Inaugural Professorial Lecture – Professor Lachy Paterson

New Zealand’s cultural institutions are bursting with Māori-language manuscripts and publications. Lachy is a Te Tumu-based scholar who uses this archival material in his research and teaching, in particular the niupepa (Māori-language newspapers) of the nineteenth and early twentieth-centuries.

He has published widely on aspects of Māori social, political and religious history, including Māori-Pākehā race relations, the writings of Māori intellectuals, and the discourses produced by pan-Māori movements such as the Kīngitanga, Kotahitanga, and the Young Māori Party. Lachy’s research also explores the impact of the niupepa and textual culture more generally on Māori society.

He is currently investigating, with Associate Professor Angela Wanhalla (History), Māori experiences of the home front during World War II, funded by a Marsden grant. Lachy has undertaken a number of service roles in the University and is an active member of the University of Otago’s Centre for Research on Colonial Culture.