The financial colonisation of Aotearoa

In this podcast, Catherine Comyn reframes the financial colonisation of Aotearoa — a history of the joint stock company, a speculative London property market that romanticised the distant lands of indigenous peoples, and the calculated use of credit and taxation by the British to dispossess Māori of their land and subject them to colonial rule. Finance was at the centre of every stage of the colonisation of Aotearoa, from the sale of Māori lands and the emigration of early colonists to the founding of settler nationhood and the enforcement of colonial governance. Catherine’s Ockham-longlisted book, The Financial Colonisation of Aotearoa (ESRA, 2023), has been hailed by Jane Kelsey as “the most stimulating book I have read on the colonisation of Aotearoa from the exciting new generation of scholars”. Catherine tells the story of the financial instruments and imperatives that drove the British colonial project in the 19th century. By illuminating the centrality of finance in the colonisation of Aotearoa, Catherine not only reframes the understanding of this country's history, but also the stakes of anti-colonial struggle today. Catherine Comyn (Ngāti Ranginui, Pākehā) is a PhD candidate in International Political Economy at King's College London. Her research focuses on finance capital and colonisation, and possibilities for their overcoming. The talk was recorded live at the National Library of New Zealand on 28 May 2024, as part of the Public History Talks series , a collaboration between the Alexander Turnbull Library and Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Download a transcript of this talk (PDF)

You can listen to The financial colonisation of Aotearoa online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The financial colonisation of Aotearoa is an episode from New Zealand History by Manatū Taonga - Ministry for Culture and Heritage (NZ).

This episode is 54:45 long.

This episode was published on Mar 25, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from New Zealand History when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.