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Project Details
Project status
In progress
Research Framework
Pou Titirangi
Research Duration
July 2025 - December 2028
Project Overview
This project examines the historical roots of the biosecurity system through tracing early understandings of pests and weeds as threats.
Our analysis focuses on the period 1825 to 1925 – a 100 year period, 100 years ago. This period saw extreme socio-environmental transformation with colonisation, dramatic clearing of land, and rapid introduction of new species and forms of agriculture. The logics of the current biosecurity system were also established during this period, with growing concerns among settlers about pests and weeds, as well as attempts to manage them as threats to agriculture.
This research is based in Horomaka Banks Peninsula, as a case study to examine the in-place development of biosecurity issues over time. We draw on archival research, including newspaper articles, Treaty claim evidence, colonial correspondence, and County meeting minutes.
Why this Matters
This research allows us to understand the roots of New Zealand’s pest management system that continue to have impacts on how we do biosecurity today. By looking at a period of 100 years of environmental transformation where the underlying logics of our biosecurity system was set up, we can better understand the broad successes, tendencies and oversights of the system in the way it continues to operate.
Taking a historical perspective, the study contributes to Bioprotection Aotearoa’s mission to understand bioprotection in Aotearoa New Zealand holistically. By looking at a period of 100 years of environmental transformation when the underlying logics of our biosecurity system was set up, we can better understand its limits and failures in the present. Understanding the roots of the system and its limitations will be helpful in Bioprotection Aotearoa’s efforts to centre indigenous knowledge in the project of broader ecosystem resilience.
Progress to date
Archival data collection for this project is largely completed and analysis is underway. In particular, our research is examining:
- Colonial logics of the pest management system
- Ideas of ‘what’ belongs within a landscape
- The significance of monocultures in driving concerns about pests and weeds as a threat
Project Objectives
- Collect archival data relating to pests or weeds in Horomaka Banks Peninsula between 1825-1925 (including newspaper articles, Te Kerēme o Ngāi Tahu evidence from Kareao (the Ngāi Tahu Archive website), Waitangi Tribunal Reports, colonial correspondence, County meeting minutes, farm records etc).
- Collate data into key themes that show the emergence of narratives around pest and weed species
- Analyse changing understandings of pests and weeds over time
- Write a critical analysis of how these historical ideas of pest management continue to exist in our current biosecurity system.