The Face of Nature

Overview

Bounded by the wild waves of the Pacific on the east, and the more sheltered harbour on the west, the Otago Peninsula is a remarkable landscape. Today a habitat for a diverse array of wildlife including albatrosses, penguins and seals, the Peninsula has undergone dramatic changes since it first attracted human settlement. In The Face of Nature: An environmental history of the Otago Peninsula, Jonathan West explores what people and place made of one another from the arrival of the first Polynesians until the end of the nineteenth century.

Reviews

"Balanced more equitably between Maori and Pakeha sources than any other major work on the area, this book is an important contribution to New Zealand's environmental history." —Atholl Anderson, emeritus professor, Australian National University

Author Biography

Jonathan West was born and raised in and around Dunedin. While indulging his love of tramping in the South Island back country he collected degrees from the University of Otago, culminating in a PhD in history from which this book emerged. He worked as an historian at the Waitangi Tribunal for several years and more recently joined the Office of Treaty Settlements. Jonathan's publications include contributions to Wild Heart: The possibility of wilderness in Aotearoa New Zealand (Otago), The Lives of Colonial Objects (Otago, 2015) and New Zealand and the Sea (BWB, forthcoming). He lives with his wife Kate and their children in Lower Hutt.