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Becoming Aotearoa: A new history of New Zealand
In the first major national history of Aotearoa New Zealand to be published for 20 years, Professor Michael Belgrave advances the notion that New Zealand's two peoples — tangata whenua and subsequent migrants — have together built an open, liberal society based on a series of social contracts. Frayed though they may sometimes be, these contracts have created a country that is distinct. This engaging new look at our history examines how.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
648 pages, Hardcover
Published October 10, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 5, 2025
NZ history because of of it relative newness ( European that is ) can be confronting as a lot of events happen only one or two generations back
This book looks at what I would term European history and its dealing with Tangata Whenua the original people of Aotearoa through a New Zealand lense
As with all historical accounts they can't help but reflect some of the authors culture and background and I had the sense that this was true in this book
Well written easy to read I don't think that many of the conclusions were particularly ground breaking and lack a bit of insightfulness and felt that more could have been made of why particular events happened and the effect they had
However happy with the book which was a Xmas present but not illuminating enough and lacked a basic depth to considered a definite volume of work on New Zealand
Would I recommend it probably 50/50.
This book looks at what I would term European history and its dealing with Tangata Whenua the original people of Aotearoa through a New Zealand lense
As with all historical accounts they can't help but reflect some of the authors culture and background and I had the sense that this was true in this book
Well written easy to read I don't think that many of the conclusions were particularly ground breaking and lack a bit of insightfulness and felt that more could have been made of why particular events happened and the effect they had
However happy with the book which was a Xmas present but not illuminating enough and lacked a basic depth to considered a definite volume of work on New Zealand
Would I recommend it probably 50/50.
March 31, 2025
PHEW, I just put down this absolute UNIT of a book (2 days ago) and I’m still processing. For some time I’ve been wanting to learn more about New Zealand history, as I’ve been learning a lot about a raft of other specific histories and for some reason not picking up more about my own country.
The catalyst for this book was the 2019 Christchurch Mosque Terror attack and Belgrave wanted to do a relatively short piece about the nature of NZ’s identity – but the work kept growing and growing. So they ended up with an almost 600 (definitely 600 with notes and references) page work comprehensively covering Aotearoa.
Something that is super challenging about history (that I am still getting my head around) is what to include, what to link together and how to summarize fairly. The idea of ‘neutral’ history is almost impossible. So I have genuinely no idea how historians of ‘older’ countries cope because NZ is relatively young – including Māori migration adds somewhere around a thousand years of Oral history but in terms of written history there is at most 200 years of material (and its still a lot)
Belgrave, I think, does an admirable job of pulling together the defining events or perspective of the people’s of NZ roughly each decade (the book isn’t explicitly divided into decade slots but that is vaguely how events seem to fall). Obviously not the same topics had as much influence in different decades, for example 1900-1950 was heavily influenced by War (with a dash of economic depression and pandemic) whereas 1800-40 was the story of colonization and establishment of the nation of New Zealand through Tiriti I Waitangi.
The relationship of the Māori people (the indigenous people of Aotearoa) to European settlers and then within the greater population are a fairly core thread throughout the book but not necessarily the major thread of every topic. In fact one of the more intriguing but difficult ideas to follow is the nature of that biculturalism in NZ and how different eras didn’t just have different issues but also different ways that our people interacted to resolve them. Belgrave really did their homework around colonization and the Treaty of Waitangi in my opinion, but I’d love to hear reviews from Māori on the topic.
Possibly the only criticism I have of this work is that there is SO MUCH information I think at times crazy major events had only brief mention – even a sentence or two and also I felt there was a sense of assumption that I should know what certain terms meant or already have some knowledge of the topic – some were easy fixes, for example Googling the term Sly-Grogger (unlicensed alcohol merchant during prohibition) but others at times felt like there was a lot of meat being left off the bone (e.g. only touching on some events like the Springbok tour).
Overall I feel very blessed that Belgrave sat down and created this work – I like his, perhaps strange or broad conclusion that we are in fact in the mid 2020s on the verge of discovering or defining what the character of Aotearoa is – Belgrave appears to be putting his support towards co-governance (a bicultural approach) but also speaking out for many many marginalized groups while also accurately pointing out that we are swinging towards a more conservative, even white-supremacist angle at the same time. (anyone who knows me knows which side I’m on LOL)
The catalyst for this book was the 2019 Christchurch Mosque Terror attack and Belgrave wanted to do a relatively short piece about the nature of NZ’s identity – but the work kept growing and growing. So they ended up with an almost 600 (definitely 600 with notes and references) page work comprehensively covering Aotearoa.
Something that is super challenging about history (that I am still getting my head around) is what to include, what to link together and how to summarize fairly. The idea of ‘neutral’ history is almost impossible. So I have genuinely no idea how historians of ‘older’ countries cope because NZ is relatively young – including Māori migration adds somewhere around a thousand years of Oral history but in terms of written history there is at most 200 years of material (and its still a lot)
Belgrave, I think, does an admirable job of pulling together the defining events or perspective of the people’s of NZ roughly each decade (the book isn’t explicitly divided into decade slots but that is vaguely how events seem to fall). Obviously not the same topics had as much influence in different decades, for example 1900-1950 was heavily influenced by War (with a dash of economic depression and pandemic) whereas 1800-40 was the story of colonization and establishment of the nation of New Zealand through Tiriti I Waitangi.
The relationship of the Māori people (the indigenous people of Aotearoa) to European settlers and then within the greater population are a fairly core thread throughout the book but not necessarily the major thread of every topic. In fact one of the more intriguing but difficult ideas to follow is the nature of that biculturalism in NZ and how different eras didn’t just have different issues but also different ways that our people interacted to resolve them. Belgrave really did their homework around colonization and the Treaty of Waitangi in my opinion, but I’d love to hear reviews from Māori on the topic.
Possibly the only criticism I have of this work is that there is SO MUCH information I think at times crazy major events had only brief mention – even a sentence or two and also I felt there was a sense of assumption that I should know what certain terms meant or already have some knowledge of the topic – some were easy fixes, for example Googling the term Sly-Grogger (unlicensed alcohol merchant during prohibition) but others at times felt like there was a lot of meat being left off the bone (e.g. only touching on some events like the Springbok tour).
Overall I feel very blessed that Belgrave sat down and created this work – I like his, perhaps strange or broad conclusion that we are in fact in the mid 2020s on the verge of discovering or defining what the character of Aotearoa is – Belgrave appears to be putting his support towards co-governance (a bicultural approach) but also speaking out for many many marginalized groups while also accurately pointing out that we are swinging towards a more conservative, even white-supremacist angle at the same time. (anyone who knows me knows which side I’m on LOL)
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July 17, 2025I'm about half way through, getting into the 20th Century. Just doing a chapter most days, making notes, as if I'm at university lol. What I'm finding interesting is the number of times he pushes back on colonialism as being the evil destroyer of indigenous culture, for instance legislation was introduced in 1907, making the practicing of 'tohunga' illegal. (Tohunga is Māori medicine infused with their spiritualism) but the law was fully supported by the Māori Parliamentarian's at the time.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews