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What I’m Reading – VLOG#6
This week I revive my “What I’m Reading” blog. I highlight an amazing text that forces us to dive into the complicated picture of customary land interests and the questionable progress of colonial settlement into the Rangitikei-Manawatū region in the late 1860s. Text highlighted: Thomas C. Williams, The Manawatū Purchase Completed, or, the Treaty of…
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from the lecture room #1
I have been enjoying creating content for my course on the history of Christianity in AotearoaNZ. The week before last I touched on the amazing life of Tama-ki-Hikurangi Kawepō – baptized Rēnata (Leonard) at the Church Missionary Society in Northland in the early 1840s. I discussed Rēnata Kawepō in relation to his CMS colleague, the…
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Teaching #AotearoaNZhistories
While preparing lectures to teach an amazing course on Christianity in Aotearoa, there is no shortage of phenomenal books and resources (including online) now available. New Zealand authors and publishers have done fantastically well in recent times re Aotearoa NZ history. Here’s just a snapshot of a few – on my desk today:
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#From the Archives, no. 3
Henry Williams’ account of the spread of Christianity like wildfire along Kāpiti Coast under teacher Ripahau; and the challenge of working in parallel with Wesleyan missionaries! Henry Williams to CMS, 23 January 1840, Paihia, CMS CN/O94, NLA (original and typescript):
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Some brief notes on Christianity and te Tiriti o Waitangi
3 February 2023 Christian (Protestant Evangelical) missions to New Zealand began with Samuel Marsden and chief Ruatara in 1814. By the late 1830s, Europeans were trying to purchase large tracts of land, and colonization companies were sending ships of settlers to the country. The British Government stepped in, with James Stephen at the Colonial Office…
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Selwyn Lecture by Dr. Samuel Carpenter
St John’s Theological College/Hoani Tapu te Kaikauwhau i te Rongopai, November 2nd, 2022. Abstract The Paihia mission settlement was a site of revolutionary change as Māori and missionaries forged a new culture at the intersection of British and indigenous worlds. In this lecture, Dr Carpenter focused on the ‘life-ways’ of this mixed settlement, describing how…
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#From the Archives, no. 2
In writing a Concise Life of Henry Williams, I am busy tracking down some critical primary sources. One important set of these are the journals of his uncle, the musician and composer extraordinaire, John Marsh. He kept a detailed and lively dairy, which was then turned into a fuller narrative Journal; all 37 volumes of…
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#From the Archives
Exciting to discover today various sources new to me, on the amazing digital collection of CMS records on the National Library Australia website (https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1350490952/findingaid?digitised=y) – only recently digitized. One record I definitely hadn’t seen before was Henry Williams offering himself for missionary service, in January 1820. This is about five years after he was discharged…
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What I’m Reading – VLOG#5
Correspondence of Wiremu Tamehana, AJHR 1865: AtoJs Online — Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives — 1865 Session I — E-11 RETURN OF THE CORRESPONDENCE SIGNED OR PURPORTING TO BE SIGNED BY WILLIAM THOMPSON TE WAHAROA, ETC. (natlib.govt.nz) Tony Ballantyne, NZJH, 2011: New Zealand Journal of History – document (auckland.ac.nz)
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What I’m Reading – VLOG #4 – Interpreting te Tiriti o Waitangi
After my post last week critiquing some content on the treaty from the new Aotearoa New Zealand Histories curriculum, I was asked to explain my take on the treaty translation issue. I continue to do historical research and writing on the texts and contexts of the treaty of Waitangi (or te Tiriti o Waitangi), and…