"Our Own Identity, Our Own Taonga, Our Own Self Coming Back": Indigenous Voices in New Zealand Record-Keeping

  • Evelyn Wareham

Abstract

Indigenous people's perspectives present strong challenges to records keepers in many parts of the world. In New Zealand, as in Canada, indigenous people have used the information held in archives to reassert their rights and reclaim the past. This article provides a case study of the rights and interests of New Zealand's indigenous people, the Maori, in archives. Maori perspectives on archives are explored through first-hand accounts and analysis of developments in New Zealand archives, museum, and library environments towards the implementation of "biculturalism." It is argued that the Maori impact on record-keeping falls along a spectrum from reconnecting Maori with cultural information held in written records, to reclaiming control over management of these resources, to calling for records' repatriation to their cultural owners.

Author Biography

Evelyn Wareham

Evelyn Wareham is a Senior Archives Analyst at Archives New Zealand in the Statutory Regulatory Group, which is responsible for record-keeping policy and standards, advice to government agencies and ministers, and professional advocacy. She co-ordinated the development of Archives New Zealand’s Storage Standard (2000) and Access Standard (2001), and has worked on various policy reviews. She holds a B.A. honours in German and history, and an M.A. in history from Victoria University of Wellington. Before joining Archives New Zealand in 1998, Evelyn was active as an historical researcher specializing in Pacific colonial history. She is the author of Race and Realpolitik: The Politics of Colonisation in German Samoa (2002), and has published and presented on German colonization in Samoa and New Zealand, and Pacific archival issues. Evelyn is currently Secretary General of PARBICA (Pacific Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives), and a member of ARANZ (Archives and Records Association of New Zealand) and ARMA International.

Published
2001-11-01
How to Cite
Wareham, Evelyn. 2001. “"Our Own Identity, Our Own Taonga, Our Own Self Coming Back": Indigenous Voices in New Zealand Record-Keeping”. Archivaria 52 (November), 26-46. https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/12813.
Section
Articles