|
|
Beyond the Scene
Landscape and Identity in Aotearoa New Zealand
Key Points 
* Well-known writers, from a range of disciplines, explore the many meanings of landscape
* Each chapter focuses on a different part of the country, from Auckland's southern suburbs to a Waikato farm, from Taranaki's iconic volcano to Otago's pathways
The Book
What contribution does landscape make to our sense of identity? Images of spectacular natural features pervade the media – between the pages of glossy coffee-table books, in tourism promotions and on screen as the setting for blockbuster movies – but are these scenes that define its people?
For Beyond the Scene the editors asked eleven writers to choose a landscape that was important to them and to write it from the perspective of their life experience and knowledge. From farmer to art historian and film critic, geographer and planner to lawyer, from landscape architect to poet and environmentalist – these are diverse voices. Each discusses a very different landscape: from suburban Auckland and rural Waikato to a planned town in Canterbury and much-filmed Otago. Together, they investigate the relationship landscape has to identity, community and psyche.
Contents
Foreword Diane Menzies 1 Entering Landscape Janet Stephenson, Jacinta Ruru and Mick Abbott 2 Land, Sea and Sky in Taranaki Maori songs of lament Ailsa Smith 3 Of Rocks and Recollections: Our home in the South Waikato Gordon Stephenson 4 Waitaha – A Canterbury poem sequence David Eggleton 5 Eternal Sunshine: The search for spotless landscapes Jacky Bowring 6 Otara and Dannemora: Contrasting landscape and ethnic identities in two South Auckland suburbs Wardlow Friesen and Robin Kearns 7 Films, National identity and the Otago landscape Davinia Thornley 8 Outside the Frame: Depicting Auckland's urban landscape Linda Tyler 9 A Cloaked Landscape: Legal devices in Mount Aspiring National Park Jacinta Ruru 10 Patina: People and place in Akaroa Janet Stephenson 11 Travelling Landscapes: Ngai Tahu rock art and Ngai Tahu identity Lyn Carter 12 A Future with Our Past: Towards a creative practice of heritage in the coastal Otago landscape Mick Abbott 13 Landscape's Generosity Janet Stephenson, Jacinta Ruru and Mick Abbott
Editors
All three editors are based at the University of Otago. Janet Stephenson is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Agriculture, Food and Environment; Mick Abbott is Senior Lecturer and Environmental Designer at the Department of Design Studies; Jacinta Ruru is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law.
Reviews
'Each author has taken a different approach, which lends this book interest and variety, makes one want to leave the armchair and actually visit the areas, and view and view and explore them from fresh perspectives.' – Heritage Matters, Issue 23, Winter 2010
'There is a feast of imaginative and interesting writing in this book.'
Beatties Book Blog
Publication details
Environmental Studies, Planning, Geography, Cultural Studies
Paperback, 240 x 170 mm, 224 pp
b/w photographs, 4 pages colour
ISBN 978 1 877372 81 0, $45.00 / £18.50 UK
In store March 2010
|
