Historiography
Belich – “Historical debate in New Zealand needs some crash starting”
Agency/ fatal impact?
Ian Pool (on statistics of Maori dying out) – Statistics that were based on unfair generalisations that utilized statistics from the Northland region”
Michael King – “Maori settlements continued to be built around family and hapu membership”
James Belich (Maori agency) – Argues that iwi’s actively engaged with Pakeha intrusions into New Zealand. Maori were agents of their own change. Adapted Pakeha ideas and goods to suit their own situation.
“Maori multiplied (the weight of Europe) through their own agency”
Paul Monin (Dual Agency) – Book: ‘This is my place’ Hauraki region Maori were active in their own economic development. Maori and Pakeha working together
Claudia Orange (A workable accord) – Need for each other before 1840 led to a ‘workable accord’ which had its ultimate expression in the treaty of Waitangi.
Ranginui Walker – Argues that resistance was central to Maori interaction with Pakeha.
Ann Salmond (Interpretative encounters) – Weakness of history of this period is that it is reliant on Pakeha accounts. Maori exercised a considerable degree of agency over how they saw pakeha pursuing their own agenda.
Gordon Parsonson (Dual colonisation) – Maori resettled NZ during the contact period. Iwi fought and re-located. North Taranaki Maori followed Te Rauparaha south and pushed the Muaupoko hapu out of Waikanae and went on to over-run Moriori on the Chathams
Evelyn Stokes (Maori Control of the environment) – Up to 1840 Maori in Northland retained control of their land, resources and people. Maori customary law – Maori controlled the environment. “Maori and Pakeha lived in different worlds, barely impinging on each other” – After 1840 Maori lost control and suffered from the alienation of land and resources.
Belich on the Musket wars: “The musket wars were the largest conflict ever fought on New Zealand soil. They killed more than World War One, perhaps about 2000. They involved most tribes and caused substantial social and economic dislocation, and are therefore key evidence in favour of fatal impact..”
Harrison Wright (1950’s) - War weariness and disease and disease of Maori
“Potatoes helped feed long range expeditions, to an extent limited by carrying capacity, and more importantly helped replace absent warriors in the home economy…’Potato Wars’ might therefore be more accurate that ‘Musket Wars’.
Michael King on the 1835 declaration of independence: ‘united tribes of New Zealand’ were only the northern tribes and they were currently at war with each other.
Owens – Key to missionary success was the death of Hongi Hika
Judith Binny (in reply to Owens) – Maori chose to convert to Christianity for their own reasons….role of missionaries as peace makers were important
Belich – Maori convert themselves, changed Christianity to suit Maori also
Eg Papahurahia faith – worshipped a serpent, and celebrated the Sabbath on Saturday not Sunday
On the Treaty of Waitangi
– Paul Moon argues that British when the treaty was signed had no intention of ruling Maori but rather wanted to protect them from pakeha.
Ruth Ross – The treaty was “hastily and inexpertly drawn up, ambiguous and contradictory in its content, chaotic in its execution”
Claudia Orange – Importance of partnership between Maori and Pakeha before 1840. A “workable accord” was developing between the two races. The treaty was designed to protect the relationship that existed between the two races in response to new threats to that relationship”
On the Northern War
Belich – Pakeha did not win a decisive battle so they didn’t win the war. Neither chief lost any land and British flag at Kororareka was not re-erected until both Heke and Kawiti were dead
Military historians – British army garrisoned to the south of Auckland, not the North after the northern war – concerned about Waikato not the North
On Kingitanga
John Gorst
- Te Whero Whero is old and a cannibal
- Pakeha didn’t know much about Kingitanga except that it was “land holding”. Nothing about Te Whero Whero’s “foreign or domestic policy”
- Contrast between material poverty and mental attainment of those in Kingitanga
“Under a rude form of government they had done more for themselves than we had ever done for them”
Michael King
- British thought Kingitanga equals disloyalty but supporters saw kingitanga and British authority as complimentary.
- Seen as a land holding movement by Pakeha
David Green (Frontier of Dreams)
- Advocated by young literate radical chiefs
- Te Whero Whero reluctant to take crown
J Cowan (1922)
- Kingitanga not set up with war in mind
- Emphasis on British law and order
- Many iwi such as te Arawa believed that the Treaty of Waitangi and kingitanga movement were mutually exclusive
- Rewi Maniapoto turns Kingitanga “bad”/warlike
Rangiru Walker (1990)
There was “Maori determination to retain what [land] remained”
- British law and order was failing Maori so they set up their own king
- Separatist because that was better
Kohimarama Conference
[Walker] Chiefs present believed that the Treaty guaranteed their Rangatiratanga
Maori promised to abide by the treaty, Gore Browne did not.
Maori still had a different understanding
Land Loss
It “widened the fracture in the NZ dream” - Brooking
Maori Representation ACT 1867
Initially all 4 seats went to Kupapa – “They got their reward” – Belich
“Had Maori had the 20 seats they deserved (population) they might have been able to achieve something” – Walker
The Fairburn thesis
Believed early Europeans lived in an atomised society, there was no community
Claims that had they believed in communities they would not have left their communities in Europe in the first place.
Uses statistics that show European settlers were transient.
Rollo Arnold – Communities built on the ship on the way over
W H Oliver – Wrote books condemning the Fairburn thesis
Caroline Daley’s book ‘Girls and Women, Men and Boys’ states that women settle down a community, looked at a case study in Taradale
Belich – Europeans lived in communities that were held together by those who weren’t transient. Sits on the fence.
Fairburn’s book ‘Out of heart and hope’
Based on James Cox – Bachelor, labourer travelled around New Zealand, lived below the poverty line.
Based on only one man, not necessarily representative, questions about the comparison between NZ living standards and the world’s living standards
Jack McCullogh’s diary – came to NZ at the same time as Cox – “grew to society”, became a journalist
Women
Fairburn – Atomisation delayed these social issues coming to light
Jock Phillips – Sees suffrage as a threat – its designed to play down the vices of men
Raewyn Dalziel – ‘help meet’ thesis – women just wanted to be rewarded for their colonial help – they didn’t want any real power – the gaining of the vote is a recognition and extension of the importance of the women’s roles as wife, mother and colonial help meet. The campaign was an end in itself and an instrument of wider change in womens roles
Quotes from Dalziel about ‘help meet’ thesis
“intense emphasis on womens role within the home”
“NZ women were not inclined to challenge this emphasis”
Women were rewarded for being “the colonial help-meet” because in NZ they had a “wider range of duties”. Only 20% worked outside the home. 40% did in England
Jock Phillips – Alcohol was an important ritual of the ‘mateship’ culture
Patricia Grimshaw [sufferage] – The campaign was seen as an expression by women of a desire to improve their wider status and role. The vote arose out of a feminist wave of political activity at the time; lobbying politicians and campaigning for a radical change to women’s lives
William Pemper Reaves – women getting the vote in 1893 was a fortuitous result of the temperance movement. Just another means to promote temperance.
Patricia Grimshaw [1972] – Temperance and suffrage were two different issues but temperance was a springboard for suffrage reasons include: ‘rawness’ of NZ, lack of an opposing lobby group, no conservative inertia – no conservatives arguing for the status quo, lack of party politics
Keith Sinclair – “Progress to wowards equal status dreamt by the sufferagists” – guilty of “presentism” (1979)
W H Oliver – “presentism” in post 1970 historiography is one of the bias of modern history
Women in society: Some Case Studies
Bad
Israel Button – She trained and raced horses very successfully until 1896 when new rules in the industry forced her out of the club.
Marion Stewart – Innovative poultry farmer who published articles about her methods under her initials – no one would take any notice of a women!
Mary Isabella Lee (1871 – 1939) – Made a bad marriage decision, he was illiterate, lazy and an alcoholic. She worked for low wages as a sewer
Good
Ethel Benjamin – Was the countries first female lawyer. She had huge problems getting there after being excluded from the Otago Law library and society.
Kate Edger – First NZ women to get a university degree – her husband was involved with volunteer work and she was the principle of Nelson College for Girls – she was the chief bread winner!
Elizabeth Yates – First female mayor in the British Empire – of Onehunga. She was elected in 1893 and governed an all male council who block voted her!
Grace Hirst – New Plymouth loan shark – lent out money on short term loans at an interest rate of 15%
The depression
Tom Brooking – “Greatest Estate of all” was the large tracts of Maori land in the North Island – could not sell land to gain profit in the 1880’s
Belich – it might not technically ave been a depression but “something big did happen” – “long stagnation”
Brooking – Even though it might not have been a depression people at the time thought it was and this shaped their experiences and led to the rise of the liberals
Gold
The gold fields
Lifestyles of the gold miners key evidence of ‘a man’s country – Jock Phillips
BUT Auckland suburbs had more women than men in 1881 and continuity of family mining where multiple family members worked the same claim
A “source of petty violence” – Fairburn
“remarkably orderly” - Brooking
The Economy
Gold was a “badly needed shot in the arm” – Brooking
“Southerners prospered” – Sinclair
“Magnified and transformed Otago” – Belich
Socially
“human tsunami” of Chinese coming to NZ
“foot lose men unmarried or leaving their wives behind” – J Phillips
“Bitter resentment” towards Chinese – Brooking
Idea that NZ history was “strained” through Sydney first
The Liberals
Liberal policies were “coercive and punitive” – Brooking
Liberal laws a “legal jungle’ which trapped Maori – Sinclair
Liberals had a “destructive and alienating policy” – Walker
Land loss “widened the francture in the NZ dream” – Brooking
“large scale land purchase was more effective an agent of colonisation than war” - Brooking
Case Studies
Book – ‘Taken in’ by the pseudonym ‘hopeful’
Claudia Orange: Orange implies that the interdependency created prior to 1840 meant that the Treaty of Waitangi became a ‘workable accord’ between two parties. This argument supports the agency thesis.
Ranginui Walker: Walker believes that Maori interaction with Europeans must be seen through the ‘resistance’ lens. It was Maori resistance to European domination that defines the relationship between the two peoples.
Keith Sinclair: Argues that it is wrong to anachronistically attribute the suffrage movement with the ideas or goals of present day thinkers. This is called ‘presentism’. He would ague that women’s suffrage was not about equality as understood today at all.
Paul Moon: Paul Moon’s speciality is the treaty period. His big argument favours the ‘humanitarian motives’ that led to the Treaty being introduced. It was designed to protect Maori, not undermine them,
Erik Olssen: Olssen uses the Gold mining communities as evidence of developing connections in opposition to Fairburn’s atomisation theory. Olssen argues that even in 19th Century gold mining communities there was a high level of co-operation and community development. He points out that people obeyed gold field laws and rules, worked in family groups and often returned to the same claim. There was a strong sense of equality and mateship.
Tom Brooking: Tom Brooking has questioned the value of this new weapon in the heat of battle. Trained warriors armed with traditional hand held weapons like taiaha and patu were more effective than those armed with muskets, as when Ngati Whatua defeated Nga Puhi in 1807. The musket was awkward, slow to reload and unreliable when under pressure over more than 50 metres. On a large scale it could guarantee success but Brooking believed that the musket's greatest value was as a mechanism for utu when executing prisoners. Tom Brooking believes the Musket Wars coincided with a phase of a competitive Maori society seeking readjustments in the face of new and much deadlier technology.
Gordon Parsonson: Gordon Parsonson (Dual colonisation) Argues that during the musket wars Maori ‘re-settled’ NZ. In a way this argument legitimises European colonisation as it seeks to suggest that Maori had lost their original position within NZ. This was internal migration. It coincided with contact. (e.g. North Taranaki Maori followed Te Rauparaha south and pushed the Muaupoko hapu out of Waikanae and went on to over-run Moriori on the Chathams). This is potentially a ‘fatal impact’ argument.
Judith Binney: a recurring theme of her work is individuals at odds with their society or their times. She looks at characters like Te Kooti and missionaries etc and tries to show them as people at odds with society etc. In regard to conversion, she argues for agency ‘Maori chose to convert to Christianity for their own reasons….role of missionaries as peace makers were important
Giselle Byrnes: (too keen on de-constructing 'national identity', has to trample over past historiography?) perhaps…
Evelyn Stokes: Argues that there were two separate worlds that ultimately began to collide…Up to 1840 Maori in Northland retained control of their land, resources and people. Maori customary law – Maori controlled the environment. “Maori and Pakeha lived in different worlds, barely impinging on each other” – After 1840 Maori lost control and suffered from the alienation of land and resources.
Oliver: Argues that ‘presentism’ is too prevalent in Historiography
Jock Phillips: Men outnumbered women for the whole of the century because men were more likely to immigrate to a frontier society. Therefore it took a while for the birth rate to kick in and for the population of women to increase. This led to a strong distinct culture of ‘mate-ship’ involving strong bonds and rituals involving drinking, swearing, yarning etc. PROBLEM: Theory ignores the fact that there were parts of the country that were dominated by women. For example: the suburbs of Auckland.