Spanning an extraordinary time of
change, The Meeting Place: Māori and Pākehā Encounters, 1642–1840 by
historian Vincent O’Malley, published by Auckland University Press, tells
the story of encounters between Māori and Pākehā in the raw, sometimes volatile
landscape that was pre-Treaty New Zealand.
In 1642, Māori discovered Europe. It was a fleeting and ultimately
unhappy experience, probably dimly remembered or understood for the next 127
years. But with the rediscovery of Europe in 1769 there was no escape. An
irreversible relationship between Māori and Pākehā was thereafter locked in,
one in which both parties came to define themselves by reference to the other.
“First meetings can be awkward”, O’Malley says, “especially if the
parties involved have little in common, and are unable to freely communicate
with each other. Language obstacles can be overcome quickly enough where there
is a will, but the bigger cultural barriers might remain. Customs and practices
that come naturally to one might be regarded as ridiculous or even deeply
offensive by the other.”
A modus operandi needed to be found in early New Zealand, but on whose
terms, exactly?
The Meeting Place extends our
early contact story into the period following that of Anne Salmond’s two major
works on the subject. It charts the initial period of mutual incomprehension
and occasional violence, the developing
awareness of one another that eventually gave rise to a middle ground after
1814 – a rough-and-ready working relationship in place by the time the
missionaries arrived.
He examines the various types of encounter — economic, sexual,
religious, political — and shows how Māori society was influenced and reshaped
by its exposure to the outside world, as well as some of the practical
implications of the middle ground.
The Meeting Place concludes by
asking what lessons we might draw from the unique time. What was it about the 1814–1840
period that made it so special and what brought about the eventual demise of
the middle ground?
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| AUP - rrp $45.00 |
About the Author
Vincent O’Malley was the first PhD graduate in New Zealand Studies from
Victoria University of Wellington. He has nearly two decades experience as
a professional historian in the field of treaty research and is a founding
partner of Wellington consultancy HistoryWorks. He is the co-editor of The
Treaty of Waitangi Companion (AUP, 2010), the author of Agents of
Autonomy and co-author of The Beating Heart. He wrote The Meeting Place with the assistance
of a History Award from the NZ History Research Trust Fund.
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