PHANZA Secretary
c/o Manatū Taonga/MCH
PO Box 5364
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
© PHANZA 2025
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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 September 27 2025
Mark Pacey completed a degree from Massey University in 2017 with a double major in History and Defence Studies. He has had an interest in military history since childhood and specialises in the Pacific theatre of World War Two. While studying at university, Pacey published his first book “Grand Pharmacies”, a history of pharmacies in the Hastings and Havelock North
Posted on January 30 2025
I am a self-employed registered architect (FNZIA) with over 20 years’ experience delivering a range of building projects across the Waikato and surrounding areas. More recently my work has been in the design and documentation of multi-level, medium- density residential housing. I have experience teaching at tertiary level at Wintec (2006), Unitec (2015), and Open Polytechnic (2015-16). I have researched
Posted on January 6 2025
I currently work as a freelance historian. I have worked on private contracts including those utilising nineteenth century Native Land Court records to provide evidence in High Court cases, focusing on Tamaki Makaurau and the Manawatū region. I have also produced engaging accounts of genealogical research for an Auckland businessman and his family, leading to two privately produced volumes. I
Posted on August 18 2024
Kia ora, I am a freelance researcher, historian and writer with a special interest in environmental history and Māori and Pākehā narratives of place. I received a PhD from Victoria University of Wellington in 2016 and was subsequently contracted by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council to develop a heritage trail at Ōhiwa Harbour, working closely with tāngata whenua. Since
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 October 26 2023
I am a researcher, writer and oral historian based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. I have a particular interest in gender, race, and environmental histories. I have a Master of Arts in History with First Class Honours from the University of Auckland. My thesis, ‘A world beyond the waters: Māori travel in the Tasman World, 1793-1839’, was shortlisted for the
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 31 2023
Natalie is currently working part-time as a Heritage Assessment Advisor at the Central Region office of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, based in Wellington. She is also a freelance researcher, curator, and writer. She was curator of photographs at the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, from 2011 to 2023, and has held previous roles in acquisition, appraisal,
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 July 12 2023
I completed my PhD in History at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington in 2025. My research explored the growth of rock climbing in Aotearoa from 1960 to 2020, using oral history as a key research method. I received a 2026 Judith Binney Writing Award to convert my thesis into a book. I have worked as an oral
Posted on July 26 2022
I am a graduate in history from Massey University, Palmerston North. My first professional role was researching Maori Anglican clergy for the Religion and Church People Working Party of the DNZB. In 1992, I joined the Manawatu Museum Te Whare Pupuri Taonga o Manawatu as Research Assistant, developing content on opening exhibitions for what is now Te Manawa. Between 2001-2019,
Posted on September 21 2021
Art History Ph.D. Montana Reference & Anthology Award (2007) Society of Authors Best Non-Fiction Award (2007) Member NZ Conservator of Cultural Materials Area of expertise: Early NZ-made furniture, 19th-century design, cabinet making, manufacturing, domestic interiors, furniture retailing, image reproduction, printing, copyright infringement. Furniture restorer, conservator, heritage building interiors. Author: Furniture of the New Zealand Colonial Era 1830-1900 (2006); Patterns –
Posted on September 21 2021
Dr Vaughan Wood is an environmental historian with a longstanding interest in the environmental history of New Zealand during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and was a postdoctoral fellow on the Marsden Fund project Empires of Grass, as well as the Canterbury History Foundation Community Historian for 2008. He is the author of Akaroa Cocksfoot: King of Grasses (2014), and has
Posted on September 21 2021
I am an Auckland-based writer and researcher with a background in book writing and publishing, specialising in New Zealand history. I have a BA in History and a Master of Creative Writing with First Class Honours from Auckland University. Over the past 25 years, I have published a range of books for children and adults, many with a focus on