Kerry Howe talks about the Hauraki Gulf

Come along and hear renowned historian Kerry Howe talk about his book To the Island: exploring, remembering , imagining the Hauraki Gulf.

Kerry’s book captures the diversity and complexity of the Hauraki Gulf’s nature, culture, history and politics, and includes research findings from topics as diverse as archaeology, WWII, and pest eradication.

Kerry’s talk will initially briefly cover the book and its approach, and will then focus on two main aspects:

•  A brief Maori history overview from their first settlements to today, including prehistory, the destruction of the Gulf populations and the total loss of the Gulf Islands during the colonial period, and a brief summary of attempts at Tribunal restitution today.
• A short overview of the physical exploitation/destruction of the islands by both Maori and subsequent colonisation and showing the huge shift in our values from about the 1980s, as we have turned to world-beating Gulf island restoration and species preservation.

Kerry Howe has spent a life time writing about Pacific/Polynesian/New Zealand culture and history. His ten books have been internationally acclaimed, and his edition of Vaka Moana: voyages of the ancestors received the NZ Montana Book Awards for History in 2007.

His research and teaching career was at Massey University, both Palmerston North and Auckland, with periods at universities in Australia, the USA and Canada.

He has travelled extensively throughout the Pacific islands. He attained the position of Distinguished Professor before his retirement.

Kerry has always been an avid outdoor person, especially fishing and boating and, as a born and bred Aucklander, has had a life-long fascination with the Gulf islands.

Please note copies of Kerry Howe’s book will be on sale and available for signing at the talk.