title: Place imaginaries: Photography and place-making at Te Awa River Ride

authors: Hill, Rodrigo

subjects: photography

abstract: Contemporary photographic practice has evolved into a field of possibilities, which includes a flux of representational modes that depict experiences, feelings and emotions. This PhD with Creative Practice Components investigates how photography is embedded within ways of knowing, experiencing and making places and the subsequent visual constructions of place imaginaries.  Drawing on contemporary photographic practice and theory, I position myself as a qualitative researcher engaged in creative practice, specifically lens-based approaches and modes of photographic representation. In contrast to photography’s dominant discourse centred on indexical and objective assumptions, I understand photographic practices and images as constructions of multiple meanings.

I use Te Awa River Ride as my research locale, a place where different practices and discourses entangle, forming a diverse set of dynamic and intersecting meanings. Te Awa River Ride is a shared pathway, with a planned total length of 70 kilometres, that edges the banks of the Waikato River from Ngāruawāhia to Cambridge, in the central North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. I understand Te Awa River Ride as a place-composite, layered by multiple place imaginaries, including indigenous Māori, Pākehā and European ways of meaning and place-making. In this thesis I draw upon place imaginaries as a way of expressing visual possibilities, constructions and affective responses to my own and others’ experiences at this unique research location. 

My photography practice aims to actualise particular place imaginaries through curation and sequencing of lens-based explorations of light, movement and water. This process and the compilation of imagery into curatorial products, such as photography installations, generate novel ways of perceiving the Waikato River and Te Awa River Ride, revealing the centrality of photography in place-making processes.

text: Place imaginaries: Photography and place-making at Te Awa River Ride Contemporary photographic practice has evolved into a field of possibilities, which includes a flux of representational modes that depict experiences, feelings and emotions. This PhD with Creative Practice Components investigates how photography is embedded within ways of knowing, experiencing and making places and the subsequent visual constructions of place imaginaries.  Drawing on contemporary photographic practice and theory, I position myself as a qualitative researcher engaged in creative practice, specifically lens-based approaches and modes of photographic representation. In contrast to photography’s dominant discourse centred on indexical and objective assumptions, I understand photographic practices and images as constructions of multiple meanings.

I use Te Awa River Ride as my research locale, a place where different practices and discourses entangle, forming a diverse set of dynamic and intersecting meanings. Te Awa River Ride is a shared pathway, with a planned total length of 70 kilometres, that edges the banks of the Waikato River from Ngāruawāhia to Cambridge, in the central North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. I understand Te Awa River Ride as a place-composite, layered by multiple place imaginaries, including indigenous Māori, Pākehā and European ways of meaning and place-making. In this thesis I draw upon place imaginaries as a way of expressing visual possibilities, constructions and affective responses to my own and others’ experiences at this unique research location. 

My photography practice aims to actualise particular place imaginaries through curation and sequencing of lens-based explorations of light, movement and water. This process and the compilation of imagery into curatorial products, such as photography installations, generate novel ways of perceiving the Waikato River and Te Awa River Ride, revealing the centrality of photography in place-making processes.

year: 2019

title: The anthropologist as tribal advocate

authors: Hopa, Ngapare K

subjects: economic conditions

abstract: My colleague has outlined some of the major issues facing New Zealand and its indigenous Polynesians - the Maaori - who not so long ago were ranked among the most documented in the world and the country as THE laboratory of race relations.
The present disadvantaged and dependent status of Maaori people show how illusory that notion is and, for New Zealand anthropologists, the challenge it presents in helping Maaori to attain socio-economic sovereignty within the 'partnership' promised by the Treaty of Waitangi.
In the late 60s and since, a few 'radical' mostly 'native' anthropologists can be said to have risen to the challenge that Gough (1968) and others, laid down, but it cannot be said, even now, that the profession as a whole in New Zealand, has been responsive.
Perhaps it is still committed to the myth of scientific objectivity, or, after regarding themselves as champions of a powerless and marginal people, has not recovered from the accusation of impotency during the social ferment of the 70s and since. To be fair, there were a few individuals who were allied with the protest movement but whose contributions were not acknowledged. They rode out the storm however and have continued to contribute significantly to the Maaori cause.

text: The anthropologist as tribal advocate My colleague has outlined some of the major issues facing New Zealand and its indigenous Polynesians - the Maaori - who not so long ago were ranked among the most documented in the world and the country as THE laboratory of race relations.
The present disadvantaged and dependent status of Maaori people show how illusory that notion is and, for New Zealand anthropologists, the challenge it presents in helping Maaori to attain socio-economic sovereignty within the 'partnership' promised by the Treaty of Waitangi.
In the late 60s and since, a few 'radical' mostly 'native' anthropologists can be said to have risen to the challenge that Gough (1968) and others, laid down, but it cannot be said, even now, that the profession as a whole in New Zealand, has been responsive.
Perhaps it is still committed to the myth of scientific objectivity, or, after regarding themselves as champions of a powerless and marginal people, has not recovered from the accusation of impotency during the social ferment of the 70s and since. To be fair, there were a few individuals who were allied with the protest movement but whose contributions were not acknowledged. They rode out the storm however and have continued to contribute significantly to the Maaori cause.

year: 1988

title: Hydrodynamic impacts of tectonics in prehistoric Ohiwa Harbour, North Island, New Zealand

authors: Robinson, Benjamin Joseph

subjects: Hydrodynamic

abstract: Ohiwa Harbour is an estuarine lagoon located in the eastern Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand. Ohiwa Harbour is bounded by two sand spits, Ohope and Ohiwa Spits.  
This study assessed the likelihood of a resistant barrier underlying Ohiwa Spit, which would control the inlet and spit locations. The observed depths of layers unable to be penetrated by a vibrocorer on Ohiwa Spit supported this idea, along with the discovery of a rock outcrop on the eastern harbour entrance using sidescan SONAR. 
Vibrocoring on Ohiwa Spit added to the knowledge of the prehistoric evolution of Ohiwa Harbour, and an attempt to infer various subsidence events on Ohiwa Spit were made. Fining upwards coarse sand sequences with dominant shell material were found in the cores. These sequences could be related to a change in harbour hydrodynamics, or recent subsidence events in Ohiwa Harbour, such as the 0.6m subsidence of the Waimana Fault 636 to 575cal yrs BP. A sharp change in the core profile was observed at 1.4m in core C and 1.7m in core C2, marked by increased grain size and an abundance of shell material, mostly Austrovenus stutchburyi. This could be related to a change in wave energy in the harbour or an erosional contact associated with subsidence of Ohiwa Spit. Comparison of radiocarbon dated shells in this study with Murdoch (2005) on Ohope Spit suggests that more subsidence has occurred at Ohiwa Spit than Ohope Spit; this may be associated with a fault through the harbour entrance.       
Subsidence associated with earthquakes, and erosion associated with at least four tsunami events in the last 6000 years has increased the depth and extent of Ohiwa Harbour, increasing its volume. This study used numerical modeling to determine the hydrodynamic impacts of past catastrophic events (earthquake related subsidence and volcanic eruptions) on Ohiwa Harbour. Ten scenarios along with present conditions were modelled. 
•	In scenarios where sea level was modified only (scenarios 1-5 and 8), tidal range and surface elevation increased within the harbour, but not at the harbour entrance. The entrance hydrodynamics were also influenced by its width; as Ohope Spit accreted, the surface elevation and flow velocities increased within the tidal inlet
•	Flow speeds increased at the harbour entrance by up to 50% following subsidence in scenarios 9 and 10
•	A drop in sea level during subsidence (scenario 6) resulted in a smaller tidal prism and hence reduced flow velocities at the inlet, despite the subsidence 
•	Scenario 7 involved subsidence and the breaching of Ohope Spit, which would divert flow away from the entrance and result in reduced flow velocities at the entrance

text: Hydrodynamic impacts of tectonics in prehistoric Ohiwa Harbour, North Island, New Zealand Ohiwa Harbour is an estuarine lagoon located in the eastern Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand. Ohiwa Harbour is bounded by two sand spits, Ohope and Ohiwa Spits.  
This study assessed the likelihood of a resistant barrier underlying Ohiwa Spit, which would control the inlet and spit locations. The observed depths of layers unable to be penetrated by a vibrocorer on Ohiwa Spit supported this idea, along with the discovery of a rock outcrop on the eastern harbour entrance using sidescan SONAR. 
Vibrocoring on Ohiwa Spit added to the knowledge of the prehistoric evolution of Ohiwa Harbour, and an attempt to infer various subsidence events on Ohiwa Spit were made. Fining upwards coarse sand sequences with dominant shell material were found in the cores. These sequences could be related to a change in harbour hydrodynamics, or recent subsidence events in Ohiwa Harbour, such as the 0.6m subsidence of the Waimana Fault 636 to 575cal yrs BP. A sharp change in the core profile was observed at 1.4m in core C and 1.7m in core C2, marked by increased grain size and an abundance of shell material, mostly Austrovenus stutchburyi. This could be related to a change in wave energy in the harbour or an erosional contact associated with subsidence of Ohiwa Spit. Comparison of radiocarbon dated shells in this study with Murdoch (2005) on Ohope Spit suggests that more subsidence has occurred at Ohiwa Spit than Ohope Spit; this may be associated with a fault through the harbour entrance.       
Subsidence associated with earthquakes, and erosion associated with at least four tsunami events in the last 6000 years has increased the depth and extent of Ohiwa Harbour, increasing its volume. This study used numerical modeling to determine the hydrodynamic impacts of past catastrophic events (earthquake related subsidence and volcanic eruptions) on Ohiwa Harbour. Ten scenarios along with present conditions were modelled. 
•	In scenarios where sea level was modified only (scenarios 1-5 and 8), tidal range and surface elevation increased within the harbour, but not at the harbour entrance. The entrance hydrodynamics were also influenced by its width; as Ohope Spit accreted, the surface elevation and flow velocities increased within the tidal inlet
•	Flow speeds increased at the harbour entrance by up to 50% following subsidence in scenarios 9 and 10
•	A drop in sea level during subsidence (scenario 6) resulted in a smaller tidal prism and hence reduced flow velocities at the inlet, despite the subsidence 
•	Scenario 7 involved subsidence and the breaching of Ohope Spit, which would divert flow away from the entrance and result in reduced flow velocities at the entrance

year: 2012