New Zealand Historical Association

He Rau Ringa e Oti ai
Many Hands make History

To tell the many and varied stories of our past we need many and varied storytellers in the present. He Rau Ringa e Oti ai: Many Hands Make History celebrates the many different people, organisations, modes, topics and approaches of history-telling in Aotearoa. The conference aims to foster connections across our history community.

He Rau Ringa e Oti ai is open to presentations from all history and art history practitioners from graduate students to independent and public scholars, from community groups and organisations, the GLAM sector, schools and the academy. We welcome submissions, especially panels, from those researching other areas of the world.

How to submit an abstract

For full information about submitting a proposal see submit an abstract.

We have chosen tukutuku panels from Waipapa Marae as the main images for the conference as a physical embodiment of the theme ‘He Rau Ringa e Oti ai’– just as ‘many hands make history’, these panels were made by collaborative handiwork and depict stories of Aotearoa.

Herenga Waka, a detail of which is featured on these website pages, ‘commemorates the famous incident where it is said that Wairaka the daughter of Toroa leapt overboard from the Mataatua canoe with the anchor rope in order to secure it. The canoe was drifting perilously close to the shore while the men were away making investigations regarding the suitability of the land and observing the necessary ritual regarding its occupation. It was then that Wairaka uttered the famous words which have passed into history; ‘Ka Whakatane au i ahau’ (I shall take on the attributes of a man’).’[1]