Becoming Aotearoa

In the first major national history of Aotearoa New Zealand to be published for 20 years, Professor Michael Belgrave advances the notion that New Zealand's two peoples - tangata whenua and subsequent migrants - have together built an open, liberal society based on a series of social contracts. Frayed though they may sometimes be, these contracts have created a country that is distinct. This engaging new look at our history examines how.

‘A people’s history of the country’ — Anna Rankin, RNZ

‘The stonking new book from historian Michael Belgrave is a joy to read: don’t be put off by the size of it, readers will find a fluid, witty voice and a fascinating, fresh look at how Aotearoa, the people, came to be.’ — The Spinoff Review of Books

‘Drawing upon a professional lifetime of research, teaching, and supervision, Belgrave has succeeded in delivering a rich, thoughtful, and politically engaged assessment of New Zealand’s development as a national community’ — Tony Ballantyne, New Zealand Journal of History

‘It might be a whopper, coming in at 650 pages, but Michael Belgrave’s sweeping history of New Zealand is a fluent, authoritative, and often revisionist page-turner . . . Belgrave’s history covers a lot of national ground, ranging from the arrival of the first waka, to Covid and the Wellington anti-mandate protests. Such a vast sweep of history requires the author to pull on many hats: economist, political analyst, biographer, social historian. From a mountain of dusty data, Belgrave has drawn a fresh perspective on the history of Aotearoa which is a joy to read. I loved the sense that over every line hovered his light wit, ready to pounce.’ — Jenny Nicholls, Waiheke Weekender

‘Becoming Aotearoa couldn’t be more timely. While Belgrave references scholarly debates and weighs a multitude of sources, this isn’t an academic text. With its concision and interest in linking past and present, it’s more accessible than its most recent predecessor, Michael King’s The Penguin History of New Zealand. Anyone who hasn’t had the chance to go beyond the basics of our history may find a lot here that surprises them’ — Rachel Morris, NZ Geographic

Michael Belgrave joined Massey University in 1993 on the opening of the university’s Albany campus. A historian and previously a research manager at the Waitangi Tribunal, he taught in the social policy and social work programme until 2014, as well as Māori studies and history. In 1995 he began a long involvement with social workers and schools, managing and evaluating Massey University’s pilot of the programme, and becoming the leading advisor and evaluator in the development of a government pilot and in the generalisation of the programme throughout New Zealand. The programme is now provided to all decile 1–3 schools. He continued to maintain a strong interest in Treaty of Waitangi research and settlements, providing substantial research reports into a wide number of the Waitangi Tribunal’s district inquiries. More recently, he has been heavily involved in assisting iwi in negotiating the historical aspects of Treaty settlements. He has published widely on Treaty and Māori history, including being lead editor of Waitangi Revisited: Perspectives on the Treaty of Waitangi (Oxford University Press). He received a Marsden Fund award in 2015 for study into the re-examination of the causes of the New Zealand wars of the 1860s.

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