NZHA currently offers five history prizes, each awarded biennially. These will next be awarded at the 2025 New Zealand Historical Association Conference.
- Mary Boyd Prize
- W.H. Oliver Prize
- Erik Olssen Prize
- Best postgraduate paper presented at the NZHA conference
- NZHA Award for Contribution to New Zealand History
- Special awards
Mary Boyd Prize
The Mary Boyd Prize was established in 2013. It is named in memory of the New Zealand and Pacific historian Mary Beatrice Boyd (1921-2010). It is awarded biennially for the best article in New Zealand history published in a refereed journal between 1 April and 31 March of the relevant two years.
- 2023: Martin George Holmes, ‘Rise and Fall of the Brotherhood of St Andrew in the Anglican Diocese of Dunedin: Charting the American Influence in New Zealand’s Religious History‘, Journal of Religious History, 24:1, March 2023, pp.27-47.
- 2021: Matthew Birchall for ‘History, Sovereignty, Capital: Company Colonization in South Australia and New Zealand’, Journal of Global History, 16:1, 2021, pp.141-157.
- 2019: Charlotte Macdonald ‘Woolwich to Wellington: From Settler Colony to Garrisoned Sovereignty’, New Zealand Journal of History, 53:1, April 2019, pp.50-76
- 2017: Vincent O’Malley, ‘“Recording the Incident with a Monument”: The Waikato War in Historical Memory’, Journal of New Zealand Studies, 19, 2015
- 2015: Felicity Barnes, ‘Pictorialism, Photography and Colonial Culture, 1880-1940,’ New Zealand Journal of History, 47:2, 2013, pp.136–56.
- 2013: Tony Ballantyne, ‘On Place, Space and Mobility in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand’, New Zealand Journal of History, 45:1, 2011, pp.50-70
W. H. Oliver prize
NZHA established the W.H. Oliver Prize in 2015, named after New Zealand historian and poet William Hosking (Bill) Oliver (1925-2015). It is awarded biennially for the best book on any aspect of New Zealand history published between 1 April and 31 March of the relevant two years.
- 2023: Rachel Buchanan Te Motunui Epa (Bridget Williams Books); and
Paul Diamond, Downfall: The Destruction of Charles Mackay (Massey University Press) - 2021: Bain Attwood for Empire and the Making of Native Title: Sovereignty, Property and Indigenous People (Cambridge University Press); and Hirini Kaa for Te Hāhi Mihinare: The Māori Anglican Church (Bridget Williams Books).
- 2019: Dr Jonathan West, The Face of Nature: An Environmental History of the Otago Peninsula (Otago University Press)
- 2017: Ben Schrader, Big Smoke (Bridget Williams Books)
- 2015: Tony Ballantyne, Entanglements of Empire: Missionaries, Maori, and the Question of the Body (Auckland University Press)
Erik Olssen Prize
The NZHA established the First Book Prize in 2017. It was named in 2019 in honour of Emeritus Professor Erik Olssen, University of Otago, a distinguished historian, inspirational supervisor of postgraduate students and of innovative research, and a champion of New Zealand history. The prize aims to acknowledge early career and emerging historians who have published their first book. Titles nominated must be the first book by the authors.
- 2023: Lucy Mackintosh, Shifting Grounds: Deep Histories of Tamaki Makaurau Auckland (Bridget Williams Books)
- 2021: Hirini Kaa for Te Hāhi Mihinare: The Māori Anglican Church (Bridget Williams Books).
- 2019: Dr Jane McCabe, Race, Tea and Colonial Resettlement: Imperial Families, Interrupted (Bloomsbury)
- 2017: Ngarino Ellis, A Whakapapa of Tradition (Auckland University Press)
Best postgraduate paper presented at the NZHA conference
- 2023: Ereni Pūtere, ‘Te Aho Mutuka Kore: The Role of Weaving in Māori Memory’
- 2021: Sucharita Sen for her paper ‘Intimacies amidst Hierarchies: British Officers and their Indian Servants in Nineteenth-Century Imperial Households’.
- 2019: Phillipa Wyatt, ‘Keith Sinclair and the History of humanitarianism’.
NZHA Award for Contribution to New Zealand History
This was first awarded in 2023. It was established to recognise significant contributions of individuals or organisations in promoting and advocating for New Zealand History
- as a field of study, including at school; or
- as a focus of public history, digital and multi-media story-telling, or broadcast productions; or
- with and on behalf of the community of New Zealand historians, scholars, researchers, and students; or
- in official and public spheres.
Significant contributions are considered particularly in terms of the leadership and civic-mindedness of the individuals or organisations concerned, with an emphasis on public service, particularly engagement with the historical community and/or having the public engage with New Zealand History.
- 2023: Charlotte Macdonald
Special Awards
The Association occasionally makes special awards at the NZHA conference.
- 2021: Outstanding Contribution to Māori History: Aroha Harris
- 2017: Award for Services to History: Jock Phillips
The New Zealand Historical Association 