Kiwis Against Possums: A Critical Analysis of Anti-Possum Rhetoric in Aotearoa New Zealand

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Potts
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
The Past ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Economic Assets

AbstractThe history of brushtail possums in New Zealand is bleak. The colonists who forcibly transported possums from their native Australia to New Zealand in the nineteenth century valued them as economic assets, quickly establishing a profitable fur industry. Over the past 80 or so years, however, New Zealand has increasingly scapegoated possums for the unanticipated negative impact their presence has had on the native environment and wildlife. Now this marsupial—blamed and despised—suffers the most miserable of reputations and is extensively targeted as the nation's number one pest. This paper examines anti-possum rhetoric in New Zealand, identifying the operation of several distinct—yet related—discourses negatively situating the possum as (a) an unwanted foreign invader and a threat to what makes New Zealand unique; (b) the subject of revenge and punishment (ergo the deserving recipient of exploitation and commodification); and (c) recognizably “cute, but...” merely a pest and therefore unworthy of compassion. This paper argues that the demonization of possums in New Zealand is overdetermined, extreme, and unhelpfully entangled in notions of patriotism and nationalism.

Toleration and the Cromwellian Protectorate

1984 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 199-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blair Worden
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Religious Toleration ◽  
Moral Foundations ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Late Nineteenth

Toleration is a Victorian subject, a monument to Victorian liberalism. ‘To us who have been educated in the nineteenth century’, proclaimed F. A. Inderwick in his book on the Interregnum, ‘any declaration inconsistent with religious toleration would be abhorrent and inadmissible’. His sentiment would not have seemed controversial to a generation raised on such best-selling works as Buckle’s History of Civilisation in England and Lecky’s History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism. It may be that the Victorians, enquiring into the origins of the toleration which they had achieved, were prone to congratulate the past on becoming more like the present. Yet in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when interest in the subject was perhaps at its peak, we can also detect, in the statements on toleration of a Creighton or a Figgis, a fear that the present might become more like the past: that materialism and religious indifference might destroy the moral foundations of toleration, and foster a new barbarism which would persecute Christians afresh.

scholarly journals Heather’s Homestead/Marotahei: The Invasion of the Waikato and Ways of Knowing Our Past in Aotearoa New Zealand

Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Hugh Campbell ◽  
William Kainana Cuthers
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Relational Ontology ◽  
Pivotal Moments ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Personal Histories ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Historical Moment

The British invasion of the Māori region of the Waikato in 1863 was one of the most pivotal moments in the colonisation of Aotearoa New Zealand. It has been the subject of multiple authoritative histories and sits at the centre of historical discussions of sovereignty, colonial politics and the dire consequences of colonisation. This article approaches this complex historical moment through the personal histories of a Māori/Pākehā homestead located at the political and geographic epicentre of the invasion. This mixed whanau/family provides the opportunity to explore a more kinship-based ontology of the invisible lines of influence that influenced particular actions before and during the invasion. It does so by mobilising two genealogical approaches, one by author Hugh Campbell which explores the British/Pākehā individuals involved in this family and uses formal documentation and wider historical writing to explain key dynamics—but also to expose a particular limitation of reliance on Western ontologies and formal documentation alone to explain histories of colonisation. In parallel to this approach, the other author—William Kainana Cuthers—uses both formal/Western and a Māori/Pasifika relational ontology of enquiry, and in doing so, allows both authors to open up a set of key insights into this pivotal moment in the history of Aotearoa New Zealand and into the micro-dynamics of colonisation.

Time and the Calendar in Nineteenth - Century Asante: An Exploratory Essay

1980 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 179-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.C. McCaskie
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
The Past ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Technological Competence ◽  
Fixed Base ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Literate Culture ◽  
Literate Society

Historians recognize that the perception and organization of time are fundamental to the internal ordering of all human cultures. However, the history of pre-colonial Africa has largely been written to conform to the calendrical rhythms of an imposed European chronology. Regret over this discrepancy has been tempered by recognition of the very real problems involved in rectifying it. Chief among these is the fact that linear chronology per se -- in purist interpretation requiring numbered series derived from a fixed base, and therefore the mnemonic support of a graphic record -- is beyond the technological competence of any pre-literate society. However, the inability to maintain chronologically precise memorials of the past by no means precludes the existence of sophisticated mechanisms for ordering and dividing temps courant. That is, a historical sense disordered or dissolved through the agency of unassisted, and thus all too fallible, human memory may happily co-exist with an exact (and often symbolically charged) calendrical time. Broadly speaking, the foregoing was the situation obtaining-in Asante in the nineteenth century. Time in nineteenth-century Asante, in a number of its aspects, is the subject of this paper.The establishment of a historical chronology in nineteenth-century Asante was severely inhibited, and in ultimate terms negated, by the absence of a literate culture. It is the case that rare and isolated individuals like oheneba Owusu Ansa (ca. 1822-1884) and oheneba Kwasi Boakye (1827-1904) acquired in foreign exile skills in European languages. However, Akan Twi was not effectively reduced to writing until the mid-nineteenth century, and then not in Asante. Thus, at the time of the British usurpation in 1896 Asante was still a pre-literate culture.

scholarly journals Kākahu and gown: The incorporation of kākahu into academical dress in Aotearoa New Zealand with an example of a kākahu worn at a City University of New York graduation ceremony in 2006 - an interview with Sarah Smith

Te Kaharoa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Byron Rangiwai
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New York ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Educational Success ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Educational Initiatives ◽  
History Of ◽  
Newspaper Articles

Evolved from ancient clothing, kākahu or traditional/contemporary Māori garments made from natural or synthetic fibres, or a combination of both, are to Māori, a symbol of honour and prestige. Within the context of academical dress, kākahu may represent to the wearer, ancestry, achievement, and educational success. While the history of academical dress in Aotearoa New Zealand clearly begins, as Noel Cox’s book Academical dress in New Zealand identifies, with the establishment of universities in the nineteenth century, the point at which kākahu were incorporated into academical dress is less clear. The author’s suspicion, based on increased Māori political activism from the 1970s, the explosive growth of Māori-driven educational initiatives in the 1980s, and some newspaper articles commenting on Māori and graduation/academical dress in the 1990s, is that kākahu were incorporated into academical dress in the late 1980s and1990s. This article will discuss the incorporation of kākahu into academical dress in Aotearoa New Zealand. This article will also include an example of a kākahu worn at a City University of New York graduation ceremony in 2006.

Prehistoric Agriculture in Britain

Antiquity ◽  
1927 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Cecil Curwen
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Prehistoric Agriculture ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Human Use

The importance of the part played by agriculture in the economic history of our country is sometimes apt to be forgotten, for its place has, during the past hundred years, been largely taken by manufacture. Down to the beginning of the nineteenth century the bulk of the population still made a living by tilling the fields, just as their fathers had done from time immemorial. It becomes, therefore, a matter of great interest to trace the beginnings and growth of agriculture in our country before the dawn of history.Agriculture may be taken in its broadest sense to signify the artificial growth of plants for human use, as opposed to the gathering of wild products, but the term may also be narrowed down to cover only the cultivation of farinaceous seeds which we call cereals. It is chiefly in the latter sense that the subject will be discussed here, but it must be remembered that the nature of the evidence does not altogether allow of such a distinction.

scholarly journals Mana mātātuhi

2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Johnson Witehira
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Visual Communication ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Visual Communication Design ◽  
Communication Design ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
History Of

This article follows the growth of written communication by Aotearoa New Zealand's indigenous Maori. The research focuses on nineteenth century developments, linking four significant areas of Maori writing--tuhi rerehua (calligraphy), tuhi motumotu (printing), tuhi waitohu (lettering), and tatai kupu toi (typography)--into a continuous whakapapa (genealogy) of what might be described as hoahoa whakairoiro Maori. Through a number of fascinating case studies, the research sheds light on the distinctive history of Maori lettering and typography. While some of these subjects have been explored separately within the literature of Maori cultural history, none have connected these practices into a definitive Maori tradition of creating and using letterforms for the purpose of visual communication. Importantly, this work also introduces a number of new kupu Maori relating to Maori visual communication design. For the indigenous Māori of Aotearoa New Zealand, written language remains a relatively new method for communicating and storing information.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurit Yaari
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Jewish Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Future State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
State Of Israel

This chapter examines the lack of continuous tradition of the art of the theatre in the history of Jewish culture. Theatre as art and institution was forbidden for Jews during most of their history, and although there were plays written in different times and places during the past centuries, no tradition of theatre evolved in Jewish culture until the middle of the nineteenth century. In view of this absence, the author discusses the genesis of Jewish theatre in Eastern Europe and in Eretz-Yisrael (The Land of Israel) since the late nineteenth century, encouraged by the Jewish Enlightenment movement, the emergence of Jewish nationalism, and the rebirth of Hebrew as a language of everyday life. Finally, the chapter traces the development of parallel strands of theatre that preceded the Israeli theatre and shadowed the emergence of the political infrastructure of the future State of Israel.

Racism and silencing in the media in Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
pp. 117718012110154
Author(s):  
Liana MacDonald ◽  
Adreanne Ormond
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Media Industry ◽  
Racial Discourse ◽  
European Descent ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Zealanders

Racism in the Aotearoa New Zealand media is the subject of scholarly debate that examines how Māori (Indigenous Peoples of New Zealand) are broadcast in a negative and demeaning light. Literature demonstrates evolving understandings of how the industry places Pākehā (New Zealanders primarily of European descent) interests at the heart of broadcasting. We offer new insights by arguing that the media industry propagates a racial discourse of silencing that sustains widespread ignorance of the ways that Pākehā sensibilities mediate society. We draw attention to a silencing discourse through one televised story in 2018. On-screen interactions reproduce and safeguard a harmonious narrative of settler–Indigenous relations that support ignorance and denial of the structuring force of colonisation, and the Television Code of Broadcasting Practice upholds colour-blind perceptions of discrimination and injustice through liberal rhetoric. These processes ensure that the media industry is complicit in racism and the ongoing oppression of Indigenous peoples.

scholarly journals Asexuals negotiate the ‘onslaught of the heteronormative’

Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072199338
Author(s):  
Tiina Vares
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
The Past ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Research Gap

Although theorizing and research about asexuality have increased in the past decade, there has been minimal attention given to the emotional impact that living in a hetero- and amato-normative cultural context has on those who identify as asexual. In this paper, I address this research gap through an exploration of the ‘work that emotions do’ (Sara Ahmed) in the everyday lives of asexuals. The study is based on 15 individual interviews with self-identified asexuals living in Aotearoa New Zealand. One participant in the study used the phrase, ‘the onslaught of the heteronormative’ to describe how he experienced living as an aromantic identified asexual in a hetero- and amato-normative society. In this paper I consider what it means and feels like to experience aspects of everyday life as an ‘onslaught’. In particular, I look at some participants’ talk about experiencing sadness, loss, anger and/or shame as responses to/effects of hetero- and amato-normativity. However, I suggest that these are not only ‘negative’ emotional responses but that they might also be productive in terms of rethinking and disrupting hetero- and amato-normativity.

scholarly journals Rethinking nineteenth-century literary culture: British worlds, southern latitudes and hemispheric methods

2021 ◽  
pp. 002198942098201
Author(s):  
Sarah Comyn ◽  
Porscha Fermanis
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Literary Culture ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Indigenous Studies ◽  
Literary Cultures ◽  
History Of ◽  
Literary Canons ◽  
Methodological Position

Drawing on hemispheric, oceanic, and southern theory approaches, this article argues for the value of considering the nineteenth-century literary cultures of the southern settler colonies of Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa from within an interconnected frame of analysis. First, because of their distinctive historical and structural conditions; second, because of the density of their interregional networks and relations across intersecting oceanic spaces; and third, because of the long history of racialized imperialist imaginaries of the south. This methodological position rethinks current approaches to “British world” studies in two important ways: first, by decoupling the southern settler colonies from studies of settler colonialism in North America; and second, by rebalancing its metropolitan and northern locus by considering south-south networks and relations across a complex of southern islands, oceans, and continents. Without suggesting either that imperial intercultural exchanges with Britain are unimportant or that there is a culturally homogenous body of pan-southern writing, we argue that nineteenth-century literary culture from colonial Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa — what we call a “southern archive” — can provide a counterbalance to northern biases and provide new purchase on nation-centred literary paradigms — one that reveals not just south-south transnational exchanges and structural homologies between southern genres, themes, and forms, but also allows us to acknowledge the important challenges to foundational accounts of national literary canons initiated by southern theory and Indigenous studies scholars.

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