1992: A City Possessed
By AHNZ
In New Zealand communities are as prone to hoaxes and moral panics as much as any other country in the world. Enlightened people think for themselves and reason independently however the majority of a given population subsist in what Carl Sagan called The Demon-Haunted World. the outlook is basically Medieval but instead of ghosts, spirits, […]
Read more..October 11, 2023
1912: The Kokatahi Band
By AHNZ
New Zealand’s Kokatahi Band resembles the 1885 one Marty McFly and Doc Brown discovered in the film Back to the Future III (image, left) and with good reason. Along with the same target time period and same instruments the sound of the movie band and the real life one are quite similar and musically pleasing. […]
Read more..June 3, 2022
A Study in Comparative Religion
By AHNZ
The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (1890) by James Frazer has had substantial impact on anthropology and major influence on modern thinkers. For a study of the structure of pre-philosophical thought, or ‘magic’, you could ask for no better guide. To understand New Zealand history we sometimes need such a guide since, from […]
Read more..October 13, 2021
1929: Primitive Economics of the NZ Maori
By AHNZ
Raymond Firth’s The Primitive Economics of the NZ Maori was published on about 29 May, 1929. I have the second edition, printed in the 1970s. Firth made a comprehensive study of Maoris and of course he did it from a particular point of view and it was a new and different one for its time. […]
Read more..May 17, 2021
“Thinking through Whakapapa”
By AHNZ
By Thor’s Hammer! If Anglo Saxons must turn away from the Enlightenment might we at least have our own, better, Pagan Druidic, lore and conceits back? If we must ditch history and science why should it be for a Maori Academic one? Let’s have back King Arthur, Merlin, Robin Hood, The Green Man, Hern of […]
Read more..March 17, 2021
1863: The Waka Buster
By AHNZ
Today in New Zealand history, 1 November, 1863 the Government’s streamer Lady Barkly set out from Onehunga on a capture/destroy mission on Manukau Harbour. The target was any and all uncontrolled transport craft, particularly Maori canoes: “Waka.” The crew returned on 6 November with 11 canoes in tow as well as a big stern post […]
Read more..November 1, 2024
1841: Otawhao Mission
By AHNZ
Between 1845 and 1860 Te Awamutu had emerged from the dim dark ages of barbaric cannibal wars to a Golden Age of peace and progress. The architect of this Anglo-Maori Utopia was Reverend John Morgan of the Christian Mission Society. He had great expectations for making something out of ‘his’ Maoris just as, equally, those […]
Read more..May 17, 2023
1503: Frenchman’s Gully Rock Art
By AHNZ
There are hundreds of pre-Maori rock art sites in South Canterbury, including some very special ones at Frenchman’s Gully at Pareora Gorge near Timaru. Here we see some of the few (only) pictures of the long extinct moa. No Maori ever saw a moa. The giant bird was the primary resource of an earlier culture […]
Read more..November 21, 2022
1987: Lotto
By AHNZ
Tonight in history, 1 August, 1987, Government Gambling was re-presented on live TV as “Lotto.” On-camera were 3 Government bureaucrats: Ross Kennedy (NZ Lotteries Comission,) Mike Jarmen (Internal Affairs,) Terry Murphy (Audit Office.) The State Theatre didn’t stop there… How did it ever come to this? Governments were elected defend New Zealand and perhaps even […]
Read more..August 1, 2021
