The conference aimed to examine the ‘making of New Zealanders’ in the past, present and future. It will focus on New Zealand and its many different cultures, exploring their origins, historical sources and influences, contemporary changes and future developments. It aims to embrace as many as possible of the disciplinary fields within the humanities, social sciences and the natural sciences.

We anticipate that the cultures that will be explored will include not only the more obvious national, ethnic and religious ones, but the practices and mindsets of governmental, professional, business, educational, religious and sporting subcultures, and of cultures found in other daily occupations and interests, such as eating, drinking and entertainment.

We are interested in how elements of national culture have been imported from the Pacific, the UK, the USA, Europe and Australia, and how they have been exported through migration, disapora, and the media. We welcome proposals that approach New Zealand’s cultures from alternative, ‘outsider’ perspectives, and those that consider whether or not New Zealand’s cultures exhibit any remarkable ‘exceptionalism’.

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