How and why do works make their way into a public art collection? Who decides what will be hung on the walls, placed on plinths, displayed in cases? These important, but seldom discussed, questions lie at the heart of this ‘cultural biography’ of the 70 years during which the Robert McDougall Art Gallery was Christchurch’s civic art gallery. The book explains how the collection came together, how it developed, and how the public, and artists and critics, reacted to it. The book is presented in three parts, each of which has its own introduction. It provides an analytical framework in detail and in context by defining terms and explaining particular, recurrent concepts. These include, and indeed highlight, selection and presentation cultures derived from the core museological functions of collection and display. These, together with the framework’s other concepts, are related to mainstream methodology in the social sciences, particularly political science. The latter is especially relevant to the study of a public art gallery – owned and funded by the public and its elected representatives, and controlled by these representatives and their appointed agents. Furthermore, the framework explores the concept of post-colonial tensions between heritages – specifically indigenous, transplanted and autochthonous ones. The significance of this becomes more apparent when the concepts used in relevant previous studies of specific public art galleries in New Zealand are reviewed. There is also a strong emphasis on the development of a public Maori art collection. It is a story, too, of vivid and influential personalities – the directors and curators who fought for the gallery and the artists represented in it. But the book is more than just the story of a single gallery’s collection: it shines a light on concerns and patterns that will be familiar to galleries everywhere, and provides a unique perspective on New Zealand’s cultural development over much of the twentieth century.

The history of the Waikato War The long years of Queen Victoria's reign were typified by numerous 'small wars' as the British Empire spread its influence over the globe and it came into inevitable collision with the numerous and varied inhabitants of the lands it occupied who, understandably, took issue with an abrupt change in the status quo, a diminution of their power and privileges and the intrusive presence of a colonists supported by a massive modern army and navy. Bloodshed was always inevitable as was, in almost all cases, the outcome of the conflicts. The pattern was broadly similar wherever the Union flag was raised and the colonisation of New Zealand in the middle years of the nineteenth century proved no exception. The Maoris fought several of these small wars, which were motivated primarily by their objection to clear injustices perpetrated against them. Predictably these engagements were bitter, savage, hard fought affairs fought by a primitively armed tribal people of redoubtable courage who eventually had little chance against an imperial military force of the industrial age. What makes these wars fascinating for the student of military history is, of course, the effect upon these campaigns as influenced by the nature of the protagonists, the manner of waging war they employed and the telling influence of the terrain over which they were fought. Those who know anything of this campaign will know that it was often fought in deep forest where the hard held Maori pah had to be assaulted and taken at some cost to both sides. It gave rise to fascinating colonial units, like Von Tempski's Forest Rangers. It pitted a warrior people against regular regiments in bitter conflict which taught the British Army hard and bloody lessons; and it introduced to the Empire a fighting people who would one day prove to be equally formidable in war for the causes of those who were once its enemies. This was not the first or the last war waged between the Crown and the Maoris but it was one of the most notable and this account makes fascinating reading. Available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket.

Colonising New Zealand offers a radically new vision of the basis and process of Britain’s colonisation of New Zealand. It commences by confronting the problems arising from subjective and ever-evolving moral judgements about colonisation and examines the possibility of understanding colonisation beyond the confines of any preoccupations with moral perspectives. It then investigates the motives behind Britain’s imperial expansion, both in a global context and specifically in relation to New Zealand. The nature and reasons for this expansion are deciphered using the model of an organic imperial ecosystem, which involves examining the first cause of all colonisation and which provides a means of understanding why the disparate parts of the colonial system functioned in the ways that they did. Britain’s imperial system did not bring itself into being, and so the notion of the Empire having emerged from a supra-system is assessed, which in turn leads to an exploration of the idea of equilibrium-achievement as the Prime Mover behind all colonisation—something that is borne out in New Zealand’s experience from the late eighteenth century. This work changes profoundly the way New Zealand’s colonisation is interpreted, and provides a framework for reassessing all forms of imperialism.

How did early European artists of Australia and New Zealand perceive the Maori? What sort of images of Maori society and culture did they create? What ethnic preconceptions lay behind their depictions? These and other pertinent questions are explored by art historian Leonard Bell in this study of the way Europeans represented Maori in colonial New Zealand.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,7, University of Potsdam (Institut fuer Anglistik), course: Historiography and Trauma in Recent Maori Literature, language: English, abstract: This essay explores the representation of Maori women in two novels written by Maori authors. One book is the highly controversial and bestselling novel of Alan Duff “Once Were Warriors”, which was first published in 1990 and later turned into a movie adaption by Lee Tamahori. The other book I will focus on is written by the famous author Patricia Grace, who is known for creating stories with powerful women characters. The title of the book is “Baby Noeyes” and it was first published in 1998. Both novels deal with resistance and social change and we can find representations of strong Maori having a positive influence on their family and their environment. The main struggles with effects of colonialism and imperialism after the English settlers arrived are topics in both books. The main characters Te Paania and Beth Heke seem to be very different at the beginning, but both represent the ideal of a Maori women, being a leader and a warrior. In the next chapters I want to give a short introduction to the social status of Maori women in New Zealand before the colonization and after the English settlers arrived. Then I will compare the characters of Beth Heke from the novel “Once were Warriors” and Te Paania from the novel “Baby Noeyes”. I want to focus mainly on their struggles and the finding of solutions for their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of their family. Finally, in the last chapters I want to draw a conclusion and find out, in how far the representation of the Maori women serve each novel’s wider political project.