In/visible Sight

Angela Wanhalla begins her story in Maitapapa, Taieri, New Zealand,the mixed-descent community where her great-grandparents, John Brownand Mabel Smith, were born. As In/visible Sight takes shape, acommunity emerges from the records, re-casting history and identity inthe present. Drawing on the experiences of mixed-Maori/White families,Wanhalla examines the early history of southern New Zealand. There,Ngai Tahu engaged with the European newcomers on a sustained scale fromthe 1820s, encountering systematic settlement from the 1840s, andfighting land alienation from the 1850s. The evolving social world wasone framed by marriage, kinship networks, and cultural practices -- aworld in which interracial intimacy played a formative role.