Tradition and Modernity in Discourses of Māori Urbanisation

Abstract

This article addresses a gap in the historical literature concerning Māori urbanisation and economic development by exploring intellectual exchanges surrounding these developments. It argues that a series of key figures transmitted a network of ideas relating to Māori acculturation and urbanisation from the inter-war through the post-war period and considers the evolution, interpenetration and divergence of their perspectives. Although primarily an examination of discourse rather than policy or resulting lived experience, the paper also traces some of the ways in which this discourse informed the actions of government officials as they attempted to manage the exodus of Māori from the countryside.