Intimate Relations: Kinship and the Economics of Shore Whaling in Southern New Zealand, 1820–1860

Recent scholarship has situated shore whaling as a key industry connecting southern New Zealand to the global economy and the imperial world during the mid-19th century. An economically-driven view of this period, however, tends to obscure the enduring importance of Māori forms of kinship in the establishment and success of this resource-based industry. In this article, we argue for the significance of Māori concepts such as whanaungatanga (connectedness) and whakapapa (genealogy) to understanding shore whaling in southern New Zealand. Kinship connections formed through marriage tied newcomer whalers to the region, as well as bringing Ngāi Tahu into the emerging coastal economy. The depth of these relationships went beyond the economic, creating enduring social bonds and mixed communities across generations.     

Caribou,Petroleum, and the Limits of Locality in the Canada–US Borderlands

This article discusses Karsten Heuer’s 2006 book Being Caribou in light of debates in ecocriticism and border studies about how to define the local in the context of environmental problems of vast range and uncertain temporality. It explores how Heuer’s book about following the Porcupine Caribou herd’s migration engages in multiple forms of boundary crossing—between countries, between hemispheric locations, and between species—and shows how insights from Indigenous storytelling complicate the book’s appeal to environmentalist readers by asserting a prior, transnational Indigenous presence in the transboundary landscapes of present-day Alaska and the Yukon.     

Government,Business and Lobbyists: The Politics of Palm Oil in US–Malaysia Relations

This paper reviews how information was utilised by the disputing parties made up of producers and consumer interests in seeking and opposing the imposition of tariff and non-tariff barriers relating to the entry of palm oil into the US market. Information was used in a variety of ways to mould public opinion and influence official US trade policy. Producers, with the support of the Government of Malaysia, countered US efforts by mounting an information-based counter-campaign. This study examines how US-based opponents to the importation of oil palm used information to influence consumer opinion and governmental decision-makers. It goes on to describe countermeasures taken by Malaysian producers. These latter measures included counter-arguments challenging spurious claims made by US-based groups. The paper also reviews the role played, and the positions taken by the US and Malaysian governments. Malaysia, as one of the world's leading exporter of palm oil, reacted to preserve and protect the interests of various stakeholders in the palm oil industry. Measures taken included greater R&D effort, stronger trade promotion and countering spurious information. This study demonstrates how information was used by disputing parties to shape consumer opinion and develop a case for policy intervention by the respective governments.