2022 AHI Annual Lecture

“Disputing Tamaki: Turning whakapapa into history – Chief Judge Fenton’s inquiries into the Ōrakei Block, 1867 to 1869.”

Presented by Michael Belgrave

When it was re-established in 1865, the Native Land Court was intended to provide a solution to what had become an intractable problem, how to determine whose rights would need to be acknowledged by the Crown in its dealing with specific pieces of land, and whose rights could be ignored. This lecture explored the complex workings of this colonial system and how it intersected with Māori traditions through the inquiries of Fenton into the Ōrakei Block between 1867 and 1869. 

Michael Belgrave is a professor of history and foundation member of Massey University’s Albany campus. He was research manager of the Waitangi Tribunal and has continued to work on Treaty of Waitangi research and settlements. More recently he’s been involved in negotiating the historical aspects of treaty settlements with iwi. He has published widely on treaty and Māori history.

2021 AHI Annual Lecture

“Pacific Auckland: A history”

Presented by Damon Salesa

One of Auckland’s defining dimensions is its Pacific history—its connections with the Pacific, and the history that has been constructed here by (and for) Pacific peoples. Much of this history is little known, under-appreciated or actively marginalized, and this lecture laid out the major contours of Auckland’s Pacific histories.

Toeolesulusulu Damon Salesa, Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, is a prizewinning scholar who specializes in the study of colonialism, empire, government, and race.  With a particular interest in the Pacific Islands, he also works on education, economics, and development in the Pacific region, as well as in New Zealand and Australia. He is currently Vice-Chancellor Professor at Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau, Auckland University of Technology. Previously, he was Associate Professor of Pacific Studies at the Centre for Pacific Studies and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Pacific at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland.

2019 AHI Annual Lecture

“Writing history by political negotiations: Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and the Crown, 1999-2012.”

Presented by Margaret Kāwharu and David Williams

In November 2011, a Deed of Settlement of Historical Claims was signed by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and the Crown. However, this was without the presence of contentious issues, many of which centered on the difficulties in the process of writing an ‘historical account’. What sort of an ‘historical account’ should be written? In this joint presentation, David Williams recounted the political process of negotiating the historical account from 1999-2011 and he offered some reflections on legislated historical accounts. Margaret Kāwharu gave the historical narrative that made sense to Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and the critical words of her tupuna to guide the analysis of this lecture.  

Margaret Anne Kāwharu, Ngāti Whātua o Ōrākei, is an anthropologist and daughter of the late Sir Hugh Kawharu, distinguished academic, a prominent leader of Ngāti Whātua and Chair of the Ngāti Whātua o Ōrākei Māori Trust Board for 26 years as he steered the iwi’s negotiations with successive governments for the return of ancestral land at Takaparawhau to whenua ownership. Margaret worked alongside her father on the Ōrākei Treaty Team in 2004-2006 as an historian as they negotiated with the Crown. She later served on the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Reserves Board and was the Treaty Claim Manager for Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara between 1995 and 2012. In 2012, she was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori.

David V. Williams, Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, is a Professor Emeritus and Honorary Research Fellow in the Faculty of Law at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland. For many years he was an activist in the Citizens Association for Racial Equality (CARE). He has worked with many iwi, but especially with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei from the days of the Bastion Point/Takaparawhau occupation in the 1970s through to the enactment of the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Treaty Settlement Act 2012. He continues to be engaged as an independent researcher by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and other iwi as an expert witness and litigation adviser.

David Williams presenting the AHI Lecture at the Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, 15 April 2019.