Editors: Catherine Hammond, Shaun Higgins Reviewer: David Veart

In 1848, two decades after a French inventor mixed daylight with a cocktail of chemicals to fix the view outside his window onto a metal plate, photography arrived in Aotearoa. How did these 'portraits in a machine' reveal Maori and Pakeha to themselves and to each other? Were the first photographs 'a good likeness' or were they tricksters? What stories do they capture of the changing landscape of Aotearoa?

April 2024 release

Authors: Rebecca Rice, Matiu Baker, Katie Cooper, Michael Fitzgerald Reviewer: David Veart

This selection transcends its colonial origins literally in 'The Colonial Museum' creating a powerful narrative using the artefacts woven together with subtle curation and a strong Māori voice, a voice which doesn't simply murmur 'ghostly' echoes from the past but instead speaks truth powerfully into the present.

March 2024 release

Author: Greg Ryan. Publisher: Auckland University Press.

In this extract from Chapter 2 of Continuous Ferment: historian Greg Ryan examines Aotearoa’s early days as a beer-drinking nation, exploring the trials and tribulations of importing beer by ship as well as early home and commercial brewing efforts.

November 2023 release

Tā Pou Temara. Nā Maumahara Horsfall i arotake.

‘He tirohanga onamata ki te wā i ō tātau tīpuna me te rerekē rawa atu o te ao i nohoia e rātau.’

‘a window to the past, to the time of our ancestors and the very different world that they lived in.’