Season 2 Ep 14: New Zealand's Pacific Empire

NOTE: This episode has been reuploaded to correct some inaccuracies in the original version. We all know New Zealand was the first country in the world where women could vote. But do you know how we got there? The path to suffrage is littered with alcohol, hidden heroes & dirty tricks.

New Zealand has had some big ambitions in the Pacific and mixed relations with our neighbours.

Why isn’t New Zealand part of Australia? | The Aotearoa History Show | RNZ

New Zealanders like to think we have a “Number 8 Wire Mentality” - a rough and ready enthusiasm for fixing and building stuff with limited resources.

From a standing start of little tank engines chugging along wooden rails, New Zealand built a vast rail network, made up of enough steel rail to wrap halfway around the moon.

Marine mammals were a source of food and clothing for Māori and Moriori, and valuable oil for Europeans. Hunting them brought cultures together, made fortunes and cost lives but today it's saving them that unites people.

These are the wars that cost more lives than any other in our history. Stretched over more than a decade & the entire country, these conflicts changed Māori warfare & much of what came next.

Moriori are the original people of Rēkohu (aka Chatham Island or Wharekauri) & they have a tragic and inspiring story. Unfortunately, that story's often been twisted into, well, utter rubbish.

In 1841 a few tiny islands of Pākehā settlement existed in an ocean of Māori land. Today, that picture has reversed & Māori own a fraction of Aotearoa. A big part of the reason? The Native Land Court.

The discovery of gold drew tens of thousands to New Zealand in search of fortune. It was a hard life, but diggers brought mateship, fashion & egalitarian ideas that changed the country forever.