Otago University Press imprint: 38 books

For more than five decades, Alan Mark has been a voice for conservation in New Zealand. From his call in the 1960s for the establishment of tussock-grassland reserves in the South Island high country to his involvement in the 2011–13 campaign to save the Denniston Plateau from mining, he has been...

Wealth and power in a colonial society is the subject of this book. It is a detailed study of the richest settlers in southern New Zealand, where the country's earliest fortunes were made, mostly by pastoral farmers and financiers. Who where the rich? Not born gentlemen, the author shows, but astute...

The author's eight great-grandparents all arrived in New Zealand between 1858 and 1868. Their family names were Harrop, Sales, Campbell, Brown, Valentine, Maxwell, Jefcoate and Oliver. She looks at their reasons for migration, how they fared once settled, and at their participation in gold-digging,...

With less than two percent of the total Maori population holding a doctorate, the need for Maori leadership planning in academia has never been greater. The purpose of this book is to present the experiences of new and emerging Maori academics as a guide for others aspiring to follow. In 2010 Professor...

The story of James Edward FitzGerald, whose energy and enthusiasm contributed so much to the early history of Christchurch. Orator, writer, politician and journalist, he was the first Canterbury Pilgrim to set foot in New Zealand, first superintendent of the province of Canterbury, first leader of...

The economic reforms launched by the 1984 David Lange–led Labour government changed New Zealand forever. Agriculture bore the brunt of those changes and Rogernomics, the name by which the era came to be known, became an historical reference point for the primary sector: a defining and pivotal moment...

Climbing entered the world stage in the 1950s: this was the era that produced not only Sir Edmund Hillary but a strong body of world-class New Zealand climbers. In this important and dramatic book Brian Wilkins, who was part of the adventure, shares his experiences of climbing in the Southern Alps...

Scots made up nearly 20 percent of the immigrant population of New Zealand to 1920, yet until the past few years the exact origins of New Zealand's Scots migrants have remained blurred. From Alba to Aotearoa establishes for the first time key characteristics of the Scottish migrants arriving between...

This book is about disobedience. Positive disobedience. Disobedience as a kind of professional behaviour. It shows how teachers can survive and even influence an education system that does staggering damage to potential. More importantly it is an arm around the shoulder of disobedient teachers who...

Making a New Land presents an interdisciplinary perspective on one of the most rapid and extensive transformations in human history: that which followed Maori and then European colonization of New Zealand's temperate islands. This is a new edition of Environmental Histories of New Zealand, first published...

In this volume, leading historians reflect on writing about New Zealand's past. They also test how that past is investigated and framed. Their essays tell us much about New Zealand's many pasts and how historians have imagined them, and indicate particular concerns with what the country is now and...

Fascination with the interplay of people and place inspired the editors to bring together New Zealanders from different backgrounds and disciplines to explore some of the stories and sites of conflict and change to be found amongst our sacred, historic, rural, urban and coastal landscapes. All of...

Writer Elspeth Sandys was born during the Second World War, the result of a brief encounterbetween two people who would never meet again. The first nine months of her life were spentin the Truby King Karitane Hospital in Dunedin, where she was known by her birth name,Frances Hilton James. This would...

Indigenous Identity and Resistance brings together the work of Indigenous Studies scholars working in Canada, New Zealand and the Pacific in research conversations that transcend the imperial boundaries of the colonial nations in which they are located. Their lucid, accessible, and thought-provoking...