This website was first launched in 2001, at the Conference of the New Zealand Historical Association during a session devoted to Māori history.
Quite a few people have written parts of this website and are part of wider group supporting our focus which is Māori and the New Zealand Wars, and Māori history / histories of Māori and histories of Native Peoples in general. The main writer of this site though is Danny Keenan (Ngāti Te Whiti, Te Ātiawa) from Taranaki.
Danny was born in New Plymouth and raised in Pungarehu, attending Pungarehu Primary School. Pungarehu Primary celebrated its centenary in1992, having been opened as a new frontier school in 1892 [it has now closed]. Pungarehu is a small coastal village which is now mostly empty (see left), a far cry from the old days when rustic folk thronged the main street, it’s a bit of a ghost town now sadly.
Danny also attended Westown Primary, in New Plymouth, which celebrated its centenary this year 1925-2025; and the New Plymouth Boys’ High School and Massey University.
Westown Primary Centenary, New Plymouth, 25.10.25
Danny has a PhD in history, obtained from Massey University in 1994. Thereafter, he lectured in the History Department until 2005. Danny’s PhD thesis, Haere Whakamua, Hoki Whakamuri Going Forward Thinking Back examined the Native Land Court in Taranaki in the mid 1860s, especially its subsidiary, the Compensation Court. This thesis argues that, though afflicted by hurt, dispossession and loss during the 19th century, Taranaki Māori actions and responses were always founded upon customary theologies and assertions of legitimation and liberation.
In 1995, Danny was granted a Fulbright Postdoctoral Award to research Native American history in Hawaii, Seattle, Washington DC, Rapid City, Las Vegas and San Francisco, whilst based at the amazing Darcy McKnickle Centre for the Study of the American Indian at Newberry Library, Chicago.
In 2009, Danny was awarded a second Fulbright – this time a Senior Scholarship – to teach at the awesome Georgetown University, Washington DC (right). Danny taught a course entitled Last Outpost of Empire? New Zealand, National Identity and Māori to 35 extremely able American students – see Home thoughts from Georgetown, Washington DC.
In March 2023, Danny was awarded Creative New Zealand’s Michael King Writers Fellowship [2023-2025] to research and write a history of Māori health, from about 1830 until after the COVID-19 era, about 2022. Much of the research design was compiled with the awesome assistance of Danny’s daughter Ngaire who has a PhD in medicine, specifically related to Māori neurology and epilepsy. Danny’s manuscript on Māori health was completed in August 2025 and is currently working its way through Massey University Press, perhaps with a release date sometime in 2027 [watch this space].
Danny has published widely on Māori and New Zealand history, mostly political history, focusing on Māori and the State in the 19th century, of which the New Zealand wars were of course an essential part. You can read some of this published material directly online by going to Published Work and clicking on the respective image. Other material will be uploaded shortly. Our aim is to have everything ever published by Danny available here, directly online. Danny’s email address is: danny.keenan@newzealandwars.co.nz
Our Logo
The logo used in this website was designed by our young budding artist Erin Keenan in about 1998, when she was aged about 14 years old. Erin says the logo represents ‘peace arising from the troubled land’.
Erin has gone on the get a PhD in Māori history, graduating in 2013 (right) with sisters Lauren, [Erin], Philippa and Ngaire.
Erin’s groundbreaking thesis reframed notions of ‘Māori urban migration’ by presenting Māori as perennially nomadic, and given to migration, ever since the ancient times, up to the modern era.
Her particular focus was Māori from Taranaki, where Erin is from, and their migrations over time to Wellington; and the evolving nature of their claim to, and customary status within, the tribal landscape of which Wellington is a part.
You can read Erin’s awesome PhD thesis here: Māori Urban Migrations and Identities, ‘Ko Ngā Iwi Nuku Whenua’: A study of Urbanization in the Wellington Region during the Twentieth Century (vuw.ac.nz)
Lauren is also now a published writer of books ranging from personal well-being to young people’s historical fiction; and was recently nominated for a national book award in 2022. Lauren’s latest book is The Space Between (Penguin, Auckland, 2024) is a riveting historical fiction based in New Plymouth on the eve of war breaking out in 1860. Lauren has a new book coming out about the New Zealand Wars next March 2025, entitled Toitu Te Whenua, which means ‘The Land Endures‘ – it’s essentially a Visitors’ Guide with heaps of explanatory narrative and interesting information pertaining to the wars.
Māori marriages also offer a unique way to assess how Māori – Pākeha relationships have fared, over time, especially since interactions first began in the 1830s. This fascinating topic has long interested Philippa [second from right, above] who, for the last twenty years, has worked as a marriage celebrant with a particular emphasis on incorporating Maori aspects into her wedding services. Several years ago, Philippa was New Zealand’s second-most engaged celebrant. Until recently, she was working in Queenstown, paired with a helicopter company offering awesome mountain-top weddings. Philippa is now based in Christchurch and, as well as conducting weddings, runs a wedding-consultancy company offering innovative lectures, training assistance and material support for celebrants.
Philippa is also currently wrtiting a book on all aspects of life as a marriage celebrant, which will include her views on Māori-influenced weddings and marriage. Incidentally, Professor Angella Wanghalla (Ngāi Tahu) has recently researched and published on this interesting topic – her focus has been Māori and Pākehā marriages during the 19th and early 20th century. Her most recent published work on this topic was published by Auckland University Press in 2013: Matters of the Heart: A History of Interracial Marriage in New Zealand.
Philippa conducting a wedding service high above Queenstown.
Ngaire, Philippa, Lauren and Erin braving the Auckland Skytower ..
