Forced labour haunts the streets we walk today and the spaces we take for granted. From 1814 onwards, the unfree work of prisoners was used to forge roads, ports, buildings, harbour defences and other public works across New Zealand and its Pacific empire. Prisoners planted forests, cleared land and laboured on dairy farms. Their work was crucial to colonisation. Yet convict Australia and the myth of New Zealand exceptionalism has meant the history of prison labour has been largely overlooked.
In this Public History Talk, Jared Davidson discussed his latest book, Blood and Dirt: Prison Labour and the Making of New Zealand (Bridget Williams Books, 2023). He charted the hidden history of prison labour across New Zealand's urban and rural landscapes and into the Pacific, as well the challenges of researching history from the bottom up.
Jared Davidson is an archivist by day and an author by night, based in Lower Hutt. He is currently the Research Librarian Manuscripts at the Alexander Turnbull Library. Blood and Dirt is his fifth book.
These free Public History Talks are a collaboration between the Alexander Turnbull Library and Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. They are usually held on the first Wednesday of the month March to November.
Download a transcript of this talk: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/files/pdfs/jared-davidson-transcript.pdf
Crossing the lines: the story of three homosexual New Zealand soldiers in WW2
Reflecting on the value of social media as a history-research tool
Dissenting Voices – New Zealand and the South African War 1899–1902
Inside the Bubble
Kei roto i te miru: inside the bubble
‘Palmy Proud’? Audience and Approach in Writing the History of a Provincial City
Tamihana Te Rauparaha’s life of Te Rauparaha
Te Mana O Te Reo Māori
Unpacking the Suitcase
Māori women and the armed forces in WWII
Memorials, names and ethical remembering
‘Protest Tautohetohe: Objects of Resistance, Persistence and Defiance’
Wairoa Lockout: an oral history
Pūkana: moments in Māori performance
This Mortal Boy
100 years of the Tararua Tramping Club
The Hidden Women of the Public Stage
My Body, My Business
Ocean: tales of voyaging and encounter that defined New Zealand
The Saving of Old St Paul’s
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
History Obscura
Historycal: Words that Shaped the World
The Rest Is History
Lore