'A Monument We Should Cherish': Redoubts, Remembrance and the New Zealand Wars

Abstract

This thesis contributes to historical understandings of New Zealand Wars remembrance through an examination of three colonial fortifications and how these sites have been commemorated since the nineteenth century. I have chosen Marsland Hill Stockade, Fort Galatea and Queen’s Redoubt as the focus points of this study. Whilst historians have made claims about these sites and the New Zealand Wars generally, this thesis is concerned with the local contours of remembrance and commemoration. Through processes of collective memory, colonial fortifications in Aotearoa were transformed from military bases to broader cultural sites that, taking on a life after military conflict, were utilised to support communities. These sites were shaped by an early emerging Pākehā sense of identity, environmental forces as well as national and international trends. Colonial fortifications became intertwined with mythmaking on both national and regional levels. In turn, the landscapes were positioned as monuments of Pākehā triumph, justifying colonial conflict with Māori and land settlement. Although there are some clear similarities, positioning each site alongside each other offers insight into aspects of early settler life, iwi history and identity-building. Ultimately, I contribute to interpretations of the ‘forgetting and remembering’ of the New Zealand Wars by focussing on the sites that existed in-between war and settlement, the colonial fortifications.