Māpuna for Saturday 11 October 2025
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Professor Atholl Anderson; history & archaeology 'chose me'.
12:15 PM.For decades Ngai Tahu archaeologist and historian, Professor Atholl Anderson, has explored the origins and historic migration of peoples around the Pacific, the first arrivals of Māori in Aotearoa and… Read more Audio
Professor Atholl Anderson: archaeology and history 'chose me'.
Photo: Julian Wilcox & Professor Atholl Anderson
For decades Ngai Tahu archaeologist and historian, Professor Atholl Anderson, has explored the origins and historic migration of peoples around the Pacific, the first arrivals of Māori in Aotearoa and their early encounters with Europeans. His great, great, great grandmother was Wharetutu Tahuna who married a sealer called George Newton, and their first home was on Whenuahou, Codfish Island, near Rakiura and his father, John Anderson, was raised in the Scottish Highlands. Julian Wilcox talks to Professor Anderson at his home in Blenheim where he says his career 'chose me' and 'what you do in your life is determined by factors beyond your control.' Recently he released a revised edition of his 1998 book The Welcome of Strangers, A History of Southern Maori.
