The Macmillan Brown Lectures

The Macmillan Brown Lectures are a prestigious series of public lectures given by New Zealand-based scholars at any of the University centres in the country.

The 2010 Macmillan Brown Lectures were delivered by Associate Professor Roger Fyfe ( Canterbury Museum) on the topic of:

The World Under One Roof – who owns the past ?

Link to the Radio New Zealand Recordings of the 2010 Macmillan Brown Lectures

Lecture 1: Temples to Science

Museums continue to be a burgeoning worldwide phenomenon. They come in a myriad of sizes and guises. Today it seems no community is complete without one or more ! But how many of those amongst us who flock to museums in every increasing numbers, both at home and abroad, stop to ask ourselves ‘where did this peculiar notion called a museum come from' ?

Many people will be surprised to find that the modern museum has its genesis in some rather inspired eighteenth century intellectual vision and values.

Lecture 2: Museums in the Colonies

It is frequently pointed out by historians that the great natural history and encyclopaedic museums of Europe arose in tandem with the establishment of colonial empires. When viewed in this light, efforts to organise, classify and display the material culture of distant peoples apparently conforms to global colonialist ideologies !

So what happened when newly arrived colonial communities in the so called ‘source countries' (eg North America, Australia, New Zealand) set about establishing their own museums ? Were the inspired ideals of European museums diluted or compromised ? A look at the foundation years of Canterbury Museum might help give some answers.

Lecture 3: Indigenous Heritage and Museums Today

Encyclopaedic museums were institutions born of ‘Enlightenment” values and committed to a belief that through the study of things from all over the world, truth would emerge. A corollary belief was that museums would broaden cultural horizons and foster greater understanding of cultural diversity.

For the last quarter-century however, emerging social forces have called these principles into question. A worldwide rise in ethnic assertion and ever intensifying debates surrounding cultural property issues have converged on museums – even raising questions over legitimacy and public mission.

Link to the Radio New Zealand recordings of the 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 Macmillan Brown Lectures

Year	Place	Lecturer	Title
2010	Canterbury	Assoc Prof Roger Fyfe	The World Under One Roof- who owns the past?
2009	Canterbury	Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, Professor Lisa Matisoo-Smith and Professor Michael Walker	Reflections on Maori, Pacific and (Western)/ Scientific Knowledge
2008	Canterbury	Prof. Helen Leach	From Kai to Kiwi Kitchen- tracing the development of New Zealand's Culinary traditions
2007	Canterbury	Prof. Cluny Macpherson	The Warm Winds of Change in the Contemporary Pacific
2006	Canterbury	Mr Jonathan Mane Wheoki	Pasifika Rising: A Cultural Strand in Contemporary New Zealand Art
2005	Canterbury	Assoc Prof Elizabeth Gordon	Finding our own Voice: the English language in New Zealand
2004	Auckland	Prof. Albert Wendt	From the Vaipe to Waipapa: Autobiography as History
2003	Auckland	Dame Ann Salmond	The Trial of the Cannibal Dog, or Why did Captain Cook die?
2000	Auckland	Prof. Michael Peters	Education and Culture in Postmodernity: The Challenges for Aotearoa New Zealand
1999	Victoria	Dr Nancy Pollock	Pacific Studies in New Zealand - Macmillan Brown's megalithic images as viewed through the 20th Century
1998	Canterbury	Dr. Sir Tipene O'Regan	The Journey and The Dream
1997	Massey	Professor Kerry Howe	Nature, culture and history: the knowing of Oceania
1996	Waikato	Dr Robert Mahuta, Dr Tamati Reddy, Dr Richard Benton	Issues in Maori development: the Tainui settlement - vision and reality
1995	Canterbury	Dr William Sax	The Gods at play: art, politics, religion
1994	Victoria	Dr James Belich	Race and New Zealand: some social history of ideas
1993	Lincoln	Em Prof. Kevin O'Connor	Traditional cultural values and the sustaining of line on earth
1992	Auckland	Em Prof Bruce Biggs	Kimihea te mea ngaro: seek that which is lost
1990	Waikato	Prof. G M Walker Mr Robert Mahuta	University and the space where God was; post hoc ergo Propter Hawke & Taawahio's dream
1989	Massey	Prof. Ben Finney	From sea to space
1988	Canterbury	Dr Malama Meleisea	The seeds of change: political development in Western Samoa
1987	Auckland	Dr Andaya	Glimpses of Indonesian history: a commentary on Macmillan Brown's 'The Dutch East'
1986	Otago	Em Prof. A Thornton	Maori oral literature as seen by a classicist
1983	Canterbury	Dr Margaret Orbell	Hawaiki: a new approach to Maori tradition
1982	Auckland	Prof. W H Pearson	Rifled sanctuaries: Pacific Islands in western literature
1981	Otago	Prof. Peter J Wilson	Three problems in human evolution
1980 1979	Victoria Canterbury	Dr Richard D Bedford	lapsed - Perceptions, past and present: a future for Melanesia
1978	Auckland	Prof. Maurice P K Sorrenson	Some modern Maori myths and legends
1977	Otago	Em Prof. A Ross	New Zealand to 1947: a developing nation state
1976	Victoria	Prof. Roger Robinson	Satiric fantasies in modern fiction
1975	Canterbury	W J Gardner	Early university life in Australia and New Zealand
1974	Auckland	Lady Aileen Fox	Prehistoric Maori fortifications
1973	Otago	Prof. Ernest A Horsman	On the side of the angels? Disraeli and the Nineteenth-century Novel
1972	Victoria	Prof. W Oliver	New Zealand about 1890
1971	Canterbury	Prof. Raymond A Copland	God above and God within: the literature of belief
1970	Auckland	Assoc. Prof. E A Sheppard	Henry James: 'the turn of the screw
1969	Otago	Assoc. Prof. Gordon S Parsonson	Oceania in the age of imperial Spain
1968	Victoria	D F Crozier	Tongan and papalangi: anomie in Polynesia
1967	Canterbury	Prof. John C Garrett	Utopias in literature since the romantic period
1966	Auckland	Prof. F S Scott	The art of the Icelandic family sagas
1965	Otago	Prof. William P Morrell	British policy and the Maori wars
1963	Victoria	Montague H Holcroft	Islands of innocence: the childhood theme in New Zealand fiction
1962	Canterbury	Ngaio Marsh	Three cornered world: the producer; the actor; the audience
1959	Otago	Jack Golson	Prehistory in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands
1959	Victoria	Dan M Davin	Joyce Cary
1957	Auckland	S Musgrove	Shakespeare and Jonson
1957	Canterbury Museum	Roger S Duff	The settlement of New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands
1943	Victoria	Heinrich F von Haast	The lectures and articles of the late Professor John Macmillan Brown on Shakespeare and the Elizabethan drama
1941	Canterbury College	Alexander G Henderson	John Macmillan Brown Lectures

University of Canterbury

Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies

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The Macmillan Brown Lectures

The World Under One Roof – who owns the past ?

Lecture 1: Temples to Science

Lecture 2: Museums in the Colonies

Lecture 3: Indigenous Heritage and Museums Today

Link to the Radio New Zealand recordings of the 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 Macmillan Brown Lectures

Year

Place

Lecturer

Title