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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Arts and Humanities

Frances Steel

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Uncharted Waters? Cultures Of Sea Transport And Mobility In New Zealand Colonial History, Frances Steel Feb 2014

Uncharted Waters? Cultures Of Sea Transport And Mobility In New Zealand Colonial History, Frances Steel

Frances Steel

On a tour of Australia, New Zealand and Fiji in 1909, assistant undersecretary of state for the colonies Sir Charles Lucas ventured to suggest 'that in Australia the "bush" must necessarily have a greater effect on the future than in New Zealand, and that in New Zealand the sea will play a greater part in the call of the race than in Australia'. The 'back blocks', he remarked, 'have more especially fashioned Australian life and character'. Although brief and impressionistic, his assessment of the relationship between geography, identity and the course of history still resonates today. The bush is a …


Maritime Mobilities In Pacific History: Towards A Scholarship Of Betweeness, Frances M. Steel Feb 2014

Maritime Mobilities In Pacific History: Towards A Scholarship Of Betweeness, Frances M. Steel

Frances Steel

In examining the significance of mobility in the long sweep of human history in the Pacific, the world's largest ocean where seventy per cent of the world's islands are to be found, one cannot but begin with the words of the late Tongan scholar, writer and visionary, Epeli Hau’ofa. In 1993 Hau’ofa proposed a new way of thinking about the region he called Oceania. He critiqued the limitations of an imposed regional imaginary, fostered by imperial rulers, western diplomats, academics, aid donors and the like, which emphasised the smallness, isolation and dependency of tiny islands in a far sea. Starting …