HISTORY HERITAGE AND COLONIALISM

 History heritage and colonialism offers an internationally relevant examination of the nexus between empire and colonial identity by exploring the politics of historymaking and interest in preserving the material remnants of the past in latenineteenth and earlytwentiethcentury colonial society It covers both indigenous pasts and those of European origin Focusing on New Zealand but also looking at the Australian and Canadian experiences it explores how different groups and political interests have sought to harness historical narrative in support of competing visions of identity and memory Considering this within the frames of the local and national as well as imperial the book offers a valuable critique of the study of colonial identitymaking and colonial cultures of colonisation which to date have tended to focus almost exclusively on the idea of ‘the nation’ and given particular weight to socalled ‘high’ cultural forms such as art literature and poetry History heritage and colonialism by comparison seeks to highlight the complex network of separate and oftenconflicting influences upon national identity ranging from the individual to the community to the national to the transnational The study of colonial nationalism furthermore needs to be understood in relation to the importance of identity in socalled ‘new nations’ where parallel to conscious efforts to establish legitimacy through the identification of a distinct heritage the cultural baggage of imperial ideologies typically saw settler societies view themselves as countries ‘without history’  Offering important insights for societies negotiating the legacy of a colonial past in a global present this book will be of particular value to scholars and students of museum heritage and tourism studies and imperial history It will also be of interest to a wider public interested in heritage and the history of museums