Subtitle on cover: Perspectives from New Zealand history.

Introduction / Tony Ballantyne and Judith A. Bennett -- 'Doomed timber': Towards an environmental history of seaward forest / Paul Star -- State forest conservation and the New Zealand landscape: Origins and influences, 1850-1914 / James Beattie and Paul Star -- W.L. Lindsay, Scottish environmentalism and the 'improvement' of nineteenth-century New Zealand / James Beattie -- Communities in conflict: The Government and the Eastern Districts, 1842-1845 / Marjan Lousberg -- Marrying 'in': The geography of intermarriage on the Taieri, 1830s-1920s / Angella Wanhalla -- The untraceables: Lost souls from the historical landscape / Eleanor Cottle -- Communities celebrating landscapes: Harvest festivities in nineteenth-century Otago / Alison Clarke -- Dams dividing democracy: Conflict on the Clutha River / Michael Bagge -- Kiwis in Khumbu: Negotiating landscape and community at Khunde Hospital / Sue Heydon -- Notes.

"New Zealanders have a strong affinity with the land, with firm connections being drawn between the land and cultural identity in the economy, politics and art. As 'Tangata Whenua' (people of the land), Maori stress the significance of their relationship with the land. At the same time, the many histories of migration, settlement and environmental adaptation ensure the subject of communities and landscapes is increasingly important. The names of the land and the land itself are tied into ideas of identity in diverse communities." "The essays in this book explore these complex relationships, from conflict in colonial Bay of Plenty, to intermarriage on the Taieri Plain, from protests against hydro-electric dams, to building a hospital in the Himalayas."--BOOK JACKET.