AHI Summer Research Scholarships
Research Articles
Māori Bards in the Community Centre
by Nicolas Jones*
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Māori Community Centre was at the heart of popular culture and nightlife leisure amongst Māori living in Auckland. Whether it was because of factors such as State encouragement in the wake of the Hunn Report (1961), economic opportunities, or the appeal of adventure in the city, Auckland’s Māori population grew at a remarkably fast rate in the post-war period.
Auckland’s Māori Community Centre: 1947-1970
by Nicolas Jones*
For more than 50 years, the Māori Community Centre has stood as an iconic feature of Auckland’s urban landscape and an integral pan-tribal space for city-dwellers. While eventually demolished in 2002, for those that attended and benefitted from its many programmes and facilities, the Centre’s legacy is an important narrative in the history of Tāmaki Makaurau.
The Limits to Progress: The Auckland Harbour Bridge, 1959-1969
by Nathan McLeay*
In the eyes of many Aucklanders, the bridge, Auckland’s soaring highway in the sky stood as proud testament to the city’s progress and to the vision and tenacity of its officials. Not only was the bridge a sign of how far Auckland had come, but also where Auckland was going.
‘Portal to a Brighter Day’: Narratives of Progress and the Opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge
by Nathan McLeay*
From 1955 to 1959, Aucklanders watched as a bridge gradually began to take shape across their harbour. The Waitematā, beautiful and usually so serene, was transformed into a stage for one of the largest and most complex construction projects in New Zealand’s history.
From Distant Dream to Reality: The Fight for the Auckland Harbour Bridge, 1926-1951
by Nathan McLeay*
From the mid-1920s, the distant dream of a bridge spanning the Waitematā began to draw rapidly closer to realisation. Public interest in a bridge was formalised in 1926 with the establishment of the Auckland Harbour Bridge Association.
‘A Dream of the Very Distant Future’: Early Visions of a Bridge across the Waitematā
Nathan McLeay*
Like the Māori who wove into their legend a vision of a bridge spanning the Waitematā, early European settlers too recognised the possibility of such a link. Auckland had barely turned 20 when, in 1860, Ponsonby farmer Fred A. Bell produced plans for a pontoon bridge extending between Stokes Point (Northcote Point today) and Fanshawe Street.