Overview
One of the first ethnographic explorations of successful Maori resistance efforts
Provides insight on a spectacular system of ancestor-focused kin groups, through which political alliances are developed through systematic intermarriage
Traces the development and trajectory of resistance efforts against colonial injustice from its origins to the very recent past
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Table of contents (10 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Introduction
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Front Matter
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The Tūhoe Sanctuary and the Crown Purchasing Campaign
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Front Matter
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The Tūhoe Sanctuary and the Urewera Consolidation Scheme
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Front Matter
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Closing or Breaking Ranks in the Face of Crown Power
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Front Matter
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Conclusion
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
Following on from Volume I on the formation of the Urewera District Native Reserve, this monograph examines the period from 1908 to 1926, during which time the Crown subverted Tūhoe control of the UDNR, established a mere decade earlier. While Volume I described how the Tūhoe were able to deploy kin-based power to manipulate Crown power as well as confront one another, this volume describes ways in which the same ancestral descent groups closed ranks to survive nearly two decades of predatory Crown policies determined to dismantle their sanctuary. A relentless Crown campaign to purchase individual Tūhoe land shares ultimately resulted in a misleading Crown scheme to consolidate and relocate Tūhoe land shares, thereby freeing up land for the settlement of non- Tūhoe farmers. By the 1950s, over 200 small Tūhoe blocks were scattered throughout one of the largest National Parks in New Zealand. Although greatly weakened by these policies in terms of kinship solidarity as well as land and other resources, Tūhoe resistance continued until the return of the entire park in 2014—with unreserved apologies and promises of future support.
In both volumes of A Separate Authority (He Mana Motuhake), Webster takes the stance of an ethnohistorian: he not only examines the various ways control over the Urewera District Native Reserve (UDNR) was negotiated, subverted or betrayed, and renegotiated during this time period, but also focuses on the role of Māori hapū, ancestral descent groups and their leaders, including the political economic influence of extensive marriage alliances between them. The ethnohistorical approach developed here may be useful to other studies of governance, indigenous resistance, and reform, whether in New Zealand or elsewhere.
Reviews
—Tāmati Kruger, Representative in the Tūhoe Te Uru Taumatua, New Zealand
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Steven Webster, PhD, is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he taught Social Anthropology and Māori Studies before his retirement. Since the 1980s, he has been closely involved in issues of Māori land, Māori history, ethnic politics, and political economy in New Zealand.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: A Separate Authority (He Mana Motuhake), Volume II
Book Subtitle: The Crown’s Betrayal of the Tūhoe Māori Sanctuary in New Zealand, 1915–1926
Authors: Steven Webster
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41046-9
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-41045-2Published: 08 July 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-41048-3Published: 08 July 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-41046-9Published: 07 July 2020
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXII, 452
Number of Illustrations: 57 b/w illustrations, 3 illustrations in colour
Topics: Social Anthropology, Ethnography, Historical Sociology, Australasian History, Social Structure, Social Inequality