Lucy Mackintosh’s acclaimed book, Shifting Grounds: Deep Histories of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, was jointly awarded the 2022 Ernest Scott Prize for History.
In a city that has forgotten and erased much of its history, there are still places where traces of the past can be found.
Deep histories, both natural and human, have been woven together over hundreds of years in places across Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, forming potent sites of national significance. This stunning book unearths these histories in three iconic landscapes: Pukekawa/Auckland Domain, Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill and the Ōtuataua Stonefields at Ihumātao.
Approaching landscapes as an archive, Lucy Mackintosh delves deeply into specific places, allowing us to understand histories that have not been written into books or inscribed upon memorials, but which still resonate through Auckland and beyond. Shifting Grounds provides a rare historical assessment of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland's past, with findings and stories that deepen understanding of New Zealand history.
The judges commented:
This beautifully produced, absorbing book is a treat to read. Lucy Mackintosh delivers immersive deep histories of three Auckland sites and its peoples with care and compassion … In Shifting Grounds, Auckland’s landscapes are saturated with power and domination as well as delicate human stories that reveal histories of connection across deep time.
The prestigious Ernest Scott Prize is awarded annually to a work based on original research that contributes to the history of Australia or New Zealand or to the history of colonisation. Lucy Mackintosh shares the award with Janet McCalman for her book Vandemonium: The Repressed History of Colonial Victoria.
Read Shifting Grounds now in BWB's New Zealand History Collection
Lucy Mackintosh introduces Shifting Grounds in this short BWB book trailer.
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