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LIBRARY
The primary and secondary literature dealing with the New Zealand Wars is reasonably extensive, though perhaps not as large as you might imagine. Primary source materials like official papers, earlier texts, documents, despatches, diaries, and photographs are deposited all over New Zealand, and there is much further overseas. Most published sources deal with the wars in larger contexts. Maori communities also hold some tribal archives dealing with New Zealand’s nineteenth century war period. The purpose of Library is to compile as complete a record of these many and variable sources as possible.
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The site for Maori Studies at Victoria University -
The New Zealand Government website on the Treaty of Waitangi -
A comprehensive site of New Zealand history resources -
Ministry of Heritage and Culture - www.nzhistory.net.nz
Two good sites featuring New Zealand Wars materials:
A Short List of Published Sources
See below for a brief list of the major published works that are still currently available in most bookshops; or certainly they should be easily accessed through your local NZ library.
Belich, James. The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict. Auckland, N.Z., Penguin, 1988.
This book is still the most important New Zealand Wars text available. James Belich's work on the New Zealand Wars was meticulous and strongly argued. He is currently Professor of History in Auckland. Belich tends to ‘call it as he sees it.’ Most historians accept his big themes - most, but not all. His style is certainly challenging. Readers should find his book invigorating. Followed up by a much-acclaimed TV series.
Belich, James. Making Peoples. Auckland: Allen Lane / Penguin (1996).
Now released in paperback (2001). Includes a section on the New Zealand Wars. A sequel of sorts to this volume, Paradise Reforged, has just been released (November, 2001) to generally good reviews. Making Peoples deals with New Zealand up to the 1880s; Paradise Reforged covers the period from about the 1880s to the present.
Ryan, Tim and Parham, Bill. The Colonial New Zealand Wars. Wellington: N.Z., Grantham House, 1986.
Well
illustrated, comprehensive and clearly expressed.
A very accessible text for those who might be new to the subject. However,
be wary of some of the terms
used in this book, terms which are used uncritically. For example, Te
Atiawa and allies are said to have ‘surrendered’,
at Te Arei in 1861 when in fact a truce was signed.
Similarly, Taranaki Maori are variously described as ‘rebels’. However,
the term ‘rebel’ was and remains a much contested
term, following a somewhat clumsy attempt made by the Native Land Court to define
what, and who, was a 'rebel'.
Back to top of page
Cowan, J. The New Zealand Wars, Vols. I & II, Wellington, N.Z., W.A.G. Skinner, 1923.
This is an older text but nonetheless very detailed and interesting. Cowan wrote his books immediately after the wars. He was able to interview many participants and observers. He was also able to walk the sites when the ground was ‘still warm’ with battle. Cowan himself is now the subject of scholarship. Much more will be said later about James Cowan.
New senior secondary school text by Dr. Graham Langton.
Detailed and well illustrated.
Binney, Judith, Bassett, Judith and Olssen, Erik. The People and the Land: Te Tangata me te Whenua. Wellington, N.Z., Bridget Williams Books, 1993.
A very good general text which has been through numerous reprints. Three top scholars. Professor Judith Binney especially, from Auckland University, has worked assiduously in the general field of Maori history for many decades.
Finlay, Neil, Sacred Soil. Images and Stories of the New Zealand Wars. Random House, 1998.
You will see quite a bit of Belich in this text, but this book is nonetheless an interesting and sympathetic tour of the New Zealand Wars battle sites. Finlay is / was a rock musician who one day decided to tour the battle sites, and recover some of their histories. Along the way, he spoke to many interesting people. Wonderful black and white photographs.
The Oxford History of New Zealand, any edition (there have been two). Oxford University Press. See chapters by Keith Sorrenson and Ann Parsonson.
The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Vols I, II & III. Wellington, N.Z., Bridget Williams Books.
Orange, Claudia The Treaty of Waitangi. Wellington, N.Z., Allen & Unwin, 1987.
Hugely detailed and thoughtful account of the Treaty signing, and of the years of turmoil which followed. A ‘comprehensive and gritty read’, as one historian described it, meticulous and hugely satisfying. By one account, New Zealand's largest selling history book. Back to top of page
Stowers, Richard. Forest Rangers. Richard Stowers, 1996.
Taylor, Richard. Ngati Tumatauenga, Tribe of the War God. Napier: Heritage Books (1996).
This is a very interesting history of the New Zealand Army which contains a very good section on the New Zealand Wars. Richard is a Major in the New Zealand Army. He is currently completing a doctorate on logistics and the New Zealand Wars. See Studies and Research.
Rangiriri
Ward, Alan. A Show of Justice. Auckland, N.Z: Auckland University Press, 1995.
This text is possibly the most important book ever written on New Zealand history, especially one dealing with Maori and Pakeha (European) interaction in the nineteenth century. Hugely researched and comprehensive in its detail, the book focuses on Crown policy after 1840 aimed at amalgamating Maori into the new colonial institutions. This was a process which involved the Crown waging warfare against Maori. The minutiae of that process is wonderfully described.
See also Professor Ward's recent An Unsettled History. Treaty Claims in New Zealand Today, Wellington, 1999; and see Professor Mason Durie, Te Mana, Te Kawanatanga. The Politics of Maori Self-Determination, Auckland, 1998.
New Zealand’s Heritage, Wellington, Hamlyn.
This series first appeared in the early 1970s, and contains many useful essays, many of them written by our leading historians. Most libraries hold sets of these texts.
New Zealand Defence Quarterly, Department of Defence, Wellington.
Recent issues contained a series of very good articles on the New Zealand Wars landscape written by military historian Chris Pugsley. Pugsley visited the sites he describes. Publishing of the Quartlery has now been discontinued.
Maxwell, Peter. Frontier. The Battle for the North Island of New Zealand 1860-1872. Auckland: Celebrity Books (2000).
An interesting new book which focuses quite heavily on the campaigns and battles fought between 1860-1872. The earlier Northern Wars are a notable omission, along with detailed reference to the Hutt War and Wanganui War. Maxwell is generally interesting to read and does possess a good, accessible style. However, his treatment of North Taranaki and especially the defining Waikato war is arguably too light. Also, he has some harsh things to say about the work of James Belich. But it is not clear whether Maxwell agreed with Belich’s larger themes - for example, that of the Crown’s gradual imposition of sovereignty over Maori. Such a theme provided Belich with important contexts. ‘Frontier’ also suffers from a lack of good referencing. Back to top of page
As suggested earlier, the published literature dealing with aspects of the New Zealand Wars is huge. Below is a selection of texts arranged around a number of themes which are primarily chronological.
Books Published in the Nineteenth Century
Octavius Hadfield, The Second Year of One of England's Little Wars, London, 1861 (the North Taranaki War 1860-61).
F.E. Maning, Old New Zealand. A Tale of the Good Old Times by a Pakeha Maori, Auckland, 1863.
John Eldon Gorst, The Maori King, new edition edited by K.O. Arvidson, 2001.
Sir JE Alexander, Incidents of the Maori War, London, 1863 (the North Taranaki War).
Pre Contact Maori Life and Maori Warfare
Atholl Anderson, When All The Moa Ovens Grew Cold, 1983.
Janet Davidson, The Prehistory of New Zealand, 1984.
Aileen Fox, Prehistoric Maori Fortifications in the North Island of New Zealand, 1976.
A.P. Vayda, Maori Warfare, Polynesian Society, 1960.
John Wilson, From the Beginning. The Archaeology of the Maori, 1987.
Elsdon Best, Notes on the Art of War, editted by Jeff Evans, 2001.
Ormond Wilson, Kororareka and Other Essays, 1990.
Harry Morton, The Whaler's Wake, 1982.
Anne Salmond, Two Worlds. First Meetings between Maori and Europeans 1642-1772, 1991.
Ormond Wilson, From Hongi Hika to Hone Heke, 1985.
Peter Adams, Fatal Necessity: British Intervention in New Zealand 1830-1847, 1977.
Patricia Burns, Fatal Success: A History of the New Zealand Company, 1989.
Claudia Orange, The Treaty of Waitangi, 1987.
I.H. Kawharu (ed), Maori and Pakeha Perspectives of the Treaty of Waitangi, 1989.
Ian Wards, Shadow of the Land: A Study of British Policy and Racial Conflict in New Zealand 1832-1852, 1968.
Maori Society and Warfare 1800s to 1860
Cleve Barlow, Tikanga Whakaaro. Key Concepts in Maori Culture, 1991.
I.H. Kawharu, Maori Tenure, 1967.
Angela Ballara, 'The Role of Warfare in Maori Society in the Early Contact Period', in Journal of Polynesian Society, 85:4 (1976), pp.487-506.
Maori Marsden, 'God, Man and the Universe, a Maori view' in Te Ao Hurihuri (ed) Michael King, 1985.
Sidney Moko Mead (ed), Nga Tikanga Tuku Iho a Te Maori; Customary Concepts of the Maori, 1984.