With teaching responsibilities almost over for 2017, I’m thrilled to be at the beginning of six months full-time research. Since the project began in March, I’ve been making great inroads on several fronts – working with land records at National Archives in Dunedin, presenting at conferences at home and abroad, and making contact with descendants of farming families in Taieri and Hokianga.
It is already becoming clear that these are two fascinating districts with surprisingly similar dynamics in the way that communities were formed out of diverse cultures and geographies. This photograph of the scroll plain on the Upper Taieri River is a wonderful metaphor for the integrated and evolving nature of rural communities.
Photograph by Stephen Jaquiery; reproduced with permission from the Otago Daily Times.
