Books by Madeline Fowler
Routledge, 2019
Aboriginal Maritime Landscapes in South Australia reveals the maritime landscape of a coastal Abo... more Aboriginal Maritime Landscapes in South Australia reveals the maritime landscape of a coastal Aboriginal mission, Burgiyana (Point Pearce), in South Australia, based on the experiences of the Narungga community.
A collaborative initiative with Narungga peoples and a cross-disciplinary approach has resulted in new understandings of the maritime history of Australia. Analysis of the long-term participation of Narungga peoples in Australia’s maritime past, informed by Narungga oral histories, primary archival research and archaeological fieldwork, delivers insights into the world of Aboriginal peoples in the post-contact maritime landscape. This demonstrates that multiple interpretations of Australia’s maritime past exist and provokes a reconsideration of how the relationship between maritime and Indigenous archaeology is seen. This book describes the balance ground shaped through the collaboration, collision and reconciliation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Australia. It considers community-based practices, cohesively recording such areas of importance to Aboriginal communities as beliefs, knowledges and lived experiences through a maritime lens, highlighting the presence of Narungga and Burgiyana peoples in a heretofore Western-dominated maritime literature.
Through its consideration of such themes as maritime archaeology and Aboriginal history, the book is of value to scholars in a broad range of archaeology, anthropology, history and Indigenous studies disciplines.
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Book chapters by Madeline Fowler
Indigenous Perspectives on Historical Archaeology of Colonialism, 2019
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Formation Processes of Maritime Archaeological Landscapes, 2017
This chapter investigates maritime cultural landscapes of Point Pearce Mission/Burgiyana, in the ... more This chapter investigates maritime cultural landscapes of Point Pearce Mission/Burgiyana, in the Yorke Peninsula/Guuranda region of South Australia. Burgiyana is home to the Narungga peoples. This research investigates the participation of Aboriginal peoples in Australia’s maritime industry, an important component of Australian maritime heritage. Maritime activities at Point Pearce/Burgiyana have contributed to Australia’s maritime industry through engagements that include in-kind transactions, employment within the fishing economy, and shipping trade labor—both at sea and on land. This research uses a maritime cultural landscape framework to explore Indigenous themes previously rarely employed in archaeological research. In addition, most maritime archaeological studies have neglected Aboriginal missions as potential sites/landscapes for analysis and, similarly, archaeological research at missions has largely ignored maritime aspects. The outcomes of the project illustrate that Aboriginal maritime cultural landscapes are not only a prominent part of the Australian landscape, but also provoke reconsiderations regarding how archaeologists see the relationship between the maritime and Indigenous archaeological record. The findings propose that maritime archaeologists could employ a maritime cultural landscape framework within other themes of cultural contact that include missions situated on waterways.
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Journal articles by Madeline Fowler
Journal of Maritime Archaeology, 2019
Submarine squatting, dugong fishing on the Queensland (Australia) coast during the late nineteent... more Submarine squatting, dugong fishing on the Queensland (Australia) coast during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, is a poorly understood livelihood. This study provides a fine-grained interpretation to expand our knowledge of the operation of commercial dugong fisheries through the practices of two commercial dugong fishers, John Lionel Ching and Daniel Dewar, operating in the Newry Island Group. Archaeological surveys of the Newry Island Group and nearby Stewarts Peninsula have highlighted the ephemeral nature of the commercial dugong industry in the seascape today. Despite this ephemeral landscape, contextualising the archival and archaeological research within a seascape framework has enriched our understanding of the daily lives of the commercial dugong fishers. It is important to acknowledge that a seascape approach is rarely applied to non-Indigenous archaeological contexts in Australia. The seascape approach used here has been successful in encompassing Western systems of maritime knowledge.
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Rangitoto Island, Aotearoa/New Zealand, is the location of a graveyard of abandoned vessels and t... more Rangitoto Island, Aotearoa/New Zealand, is the location of a graveyard of abandoned vessels and three communities of baches (circa 1910s–1930s)—small and modest holiday homes. In 2014, an archival and archaeological investigation of 11 discarded watercraft located at Boulder Bay and the bach communities of Beacon End, Rangitoto Wharf and Islington Bay revealed evidence of salvage and reuse of abandoned vessel materials in the construction, modification and use of the island’s baches. This evidence in turn provides insight into opportunistic behaviours of communities unassociated with the maritime industries that created ships’ graveyards, and consequently affords a more well-rounded understanding of post-depositional site formation processes. Influenced by social and economic impacts, the Rangitoto Island bach communities’ resourcefulness enhances our knowledge of behaviours towards ships as sources of material.
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This article details the discovery of early twentieth-century sailcloth and fishing-net samples p... more This article details the discovery of early twentieth-century sailcloth and fishing-net samples pertaining to the lives of Aboriginal peoples on Point Pearce Aboriginal Mission (Burgiyana). Biographies for the samples are explored, from which it is argued that these objects may have many viewpoints assigned to them. The sailcloth and fishing-net samples allow the telling of complex stories from the past and present. These stories include the resilience, adaptability and strength of Narungga culture when exposed to colonial contextual risk. Indeed, these objects reveal the efforts of missions and government agencies to control the lives of Aboriginal peoples (through the lenses of ‘racism’, paternalism and self-interest), as well as agency and the involvement of Aboriginal peoples in capitalist economies. Objects as subjects can also reveal ongoing struggles for traditional and commercial fishing rights – with the aforementioned being informed by the traditional knowledge and lived experiences of Narungga peoples.
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Together, archaeological evidence and oral histories better inform our understanding of the inter... more Together, archaeological evidence and oral histories better inform our understanding of the interaction between abandoned vessel sites and communities. While the maritime and historic archaeological record can reveal salvage and reuse activities, material culture does not always reflect a direct link between the two. In this study of abandoned vessel material salvage and reuse at Rangitoto Island, Aotearoa / New Zealand, oral histories collected from the owners of baches—small and modest holiday homes—serve as a linkage tool that tie the two together. Furthermore, the archaeological and historical significance of this tangible and intangible cultural heritage serves to foreground the Rangitoto Island community’s current struggle to have this legacy recognised.
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This research employs the concept of ‘archaeologies of attachment’, with its emphasis on material... more This research employs the concept of ‘archaeologies of attachment’, with its emphasis on material culture and intangible heritage, and applies it to an Indigenous Australian seascape – an approach rarely or thoroughly combined in maritime studies. The seascape investigated is the Wardang Island (Waraldi/Wara- dharldhi)/Point Pearce Peninsula (Burgiyana) area in South Australia. This region (and the wider Yorke Peninsula area) is the traditional country of the Narungga people. Collaborative fieldwork with Narungga people has revealed the importance of combining archaeological surveys with place-based oral history interviews to understand the extent of Narungga attachment to this seascape. In particular, place-based interviews conducted with Narungga elders contributed vital ‘lived experiences’ to the understanding of the archaeological record, providing a meaningful and textured account of the past.
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This paper reports on a recent exhibition ‘Children, Boats and ‘Hidden Histories’: Crayon drawing... more This paper reports on a recent exhibition ‘Children, Boats and ‘Hidden Histories’: Crayon drawings by Aboriginal children at Point Pearce Mission (Burgiyana) (South Australia [SA]), 1939’. The exhibit was displayed in the South Australian Maritime Museum (1 Feb–31 July 2014) and was curated by Roberts, Fowler and Sansbury (Fig.1). The exhibition featured nine framed crayon drawings (facsimiles) as well as a large interpretive panel.
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This paper details the unique pairing of Indigenous and maritime archaeological approaches in the... more This paper details the unique pairing of Indigenous and maritime archaeological approaches in the ‘(Re)locating Narrunga Project’. Narrunga was a ketch built by the Narungga Aboriginal community at Point Pearce Mission (Yorke Peninsula, South Australia) at the turn of the twentieth century and later sunk in the 1940s. It is argued that convergences between the scholarly interests of Indigenous and maritime archaeological approaches have been slow to develop and that maritime archaeology as a sub-discipline has not capitalized on the insights that can be gained from collaborative approaches between communities and practitioners. Similarly, Indigenous communities in Australia have had few opportunities to work with researchers to record their maritime heritage. As is evident in the Narrunga story told in this research, non-Indigenous records have been complicit in underplaying the maritime achievements and skills of Narungga people and collaborative research can work towards decolonizing this past.
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The post-contact maritime archaeological research of Aboriginal missions has hitherto been an un-... more The post-contact maritime archaeological research of Aboriginal missions has hitherto been an un-developed area of study. This paper argues that research in this area is now required to investigate the ‘hidden histories’ of Indigenous peoples in relation to the lacustrine, riverine and coastal waterways of the late 19th and early 20th century Australian land and waterscape. As such this paper presents a synthesis of information on this topic including an analysis of available literature and historical sources to better understand Indigenous peoples’ activities in the post-contact maritime land and waterscape. Ultimately, it is also argued that the maritime archaeology of Aboriginal missions has the potential to contribute knowledge about cross-cultural exchange and cultural continuity. This study is timely because many maritime mission sites are deteriorating and their associated intangible heritage is in need of preservation.
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This paper provides the results of research into the shipwreck landscapes of Port MacDonnell, Sou... more This paper provides the results of research into the shipwreck landscapes of Port MacDonnell, South Australia. The aim of the research is to offer a framework for assessing the impact on communities and vice versa. It presents a discussion of the theoretical underpinnings to this study and some previous case studies using other frameworks that are relevant. It also provides an analysis of the methodological approach to documenting the myriad ways in which shipwrecks impact on historical and contemporary society. Finally, the results of the research conducted at Port MacDonnell in 2011 will be summarised and incorporated into a framework that includes three identified shipwreck landscape themes: response, exploitation and memorialisation.
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Recent archaeological research at Port MacDonnell has attempted to identify the remains of a wood... more Recent archaeological research at Port MacDonnell has attempted to identify the remains of a wooden shipwreck seasonally exposed in the beach. The identity of this shipwreck has been a local mystery for many years. During two periods of fieldwork (March and July), archaeological, probe, ground penetrating radar, and magnetometer surveys were conducted in order to determine the extent of the half-exposed shipwreck. Additionally, timber samples were taken with the first results confirming its identity as an Australian-built ship. Oral history interviews were also conducted as part of this research in order to obtain additional information about the vessel, but also to answer broader questions about shipwrecks as places in the landscape and the impacts shipwrecks had and have on rural coastal communities and vice versa. This paper will provide preliminary results of a year-long project into shipwrecks in the Port MacDonnell community.
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Book reviews by Madeline Fowler
Heritage & Society, 2017
Reading the preface of Richard M. Hutchings’ provocative Maritime Heritage in Crisis, I found mys... more Reading the preface of Richard M. Hutchings’ provocative Maritime Heritage in Crisis, I found myself agreeing with the prominent archaeology professor who argued that archaeologies’ colonialist agenda, driven by capitalism and producing elitist, racist and pro-development nar- ratives, is “old news” (xii–xiii). However, by the conclusion of the book, Hutchings had con- vinced me that this “head in the sand” attitude is no longer sustainable. Archaeologists and resource managers model themselves as “experts,” “saviors” and “specialists,” yet hide behind these roles like the pianists on RMS Titanic – part of the problem yet blind to the fact.
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Journal of Anthropological Research, 2017
The title of Brad Duncan and Martin Gibbs’s 2015 book, Please God Send Me a Wreck, rapidly convey... more The title of Brad Duncan and Martin Gibbs’s 2015 book, Please God Send Me a Wreck, rapidly conveys the contradiction between wrecks as crises and wrecks as boons— savior and salvor, altruism and opportunity. This third volume in the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology (ACUA) and Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA) series When the Land Meets the Sea represents the work of the state maritime archae- ologist (New South Wales Heritage Branch) and a professor of Australian archaeology (University of New England), respectively. This Springer-published set covers archaeo- logical work on single, or a collection of related, sites that encompass both underwater and terrestrial investigations. The recent addition, in the genre of anthropologically ori- ented archaeological essays, adopts the nineteenth- and twentieth-century communities of Queenscliffe, in the southern Australian state of Victoria, as a case study. It casts the community as the central protagonist in a landscape where shipping mishaps take cen- ter stage. Pilot, lighthouse, hydrographic, lifeboat, and customs services act as the key players, orchestrating responses to shipping mishaps encompassing stranding, wrecking, rescue, salvage, looting, caching, beachcombing, and souveniring.
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Proceedings by Madeline Fowler
ACUA Underwater Archaeology Proceedings, 2018
Forced relocations, known as removals, affected every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander commu... more Forced relocations, known as removals, affected every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in Queensland in the 19th and 20th century. Despite the island location of many missions and stations, the watercraft engaged in removals are often implicit in the historical archives. Targeted research of these vessels offers insights into removals beyond origin and destination. The study of the maritime transport of removals enriches the biographies of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples involved by contextualizing human experiences beyond a series of place names. It also magnifies the biographies of the vessels plying the Queensland coast during this time.
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Maritime activities at Point Pearce Aboriginal Mission/Burgiyana (1868–1966) in South Australia f... more Maritime activities at Point Pearce Aboriginal Mission/Burgiyana (1868–1966) in South Australia form the basis of an oral history, archaeological, and archival case study. This research assesses whether the maritime cultural landscape framework, a Western maritime archaeological concept, is applicable to Indigenous missions. The results of research at Point Pearce/Burgiyana indicate that care must be taken when applying maritime archaeological theories and associated attitudes to Indigenous archaeology ('with, for and by' Indigenous peoples). However, the application of a Western framework contributes towards the decolonization of maritime archaeology by accommodating the beliefs, knowledges, and lived experiences of Aboriginal peoples.
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Theses & abstracts by Madeline Fowler
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This thesis investigates the maritime cultural landscape of Point Pearce Mission/ Burgiyana, in t... more This thesis investigates the maritime cultural landscape of Point Pearce Mission/ Burgiyana, in the Yorke Peninsula/Guuranda region of South Australia. The research seeks to understand Indigenous maritime activities within a defined conceptual framework through a case study-based, inductive and interpretive approach. This interpretation perceives the participation of Indigenous peoples in Australia’s maritime industry as an important component of Australian maritime heritage with the potential to shed light on a number of areas including boatbuilding, labouring in the shipping trade—both at sea and on land—and working in the fishing economy. Previous archaeological research has not employed a maritime cultural landscape framework to explore issues of importance to Indigenous communities. The framework, arguably one of the most popular in the maritime archaeology field, is derived from research conducted in Europe and hence has had a Western focus and research agenda. Further, maritime archaeological studies have neglected Indigenous missions as potential sites/landscapes and, similarly, archaeological research at missions has largely ignored maritime aspects.
This study is based upon the collection of 13 oral histories, as well as terrestrial, coastal and underwater archaeological investigations and primary archival research. The data was collated taking into account the 11 thematic facets of the maritime cultural landscape as advocated by Westerdahl (2008, 2011). The latter information was then used to explore the usefulness and suitability of the maritime cultural landscape approach in an Indigenous Australian post-contact context. In particular, an assessment of the maritime cultural landscape was conducted in this research to consider whether it provided the necessary suite of methods (and associated rationale) to accommodate a cohesive recording of areas important to Indigenous Australian communities (i.e. beliefs, knowledges and lived experiences) and whether it provided a useful interpretive structure.
The research reveals that the maritime cultural landscape framework is generally, with qualifications, suitable for the investigation of Indigenous Australian post- contact contexts and is worthwhile in the sense that it can foreground the contribution of Indigenous peoples in Australia’s maritime industry. The aforementioned 11 thematic facets of the maritime cultural landscape are demonstrated in this research to be flexible across contexts, however several issues emerge from this case study. These issues have been broadly grouped into five themes as follows: 1) Colonial archives and local histories often silence Aboriginal peoples; 2) Maritime cultural landscape facets need to encompass non-Western systems of knowledge; 3) Maritime archaeology discourse and underpinning attitudes need to be deconstructed; 4) Maritime archaeology in Australia is generally Eurocentric; and 5) Oral histories are an integral source for exploring Indigenous maritime cultural landscapes. Consequently, it is argued that the maritime cultural landscape approach should be adopted more frequently, taking into account Indigenous themes in maritime archaeology, although the research process should be carefully examined for Eurocentricity. Additionally, the outcomes of the project illustrate that Indigenous maritime cultural landscapes are not only a prominent part of the Australian landscape, but also provoke reconsiderations regarding how we see the relationship between maritime and Indigenous archaeology. The implications of these findings are that the seascape framework is not the only concept available within maritime archaeology for investigating Indigenous contexts. As a result, it is proposed that maritime archaeologists should consider employing a maritime cultural landscape framework within other themes of cultural contact, as well as at missions situated on other waterways and in similar contexts in other countries.
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Books by Madeline Fowler
A collaborative initiative with Narungga peoples and a cross-disciplinary approach has resulted in new understandings of the maritime history of Australia. Analysis of the long-term participation of Narungga peoples in Australia’s maritime past, informed by Narungga oral histories, primary archival research and archaeological fieldwork, delivers insights into the world of Aboriginal peoples in the post-contact maritime landscape. This demonstrates that multiple interpretations of Australia’s maritime past exist and provokes a reconsideration of how the relationship between maritime and Indigenous archaeology is seen. This book describes the balance ground shaped through the collaboration, collision and reconciliation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Australia. It considers community-based practices, cohesively recording such areas of importance to Aboriginal communities as beliefs, knowledges and lived experiences through a maritime lens, highlighting the presence of Narungga and Burgiyana peoples in a heretofore Western-dominated maritime literature.
Through its consideration of such themes as maritime archaeology and Aboriginal history, the book is of value to scholars in a broad range of archaeology, anthropology, history and Indigenous studies disciplines.
Book chapters by Madeline Fowler
Journal articles by Madeline Fowler
Book reviews by Madeline Fowler
Proceedings by Madeline Fowler
Theses & abstracts by Madeline Fowler
This study is based upon the collection of 13 oral histories, as well as terrestrial, coastal and underwater archaeological investigations and primary archival research. The data was collated taking into account the 11 thematic facets of the maritime cultural landscape as advocated by Westerdahl (2008, 2011). The latter information was then used to explore the usefulness and suitability of the maritime cultural landscape approach in an Indigenous Australian post-contact context. In particular, an assessment of the maritime cultural landscape was conducted in this research to consider whether it provided the necessary suite of methods (and associated rationale) to accommodate a cohesive recording of areas important to Indigenous Australian communities (i.e. beliefs, knowledges and lived experiences) and whether it provided a useful interpretive structure.
The research reveals that the maritime cultural landscape framework is generally, with qualifications, suitable for the investigation of Indigenous Australian post- contact contexts and is worthwhile in the sense that it can foreground the contribution of Indigenous peoples in Australia’s maritime industry. The aforementioned 11 thematic facets of the maritime cultural landscape are demonstrated in this research to be flexible across contexts, however several issues emerge from this case study. These issues have been broadly grouped into five themes as follows: 1) Colonial archives and local histories often silence Aboriginal peoples; 2) Maritime cultural landscape facets need to encompass non-Western systems of knowledge; 3) Maritime archaeology discourse and underpinning attitudes need to be deconstructed; 4) Maritime archaeology in Australia is generally Eurocentric; and 5) Oral histories are an integral source for exploring Indigenous maritime cultural landscapes. Consequently, it is argued that the maritime cultural landscape approach should be adopted more frequently, taking into account Indigenous themes in maritime archaeology, although the research process should be carefully examined for Eurocentricity. Additionally, the outcomes of the project illustrate that Indigenous maritime cultural landscapes are not only a prominent part of the Australian landscape, but also provoke reconsiderations regarding how we see the relationship between maritime and Indigenous archaeology. The implications of these findings are that the seascape framework is not the only concept available within maritime archaeology for investigating Indigenous contexts. As a result, it is proposed that maritime archaeologists should consider employing a maritime cultural landscape framework within other themes of cultural contact, as well as at missions situated on other waterways and in similar contexts in other countries.
A collaborative initiative with Narungga peoples and a cross-disciplinary approach has resulted in new understandings of the maritime history of Australia. Analysis of the long-term participation of Narungga peoples in Australia’s maritime past, informed by Narungga oral histories, primary archival research and archaeological fieldwork, delivers insights into the world of Aboriginal peoples in the post-contact maritime landscape. This demonstrates that multiple interpretations of Australia’s maritime past exist and provokes a reconsideration of how the relationship between maritime and Indigenous archaeology is seen. This book describes the balance ground shaped through the collaboration, collision and reconciliation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Australia. It considers community-based practices, cohesively recording such areas of importance to Aboriginal communities as beliefs, knowledges and lived experiences through a maritime lens, highlighting the presence of Narungga and Burgiyana peoples in a heretofore Western-dominated maritime literature.
Through its consideration of such themes as maritime archaeology and Aboriginal history, the book is of value to scholars in a broad range of archaeology, anthropology, history and Indigenous studies disciplines.
This study is based upon the collection of 13 oral histories, as well as terrestrial, coastal and underwater archaeological investigations and primary archival research. The data was collated taking into account the 11 thematic facets of the maritime cultural landscape as advocated by Westerdahl (2008, 2011). The latter information was then used to explore the usefulness and suitability of the maritime cultural landscape approach in an Indigenous Australian post-contact context. In particular, an assessment of the maritime cultural landscape was conducted in this research to consider whether it provided the necessary suite of methods (and associated rationale) to accommodate a cohesive recording of areas important to Indigenous Australian communities (i.e. beliefs, knowledges and lived experiences) and whether it provided a useful interpretive structure.
The research reveals that the maritime cultural landscape framework is generally, with qualifications, suitable for the investigation of Indigenous Australian post- contact contexts and is worthwhile in the sense that it can foreground the contribution of Indigenous peoples in Australia’s maritime industry. The aforementioned 11 thematic facets of the maritime cultural landscape are demonstrated in this research to be flexible across contexts, however several issues emerge from this case study. These issues have been broadly grouped into five themes as follows: 1) Colonial archives and local histories often silence Aboriginal peoples; 2) Maritime cultural landscape facets need to encompass non-Western systems of knowledge; 3) Maritime archaeology discourse and underpinning attitudes need to be deconstructed; 4) Maritime archaeology in Australia is generally Eurocentric; and 5) Oral histories are an integral source for exploring Indigenous maritime cultural landscapes. Consequently, it is argued that the maritime cultural landscape approach should be adopted more frequently, taking into account Indigenous themes in maritime archaeology, although the research process should be carefully examined for Eurocentricity. Additionally, the outcomes of the project illustrate that Indigenous maritime cultural landscapes are not only a prominent part of the Australian landscape, but also provoke reconsiderations regarding how we see the relationship between maritime and Indigenous archaeology. The implications of these findings are that the seascape framework is not the only concept available within maritime archaeology for investigating Indigenous contexts. As a result, it is proposed that maritime archaeologists should consider employing a maritime cultural landscape framework within other themes of cultural contact, as well as at missions situated on other waterways and in similar contexts in other countries.
The national flag is the subject of a debate currently unfolding in New Zealand, where the Prime Minister recently announced a referendum that could change the design of New Zealand’s flag. As I watched this debate unfold, several questions came to mind: Are Maori cultural symbols being suggested for the new flag design? If so, who is suggesting these symbols and for what reasons? What is the opinion of the Maori community on this matter? And what of the existing Maori flag?
In this blog, I share what I found while investigating these questions and complex issues through recent news articles.