Byrnes, Giselle 1967–

(Giselle M. Byrnes, Giselle Margaret Byrnes)

PERSONAL:

Born July 17, 1967, in Timaru, New Zealand; daughter of James Lawrence Byrnes and Sandra Mary McConkey; married Stephen Derek Hamilton, June 5, 1995; children: William, Eleanor. Education: University of Waikato, Hamilton, B.A. 1988; M.A., 1990; University of Auckland, Ph.D., 1995.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand. E-mail—giselle@waikato.ac.nz.

CAREER:

Historian, educator, and writer. Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand, senior lecturer, beginning 1997; University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, chairperson of history department, beginning c. 2007. Previously senior research officer with the Waitangi Tribunal within the Department of Justice, New Zealand. Also Fulbright visiting lecturer in New Zealand Studies at Georgetown University's Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies, Washington DC, 2006.

MEMBER:

New Zealand Historical Association (president, c. 2005-07).

AWARDS, HONORS:

G. Wesley Johnson award, National Council on Public History, 1998; Fulbright Scholarship, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Boundary Markers: Land Surveying and the Colonisation of New Zealand, Bridget Williams Books (Wellington, New Zealand), 2001.

The Waitangi Tribunal and New Zealand History, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

(Editor) The New Oxford History of New Zealand, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2008.

Contributor to books, including Fragments: Essays in New Zealand Social and Cultural History, edited by Bronwyn Dalley and Bronwyn Labrum, Auckland University Press, 2000; Going Public: The Changing Face of New Zealand History, edited by Bronwyn Dalley and Jock Phillip, Auckland University Press, 2001; Prospects and Retrospects: Law in History, Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference of the Australia and New Zealand Law and History Society 2001, edited by Wayne Rumbles and Paul Havemann, University of Waikato, 2002; and Literature of Travel and Exploration: An Encyclopedia, edited by Jennifer Speake, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2003. Contributor to periodicals, including Law, Text, Culture; Balayi: Culture, Law and Colonialism; New Zealand Journal of History; Public Historian; and History and Anthropology.

SIDELIGHTS:

Giselle Byrnes is a historian whose research interests focus on colonial and postcolonial relationships. She has a special interest in how Europeans came to occupy New Zealand and what the conditions of continued occupancy might entail. In her first book, Boundary Markers: Land Surveying and the Colonisation of New Zealand, the author examines the role that land surveying played in the country's colonization. The author presents her case that the colonizers of New Zealand instituted new ways of naming and measuring the land that replaced the boundaries, place-names, and territories established by the Maori over the course of earlier centuries. She examines the complexities and inherent contradictions of colonization using the activities and words of the land surveyors in her analysis. According to the author, while the surveyors saw themselves as adventurers who were taming a wilderness in uncharted country, they depended heavily on Maori navigational and mapping methods and openly acknowledged their indebtedness to the Maori for this help. At the same time, they documented the fierce resistance they faced from Maori opposed to the surveys.

"Boundary Markers will no doubt be a must for scholars of colonial New Zealand," wrote Michael R. McCarthy in History: Review of New Books. "It would also serve well as a companion to the study of British colonization elsewhere, especially with respect to cultural interactions between white settlers and native inhabitants."

In her next book, The Waitangi Tribunal and New Zealand History, the author, who once was a senior research officer with the Waitangi Tribunal within the Department of Justice in New Zealand, writes about the Waitangi Tribunal Reports concerning recompense for the loss of Maori lands in New Zealand through colonization. The Waitangi Tribunal is the vehicle for investigating claims but was ineffective until 1985, when it was given the power to make recommendations on claims. These recommendations use data going back to the Treaty of Waitangi, which was signed in 1840. Byrnes considers the work of the Tribunal not only in terms of how Maori and Pakeha (New Zealanders primary of European ancestry) perceive its procedure and efficacy but also in the context of New Zealand history in general. For example, the author writes that published Tribunal reports are redirecting the writing of New Zealand history through the reports' challenges to the legitimacy and legacy of colonization. However, this is done within a highly adversarial legal environment.

"Giselle Byrnes has taken up the challenge of assessing the academic significance and intellectual worth of the Waitangi Tribunal Reports," wrote Tom Booking in the Historian, adding in the same review that the author "has accomplished a difficult task skillfully." Writing in History: Review of New Books, Evan Roberts noted: "This book fills a gap in publications about the Tribunal by bringing an academic's scrutiny to the Tribunal's publications in a form more accessible to the public than journal articles."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, April, 2005, Paul Moon, review of The Waitangi Tribunal and New Zealand History, p. 457.

Australian Historical Studies, April, 2006, Fiona Skyring, review of The Waitangi Tribunal, pp. 258-259.

English Historical Review, December, 2005, Colin Newbury, review of The Waitangi Tribunal and New Zealand History, p. 1469.

Historian, March 22, 2006, Tom Booking, review of The Waitangi Tribunal and New Zealand History, p. 173.

History: Review of New Books, September 22, 2002, Michael R. McCarthy, review of Boundary Markers: Land Surveying and the Colonisation of New Zealand, p. 41; January, 2005, Robert Evans, review of The Waitangi Tribunal, p. 79.

International History Review, September, 2003, Judith Bassett, review of Boundary Markers, pp. 666-668.

Journal of Historical Geography, July, 2003, Eric Pawson, review of Boundary Markers, p. 466.

New Zealand Journal of History, October, 2002, Catharine Coleborne, review of Boundary Markers, pp. 205-207; April, 2005, Danny Keenan, review of The Waitangi Tribunal, p. 101; October, 2006, Jim McAloon, "By Which Standards? History and the Waitangi Tribunal," p. 194.

ONLINE

Alumni and Advancement—University of Auckland Web site,http://www.alumni.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/for/alumni/ (July 13, 2006), "Dr. Giselle Byrnes to Take Up Fulbright Position."

University of Waikato History Department Web site,http://www.waikato.ac.nz/wfass/subjects/history/ (May 1, 2008), faculty profile of author.