For much of the twentieth century, New Zealand historians, like most Western scholars, largely took it for granted that as modernity waxed religion would wane. Secularization--the fading into insignificance of religion--would distinguish the modern era from previous ages. Until the 1980s, only a handful of scholars around the world raised serious empirical and theoretical questions about a Grand Theory that had become central to the self-understanding of the social sciences and of the modern world. Heated debates since then, and the unmistakable resurgence of world religions, have raised fundamental questions about the empirical and theoretical adequacy of secularization theory, and especially about how far it applies outside Europe. This volume revisits New Zealand history when secularization is no longer taken for granted as the Only Big Story that illuminates the country's social and cultural history. Contributors explore how New Zealanders' diverse religious and spiritual traditions have shaped practical, everyday concerns in politics, racial and ethnic relations, science, the environment, family life, gender relations, and other domains.

A biography of Wiremu Tamihana highlighting the important role that he played in Maori and New Zealand history during the 1850s and 1860s.

This biography of Te Kooti Te Turuki, a Maori guerilla fighter, places equal weight on his leadership after the wars. This text rests on oral narratives, recorded sayings and song texts, and the diaries and letters of Te Kooti himself to record this period of New Zealand history.

This book addresses the history, current development and future of indigenous self-governance in five settler- colonial nations: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States.