Neill Atkinson: always ready for a new chapter in history

Historian Neill Atkinson has created an ‘unashamedly populist’ book of bite-sized excerpts of New Zealand history.

Historian Neill Atkinson works for the Ministry of Culture and Heritage.
Historian Neill Atkinson works for the Ministry of Culture and Heritage.

Not so long after historian Neill Atkinson’s publisher released the latest version of his Today in New Zealand History book, another chapter wrote itself. Covid-19 lockdowns will no doubt be added to any update in coming years – given the unprecedented impact on life as we knew it.

Auckland alumnus Neill has the kind of job many people would love: delving into New Zealand history to uncover facts about everything from the quirky characteristics of our social history to trends in transport.

Neill did his MA in history at Auckland and is now the Chief Historian for Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH) in Wellington.

When he first headed to Wellington in 1990, he worked on the Dictionary of NZ Biography (now part of the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand) with Claudia Orange, Auckland alumna.

In the early 2000s, there was a move to publishing more content online, especially via nzhistory.govt.nz, which was launched more than 20 years ago, and then Te Ara. Neill has worked for MCH since 2002 and been its chief historian since 2011. There are seven historians working at the Ministry, along with content writers, web designers and developers, which all leads to an extraordinarily rich online resource that attracts a lot of international traffic as well as local.

But that’s not to say people don’t buy books. In fact, this revised edition of Today in New Zealand History is in its third edition since 2017.

“It has sold well, so the publishers were keen to update it,” says Neill.

We didn’t want it all to be politics, disasters and war. There needs to be diversity, so some pretty tough decisions had to be made over what to include in the book.

Neill Atkinson, historian Ministry of Culture and Heritage

The March 2020 update includes the Christchurch massacre of 15 March, 2019 and the Silver Ferns winning the Netball World Cup on 21 July, 2019, among others.

“One of the things that’s good about doing a book like this is that it connects with what we’ve been doing online at NZHistory,” says Neill.

“The website has had a popular ‘Today in History’ feature for many years, which people really enjoy and share across all media, including Twitter and Facebook.”

Today in New Zealand History features photos and illustrations for each date entry, many of which are from the Alexander Turnbull Library. Part of the appeal is the interesting juxtaposition of items, such as you might find in three days in September. On 15 September the first steel was produced at Glenbrook Mill (1969) and Jean Batten was born (1909); 16 September was when the first NZ rugby team toured the northern hemisphere (1905); and 17 September was when flogging and whipping were abolished (1941).

“It was interesting deciding what went in,” says Neill. “We certainly didn’t want it all to be politics, disasters and war. There needs to be diversity, so some pretty tough decisions had to be made over what to include in the book. It’s not like online where you can have multiple events listed for the same date – in the book we were mostly limited to one event per day, although for some dates we included two, such as Anzac Day.

“The hard thing has been to try and use some of these one-off events to tell a deeper story. The form of the book has its limitations, but it’s meant to serve as an engaging introduction, to draw people in to our history.”

And there’s humour. If you’re wondering about the date of the first Jockey Y-Fronts in New Zealand, that would be 16 March (1940). And 29 September (1947) will be remembered as the day West Coast publicans regretted increasing the price of their ale. The great beer boycott of Greymouth ensued.

With plans to introduce a compulsory history component into the New Zealand school curriculum in the coming years, having this book sitting around at home may spark interest in young minds.
“Lots of schools already use the NZHistory site and Te Ara,” says Neill.

“This book complements those resources. It’s an unashamedly populist way to provide people with bite-sized chunks of New Zealand history. Hopefully, they’ll then go online or to history books to explore further.”

- Denise Montgomery

Today in New Zealand History (updated edition)
Neill Atkinson, David Green, Gareth Phipps and Steve Watters
Exisle Publishing, $39.99

This article first appeared in Ingenio Winter 2020 edition.