Marlborough's heritage is increassingly diverse
In 2009, the year in which Marlborough province celebrates its 150th anniversary, the eight Maori tribes who are tangata whenua were looking back and forward into the place of their heritage.
Maori and European - the bicultural foundation
Marlborough, a provincial history, was published in 1940, and opened with references to early settlers, Maori and European. Since then, more historical knowledge has been drawn out, and interpreted in different ways.
The Centennial History says “the honour of discovering New Zealand belongs, we know, not to Europeans but to the intrepid Polynesian navigators who ranged the Pacific in their canoes a thousand years ago.”
Place names are a clue to heritage
There are places in Marlborough visited today that bear the names of some of those explorers, and of incidents that followed settlement.
Chapters in Marlborogh's history
The contents of the Centennial history offers an agenda for those interested in chapters of the Marlborough heritage:
• Discovery
• The Coming of the Whalers
• The Company, the Crown and the Church
• Nelson and the Wairau
• The Squatters
• Inland Exploration
• Politics and Government
• Settlement of the Wairau
• Waitohi
• The Separatist Movement
• The New Province
• The Fight for the Capital
• The Provincial Achievement
• New Marlborough
• Growth of Community Life
• Local Government and Politics
Biculturalism and multiculturalism - a path ahead
These chapters, and more, can be fleshed out, reinterpreted and actioned as people build on their understanding of heritage.
Settlement - its double meanings
Much Maori history has been researched and placed before the Waitangi Tribunal as the eight tribs make the claims to redress wrongs made by the settler government. John and Hillary Mitchell, Stout Research Fellows at Victoria University of Wellington, have made much of modern interpretations of the history of the top of the South – Te Tau Ihu - more accessible.
Find out more about history, both on the web, in libraries and from local histories.
Total Travel
Maori history
o Arts, Heritage and Culture
o DOC Historic Heritage
Maori tourism
o New Zealand Tourism Guide
Marlborough’s migrants
o Historic Places Trust
o Marlborough Migrant Centre