Placing Geographical Imagination in Film: New Zealand Filmmakers' Use of Landscape

The paper explores the role of landscape in New Zealand films. How is the New Zealand landscape imagined and revealed? What kind of landscape do filmmakers present? I argue that New Zealand filmmakers tap into specific geographical imaginations when they make films, and that this results in certain kinds of landscapes being produced. I sketch the methodology used in a survey of New Zealand films and ‘read’ a selection of opening and closing sequences and ‘generic places’ found in a selection of contemporary New Zealand films. 1 then offer some conclusions about New Zealand films, and their production, portrayal and imagining of New Zealand.     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Green Politics By S. Rainbow.
Keeping New Zealand Green: Recent Environmental Reforms By P.A. Memon.
Environmental Planning in New Zealand Edited by P.A. Memon and H. C. Perkins.     

REVIEWS

The Enigmas of Easter Island : By John Flenley and Paul Bahn.
Two Decades of Change in New Zealand: From Birth to Death V : By Judith A Davey.
Living Space: Towards Sustainable Settlements in New Zealand : Edited by Claire Freeman and Michelle Thompson-Fawcett.
The Prickly Pair: Making Nationalism in Australia and New Zealand : By Denis McLean.
Ecological Context of Development: New Zealand Perspectives : By Marjorie van Roon and Stephen Knight.
Key Concepts in Geography : Edited by Sarah L. Holloway, Stephen P. Rice and Gill Valentine.
Key Methods in Geography : Edited by Nicholas J. Clifford and Gill Valentine.
Global Positioning System: A Field Guide for the Social Sciences : By John Spencer, Brian G. Frizzelle, Philip H. Page, and John B. Vogler.
Glacial Landsystems : By David J. A. Evans (editor).
Food and Environment: Geographies of Taste : Edited by Armando Montanari.
The New Countryside: Geographic Perspectives on Rural Change : Edited by Kenneth B. Beesley, Hugh Millward, Brian Ilbery and Lisa Harrington.     

Trans-Tasman migration: New Zealanders' explanations for their move

Abstract:  This study investigates why New Zealanders move to Australia. A survey of New Zealanders living in Australia found 'pull' factors, notably greater opportunities and better climate, were the most common reasons. While desire for change or sense of adventure was important, dissatisfaction with life in New Zealand was also a factor. Results indicated a form of transnationalism as migrants felt at home in both countries. They maintained links with New Zealand evident in support for New Zealand sporting teams, expressions of New Zealand nationality, emotional connection and regular contact with New Zealand.     

New Zealand Census 2013: A short commentary on the role which the Census plays and the findings of the 2013 Census

This short paper aims to discuss the role and the importance of the Census in New Zealand. It also discusses some of the multitude of uses of Census data in various contexts to help us understand the demographic and socio‐economic landscape of New Zealand. Debates internationally on the nature, scale and frequency of a national Census, or even whether a Census is necessary at all, mean that we cannot take this valuable resource for granted. With this in mind, we as geographers have a wealth of data to explore and analyse that we should take full advantage of. What gets counted counts!     

Geography–Internationalisation and the Condition of Forestry in New Zealand

Abstract. Internationalisation is used as a device with which to reexamine geographies of national development and geography in national development in New Zealand. The second half of the paper discusses national and internationalised forestry in New Zealand before considering some of the new possibilities confronting geographers as the New Zealand economy becomes increasingly internationalised.     

Computer-based Catalogue of New Zealand Vertical Aerial Photographic Surveys

The first New Zealand vertical aerial survey was made almost 60 years ago in 1926 by the New Zealand Permanent Air Force (now the Royal New Zealand Air Force). Up to April 1984 at least 8500 surveys have been completed by a number of aerial survey organisations: these surveys comprise over 490,000 individual aerial photographs.     

Globalising New Zealand : Fonterra Co-operative Group, and shaping the future

New Zealanders have little collective vision of their position and future in a globalising world. Recent developments in New Zealand's primary sector show potential pathways to the future. We explore two claims: thinking about New Zealand is to think about the emergence of Fonterra Co-operative Group in New Zealand's globalising economy. Thinking about Fonterra is to think about New Zealand and the implications that spring from globalising activities. Fonterra is a lens to understand better the possibilities and development options and the challenges that are arising as New Zealand forges its place in a globalising world.     

Embracing postcolonial geographies: Contributions by Dame Evelyn Stokes to the development of postcolonial geography in New Zealand

Abstract: This paper acknowledges Dame Evelyn Stokes’ introduction of postcolonial critical analysis of Māori/Pākehā relationships before postcolonialism was established as a field of theoretical enquiry. The paper reviews research I have done on some of the issues faced by the Mashantucket Pequots in the wider context of the contribution Dame Evelyn Stokes was making to similar debates in New Zealand. She emphasized that Māori research and knowledge provide a different world view and that this world view needs to be taken into account in any geographical study of New Zealand. Only in this way will it be possible to avoid the continued marginalization of Māoris from nation building in their own country.     

New Zealand geography: Sharpening the focus,raising the profile

Geography seems to be in good hands in New Zealand's schools and universities, but we cannot afford to be complacent. What are the key priorities for further strengthening geography in New Zealand in the years ahead? The New Zealand Geographical Society has to play a crucial role by helping to bring together geographers in the different sectors, as well as in promoting New Zealand geography internationally, and raising its profile in the media. Most of all, we need to demonstrate the vibrancy, significance and relevance of geography to the wider community.     

Shaken, Not Stirred

In a remarkable and yet largely unheralded piece off legislation, the New Zealand government has reshaped national provisions for earthquake insurance. Three major sets off issues emerge from the 1993 Earthquake Commission Act and warrant detailed investigation. The A ct will encourage significant changes in patterns of regional development in New Zealand, it heralds a simultaneous globalisation and localisation of earthquake risk through the mechanism of insurance and it gives new regulatory powers to insurers in New Zealand society.     

Return migration of New Zealanders: a profile of 1990 returnees

"In the 1990s the population [of New Zealand] is experiencing higher levels of mobility than at any time in its history. However, with regards to European migration to New Zealand, the settler flows of the past have been overtaken in importance by reverse flows of temporary migrants. Now flows of new settlers come predominantly from Asia and the Pacific....This paper is about return migration--a process that has been largely ignored in the literature on international migration to New Zealand."     

Climatic Conditions for Wine Grape Growing

Vineyards in New Zealand are pushing further south than anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere, this despite poor understanding of the latitudinal limits of grape growing. European experience shows a limit of 50^oN. Valuable pointers and cautionary tales from Germany encourage a view that the southern limit in New Zealand may be 45^oS. This is broadly confirmed by comparative climate data from Germany and New Zealand.     

Grassland revolutions in New Zealand: Disaggregating a national story

The grassland revolution is a national story but the intensification of New Zealand pastoral agriculture was made possible by many changes in farm practice, and application varied within New Zealand. This paper identifies aggregation issues in the narrative and explores their implications for any reassessment of the revolution. Data from six counties are analysed to illustrate some of the varied experiences across New Zealand farm districts. The paper redirects attention to local‐ and farm‐scale studies as a way to investigate the significance of the diverse drivers of pastoral productivity, their timing and effects.     

On Geographic and geography

New Zealand Geographic is one of a number of geographical magazines published in the English‐speaking world that make little or no reference to work by academic geographers. It recently launched a New Zealand Geographic Trust to promote research into ‘New Zealand's life, culture and sciences’ and collaborated with four other publishers of geographical magazines to raise awareness of climate change: the work of academic geographers is again ignored. This exclusion of academic and school geography from such enterprises raises important issues regarding the discipline's public profile in New Zealand and suggests the need for greater public engagement activity by the country's geographers.     

New Zealand Geography and the International Geographical Union Part II: Audience to stage, 1956–1974

A second phase of New Zealand engagement with the International Geographical Union spans from 1956 to 1974. The nature of this engagement which culminated in the hosting of a Regional Conference in New Zealand in 1974 is the subject of this paper.     

Splitting a northern account of New Zealand's neoliberalism

This review responds to Richard Peet's ‘policy regimes’ account of New Zealand's neoliberal experiment published in this volume of the New Zealand Geographer. It welcomes Peet's intervention, especially its comparative approach and its political economy focus, but suggests further insight may have been gained from closer engagement with the work of New Zealand geographers. The review argues that Peet misses opportunities to learn from the New Zealand case. The review subjects a ‘northern’ account of southern experience to a critique by ‘splitting’, a characteristically southern approach to analysing social change from the Antipodes that pays close attention to the situatedness of knowledge production.     

John Turnbull Thomson,Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society: An early New Zealand geographer

John Turnbull Thomson is more known in New Zealand for his work as Chief Surveyor of Otago Province (1856–1876) and first Surveyor General of New Zealand (1877–1879). He was also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of London from 1848 until his death in 1884. Thomson was an important and early self‐declared ‘does’ of geographer in New Zealand, prior to the establishment of university geography in 1937. Thomson's contribution included survey and mapping but he also gave public lectures on geography and contributed to debates about glaciation.     

Immigrant and locally bom Pacific Island Polynesians: Two populations?

At a huihuinga organised during the Conference on Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland in August 1985, there was a spirited exchange of views among participants on residence of Pacific Island Polynesians in New Zealand. As part of a wider critique of Pakeha cultural hegemony and superiority several Maori speakers stressed that Pacific Island Polynesians were manuhiri (visitors) in New Zealand and, like most of the people of European descent, they had "overstayed their permits" in the eyes of the tangata whenua . In responding to these claims, speakers from Samoa and Fiji sought to dispell a myth, still widely held in New Zealand, that the great majority of resident Pacific Island Polynesians were born in the islands. They reminded participants at the Auckland Conference that almost half of the people classed on the basis of ethnicity as Pacific Islanders in the 1981 census had been born in New Zealand. They were not "immigrants".     

Revitalising Local Economic Development-New Zealand Policy and Practice

In common with many other advanced capitalist nations, the rolling back of the state in New Zealand has seen a decline in direct state intervention in heal and regional economies. Yet since 2000 the current Labour Coalition Government has sought to promote a renaissance in economic development at local and regional scales. A survey of New Zealand territorial local authorities indicates involvement in heal economic development (LED) is a recent phenomenon involving facilitation of outside agencies which is orientated toward tourist, advisory and promotional activities. The implications of these findings for future research in an environment of ‘revitalised’ policy and practice in the New Zealand context is explored.