The origins of New Zealand’s first government house

SUMMARY: In 1842 the former first government house located at Okiato, New Zealand, burnt to the ground and the site was abandoned. A well on the site was excavated in 1994–95, revealing a base layer of burnt timbers, a Maori digging stick and ceramic sherds with an estimated manufacture date range of 1823–41. We argue that this deposit is derived from the 1842 destruction of the Okiato government house building. An analysis of the wood identified kauri (Agathis australis) and kahikatea (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides), confirming that the building was not a prefabricated imported structure, but rather was constructed on site from locally available timber.     

Buffalo hunting and the feral frontier of Australia's Northern Territory

There is now a growing interest in new approaches to examine the construction and significance of Western frontier landscapes. This paper adds to this new scholarship by examining how labour relations associated with buffalo hunting in Australia's North were also race relations which became embedded in the production and representations of this landscape as a feral region of the outback frontier. Drawing on a range of archival, secondary and oral sources, the paper outlines the myriad of human–buffalo and cross-cultural interactions that revolved around the shooting of buffalo within an erratic industry between the early 1890s and the mid-1950s. The analysis emphasizes that insecure efforts of officials and settlers to authorize, re-work or hide buffalo hunting interactions were linked with a wider debate on the type of people and animals who could colonize this region. It is from these ‘feral’ landscapes and histories, the paper argues, where a multiple of definitions and significance of frontier experiences can be found.

La chasse au buffle et les avant-postes féraux du Northern Territory de l'Australie

De nouvelles méthodes qui sont employées pour étudier la construction et la signification des paysages frontaliers occidentaux présentent aujourd'hui un intérêt croissant. Le présent article vise à enrichir ces travaux savants par l'examen des façons dont les relations au travail associé à la chasse au buffle ont aussi été des relations interraciales qui ont fait partie intégrante de la production et des représentations de ce paysage comme région férale de l'intérieur du pays inexploré. L'article s'appuie sur de nombreuses sources d'archives, secondaires et orales et présente une vue d'ensemble de la myriade d'interactions transculturelles et homme-buffle qui caractérisaient la chasse au buffle durant la période marquée d'irrégularités allant des années 1890 jusqu'au milieu des années 1950. L'analyse permet de souligner les efforts ténus de la part des officiers et colonisateurs pour rendre légitime, retravailler ou masquer les interactions de la chasse au buffle qui étaient liés, en effet, à un débat plus important sur le genre de personnes et d'animaux qui pouvaient coloniser cette région. L'article conclue que dans ces histoires et paysages «féraux» se retrouvent une quantité innombrable de définitions et de sens découlant des expériences vécues aux avant-postes.

Title in spanish

Hay un interés cada vez mayor en nuevos enfoques para examinar la construcción y la importancia de los paisajes fronterizos occidentales. Este papel contribuye a este nuevo estudio por examinar cómo las relaciones laborales asociadas con la caza de búfalo en el norte de Australia eran también relaciones raciales que se arraigaron en la producción y las representaciones de este paisaje como una región salvaje de la frontera del ‘outback’. Haciendo uso de información de archivos y fuentes secundarias y orales, el papel detalla la miríada de interacciones entre humanos y búfalos y tras varias culturas que giraban alrededor de la caza de búfalo dentro de una industria irregular entre 1890 y 1950. El análisis enfatiza que los esfuerzos inseguros de funcionarios y pobladores para autorizar, adaptar u ocultar las interacciones en la caza de búfalo se vinculaban con un debate más amplio sobre qué tipo de persona y animal se permitía a colonizar esta región. El papel sugiere que son en éstos historias y paisajes ‘salvajes’ donde se encuentran las múltiples definiciones y la importancia de las experiencias fronterizas.     

Grieving home

Drawing on the growing areas of research on emotional embodiment, this paper develops an understanding of the spatiality of grief as central to the discussion of young people's experiences of homelessness. In the context of my engagement with young homeless people in inner-city Sydney, I explore grief as central in shaping young people's everyday body–place relations. I argue that grief over often brutal past homes continues to haunt young people and impact on the ways in which they relate to place, including the place of their own body. I explore young people's displacement and grief-stricken forms of inhabitation as well and their discovery of ‘therapeutic’ places which allow the re-formation of more positive relations to place and self. I argue that while it is understood that grief and trauma are key causes of homelessness amongst young people, grief is rarely explored as an embodied practice, or as a key factor which continues to underpin trajectories of homelessness after initial exits from home.     

Local press,dispersal and community in the construction of asylum debates

How has the prominent and contentious international issue of asylum been debated at a local level; what local variations are there and why? This paper presents analysis of local newspapers and interviews with press workers for Cardiff and Leeds, two UK case study locations that have received asylum seekers through the dispersal policy. The case studies show that asylum is framed and constructed differently by the local press in different places with implications for reactions to asylum seekers and community cohesion. The relations between local press and community are explored as explanations for varying discourses. It is found that the way the local press represents and constructs local identity sets the framework for reactions to dispersal; and that the operation of the local press within local networks of power and information shapes the extent to which established discourses can be challenged. For Cardiff, the localising of asylum through the dispersal policy created an opportunity for local negotiation of difference in the context of the national moral panic on asylum.