The Aotearoa History Show

In 1841 a few tiny islands of Pākehā settlement existed in an ocean of Māori land. Today, that picture has reversed & Māori own a fraction of Aotearoa. A big part of the reason? The Native Land Court.

Large chunks of land changed hands through the Native Land Court; or as it was also known: Te Kooti Tango Whenua - The Land Taking Court. Created by the 1862 Native Lands Act, the court was meant to establish individual land ownership under the new British colonial government. In practice it began a process of land alienation for Maori that continued until the 1990s.

Watch the video version of the episode here

In this episode we discuss:

• The right of preemption and the large crown land purchases in the 1840s and 50s.
• How these purchases contributed to increasing Māori opposition to land sales.
• How Māori opposition to land sales contributed to the New Zealand Wars.
• The different ways Māori and Pākehā thought about land.
• How and why the court was first established.
• The racist attitudes of some judges and officials.
• The impact of the "1840 rule" and the "10-owners rule", including the sale of the Heretaunga block.
• How debt was used to ensnare Māori in the court.
• The negative impacts of attending court on Māori.
• How Māori attempted to reform or remove the court in the 19th century, including the efforts of the Kotahitanga movement.
• The efforts of Māori MPs to slow down the loss of Māori land in the early 20th Century.
• The 1965 Māori Affairs Amendment Act and how it acted as a catalyst for protest movements.
• How those movements achieved reforms, including Te Ture Whenua Māori Act.
• The ongoing impacts of the Native Land Court and attempts to address injustices. 

For more on this subject:

• Te Kooti Tango Whenua by David Williams
• Illustrated History of New Zealand by Judith Binney
• Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou: Struggle Without End by Ranginui Walker
• Conquest by Contract: Wealth Transfer and Land Market Structure in Colonial New Zealand by Stuart Banner, Law & Society Review

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The discovery of gold drew tens of thousands to New Zealand in search of fortune. It was a hard life, but diggers brought mateship, fashion & egalitarian ideas that changed the country forever.

Gold! The mania for this shiny yellow metal swept all over Aotearoa in the second half of the 19th century and left the country, and many of its people, fundamentally changed.

Watch the video version of the episode here

This episode we ask:

• Māori attitudes towards gold before, and after European contact?
• What makes a gold rush happen?
• How did the New Zealand gold rush fit into the context of gold rushes overseas?
• How did the rush get started?
• Who were the diggers and what were they like?
• What was the role of women in the rush?
• How did the gold rush affect tangata whenua?
• What was the role of Chinese migrants in the gold rush, and how did Europeans respond to them?
• How did the gold rush happen in different parts of Aotearoa?

For more on this subject:

• Diggers, Hatters and Whores by Stevan Eldred-Grigg
• Finding "Te Wherro" in Ōtōkou: Māori and the early days of the Otago gold rush by Lloyd Carpenter, MAI Journal.
• Journey to Lan Yuan by Toitu Otago Settlers Museum
• Gold and Gold Mining - Te Ara

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

New Zealanders have battled Covid-19 for more than two years, but if you think it's the first time disease has knocked us around, well, this one's for you. Epidemics have long been part of our story.

During the Covid-19 pandemic we've heard people say stuff like "we're living in unprecedented times"... But every time they hear that, historians get extremely annoyed! Epidemics have had a huge impact on many countries through history and New Zealand is no exception.

Watch the video version of the episode here

In this episode we dig into the history of epidemics in Aotearoa New Zealand, including:

• Why Māori were relatively free of diseases until European arrival in Aotearoa.
• The factors which helped promote the development of epidemic diseases in Europe and Asia.
• The early impacts of disease on Māori in the 19th century.
• Efforts by colonial authorities to reduce the impacts of disease on Māori, and how these efforts were linked to a goal of "assimilating" Māori into European culture.
• Efforts by Māori to reduce the impact of disease.
• The development of sanitary infrastructure and its impact on epidemic disease.
• The 1918 flu pandemic.
• Polio epidemics in the 20th century.
• The impact of modern medicines, including vaccines.

For more on this subject:

• The Healthy Country? A History of Life and Death in New Zealand by Alistair Woodward and Tony Blakely
• Black November by Geoffrey Rice
• Dirt: Filth and Decay in a New World Arcadia by Pamela Janet Wood
• Epidemics - Te Ara

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The 1950s saw an explosion of youth culture. "Bodgies and widgies' ' tearing round on motorbikes & hanging out in milk bars scandalised many Kiwi adults. Was "the teenager" invented in the 1950s? And what is a "milk bar" anyway?

The 1950s saw an explosion of youth culture in Aotearoa. Stories about "bodgies and widgies' ' tearing up the streets on motorbikes, canoodling in the cinemas and hanging around in milk bars scandalised many kiwi adults. In fact, it's often said the whole idea of "the teenager" was born in the 1950s. But is that really true? And what even is a "milk bar" anyway?

Watch the video version of the episode here

In this episode we trace the history of kiwi teens including:

• The drama over the 1954 "Mazengarb Report"
• How people in their teens were viewed by wider society, both Pākehā and Māori, in the early 19th century.
• How the industrial revolution, and the introduction of compulsory education, reshaped those views.
• The experience of takatāpui (LGBTQ+) teenagers, including for Māori prior to colonisation, and Pākehā teens in the late 19th Century.
• Compulsory military service and a generally conservative society in the early 20th century.
• How "teen culture" emerged in the 1950s.
• How Māori teens experienced life in the city as Māori increasingly migrated to urban areas after WWII.
• The involvement of teens in protest movements from the 1960s onwards.

For more on this subject:

• Teenagers: The Rise of Youth Culture in New Zealand by Chris Brickell
• All Shook Up by Redmer Yska
• The "Mazengarb Report"
• Teeangers and Youth - Te Ara

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The first 500 years of Māori settlement in Aotearoa saw significant, dynamic changes to how people lived; changes that challenge the idea of Māori culture as something carved in stone.

There's sometimes a temptation to think of Māori as a people "frozen in time" - that Māori culture and ways of life were unchanged between the time they arrived in Aotearoa sometime before 1300AD until Captain Cook and the Endeavour arrived in 1769.

But that's totally wrong! In 500 years, any people are going to change.... A lot!

Watch the video version of the episode here

In this episode we look at:

• How Māori arrived in Aotearoa.
• How the first few generations seem to have lived.
• Evidence of Aotearoa's "first capital city" at Wairau Bar and the role it may have played in early Māori society.
• How the extinction of megafauna and a cooling climate seem to have triggered major changes in Māori ways of life.
• Why Māori had different lifestyles in different parts of Aotearoa.
• How Māori traded and settled disputes.
• How the end of the "little ice age" seemed to trigger more changes in Māori ways of life.

For more on this subject:

• Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History by Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney and Aroha Harris
• The Making of the Māori Middle Ages by Atholl Anderson, Journal of New Zealand Studies
• Māori - Te Ara

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

No-one knows for sure who first introduced rabbits to New Zealand, because no-one wanted to take the blame for what became one of New Zealand's biggest environmental and economic disasters. We start season two burrowing into the devastating history of rabbits and other pests.

We start season two burrowing into the story of rabbits and other pests. What started with plenty of (h)optimism has led to generations of damage to our environment and economy.

Watch the video version of the episode here

By Tim Watkin

History is a river; fluid, flowing, always changing and always the same. That bit about history always changing is something that many people find hard to accept. It's behind us, it's happened, frozen in time. We often want to come to conclusions about the past and keep it, well, in the past. Wrap it up and move on. But as Billy Bragg once wrote, "The past is always knocking incessant / Trying to break through into the present".

And it often succeeds. Whenever as a country we debate issues such as inequality, co-governance, free speech, taxes... you name it, history is banging at the door wanting to have its say.

How you see that river of history or hītōria, ah well, that depends on where you're standing. And when you're standing there. And who you're standing with. And what you already know about rivers; or think you know. Perhaps which language you speak. As hard as it can be for people to accept, there is no right version of history, history does not end and our views of the events, people and issues of the past have always and will always keep changing. And that's a good thing. History is at its most revealing when you approach it with an open mind and a little empathy.

That's been a guiding principle for the team making the second season of The Aotearoa History Show. Our job is to explain history not to pass judgment on it. That's a tough thing to do in these times, when people seem more eager than ever to make declarations about the rights and wrongs of history and the people who made it. Standing on at one point on the riverbank, looking at one part of the river while making sweeping declarations about the whole river is likely to get you lots of likes on social media…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Deep dive into a rigorous romp through the history of New Zealand, from its volcanic beginnings, through settlement, wars and social change to the late 20th century.

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It's the final episode of the Aotearoa History Show! Rogernomics, Ruthanasia and the referendum on MMP saw the total restructuring of our economy and voting system. Plus a snapshot of the changing demographics of Aotearoa/New Zealand, the growth of dairy and tourism and the challenges still to come.

The 1984 election is a tumultuous tipping point; the start of a new New Zealand with a more open, less equal economy; a new style of democracy and a more diverse population.

Watch here

By William Ray

As I've been releasing episode after episode of The Aotearoa History Show over the past few weeks, a colleague has taken to asking me, "how's New Zealand history going today?", writes Tim Watkin, RNZ executive producer, podcasts and series.

I think I must have looked a bit brow-beaten by what has been a mammoth piece of work. I mean, who in their right mind tries to tell the entire history of a nation in 14 15-20 minutes YouTube videos?

But each time I've replied, something like "oh it's getting there. A bit different from yesterday" or "still changing".

Because one of the great mistakes people make when they discuss history - be it the history of New Zealand or indeed anywhere - is to assume that facts are facts and what's done is done. The truth is quite the opposite. History is forever changing, morphing, evolving into something new.

At least, our understanding of it is. Excuse me if this sounds a bit Fight Club-esque, but one of the few unchanging facts of history, is that there are few unchanging facts in history.

Our willingness to be open to that is going to vital as we prepare to teach New Zealand history in our schools. It's so important that young New Zealanders will get to learn how we got from here to there, but just as crucial for us to keep an open mind as we do it.

The risk is always that we fall into the trap of insisting there is only one way to tell our stories or only certain stories that can be told. There are heroes and villains, triumphs and disasters in all times, cultures, genders, classes, faiths and more.

Sure, there's no excuse for simple inaccuracies. The stubborn myth that Moriori were the first people of New Zealand pre-dating Maori and conquered by them should be a cautionary tale to anyone wanting to dismiss the facts of history altogether.

The truth we know is quite different... and explained in episode two, by the way. But when we talk about events covered by the mist of time, culture, politics and any number of human failings, we must always be open to how much we don't know and how much our understanding can change…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The 60s, 70s and 80s were rowdy decades. Kiwis were getting out in the streets and raising their voices about the rights of Māori, women and LGBT people, nuclear energy, the environment. Plus the most controversial sporting event in our history: The 1981 Springbok Tour.

Through the 60s and 70s generations clashed and minority groups fought for their rights. Social issues such as women's rights and nuclear power gained traction, as the economy stayed strong in Fortress New Zealand. The dominant politician was Robert Muldoon, but those social and economic issues were coming to a head.

Watch the video version of the episode here

Topics covered:

• Women's rights movements focusing on debates over equal pay, abortion, contraceptives, sex education and sexism
• LGBT rights with particular focus on law reforms about same sex relationships and controvesy around lesbians in the women's movement.
• Controversy surrounding apartheid and the Springbok rugby team in the 1970s
• The election of Robert Muldoon.
• 1970s economic problems including discussion of protectionism, Muldoon's "Think Big" policies, price and wage freezes.
• The environmental movement, including the Lake Manapōuri and the Mairuia Declaration.
• The 1981 Springbok Tour.
• Nuclear-Free Movement and the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

After the war came a new quest for security and identity. With it came new political debates and alliances. Maori and Pasifika moved to the cities. The way we viewed ourselves as a nation was changing.

The 50s and 60s were decades of huge cultural change. Māori were moving  into the cities in large numbers for the first time. Meanwhile, there were communist scares, industrial disputes, moral panics about rowdy teenagers - and the beginning of a new kind of kiwi identity.

Watch the video version of episode here

Topics covered:

• The post-war Baby Boom
• Māori urbanisation
• The Cold War, concerns about communist agents and the ANZUS Treaty
• The formation of the NZ National Party
• The Waterfront Dispute
• Concerns about teen "immorality" moral panic and crackdowns
• The shift from British to Pākehā identity, growing enthusiasm for "kiwi" culture
• Samoan independence.
• The Dawn Raids and Polynesian Panthers
• The Māori Renaissance and activism, including the 1975 Land March and Bastion Point Occupation
• The Treaty of Waitangi Act and the role of the Waitangi Tribunal

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details