New Zealand’s Cultures: Histories, Sources, Futures (special issue)

Abstract

The essays in this issue are revised and extended versions of a selection of the papers delivered at the inaugural conference of the New Zealand Studies Network (UK and Ireland), titled ‘New Zealand’s Cultures: Histories, Sources, Futures’, held at Birkbeck, University of London in July 2012. With an emphasis on the ‘making of New Zealand’ in the past, present and future, the conference set out to explore some of the origins, historical sources, influences on, contemporary changes and future developments of the nation and its cultures. The questions asked by the conference were those of the title of Gauguin’s late canvas, D’où-venons nous? Que sommes-nous? Où allons-nous? (Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?