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Te Puna : the archaeology and history of a New Zealand Mission Station, 1832-1874

This thesis examines the archaeology and history of Te Puna, a Church
Missionary Society (CMS) mission station in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. Te
Puna was first settled in 1832 following the closure of the nearby Oihi mission, which
had been the first mission station and the first permanent European settlement in New
Zealand. Te Puna, located alongside the imposing Rangihoua Pa, was the home of
missionaries John and Hannah King and their children for some forty years. As well
as being a mission station, Te Puna was also the site of the family���s subsistence farm.
The research is concerned with the archaeological landscape of Te Puna, the
relationship between Maori and European, the early organisation and economy of the
CMS, the material culture of New Zealand���s first European settlers, and the
beginnings of colonisation and the part that the missions played in this. Artefacts
recovered from archaeological investigations at the site of the Te Puna mission house
are connected with other items of missionary material culture held in collections in the
Bay of Islands, including objects donated by the King family. The archaeological
record is also integrated with documentary evidence, in particular the accounts of the
CMS store, to produce a detailed picture of the daily life and economy of the Te Puna
mission household. This integration of a range of sources is also extended to produce
a broader view of the material culture and economy of missionary life in the Bay of
Islands in the first half of the nineteenth century.
The humble, austere artefacts that constitute the material culture of the Te
Puna household reveal the actual processes of colonisation in daily life and everyday
events, as well as the processes of the mission, such as schooling, the purchase of
food and domestic labour, the purchase of land and building of houses, the stitching of
fabric and ironing of garments. These practices predate, but also anticipate the grand
historical dramas such as the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, glorified but also
critiqued as the defining moment of the relationship between Maori and Pakeha and of
colonisation. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:AUCKLAND/oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/2381
Date January 2005
CreatorsMiddleton, Angela
ContributorsAssociate Professor Harry Allen
PublisherResearchSpace@Auckland
Source SetsUniversity of Auckland
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
FormatScanned from print thesis
RightsWhole document restricted but available by request. Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated., https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm, Copyright: The author
RelationPhD Thesis - University of Auckland, UoA1555714

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