Contact
Room 2C11
Tel +64 3 479 8750
Email zac.mcivor@otago.ac.nz
Research interests
I focus on the archaeology of tangata whenua in Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu and the people of Oceania in general. My Current research is on the whakapapa (genealogy and development) of pā (fortified ancestral places) construction in Waikato. The research is at the interface between Mātauranga Māori (traditional knowledge and worldviews) and archaeology and involves:
- GIS and remote sensing analyses
- Archival research into Māori Land Court minute books and Te Reo Māori manuscripts
- Reflexive qualitative analysis of wānanga with descendant communities (ngā kanohi ora)
- Chronological network analysis to interface radiocarbon dates with genealogies (whakapapa)
I am interested in Community and Indigenous Archaeologies with power-sharing frameworks that centre research outputs and knowledge generation on the interests of descendants. My background as a heritage and archaeological consultant and working for Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga has assists me in this venture. Through my whakapapa, I engage with several heritage management kaupapa ā-hapū (tribal projects) in Waikato.