On Wednesday 11 March 2020 in Burns 5 seminar room at 3.30pm, the Centre for Global Migrations and History Programme host a joint seminar from Seán Brosnahan (Toitῡ Otago Settlers Museum). Seán’s abstract is as follows:
Following the success of Toitῡ’s documentaries Journey of the Otagos and Journey to Lan Yuan, Toitū’s exhibition team is now turning its attention to the Museum’s foundation story, the coming of the Scots to found New Edinburgh in 1848. Just as with our examination of Chinese migration and settlement, this documentary will present the causes and consequences of Scottish emigration to Otago, taking in both the Scottish background and the New Zealand foreground. Who came? Why did they leave Scotland? Why did they choose to come to Otago, the furthest destination from Scotland in the world? And what was distinctive about the society they developed here, the New Edinburgh in the South Seas?
The film project will fuse the ‘big picture’ of Scotland’s 19th-century diaspora with the ‘micro’ history of individuals and families to create an intimate picture of Otago’s founding group. This journey will take us to every corner of Scotland as we trace the complex developments at home that brought so many Scots to consider emigration, from impoverished communities in the Highlands and Islands, to the burgeoning industrial cities of Scotland’s Central Belt, and the textile centres of the Borders region. We will draw on subject experts here in New Zealand and in Scotland to add academic rigour to our presentation but maintain the vibrant direct-to-camera style that has enlivened our previous video projects.
