John E. Martin: A man of many parts: Isaac ‘Petatone’ Featherston

Come along to this talk by historian and author John E. Martin to hear more about the life and work of Isaac Featherston, also known as Petatone, and his impact on colonial Aotearoa New Zealand.

A lasting influence on Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington

John E. Martin, the author of Isaac Featherston — ‘Petatone’: A Colonial Life, argues that Isaac Featherston (known to Māori as ‘Petatone’) was the most influential person in the development of the Wellington region from the 1840s to the 1860s.

Arriving as a ship’s surgeon in 1841 and struggling with the lifelong affliction of tuberculosis, Isaac Featherston (1813–1876) was a doctor, newspaper editor, and a politician.

Come along to this Friends of the Turnbull talk to learn more about Featherson’s involvement with Māori, including land sales and with kūpapa during the New Zealand Wars. His story reveals the struggles of settlers and Māori in the colonial era, and the conflicts that followed.

Join us in person or online.

About the speaker

Dr John E. Martin has researched and written about New Zealand history since the 1980s, teaching in universities and employed as an historian in the public sector, including as a parliamentary historian. His books include Isaac Featherston – ‘‘Petatone’: A Colonial Life (2024) and Empire City: Wellington Becomes the Capital of New Zealand (2022), and he is currently preparing an historical atlas that will link New Zealand Company land ownership with Wellington’s spatial pattern of development. John has also written about rural and labour history, the history of science and engineering, and social and political history.