Helen Beaglehole: Sources, Silences, Perspectives and Prejudices: the challenges of writing the first history of settlement in the Marlborough Sounds

Helen Beaglehole is a Wellington historian who has spent over 40 years sailing and exploring in the Marlborough Sounds. She has written many award-winning books for children from the very young to young adults. In recent years she has written and published well-received New Zealand histories – on coastal lighthouses, their siting, building, technology, manning and demanning; the lighthouse keepers and their families; and rural firefighting. She has also contributed to the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography and Te Ara, New Zealand’s online encyclopedia.

In this presentation Helen will reflect on the challenges of researching and writing her recently published account of the complex history of settlement of the Sounds: One Hundred Havens: The settlement of the Marlborough Sounds published in 2022 by Massey University Press.