History of New Zealand and its Inhabitants - new edition, 2023
Category: Book
| Title | History of New Zealand and its Inhabitants |
|---|---|
| Author | Dom Felice Vaggioli Translated by John Crockett |
| Year | New edition: 2023, first print: 2000 |
| Publisher | Otago University Press |
| ISBN | 9781990048623 |
| Language | English |
| Format | 240 x 170mm, 352pp |
| Online resource | no |
| Topic | Felice Vaggioli, Dom Felice Vaggioli, Catholic, Priest, Missionaries, Clero, Māori, Italian Missionaries, Missionari italiani in Nuova Zelanda, Māori, Italian priests in New Zealand, Māori–Pākehā relations |
This is the new edition of History of New Zealand and its Inhabitants originally published in the year 2000 as the English language translation of a lively, opinionated book by Dom Felice Vaggioli, an Italian monk who was one of the first Benedictine priests to be sent to Aotearoa New Zealand.
Dom Felice Vaggioli (1845–1921) was from Tuscany and between 1879 and 1887 he was a missionary in New Zealand, holding posts in Gisborne, Auckland and Coromandel.
While working in these posts he observed lifestyles and customs and gathered information about the country’s history, including first-hand accounts of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the conflicts in Taranaki and Waikato.
Back in Italy, he published his history of New Zealand in 1896, Storia della Nuova Zelanda e dei suoi abitatori, only to have most of this Italian edition destroyed by the British because Vaggioli, who was not backward in coming forward with his anti-Protestant and anti-British views, was so critical of the colonialist project. The book nearly disappeared completely, but a few copies survived.
About a century later, John Crockett was doing some research in the archive of the Auckland Catholic Diocese when the archivist showed him an old book in Italian, it was the original Storia della Nuova Zelanda e dei suoi abitatori. Crockett realised he was holding a unique interpretation of the impact of colonisation on Māori and set about translating the book into English. Crockett’s vivid translation of Vaggioli’s work was published by Otago University Press in 2000. Out of print for several years, that edition is hard to find and much sought-after.
This distinctive and sometimes controversial account of prominent historical events in nineteenth-century Aotearoa New Zealand provides a remarkable resource for people interested in Māori–Pākehā relations or the history of colonisation.
