Disputed ground: the construction of Pakeha identity in novels of the New Zealand Wars

Abstract

Within New Zealand literature there is a significant but largely ignored body of novels concerning the New Zealand Wars. Beginning with the first indigenous New Zealand novel, Henry Butler Stoney's Taranaki: A Tale of the War (1861). over thirty have been written on the subject. The Wars, which established Pakeha hegemony, produced novels concentrated around three crucial periods in the subsequent development of Pakeha identity. Within each period, the texts use the Wars setting to produce a remarkably unified image of Pakeha identity that engages with the contemporary pressures on that identity. The novels of the first period, 1887-1899, were written during the formation of Pakeha identity and they endorse the settlers' presence and the future of the colony; those of 1959-1968 were written during a period of questioning Pakeha identity and their response is a nationalistic assertion of that identity; the final period, 1982-1994, was a time of crisis in Pakeha identity and the texts reflect this in their concern with the failure of Pakeha to achieve "natural occupancy". These variations are revealed by tracing the changing depiction of Pakeha ethnicity in relation to Maori characters and culture, Pakeha cultural identity in contrast to British characters and society, and Pakeha indigenisation through their interaction with the landscape. These texts provide fascinating insights into the interaction between history, literature and identity within a settler society, thus demonstrating the value of widening the boundaries of New Zealand literature deemed appropriate for academic study.