'Gathering places' : the mixed descent families of Foveaux Strait and Rakiura/Stewart Island, 1824-1864

[…] This dissertation explores the social world of the mixed descent or 'half caste' population based around Foveaux Strait and Rakiura/Stewart Island up until the purchase of Rakiura by the Crown in 1864. I examine the extent to which individuals of mixed descent in this region developed a distinct identity and the processes by which this happened: namely, through marriage practices and patterns, and the attempts of colonial officials to define, categorise and control this ambiguous and potentially disruptive group. I further examine the ways in which the government's view of the mixed descent community in Foveaux Strait and Stewart Island, as embodied in the terms of the Rakiura/Stewart Island purchase and subsequent related legislation and debates, corresponded with, and/or diverged from, these individuals' own sense of identity. The 1864 purchase is the key moment which frames this study, though many of the sources examined date from after this event, as the subsequent land claims and petitions made by mixed descent children and their parents provide important insights to personal notions of identity and political rights. […] I argue that histories of interracial marriage and mixed descent families in New Zealand represent a fruitful area of research that incorporates a wider variety of social, cultural, economic and political issues than are examined in the context of the Tribunal. […] The social and political issues surrounding interracial marriage were arguably most significant in the far south, in the Foveaux Strait and Rakiura/Stewart Island, where sustained interaction between Kai Tahu and the early Pakeha settlers had begun earlier and continued longer than elsewhere in New Zealand. […] This dissertation is therefore focused on the ways in which colonialism 'played out on the ground', in what Pickles and Rutherdale call the embodied encounter zone. In this conceptualisation, the encounter or contact zone represents both a physical and a cultural site of interaction. Centring the study in a specific place has the advantage of revealing personal narratives and experiences of colonialism as they are shaped by local conditions and avoids inappropriate totalising generalisations and metanarratives about 'colonialism'. This focus on the specific and dynamic interaction of colonisation 'on the ground', as understood through the lens of interracial marriage, follows in the tradition of postcolonial scholarship, which exposes the limitations of grand overarching historical schemas and draws attention to the voices of previously marginalised groups. The work is framed by the notion of 'gathering places': the sites in which mixed descent families encountered each other and the state, as well as ideas about class, religion and respectability. […] While this dissertation draws upon the personal and embodied experiences of interracial marriage and hybridity in the far south, this history must also be understood within the broader colonial project, and tied to questions of colonial power and authority. Interracial marriage and hybridity was a reality in the colonies and was followed by state management and intervention. The management of sexuality and intimacy was critical to imperial projects. Interracial unions and mixed race children threatened and undermined the crucial hierarchies of race and distinctions between the binaries of ruler and ruled upon which rested the moral basis of colonisation. Hybridity, with the ambiguities, boundary crossings and negotiations of identity it entails, is a key concept which encapsulates these ideas. The concept of hybridity and 'colonial desire' has been applied effectively to scholarship on mixed descent individuals and communities in a range of localities, though further elaboration of the significance of this theory in a New Zealand context is needed. [Extracts from Introduction