‘Interconnected impacts from these chains of events, people, communities and dates – in this summation – ripple outwardly, appearing unrelated and yet related once revealed, once collated: a recorded intergenerational summation.’
– Trevor Moeke, Horouta, Mātaatua, Tākitimu waka, Māori foresight and thought leader.
The McGuinness Institute is delighted to announce that we have published our fourth edition of Nation Dates: Timelines of significant events that have shaped the history of Aotearoa New Zealand. Threads link related events and illustrate patterns that have formed over time. There are 70 threads that link related events and in this edition we have organised each of the threads to sit within nine ‘domains’. These domains are derived from Treasury’s Living Standards Framework, which were developed in order to ‘prompt… thinking about policy impacts across different dimensions of wellbeing, as well as the long-term and distributional issues and impacts’.
About the fourth edition
The fourth edition includes 77 new dates as well as four new timelines: political agreements, New Zealand wars, government net worth and COVID-19. The COVID-19 timeline documents the progression of the virus, from New Zealand’s first response to the virus as it spread globally in January/February, to our first and second waves and into early November. An interactive version of the COVID-19 timeline can be found here. The goal for this timeline was to chronicle key events that future policy makers, researchers, businesses and the public would find useful as means to examine how we responded and what lessons we might learn for future pandemics. We found this timeline particularly difficult given that it is hard to record immediate history without the useful tool of hindsight.
This edition includes over 1700 references, and each entry is designed to pique the interest of the reader and provide a general context of how one event sits alongside other entries. We hope that readers who would like to delve further into each event might use the references to further their knowledge. The extensive list of references can be found on the Nation Dates website here.
About the cover
The cover was created by our designers, Billie McGuinness and Becky Jenkins, and is inspired by the rings of the kauri tree Tāne Mahuta, God of the Forest. This giant native conifer in Northland’s Waipoua Forest is the largest known tree in Aotearoa, and at more than 1,500 years old is a living representation of history. The ongoing shifts of Aotearoa New Zealand as a nation can be examined like the rings of a kauri tree. Our past remains at the core, and while growth is certain, the pace and nature of that growth will be determined by the ways we navigate the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.
About Nation Dates
The Nation Dates project began in 2011 as a timeline of historic events intended to aid in thinking about the future. In this sense, it demonstrates that you cannot separate New Zealand’s future from its past. Through linking related events, the book creates patterns, or historical ‘threads’, that trace the journey New Zealand has been on and allows us to consider on how this might influence our future. Through illustrating the historical DNA that makes up New Zealand, the book provides context for the future at a time when society is facing major questions about the way forward and as we continue to ask ourselves ‘what is it that makes us New Zealanders?’
Nation Dates is the result of many peoples’ help along the way, as can be seen in our extensive acknowledgements section at the start of the book. We are forever grateful for the time, dedication and belief that many individuals have given us.
The book is a great addition to any shelf or coffee table and is an excellent resource for finding dates of events that have occurred in our history. Copies of Nation Dates are available here.
