Annual Lectures

Michael King Memorial Lecture

The Michael King Memorial Lecture was established in 2004 to commemorate the contribution of acclaimed writer Michael King to New Zealand history.

2025: The Last Prince of Ngāti Hawea and Ngāti Mamoe tribes – a ressertation of mana

Dr Megan Pōtiki, Acting Executive Director for the Otago Polytechnic

My father walked into our lounge after I had given birth to my son and named him outright after his tupuna. In his tupuna’s obituary it stated that he was the last prince of Ngāti Hawea and Ngāti Māmoe iwi. The fatalistic notion that Māori were to die out was commonly seen in obituaries, books and newspapers. Fatigued and oppressed, our ancestors also became a part of this self-fulfilling prophecy. However, my son was named after his ancestor and is the embodiment of succession and is the figurative aho from his tūpuna to the now and into the future. It was these moments and narratives that have driven me to research my own Kāi Tahu history and utilise that as a reassertion of our mana.

I hail from Ōtākou and whakapapa to Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe Waitaha and Te Ātiawa iwi. My parents are Edward and Alison Ellison. I have a brother, Brett Ellison. My husband is Tahu Pōtiki, who passed away in 2019. I am mother to three children (Ripeka, Timoti and Tūkitaharaki) and have a large family unit who provide constant support. As the saying goes, “it takes a village to raise a family.”

I am the Acting Executive Director of Otago Polytechnic. I have recently completed my PhD and my research interests are focused on the loss of te reo Māori at Ōtākou and the written Māori archives of the past that have a particular geographical focus on my tribal region of Kāi Tahu.

Date: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Time and venue to be confirmed

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2023: The Battle for and against New Zealand’s Nuclear Free Policy – a Secret History

Nicky Hager, Author and Investigative Journalist

It is 38 years since the last nuclear armed and powered vessel visited New Zealand. The country’s nuclear free policy is as widely supported by the public as any policy could be. However, in the beginning, a group of public servants and military staff worked for years to torpedo the policy. Some of the secret history of their campaign and why they failed can now be told.

Nicky Hager works as an author and investigative journalist. He has written seven books including Secret Powers (1996), The Hollow Men (2006), Other People’s Wars (2011) and Dirty Politics (2014).

Date: Thursday 7 September 2023

2022: Ruth Ross, te Tiriti o Waitangi and the lives of history in Aotearoa New Zealand – Professor Bain Attwood

Fifty years ago, a remarkable historian by the name of Ruth Ross (1920–1982) published an article in the New Zealand Journal of History entitled 'Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Texts and Translations'. In the decades that followed, this article came to exert a profound influence on New Zealanders' understanding of the historic treaty and helped to make the document central to New Zealand law, politics, and culture.

Few pieces of academic history writing, let alone a journal article, have ever had such an impact on a nation's life. How might we best explain this extraordinary event? And what might such an explanation reveal about the making of history in New Zealand?

Date: Thursday 29 September 2022

Past Lectures

2019 Dr Ali Clarke, 'The Historian's Tale: Writing 150 years of the University of Otago's history'
2018 Lizzie Marvelly, 'The Modern Suffragist'
2017 Professor Sir Richard J. Evans (Cambridge), 'War in the Nazi Imagination'
2016       Professor James Belich (Oxford), 'Hunt-driven expansion in New Zealand and Global History'
2015    Sir Tipene O'Regan, A W-anaka Without Walls: A K-ai Tahu Knowledge Base of Our Own
2014 Christopher Pugsley, 'The New Zealanders at Gallipoli - A Centennial re-assessment?'
2013 Professor Joanna Bourke (Birkbeck, University of London), 'Why are You Doing This To Me? Sexual Violence in the Past and Today'
2012 Grahame Sydney, 'Regionalism Forever: Reflections on My Backyard'
2011 Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, 'Weaving Stories<: Reflecting on the Writings of Elsdon Best and Tutakangahau'
2010 Jock Phillips, 'Constructing a Past: Hocken and the Memorialising of History'
2009 Tom Brooking, 'Tall Tales: Richard John Seddon and the Building of “God's Own Country”'
2008 Brian Easton, 'Race Relations and the Economy'
2007 Sam Elworthy, 'Who Needs Books? Readers, Writers and Publishers in the Age of the Internet'
2006 C. K. Stead, '50 Years Ago: Some Images of the Young Poet and his Elders Brasch, Curnow, Sargeson'
2005 Michael Cullen, 'Two Ticks for Clio: Reflections on New Zealand Politics and History'
2004 Marti Friedlander, 'Photography as History'