Penguin History of New Zealand P.133
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CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by UC Research Repository ‘Like Iron Filings to a Magnet’: A Reappraisal of Michael King’s Approach to New Zealand History A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in History at the University of Canterbury by Halie McCaffrey University of Canterbury 2010 Contents Acknowledgements p.ii Abstract p.iv Introduction: Michael King: History Man p.1 Chapter One: ‘Being Pākehā’ in the Historiographical Dialogue of Nation and Identity in New Zealand p.9 Chapter Two: Mātauranga Pākehā: King’s Construction of a New Zealand Identity p.42 Chapter Three: Identity and the Landscape: Imagining New Zealand Through King’s Personal Experience of Place p.68 Chapter Four: King’s People: The Life Histories of New Zealanders p.92 Chapter Five: A Career Full Circle? A Discussion of The Penguin History of New Zealand p.133 Conclusion: Michael Row the Boat Ashore p.177 References Bibliography: Primary Sources p.181 Secondary Sources p.188 ii Acknowledgements The writing this thesis has been a difficult process: both academically and emotionally. The completion of this thesis has come down to a lot of support from different people in my life. I am very thankful to each one of them. At the beginning of this process I was diagnosed with dyslexia. SPLED Canterbury was great help to me during this process. Not only did they pay for my testing, they paid for a tutor to help me work on my weaknesses. I am so grateful to Christine Docherty who showed much compassion in re teaching me the basics of the English language. I am also indebted to her for directing me to put my name forward for the Jean Seabrook Scholarship (established to help those students with dyslexia at tertiary level). For how small of an organisation SPLED Canterbury is they went out of their way to ensure my needs were met. I can not thank them enough for the time and money they invested in me. From the University of Canterbury I would like to thank the former HOD Geoffrey Rice for believing in my ability to complete this thesis knowing my diagnosis and backing my proposal to continue. Thank you to my primary supervisor Philippa Mein Smith who has been supportive and encouraging through so many set backs. A special thanks to her patience in many drafts, tears and grammatical corrections. I was so fortunate not only to have a supportive primary supervisor, but also a secondary supervisor who went out of his way to make sure I succeeded. I can not thank Graeme Dunstall enough for helping me to start my thesis while Philippa was on sabbatical, but more importantly I want to thank him for guiding me through to the end. Without his help reading drafts and getting me to tighten my focus I would not have been able to finish. I appreciate the time he has given to help me especially since becoming an adjunct professor and dealing with personal consequences of the Christchurch earthquake. I would also like to thank my fellow postgraduates who emphasised with the stress and strain placed on us by the merging of the Arts departments in to the school of Humanities. We have survived relocation, tightening of funds, changes iii to protocol, loss of staff, and the library closure and earthquake damage. Thank you Helen Bones, Laura Kamau, Allie Steadman and Hannah Benbow for your friendship and banter over a pint (or two). A special thank you to Anna Milne: thank you for your friendship and support and giving me a place to live. I can not thank you enough for being there for me and making my living situation better just by being a part of my life everyday. To my sister-in-arms Robyn Curtis: thank you for suggesting we work together. It gave us the opportunity to share our frustrations. But, it also meant we were able to help and support each other through the process. I could not have done it without you. To my family, we had to say goodbye to our wee Caleb John Cowan this year. He touched our lives in many different ways in the eleven months he was with us. We love you very much little cousin. To Aunty Julianna, Uncle Scott and my cousin Sampson I thank you for letting us celebrate his life with you. Thank you to my Father Stephen McCaffrey and his partner Sandy Erridge for having me at home at a very low point of this journey. Knowing that you are always there for me is such a great help. I love you very much. To my mother Lynne Williams, whose care packages and phone call mean more to me than I can express, your constant interest in my well being has been a great comfort to me. My biggest thanks have to be to my brother Reece McCaffrey. He probably does not know it but he has made the biggest impact on my emotional self over this process. His love and support in getting me back into exercise and getting me to feel good about myself mentally and physically again really turned my life around. Not only was he a support to me in the gym as a trainer but he was there for me as a brother in a capacity unprecedented during our relationship. I am so glad that from a bad situation I gained a closer and more understanding relationship with my brother than I could have ever thought was possible. I know that I am not good at saying this but thank you and I love you very much. I hope our relationship continues to grow and get closer. iv To Cat Milligan, thank you for opening your home to me as a place to work and a place to escape. I appreciate your pep talks and motivation to keep going. I am so grateful for friends like you. To my ladies at Smith‘s City, thank you for listening to the trials and tribulations of this thesis. Many thanks to everyone else who wished me well and made me believe in the merit of completing this work. v Abstract This thesis outlines the development of New Zealand historian Michael King‘s writing career through an analysis of his main texts. King‘s texts have never been examined as a whole. This thesis endeavours to assess his place within the historiographical discourse of national histories in more depth than previously attempted. King‘s prolific career as a self sustained writer brought a degree of success. He became an authority for a generation of New Zealanders wanting to understand their past. Nonetheless, academic historians have been critical of his work. This thesis examines their criticisms and re-evaluates King‘s contribution. This reassessment of King‘s works discusses the differing literary devices he used to construct his observations on New Zealand history. Commentators have focused on King‘s affirmation of being Pākehā: an indigenisation of European identity in New Zealand. Yet, this was not the only device King used to explain New Zealand history. He also focused on a sense of belonging to the landscape and the writing of life histories as personal expressions of his observations of New Zealand history. King‘s combinations of new and old stylistic conventions were showcased in his last work The Penguin History of New Zealand (2003). In this as in earlier work, King demonstrated that the framework of the nation for writing histories was not redundant but could be a tool for including the individual in their own history and provided them with a familiar construction of place and belonging. 1 Introduction Michael King: History Man1 The corpus of New Zealand‘s most well known and widely read social historian of the past forty years has never been assessed as a whole. Michael King (b.1945- d.2004) wrote 34 works which covered a gamut of issues he felt faced New Zealanders and their place within the national historical consciousness.2 His proficiency for writing New Zealand history was not restricted to books; he was also a well known social commentator who provided his observations about New Zealand and its people for magazines, newspapers, radio and television. King‘s constant contribution to explaining current concerns in New Zealand by providing an understanding of what had occurred in the past caused him to be looked upon as an authority on their history by the New Zealand public.3 An indication of how trusted and revered King‘s account of the past was to the New Zealand public was seen in breaking of sale records for a non-fiction book following the publication of his last work The Penguin History of New Zealand (2003). 4 Shortly after its publication, its success was overshadowed by the outpouring of grief at his untimely death.5 Consequently, his writings, books and historical ideals are still widely read and discussed by both by a public and an academic audience.6 Because a study of his career as a whole has never been attempted, it is important to analyse the trajectory of King‘s self-sustained and successful writing career. 1 cf. Colin Hogg and John Carlaw‘s biographical documentary History Man (Auckland, 2004) for the title of this introduction. 2 Two books that King collaborated on that were published posthumously include Splendours of Civilisation: The John Money Collection at the Eastern Southland Gallery (Dunedin, 2006) and Chatham Islands: Heritage and Conservation (Christchurch, 2008). 3 King's literary awards include the Feltex Television Writers' Award, Winston Churchill Fellowship 1980, Fulbright Visiting Writers' Fellowship 1988, OBE 1988, NZ Literary Fund 1987 and 1989, Wattie Book of the Year 1984, 1990, NZ Book Award (non-fiction) 1978, Burns Fellow Otago University 1998-99, Prime Minister's Literary Award 2003 [Arnold Pickmere, ‗Obituary: Michael King‘, The New Zealand Herald, 1 April 2004, accessed from the New Zealand Herald Website, 5 March 2010].