By Māpuna
Professor Atholl Anderson speaks with Māpuna host Julian Wilcox at his home in Blenheim. Photo: Julian Wilcox & Professor Atholl Anderson
Professor Atholl Anderson says archaeology and history "chose" him.
"What you do in your life, I think, is determined by factors that are really beyond your control. They have to do with your circumstances of upbringing, your personality, and probably things that you see and do very early on in your life. And I think that that was the case for me," he said.
For decades the Ngāi Tahu archaeologist and historian has explored the origins and historic migration of peoples around the Pacific, the first arrivals of Māori in Aotearoa and their early encounters with Europeans.
Recently he released a revised edition of his 1998 book The Welcome of Strangers, A History of Southern Māori.
He told Māpuna host Julian Wilcox he vividly remembers spending time at his grandmother's house in Hāwera in the holidays, who kept many Māori artifacts in the room where she hosted visitors.
"I remember there being some pounamu pieces. There was something, it was either a taiaha or some other weapon there and things like that.
"And as I say, I remember those from very early age. So when I say I didn't really pick this, I think it chose me. I think it's that kind of experience from very early on that predisposed me towards an interest in these things."
Anderson said his grandmother lived not too far from the Turuturu Mokai Historic Reserve where as a child he would walk in and out of the defensive ditches.
There was certainly an expectation, from both sides of his whānau, that he would take education very seriously. But his interest in history really began to take shape at Nelson College thanks to his history teacher.
"He was called Jerp, because his surname was Patterson, but his initials were J-E-R. And many people who went to Nelson College will remember Jerp Patterson. He was famous for his ability to teach history. He made it just so interesting and alive."
Anderson's book The Welcome of Strangers, A History of Southern Māori. Photo: Bridget Williams Books
Anderson said he worked overseas for a period in Scandinavia, but eventually he returned and turned the focus of his work to Aotearoa and the Pacific.
"There's always been exciting things about the Pacific, about when people managed to get across these huge distances of ocean and get from place to place, how they did it, and how they made a living when they got to where they were.
"It's like looking at a new world, and indeed, in a way it is a new world, where you start with nothing, in other words, no people, and then you introduce people to it, and then almost like an experiment, you watch to see what they do in this new world."
Anderson said in a scholarly sense he likes studying the "margins" of cultural history.
"Because margins are where things are tested. You find out what's important, what works and what doesn't, on the margins of things.
"So, for example, I've been working on Enderby Island in the Auckland Islands on a few occasions, and I did a small excavation there. You find out what survives of the integrity of Māori culture on those very marginal areas. What could they do and what couldn't they do? How long could they hold on there? It turns out not very long, actually, because they were right on the climatic margins."
Gradually, as his career progressed a desire to became involved with the history of his own iwi of Ngāi Tahu took hold.
"I think in Māoridom, there's not exactly suspicion, but there are concerns about archaeology. And, you know, people don't want the sites of their ancestors dug up, and they fear what might be found. And so you have to approach this very carefully, and discuss it in detail as to what the benefits are and to whom they accrue if it is done."
Anderson was also involved with the Ngāi Tahu claim at the Waitangi Tribunal from 1987 onwards. He was responsible for research on mahinga kai.
"It was a marvellous time, really, because it brought the iwi together," he said.
Archaeology is "irrefutable, but it's anonymous", he said.
"Each of our disciplines has a problem. Archaeology is anonymous. We really don't know who those people were.
"This is the problem that when you try and combine archaeology and history, there's always that gap, which is so hard to cross. Now, we are starting to get close to it, I might say."
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