This website reflects five ideas which underlie and unify the writing on these pages;
1 Encounter; Māori/State relations in New Zealand in the nineteenth century, of which the New Zealand Wars were of course the ‘leading edge’ – see (for example) # Maori/State Politics.
2 Recounting; Māori and New Zealand histories, and historiography – how these records of encounter have been approached by historians – see # NZ Wars Historiography.
3 Redress; judicial forums and the claims process, especially thrū the Waitangi Tribunal, how these histories of conflicted encounter have been presented within judicial forums, and with what results – see # Waitangi Tribunal/Wars Claims.
4 Remembering; the wars battle sites and the remembering process / or the memorializing of our histories; and the growth of ‘battlefield tourism’ – # Preserving our Sites.
5 Going Global; further afield, Global Native Wars, the waging of war against native peoples (incorporating the themes above) providing a global context for our wars fought in New Zealand – see # Global Native Historians.
These five research areas are individually developed elsewhere on this site, thō more will be written here in the next short while, integrating these respective research areas.