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IMAGES OF PAKEHA-MAORI A Study of the Representation of Pakeha-Maori by Historians of New Zealand From Arthur Thomson (1859) to James Belich (1996) A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History at The University of Waikato Trevor William Bentley University of Waikato 2007 Abstract This thesis investigates how Pakeha-Maori have been represented in New Zealand non-fiction writing during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The chronological and textual boundaries range from Arthur Thomson’s seminal history The Story of New Zealand (1859) to James Belich’s Making Peoples (1996). It examines the discursive inventions and reinventions of Pakeha-Maori from the stereotypical images of the Victorian era to modern times when the contact zone has become a subject of critical investigation and a sign of changing intellectual dynamics in New Zealand and elsewhere. This thesis is about the history of attitudes to culture-crossers in New Zealand, the use of the term ‘Pakeha-Maori’, and the images that underlie the thinking of Britons and Pakeha about them. It explores the motives and backgrounds of specific authors and the ways in which they frame New Zealand history. It elucidates the ambiguous and contradictory perspectives of Pakeha-Maori in the literature and analyses its impact on changing public perceptions about them. The study critiques the literature with emphasis on theoretically informed research, historical analysis, and literary insights. Discussion is confined to published texts, with the aim of exploring the multiplicity of Pakeha-Maori images and the processes that gave rise to them. This study is essentially an investigation into how and why historians and other scholars try to draw boundaries between cultures in order to create a satisfactory metanarrative or myth of the ‘settlement’ of New Zealand and thus to forge a sense of New Zealandness. The cultural and racial categories of ‘Maori’ and ‘Pakeha’ are very unstable, however, and a consideration of the ‘in-between’ or ‘culture-crossing’ category of ‘Pakeha-Maori’ can reveal the way in which ‘Maori’ and ‘Pakeha’ and a sense of New Zealand and New Zealanders have been constructed. More particularly, consideration of representations of those culture-crossers or race-crossers called Pakeha-Maori can reveal the hopes and fears of Pakeha writers regarding Pakeha, Maori and New Zealand and how Pakeha-Maori have frequently been a barometer or litmus test of public perceptions of relations between Maori and Pakeha in different historical periods. i Contents Pages Abstract................................................................................................................i Table of Contents................................................................................................ii Preface................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements............................................................................................vi Introduction......................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Negotiating and Constructing Pakeha-Maori in A. S. Thomson’s Story of New Zealand.................................. 33 Chapter Two: Constructing a Pakeha-Maori Self in F. E. Maning’s Old New Zealand .................................................................... 68 Chapter Three: White Savages and Culture-Crossing Pioneers..................... 107 Chapter Four: Pakeha-Maori and National Identity..................................... 148 Chapter Five: Manipulating Symbols: Representations of Pakeha-Maori in the Works of James Cowan .............................................. 192 Chapter Six: Representations of Pakeha-Maori in Post-Second World War Writing.......................................... 225 Chapter Seven: Belich, Salmond and Beyond: Post-Colonial Representations of Pakeha-Maori......................................... 260 Concluding Remarks....................................................................................... 295 List of Sources ............................................................................................... 315 ii Preface My interest in Europeans ‘gone native’ was born out of my own boundary crossings between New Zealand, where I live and work, and my ancestral village of Saleilua in the Falealili district of Western Samoa. My specific interest in Pakeha-Maori was ignited during the 1990s, through the beachcomber stories I heard during sojourns in the villages of Saleilua and Poutasi. Among these stories of colourful characters and bizarre happenings was the tale of one of my European ancestors, a castaway Portuguese sailor, who, armed with a fabled sword of steel, participated with distinction in the wars against the Tongans. I subsequently developed an interest in culture-crossers as white warriors and my MPhil History thesis, ‘Tribal Guns, Tribal Gunners’ (1998), included a chapter entitled ‘Foreign Fighting Men in pre-1840 Maori Expeditions of War’. My increasing fascination with this subject led to further research, writing, and the publication of two books about culture-crossing Europeans, Pakeha Maori: The Extraordinary Story of the Europeans who lived as Maori in early New Zealand (1999) and Captured by Maori: White Female Captives, Sex and Racism on the Nineteenth Century New Zealand Frontier (2004). This project is a continuation of that interest. The writing of this thesis has been a challenging and fascinating experience. In the course of examining how writers in different eras constructed and reconstructed images of Pakeha-Maori, the study has provided insights into many of the preoccupations and anxieties of British and Pakeha writers and readers. I have written the study around a contradiction, Pakeha-Maori, who are part of New Zealand history and who have remained a constant presence in non-fiction since the early nineteenth century. Pakeha-Maori emerged at a time when Maori were creating iii their own hierarchy of ethnic and social categories for newcomers. By the late 1820s, Maori had fused the various categories of culture-crossing foreigners, white slaves, warriors, traders, whalers, and farmers into this single category. Pakeha-Maori need to be analysed and theorised because of their special position in New Zealand history, their ongoing presence in the zone where Maori and Pakeha culture merge, and their ramifications for future New Zealand. Though some empirical information as background material is crucial, and does appear as context, this study is not concerned with establishing new ‘facts’ about them. During the nineteenth century, shifts in Maori-Pakeha power contributed to a decline in people described as Pakeha-Maori, but the term has remained in the literature. ‘Pakeha-Maori’ was the term many writers employed to denote types of culture- crossing Europeans. This study examines how, from the outset, British and/or Pakeha usage of the term was imprecise. It was used subjectively to illuminate the wider views the writers had about race as Pakeha-Maori were structured to fit the writers’ wider views of New Zealand history. In this thesis, I maintain that Pakeha-Maori now stand in a very special position in our history. Their children were portents of the mixed race that will characterise the New Zealand population by the mid-twenty-first century. Thus Pakeha-Maori can also be considered prototypes for modern bicultural Pakeha. This material is part of the current effort by some modern writers to use Pakeha-Maori to help us understand who we are in New Zealand and where many New Zealanders come from. It is hoped that the thesis will generate further studies on the topic and encourage other writers to explore, discuss, and add to this distinctive aspect of our past. One of the most significant developments in Pacific history has been the remarkable expansion of writing about culture-crossing Europeans. This study is part of that new scholarship and follows a number of excellent research papers and theses on Pakeha- Maori. Written by graduate students in New Zealand universities, these studies have enhanced some of the perspectives contained in this thesis. iv Acknowledgements My research and writing have profited from the guidance of a number of people. I wish to acknowledge and thank Peter Gibbons, my chief supervisor, for his patience, generosity of time, knowledge, and advice. Mike Goldsmith influenced my thinking and helped guide my reading of anthropological texts enabling an interdisciplinary approach to the topic. Material received from Daniel Thorpe, Associate Professor of History at Virginia Tech, USA, provided useful ideas and new