Auckland Conversations presents the annual Mayoral Sir John Logan Campbell Lecture as part of the Auckland Heritage Festival. Join Mayor Len Brown to hear internationally acclaimed writer and academic, Kerry Howe discuss the history and future of one of the most iconic areas of Auckland. Both Maori and European settlers exploited the Gulf islands, introduced predators, caused species extinction, and depleted forests. Colonial economic activity was on an industrial scale - mining, quarrying, sand, shingle and timber extraction. Reflecting new global attitudes towards the environment in the 1970s, so began our local and now world-renowned process of Gulf island restoration - eradicating pests, replanting native vegetation, and introducing endangered birds, insects and reptiles. We have created a much loved recreational paradise on our Treasure Islands. Yet the waters of the Gulf are still at threat from pollution, overfishing, and economic and population pressures. How do we account for this contradiction, and what are the implications for the future?
Sir John Logan Campbell Lecture 2016: The Hauraki Gulf - past, present and future?
Sir John Logan Campbell Lecture 2016: The Hauraki Gulf - past, present and future?
Kerry Howe
A born and bred Aucklander, Kerry has spent a lifetime writing about Pacific/Polynesian/New Zealand culture and history. His ten books have been internationally acclaimed, and his edition of Vaka Moana. Voyages of the Ancestors received the NZ Montana Book Awards for History in 2007. He graduated with an MA in History from the University of Auckland, and a PhD in Pacific History from the Australian National University. His research and teaching career was at Massey University, with periods at universities in Australia, the USA and Canada. He has travelled extensively throughout the Pacific islands. He has always been an avid outdoor person, especially fishing and boating. Recently he and his wife have taken to sailing in a 50-year-old wooden yacht in the Hauraki Gulf. His latest book (2016) To the Islands. Exploring, remembering, imagining the Hauraki Gulf is a study of the nature, culture, history and politics of the Gulf islands. It is also a tale of personal encounter, essentially a lifelong love story about a place.
