The Macmillan Brown Lectures

After a break of two years, this long-running lecture series resumes with an address by Sitiveni Rabuka and an introduction by the Rt Hon Murray McCully. They discuss democracy in the South Pacific with particular focus on recent history in Fiji. Recorded at the University of Canterbury in October 2012.

Indigenous heritage and museums today. Encyclopaedic museums were institutions born of 'Enlightenment' values and committed to a belief that through the study of things from all over the world, truth would emerge. Museums were also thought to broaden cultural horizons and foster a greater understanding of cultural diversity. For the last quarter-century however, these principles have been called into question. Roger Fyfe examines how increased ethnic and cultural self-assertion has attacked the legitimacy of those museums which are full of objects taken from other places in other times.

Museums in the Colonies The great natural history and encyclopaedic museums of Europe arose as colonial empires were expanding round the globe. Efforts to organise, classify and display the material culture of distant peoples can be seen as a cultural echo of the era's political imperialism. So what happened when newly arrived colonial communities in the so called 'source countries' (eg North America, Australia, New Zealand) set about establishing their own museums? Were the inspired ideals of European museums diluted or compromised? Roger Fyfe searches for answers in the the foundation years of the Canterbury Museum.

Temples to Science: Museums continue to be a burgeoning worldwide phenomenon. They come in a myriad of sizes and guises. Today it seems no community is complete without one or more! But how many of those amongst us who flock to museums in every increasing numbers, both at home and abroad, stop to ask ourselves 'where did this peculiar notion called a museum come from'? Roger Fyfe traces the genesis of the modern museum to some profoundly eighteenth century intellectual vision and values.

The 2009 Macmillan Brown lectures explore how Maori culture operates as a force for New Zealand's social and scientific advancement. In this third lecture, Professor Michael Walker argues that increasing Maori participation in science could expand its intellectual scope and strengthen its practice.

The 2009 Macmillan Brown lectures explore how Maori culture operates as a force for New Zealand's social and scientific advancement. In this second lecture, Professor Lisa Matisoo-Smith looks at how DNA technology can help integrate indigenous and scientific knowledge. She's introduced by Professor Karen Nero from the University of Canterbury's Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies.

The 2009 Macmillan Brown lectures explore how Maori culture operates as a force for New Zealand's social and scientific advancement. In this first lecture, Professor Te Ahukaramu Charles Royal discusses the theme of creative potential in Maoridom. He's introduced by Professor Angus MacFarlane.

Cookbooks and Cultural Identity in the 20th Century. In this final Macmillan Brown lecture for 2008, Prof Helen Leach of the University of Otago exposes the way in which cultural identity can be gauged from looking at community cookbooks published here through the decades. Pakeha regarded Maori cookery as a relic of the past until cookbooks published in the Maori Renaissance during the 1970s showed its resistance to extinction. In the structure of their meals, descendants of British migrants also adhered to their ancestral culinary tradition until the 1960s; however in their baking they asserted a distinctive Kiwi identity throughout the 20th century. 'Internationalization' in the 1960s brought a flood of new recipes. It was followed by 'globalization' which has not (as yet) undermined either identities or culinary traditions.

Cookery in the Colonial Era. Contact with the immigrants brought new types of kai and ways of cooking to Maori, explored by Prof Helen Leach of the University of Otago in the second of her 2008 Macmillan Brown lectures. From the range of introduced crops and animals, Maori selected those which slotted easily into their culinary tradition as substitutes for traditional foods. In contrast Pakeha settlers faced food shortages and a temporary loss of cooking technology. After a period of mutual borrowing, in the 1860s. Pakeha turned to older colonies around the Pacific for new recipes and equipment.

Maori Cookery Before Cook. What impact did migration from a tropical homeland have on Maori cookery? They experienced drastic changes in their traditional foods, yet the rules that were part of their Polynesian culinary tradition remained intact. In the first of her 2008 Macmillan Brown lectures, Prof Helen Leach of the University of Otago argues that culinary traditions are important for the survival and the maintenance of our identities. Leach draws a distinction between culinary traditions and cuisines and explores how Maori adapted tropical cuisine to new food sources.

A Tale of Two Mats: technology and transformation. The ways in which new technologies are transforming the worldviews and lifestyles of Pacific societies. Pacific societies were changed early, and fundamentally, by a number of bureaucratic and production technologies but these were appropriated and controlled by leaders in Pacific societies. The impact of new technologies which are increasingly available and ever cheaper, are not as easily resisted or controlled. The lecture considered some recent examples of the impact of new technologies on the organisation of national and village society and explore their impacts.

A Tale of Two Ways : ideas and transformation. The ways in which ideas are transforming the worldviews and lifestyles of the Pacific societies. Pacific societies were changed early, and fundamentally, by such ideas as Christianity and commerce but these were appropriated and managed by leaders in Pacific societies. The influences of new global discourses, generated beyond the Pacific and inextricably connected with trade and aid, are not so easily resisted or controlled. These ideas are also transforming the village and its traditions. The lecture considered some recent examples and explore their impacts.

The Globalisation of the Village. The consequences of the recent movements of people on the organisation of Pacific societies. Pacific societies were once considered somewhat remote and isolated: relatively few people came and went and the societies remained relatively untouched. Incoming people were embraced and incorporated. But the increasing volume and character of movement has rapidly changed that. Escalating emigration, immigration and constant movement links societies such as Samoa into a global village with all its consequences. This movement has also globalised the village and fundamentally transformed its character.

A broader context: Pacific art in global terms. The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa has a significant advocacy role to play in speaking for and about the art of New Zealand's Polynesian peoples. Cultural diplomacy underpins the push to present the best of our art traditions to new audiences in European countries where, ironically, the idea of the art of the stereotypical Pacific "other" was first constructed. New Zealand's art culture, in global terms, may be tiny but there is a burgeoning European and Asian interest in customary and contemporary Maori and Pacific art. The opening of the new Musee du Quai Branly in Paris in June, the exhibition of taonga from Te Papa's Matauranga Maori collections that is going to the Tokyo National Museum next year, and the expansive exhibition of oceanic art planned for the Hayward Gallery in London, are indications that our art is "going global". In the international art market prices for customary treasures are rising steeply. Around forty years ago Colin McCahon told his incredulous students at the Elam School of Fine Arts that the Pacific - the world's largest but least populous geographic feature - would "become the centre of the art world". Has that unlikely prediction come to pass?

A tuakana-teina relationship: contemporary Maori and Pacific Art. Contemporary Pacific art has tended to be defined as art by New Zealand residents or New Zealanders of Pacific Islands, mainly Polynesian, origin or descent. But New Zealand is part of the Polynesian Triangle, Maori are Polynesians, and many Pakeha and Palangi identify strongly with their country's geographic location and the cultures indigenous to the region, and their art reflects this. The older sibling/younger sibling relationship between tangata whenua and tangata Pasifika has always been awkward. The world views and lived experiences, the histories and aspirations of Maori and Pacific Islanders in New Zealand are different and inform their contemporary art differently. Yet there are overlaps. The contemporary Pacific artists are, in a sense, shadowing a course that their Maori counterparts trod a generation earlier, and some younger artists whose parentage is Maori and Pacific Islands can relate to both cultural entities.

Island culture and urban life: the span of contemporary Pacific art. "As it happens, I am not an expert in contemporary Pacific art, but I have played a role in supporting and promoting it." In this lecture Jonathan Mane-Wheoki considers the rise of Pacific art from the tentative entry of pioneer Pacific painters such as Paul Tangata and Teuane Tibbo into the mainstream of New Zealand art in the 'sixties to the advent of the "big three" - Fatu Feu'u, Michel Tuffery and John Pule, the first Macmillan Brown Pacific Artists in Residence - in the 'nineties. The way in which these artists have been excluded from, than then included in the history of New Zealand art is discussed. Recorded at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu.

'A whirlpool of impure vocalisation': attitudes to New Zealand English. When the New Zealand accent was first noticed it was roundly condemned. Critics said it was the product of poor homes and laziness. It was seen as a wretched Cockney import from the slums of London. In this lecture Elizabeth Gordon will examine the early attitudes to New Zealand English and the view of language which gave rise to them. She will discuss the roles of standard and non-standard English in New Zealand and consider the underlying reasons for complaints about some varieties of New Zealand English today.

'Afghans' and 'cheerios', 'kiwi' and 'iwi': the words we use. The beginnings of New Zealand English go back to the time when Captain Cook borrowed Maori words into English. In this lecture Elizabeth Gordon will discuss the processes whereby the English language was adapted to New Zealand conditions. She will consider the borrowing of Maori words into English in the period up to 1860 and the period after 1970 and discuss the question of Maori code-switching in English writing today. Some writers have suggested that New Zealand English will lose its distinctiveness in the face of globalisation. Will our New Zealand words survive?

The New Zealand accent was first noticed around 1900 when it was called a 'colonial twang'. Recordings of old New Zealanders collected in the 1940's by the New Zealand National Broadcasting Service have enabled researchers at the University of Canterbury to study the speech of men and women who were among the first English speaking children born in New Zealand. This work has shown that the accent was formed between 1850 and 1880. In this lecture Elizabeth Gordon will consider some of the explanations for the origins of the New Zealand accent. Using examples from the early recordings she will describe some of the research findings on how our variety of English evolved.

Glynn Christian, the great-great-great-great-grandson of the Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian talks to Brian Edwards about his family heritage and the story behind a mutiny on Bounty on 28 April 1789