"new zealand" blog posts

Managing and interpreting Maori heritage: Pā today

Posted on: 18 February 2020 | Category: 2020 posts

Pā in the process of transition in management with overgrown earthwork defences

Professor Harold Mytum concludes the blog series from his visit to New Zealand by exploring the relationship between the hill forts and contemporary Maori culture.

The Maori and Colonial contact: Pā in their landscape context

Posted on: 6 February 2020 | Category: 2020 posts

Rangihoua pā overlooking the Oihi mission site on the terrace in the foreground; the monument celebrates Marsden’s first Christian service on New Zealand soil.

The more pā sites Harold Mytum has visited as part of the Hill Fort Study Group (HFSG) visit, and we learn of the early relationships with the British, the more it is clear that the indigenous groups wielded considerable influence in the early decades of contact. The ways in which the Maori leaders of iwi (the largest kinship grouping) used interactions with foreigners for their own social advantage are clear.

Maori Pā: Hillforts from Prehistory to the Present

Posted on: 31 January 2020 | Category: 2020 posts

Kororipo pā, home of the Maori Ngāpuhi chief, Hongi Kika who allowed British settlement on the lower land under his control.

Harold Mytum has joined the Hill Fort Study Group (HFSG) study tour of sites in the North Island of New Zealand, home to the greatest concentration of Maori at the time of Captain Cook and indeed still so today.