History, Health and Hybridity: New Zealand and the Pacific Research Cluster
About the ResearchNew Zealand is a Pacific nation and has close links with many Pacific communities, from an institutional to an informal nature. This cluster serves to highlight the Pacific dimension of New Zealand society and New Zealand links with Island communities through research on historical and contemporary health policies and practices. The cluster brings together researchers working on aspects of health-related research in New Zealand and the Pacific, including work on environmental impacts, housing, gender and health, sustainability, ethics and policy formation, and mental health. Otago has a strong tradition of health-related research in Humanities and this cluster will serve to highlight that distinctiveness. CoordinatorsResearchers
Research ProjectsHybrid Health Systems:Conversations about the formation of the cluster have alerted participants to the importance of fostering research on the intersection between Western and Indigenous medical knowledge. While a number of scholars associated with the cluster are pursuing research on this theme, it is our intention to highlight this through a Post Doctoral Project which explores the training of Native Medical Practitioners in Fiji and the training of Pacific Island doctors at Otago University Medical School. Dr Bryant-Tokalau and Dr Leckie have colleagues at the Fiji Medical School who will assist with this project. Gender, Health and Population:Population, the impact of disease and issues of fertility control are key issues in Pacific development. Professor Brookes is currently working on the reception of the contraceptive Pill in New Zealand. Associate Professor Bennett's and Dr Bayliss-Smith's will contribute to the debate about population decline and recovery. Dr. Bryant-Tokalau's work is on sustainable health projects and Dr. Holden-Chapman's work on housing address gender and opportunity. Madness and Modernity:Implications of changing implications of Mental Health Policies in New Zealand and in the Pacific are at the heart of this theme. Dr. Jacqui Leckie is preparing a monograph on Madness in Fiji while Dr Warwick Brunton is an expert on the development of mental health policies in New Zealand. Professor Barbara Brookes has a continuing interest in fostering research in mental health. Regulating Health: Ethical Frameworks:Dr Andrew Moore's expertise in Health Care ethics will assist other members of the cluster to think about the regulatory frameworks in which health research is undertaken and in which health care is delivered both in the past and in contemporary situations. Together with research by Dr Ruth Fitzgerald into current ethical dilemmas in health care, this theme will address key issues in contemporary society. Researcher ProfilesDr Judith Bennett is a Professor in the Department of History and Art History. Her current research centres on the Environment and World War II in the Pacific Islands. She serves on the editorial board of two leading journals, Journal of Pacific History (Canberra) and Pacific Affairs (Vancouver). She is co-editor and contributor with two Pacific scholars, Dr David Gegeo ( University of California, Davis, USA ) and Dr Tarcisius Kabutaulaka (East-West Centre) of a festschrift manuscript for the human geographer, Emeritus Professor Murray Chapman. Almost all the contributors are Pacific Islanders. Its focus is primarily on history, populations and mobility with an emphasis on indigenous methodologies and hybridization of ways of knowing. Dr Barbara Brookes a Professor in the Department of History and Art History has research interests that include gender relations in New Zealand, and the history of health and disease in New Zealand and Britain. She has written a book on abortion in twentieth century England, co-edited three collections of essays on women's history, a volume on the history of mental health in New Zealand and one on housing and the experience of home, and, most recently, Sites of Gender: Women, Men and Modernity in Southern Dunedin, 1890-1939. She is currently writing a general history of women in New Zealand. Dr Warwick Brunton, Senior Teaching Fellow, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine and inaugural Associate Dean (International), Division of Health Sciences, is researching mental health policy in New Zealand, with particular reference to deinstitutionalization. Dr Jenny Bryant-Tokalau, Associate Professor in Te Tumu, School of Maori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies, has research interests that include environmental anthropology and geography of the Pacific. She is also interested in regional governance issues such as environmental governance and donor aid in the Pacific; managing Pacific environments; environment and poverty linkages, and resource management and sustainable development. Her current research is on anthropological notions of environmental aid, and the role of regional institutions in sustainable development in the Pacific. Dr Ruth Fitzgerald, Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology, is interested in research on theoretical and applied medical anthropology; contemporary ideologies of health care , innovative medical technology and embodiment in New Zealand society. Dr Philippa Howden-Chapman, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health, Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Her research interests are in the area of health and public policy. She convenes the Society and Health Research Group, and is Director of the Housing and Health Research Programme and also a member of the European Network on Interventions and Policies to Reduce Socio-economic Inequalities in Health. Dr Rani Kerin is a Lecturer in the Department of History and Art History. Her main research interests include twentieth century Aboriginal politics, humanitarianism and assimilation. She teaches Australian Indigenous History and Australian History and is currently working on three projects: Judy Inglis and the assimilation of poisoned flour; 'Protection', 'Advancement' and the League for Aboriginal Women; Undesirables, doggers and culture clash in northern South Australia. Dr Jacqui Leckie, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology, has interests in the anthropology and history of South Pacific cultures - especially modernities and gender, ethnicity, and power. Current research focuses on anthropology and history in Fiji and New Zealand, specifically the history of madness and madness management in Fiji; Fiji Islanders (of all ethnicities) in New Zealand; and migration and a history of Indian settlers in New Zealand. Dr Andrew Moore is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy. His research and publications are on ethics, political philosophy, ethics and public policy, and practical ethics. He chairs the National Ethics Advisory Committee and is a member of other policy committees that advise the Minister of Health. Dr Ruth Panelli, is a Reader in the Department of Geography, University College London. Her research includes some of the following: social geographies of contemporary rural society; and the recognition and management of health and environmental concerns in rural areas. Dr Angela Wanhalla is a Lecturer in the Department of History and Art History. She specializes in Mäori history, especially ‘race’ and colonialism. Her focus is the history of interracial marriage and hybridity in New Zealand's colonial past. She is also actively engaged in research in the areas of postcolonial history, gender relations, and mental health. Postgraduate ResearchRecently completed and current research by Masters and PhD students linked to the research cluster: PhD
Masters
Recent PublicationsJudith BennettBennett, Judith A, ‘Malaria, Medicine, and Melanesians: Contested Hybrid Spaces in World War II’ Health and History 8.1 (2006) 27-55, http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/hah/8.1/bennett.html Barbara BrookesBrookes, Barbara, ‘Introduction to History, Health, and Hybridity’ Health and History 8.1 (2006)1-3, http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/hah/8.1/editorial.html Brookes, B.L., '"The Glands of Destiny:" Hygiene, Hormones and British Women Doctors in the First Half of the Twentieth Century', Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin canadien d'histoire de la medecine , vol. 23: pp. 49-68 (2006) Rani KerinKerin, Rani, ''Natives Allowed to Remain Naked': An Unorthodox Approach to Medical Work at Ernabella Mission', Health and History, Vol. 8, Issue 1, 2006, http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/hah/8.1/kerin.html Kerin, Rani, 'Sydney James Cook/Duguid and the importance of being Aboriginal', Aboriginal History, Vol. 29 (2005), 46-63 Kerin, Rani, 'Charles Duguid and Aboriginal assimilation in Adelaide, 1950-1960: 'The nebulous assimilation goal', History Australia, Vol. 2 (2005), 85.1-85.17. Kerin, Sitarani and Spaull, Andrew, 'Vroland, Anton William Rutherford and Anna Fellows', in Australian Dictionary of Biography, ed. John Ritchie (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002), 453-55. Kerin, Sitarani, An Attitude of Respect: Anna Vroland and Aboriginal Rights, 1947-1957 (Melbourne: Monash Publications in History, 1999). Annie StuartStuart, Annie, ‘Contradictions and Complexities in an Indigenous Medical Service – the case of Mesulame Taveta’, The Journal of Pacific History, Vol. 41, No. 2, September 2006, 125-143. Stuart, Annie,‘We are All Hybrid Here: The Rockefeller Foundation, Sylvester Lambert, and Health Work in the Colonial South Pacific’, Health and History 8.1 (2006) 56-79 http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/hah/8.1/stuart.html Angela WanhallaWanhalla, Angela, 'In/visible Sight: Mäori-European Families in Urban New Zealand, 1890-1940', Visual Anthropology, forthcoming 2008. Wanhalla, Angela, 'Family, Community and Gender in Giselle Byrnes', Ed. The New Oxford History of New Zealand, (forthcoming Oxford University Press, 2008). Wanhalla, Angela, 'Hybridity in 'native spaces': Intermarriage at the Taieri Native Reserve, 1844-1868', forthcoming New Zealand Journal of History, 2007. Wanhalla, Angela. ''To better the breed of men': Women and Eugenics in New Zealand, 1900-1935', forthcoming Women's History Review, 2007. Wanhalla, Angela, ‘Housing Un/healthy Bodies: Native Housing Surveys and Mäori Health 1930–45’, Health and History 8.1 (2006) 100-120, http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/hah/8.1/wanhalla.html Wanhalla, Angela, 'Marrying 'In': The Geography of Intermarriage on the Taieri, 1830s-1920s', in Tony Ballantyne and Judith Bennett, Eds. Landscape/Community: Perspectives from New Zealand History, University of Otago Press, 2005, 73-94. Wanhalla, Angela, 'Mäori Women in Waka Traditions', in Lyndon Fraser and Katie Pickles. Eds. Shifting Centres: Women and Migration in New Zealand History, University of Otago Press, 2002, 15-28.
EventsSymposiumIn December 2006, the Research Cluster hosted a 2-day symposium around its core theme, ‘History, Health and Hybridity: New Zealand and the Pacific’, with a range of papers presented by cluster members and overseas researchers. Selected symposium papers were subsequently published as a special issue of Health and History in 2006. Relevant articles, available on line, include: Brookes, Barbara,‘Introduction to History, Health, and Hybridity,’ Health and History 8.1 (2006)1-3 Bennett, Judith A, ‘Malaria, Medicine, and Melanesians: Contested Hybrid Spaces in World War II’, Health and History 8.1 (2006) 27-55 Stuart, Annie,‘We are All Hybrid Here: The Rockefeller Foundation, Sylvester Lambert, and Health Work in the Colonial South Pacific’, Health and History 8.1 (2006) 56-79 Kerin, Rani,‘ 'Natives Allowed to Remain Naked': An Unorthodox Approach to Medical Work at Ernabella Mission’, Health and History 8.1 (2006) 80-99 Wanhalla, Angela,‘Housing Un/healthy Bodies: Native Housing Surveys and Mäori Health 1930–45’, Health and History 8.1 (2006) 100-120
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