PHANZA Secretary
c/o Manatū Taonga/MCH
PO Box 5364
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
© PHANZA 2025
Site by Pixel Boom
Posted on October 28 2025
Guosheng Xie 谢国升 is from Guangdong, China. He studied ancient Chinese history in Chengdu and Shanghai for seven years. With a strong interest in Pacific history, he applied for the doctoral program at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. His doctoral research examines the historical development of Chinese labour and enterprise in Aotearoa New Zealand from the 1860s
Posted on September 27 2025
Alice Houston-Page completed her BA(Hons) at the University of Otago Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka in 2023. Her Honours dissertation focused on the anti-nuclear activism of an Ōtepoti women’s group in the 1960s. The group produced a petition protesting French nuclear testing in Oceania that ultimately received over 13,000 signatures from New Zealand women. Alice has a particular interest in post-war histories
Posted on May 28 2024
Samantha Owens is a freelance music historian based in Karori, Wellington. She has published widely on the performance cultures and practices of Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, 1850–1950, as well as on the music history of early modern Europe, 1660–1760. Her monograph, The Well-Travelled Musician: John Sigismond Cousser and Musical Exchange in Baroque Europe (Boydell Press, 2017), was funded by an
Posted on March 15 2024
I am the Director of Arque Research, a specialist research consulting company that helps businesses, institutions and cultural organisations use history to connect with staff, customers, stakeholders and communities. I have skills, knowledge and experience gained over a 30-year career spanning academic and applied research, journalism and marketing, and university teaching and postgraduate supervision. My expertise includes legal history, urban
Posted on September 20 2023
I am Elizabeth (Libby). I’ve completed my MA and PhD in History at Te Herenga Waka Victoria – University of Wellington. In 2024 I received a Judith Binney Writing Award which I am using to adapt my PhD thesis, ‘Women Contracting in Law c. 1840–1920: Gender and Settler Colonialism in the Courts of Aotearoa New Zealand’, for publication. I have
Posted on August 13 2023
I am a freelance historian of English and Irish ancestry, born in Paraparaumu and now living in Island Bay. My training is in musicology, ethnomusicology, colonialism, gender, and film. As a former registered nurse and current part-time medical reference librarian at a tertiary institution, I’m also interested in health, education, equity, and information science. I study te reo Māori, respect
Posted on September 21 2021
My research background is in migration history with a quantitative focus. My PhD was published as From Alba to Aotearoa: Profiling New Zealand’s Scots migrants 1840-1920 by Otago University Press in 2015. My primary research at present is an examination of the imperial troops stationed in New Zealand in the 1860s through a migration history lens, as part of Professor
Posted on September 21 2021
Heritage professional based in Upper Hutt. Currently working as a Policy Advisor at Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga. Expertise Heritage and conservation advice Qualifications Master of Museum and Heritage Practice, Distinction, 2019 (VUW) Bachelor of Arts; History, Classical Studies and Music Studies, 2012 (VUW) Previous positions HNZPT, Conservation Advisor (2022-2025) WCC, Heritage Advisor (2019-2022) MCH, Heritage Policy Intern (2018-2019) Steward,
Posted on September 21 2021
I am an independent historian based in Kāpiti in the Wellington region. I have broad-ranging interests in New Zealand social and cultural history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. My research interests and specialty areas include the history of grief, the history of the family, women’s and gender history, the history of the First World War, and health and education
Posted on September 21 2021
I grew up in Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland and New Plymouth, and studied English and Greek at the University of Auckland, graduating with an MA in Middle English. Later I worked at the Parliamentary Library, and as a law librarian in Wellington and London. I now live in Wellington. I write fiction, non-fiction, plays and poetry, primarily for children and young
Posted on September 21 2021
Paul Diamond (Ngāti Hauā, Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi) is Curator, Māori at the Alexander Turnbull Library. He is the author of A Fire in Your Belly: Māori leaders speak (Huia, 2003), Makereti: Taking Māori to the world (Random House, 2007) and Savaged to Suit: Māori and cartooning in New Zealand (Fraser Books, 2018). He has previously worked as an oral historian
Posted on September 21 2021
Kia ora! I am a Pākehā New Zealander of English, German and Highland Scottish origin who has lived in 10 cities in 6 countries and worked in a wide range of occupations. I have a PhD in history from the Australian National University (2015) where I wrote a thesis in the National Centre of Biography about the Aotearoa New Zealand-born
Posted on September 21 2021
I am Chief Historian at Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Prior to this I worked as a historian for the Ministry, as an editor/researcher for the Dictionary of NZ Biography and as a freelance historian. In this role I oversee content for the ministry’s history and reference websites, including Te Ara – Encyclopedia of NZ, Ngā Tangata Taumata
Posted on September 21 2021
Michael Brown has been researching New Zealand music and adjacent topics for over twenty years. Since 2015, he has worked as Music Curator at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington. He was the 2023 JD Stout Fellow at the Stout Research Centre, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. He has researched a wide array of areas relating to New
Posted on September 21 2021
Matt, president of PHANZA since January 2025, is a senior historian at Te Tari Whakatau – the Office of Treaty Settlements and Takutai Moana where his work focuses on developing redress for Māori groups settling historic Treaty of Waitangi claims against the Crown. Beginning in 2021, he designed and facilitated courses for public servants about the history of the Treaty
Posted on September 21 2021
I have more than 30 years’ experience as a professional historian and writer, including terms of employment with the Waitangi Tribunal and Te Ara – the online encyclopedia of NZ. Since 2014 I have been a freelance historical researcher, writing many reports for both public sector clients such as Te Arawhiti and the Crown Forestry Rental Trust, and others such