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What I’m Reading – VLOG #3 – Aotearoa New Zealand Histories framework
An outline of the new Aotearoa New Zealand Histories curriculum, and some critique of language and content. Links: Content Overview | Aotearoa NZ’s Histories (education.govt.nz) Te Tiriti o Waitangi / School Journal Story Library / Instructional Series / English – ESOL – Literacy Online website – Instructional Series (tki.org.nz)
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What I’m Reading – VLOG #2
Here’s the second instalment of my blog talking about what I’m reading and my reflections on the material: this week continues reflections on Maori peacemaking and the effects of Christian missionary work on peacemaking methods and opportunities. Books: Angela Ballara, Taua (Penguin, 2003); Ross Calman, Life of Te Rauparaha (AUP, 2020); and L Rogers, ed.,…
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What I’m reading – VLOG #1
I’ve started a Video Log to talk about what I’m reading and what I’m thinking about in the history of Aotearoa New Zealand and the British world and empire.
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Legacies of Empire #1: academic debates
Recent conversations about the good, bad, ugly and indifferent legacies of the British Empire… The debate about the legacies of the British empire does not go away. Various academic projects are devoted to it, while public discourse usually responds reactively to contemporary issues and debates such as Black Lives Matter. This blog series will highlight…
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Interview with Bradford Haami about my PhD thesis
Recorded in September 2021 In September 2021, I was interviewed on Zoom by Brad Haami, historian and published author and Pou Amorangi/Māori Director and lecturer at Laidlaw College, Henderson. The interview covered the following subjects or themes: the influence of the Biblical texts on Māori language and thought, and social and political structures. the influence…
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Te Rauparaha & Son.
I’m doing some work on the correspondence and recorded speeches of Tamihana Te Rauparaha, son of Ngāti Toa rangatira, Te Rauparaha. The father has the more historical fame (or infamy) attached to his name – in part for conquering deeds of the 1820s-30s in the Kāpiti Coast region and in Te Wai Pounamu. However the…
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Thesis writing … and ‘the romance of the archive’
Well it’s been some considerable time since I’ve posted. A principal reason for this is that I’ve been focussed on writing this past year, and will be for the forseeable future… But I continue to make fascinating discoveries archivally. I sighted properly for the first time today the draft version of He Wakaputanga o Te…
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Review of Andrew Sharp – Samuel Marsden bio
I recently had published a review of Andrew Sharp’s significantly-proportioned appraisal of Samuel Marsden’s life and ‘opinions’: in the New Zealand Journal of History, vol 51, no 1 (2017), pp 216-217: Carpenter – review of A Sharp – Samuel Marsden (Auckland, 2016)
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Alfred Brown’s library – Te Papa, Tauranga
I recently spent a couple of days in the library of this important Church Missionary Society missionary in New Zealand. What I was struck by: the striking aesthetic of this nineteenth century missionary’s book collection; the way in which prayer books, hymnals, and bibles – including Maori language versions of these – were given as gifts between close friends and…
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Thomas Carlyle on … Democracy
The enigmatic Victorian writer, Thomas Carlyle, who was inspired by German Romanticism, wrote some pretty fascinating lines on ‘democracy’ and ‘government’ in his Past and Present (1843): Democracy, which means despair of finding any Heroes to govern you, and contented putting-up with the want of them, alas, thou too, mein Lieber [German: my dear], seest well…