Are we still repeating the past? Tracing norms of biosecurity across time on Te Pātaka-o-Rākaihautū / Banks Peninsula

The roots of the biosecurity system in Aotearoa trace back to the early colonial period. We may think that our biosecurity system is learning from past mistakes and moving beyond history. Yet this research suggests that we continue to repeat biosecurity strategies, tools and logics in the present, without moving far away from the underlying unspoken paradigm of biosecurity that was set up over a century ago.

This webinar focuses on how pests and weeds first emerged (and were narrated) as threats to land and agriculture in Aotearoa. This research draws on historical analysis to trace narratives of the ‘unruliness’ of introduced species and nascent attempts at management within local newspapers in the context of Te Pātaka-o-Rākaihautū / Banks Peninsula between 1825 and 1925. By looking at a period of 100 years of environmental transformation when our biosecurity system was first formed, we can better understand its limits and ongoing blind spots today. In this webinar, Salene introduces five repeating norms of biosecurity in Aotearoa drawn from historical analysis, that exist as throughlines which stretch from the early colonial period to the current day.

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