André BrettAndré Brett

Dr André Brett grew up marking Wellington Anniversary Day on the Kāpiti Coast. He is currently a historian at the University of Wollongong and the author of three books, including Acknowledge No Frontier: The Creation and Demise of New Zealand’s Provinces. Otago University Press is releasing his fourth book later in 2021, Can’t Get There from Here: New Zealand’s Shrinking Passenger Rail Network (with Sam van der Weerden).

Why NZ’s outdated regional anniversaries should be ditched

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Most of them commemorate early Pākehā arrival. Some are based on obsolete provincial borders. One celebrates an A&P show. But most importantly, none of them have any meaning to the vast majority of us, writes historian André Brett.  Last Monday, January 25, was the Wellington Anniversary Day public holiday. Today, residents of Auckland, Buller, Nelson, … Read more

Why deleting Victoria from the name of Wellington’s university is a terrible idea

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To grasp why the push to change has caused such a fuss, and to appreciate why it’s so muddle-minded, we need to consider how the university got its name, and what names mean to the university community, writes André Brett Universities are funny things. They have evolved from rarefied campuses of privileged elites into mass educators, … Read more