , also known as Major Kemp, at Wanganui , 1912. Image courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference Number: 1/1-021036-G In 1912 a memorial to the rangatira and soldier Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui (Major Kemp) was erected in Pākaitore / Moutoa Gardens, Whanganui . It consists of a statue, four bronze panels depicting battles in which Te Keepa was involved, and eight separate panels of text. The memorial was the subject of a series of court cases in 1913-14, resulting from the unwillingness of Te Keepa’s sister to pay for a statue that she felt did not properly ...

The biennial New Zealand Historical Association conference is being held in Dunedin from Wednesday 20 November until Friday 22 November. The conference organizing committee is looking forward to welcoming a large and energetic group of historians, archivists and librarians, teachers, curators, and heritage professionals as well as the historically curious. We have an excellent line-up of keynote speakers: Professor Elizabeth Elbourne (McGill University), author of Blood Ground: Colonialism, Missions and the Contest for Christianity in the Cape Colony and Britain, 1799-1853 ; Professor Maya Jasanoff (Harvard University), the author of Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750-1850 and Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World ; and Professor Henry Yu (University of British Columbia), author of Thinking Orientals: Migration, Contact and Exoticism in Modern America . Associate Professor Damon Salesa (University of Auckland), whose Racial C...