Focus of history ‘must be broader than one-people narrative’

New Zealand must encourage differing perspectives of the country’s colonial history or risk a “destructive” loss of cultural identity, according to a University of Canterbury researcher.

Madison Williams (above left), a PhD history student, is investigating differences in Māori and Pākehā (people of European heritage) perceptions of history and how these are reflected in discussions about NZ’s national identity.

“There is a prevailing one-people narrative where the past is seen as irrelevant—‘We are all just New Zealanders now,’ regardless of where we came from in the past,” Williams says in a university statement.