“Our Works of Ancient Times”: History, Colonization, and Agency at the 1906-7 New Zealand International Exhibition (2009)
In 1906-7, an international exhibition was held at Christchurch in New Zealand's South Island, which featured a model Māori village. The orthodox view of the village with its exhibits and performers was that it offered a picturesque spectacle, which justified the European colonization of the indigenous Māori. However, the detailed historical research presented here challenges this interpretation and reveals the extraordinary Māori agency at work behind the scenes by organizers, artists, performers, and visitors. This article puts forward a revised framework for critical histories of exhibitions through a detailed case study of the Christchurch exhibition examined from the point of view of both the exhibitors and those who were on show. In so doing it reviews the postcolonial literature on the display of native peoples in museums and world's fairs, which has been preoccupied with issues of representation and power, and argues for a more historical approach to exhibition studies."Without the combination of history and theory we are unlikely to understand either the past or the present.
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