On the lovely evening of Wednesday 30 October, I had the great opportunity to attend the author talk for Michael Belgrave’s Becoming Aotearoa: A New History of New Zealand at Scorpio Books, one of our greatest assets for books in Christchurch (apart from the Christchurch City Libraries, obviously).
There was a good crowd ready and eager to hear more about this great looking book, and after an introduction from our hosts at Scorpio, our emcee for the evening, Associate Professor Lyndon Fraser (familiar to many a history student who studied at UC, including myself and several CCL colleagues) got things underway.
Michael began by joking we would have the opportunity to hear “what the book is really about” and offered some kind words for his editor, Anna Rogers, of Massey University Press who was in attendance. He introduced Lyndon as “an expert on Irish history and the odd” (very true), we got underway.
The first question asked what was different about this book compared with the last big general history of Aotearoa by Michael King in 2003. Michael answered by focusing especially on how he was able to build upon the work of many historians since 2003 to create a new general history.
A notion of 'us', and national identity
We then got to the first big question – why? Lyndon commented on how big the book is (it really is quite a hefty thing), and how he was impressed that Michael had taken on the project of a new general history which is a big challenge for any historian.
Michael answered that some of the motivation was the Christchurch Mosque attacks in 2019 and seeing some of the responses reflecting on Aotearoa’s history as something simply of ‘white supremacy’ that needed challenging. Overall, this project began in 2008 and soon broadened and took on a life of its own and it was not at all what Michael had intended – the book evolved as our history evolved. 2000-19 was one of the blander periods of our history. Transformations since 2019 also meant a new fractious history with the big picture being lost, and a desire to find patterns for understanding disparate and changing things.
Lyndon then asked about the title of the book, and how it came about. Michael answered that “A History of Us” was the working title, building on the rhetoric of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the aftermath of the Christchurch attacks, but this had become redundant. He was inspired by reflecting on his work with the Waitangi Tribunal, work with Kāi Tahu, and visiting the Christchurch area since 1987 and seeing how Kāi Tahu have embedded themselves in the physical landscape of Christchurch in a way that simply wasn’t there in 1987. This reflected a bigger theme of the place of Māori in the public space in Aotearoa shifting dramatically in the last 40 years, and reflecting on how, in his view, the history of Aotearoa is one of a Māori search for engagement and equality, but on Māori terms and this has gone back and forth throughout our history.
Lyndon mentioned that in terms of historians in this country, this kind of project is not the norm and might even be frowned on, with ideas of nation being a bad thing and work framed as ‘anti-nationalist’. Michael responded by that when looking at the last 200 years of our history, we cannot ignore the ideas of nation and nationalism, and what has been striking about our modern culture – that it exists in its diversity and internationalism, giving the example of how Peter Jackson’s films helped change our own vision and sense of our landscape.
Central arguments and social contracts
Moving onto the central arguments of the book, Lyndon said that he was struck by how Michael described Aotearoa’s history in a series of social contracts.
Michael responded that he needed to look for things that made New Zealand different from other settler-colonial societies. One key thing that made us different was that we were “so damn law-abiding" - until 2019, there were very few examples of politically motivated killings here, and that even with violence between settlers and Māori, it was rarely the same kind of indiscriminate violence seen in other colonies, especially after 1840. A key part of this was that Māori retained more power and ability to resist marginalisation that other indigenous peoples did not and assert this power and engage with colonial society and the outside world – something “so exciting about New Zealand history”. Most importantly, the colonial and New Zealand state always had to frame and justify policies as benefiting Māori (no matter how absurd or connected from Māori wishes).
The major social contracts that Michael identifies started forming in the 1880s-90s with votes for women as one example. These social contracts were in part fulfilled during the 1930s with the emergence of the welfare state and began to fray from the 1960s. The ‘revolution’ of the 1980s and 1990s could happen because of the collapse of these social contracts and create the Aotearoa of today.
Lyndon asked when did openness change? Michael’s response was that the openness of the pre-1840 and 1840 Aotearoa was as much an interest in a Māori world, and Māori desires to engage in the world. The early settlements were scattered and disparate and their size meant there was no room for sectarianism or exclusivity. The big changes come through the 1870s and 1880s with the exclusion of Chinese and restriction of migration. By the 1920s, Aotearoa was a very closed society which did not change until after 1945, and the modern sense of openness is very much a full circle.
Histories within histories and transformational change
Lyndon asked how Michael grappled with the challenges of including specific histories when writing a general history, giving the example of sport. Michael said that one of the big challenges with a general history is that some parts you will know really well, but others much less and that he wasn’t able to do read as widely as he needed.
Lyndon asked about the question of religion and how this has changed in New Zealand society. Michael noted that an interesting dynamic with Aotearoa was that the politics of religion here were different, and we saw greater religious compromise between communities – something that if “he had thought of that before, I would have put in the book!”
The last question was about the future as Lyndon asked whether the book makes Michael hopeful for the future. Michael replied that “our role as historians is not to be prophets”, but that some of the paths of transformation will not be easily turned back. He also thought the 1980s/90s created uncertainties that have not been dealt with and raised questions about what might happen in a system where significant change has become difficult – might there be a new transformational moment?
Māori, COVID, and inclusion
After a fascinating discussion, the floor was open to the audience. In response to an audience question around whether there was a dichotomy between Māori and Western ideas, Michael responded noting that Māori had always tried to make use of the best of other knowledge systems and to integrate these into their own understandings and worldviews, and that some of the vocal critics of mātauranga Māori have used strawman caricatures.
In response to a question about the experiences of COVID, Michael recalled the brief period of great success in elimination and a period of localism and celebration of Aotearoa, but that this broke down with the mandates, reflecting on Māori concerns about vulnerability and wanting autonomy in how to respond. But that this was nothing new – the Kīngitanga emerged as a response to exclusion from the political, and reflected a major theme of our history, of Māori wanting inclusion in a Māori way.
All in all, it was a fascinating talk and a great insight into how historians do their work, especially in an area which is not something I have studied specifically since high school. I, of course, bought a copy of the book (it is truly impossible to go to Scorpio without buying something if you’re me), and I am really looking forward to getting stuck in.
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