Scott Hamilton

Guest writer

Scott Hamilton is the author of two great modern works of sociology and place, Ghost South Road (Titus Books, 2018), and Searching for Ata'a (Bridget Williams, 2017). He writes the blog Reading the Maps and is currently working on a book about sorcery and sorcery-related violence in Melanesia. Scott was born in Auckland in 1974.

The fight at Rangiaowhia. (Image: Alexander Turnbull Library / Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1-W0475)

The first, forgotten Anzacs, more than 50 years before Gallipoli

Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or RSA.

By Scott Hamilton | 25th April, 2024

Caption reads ‘ruins of Gaza at the time of the great attack (Image: Library of Congress)

New Zealand’s shameful role in the 1917 destruction of Gaza

Anzac troops helped set in motion the cycle of violence that continues today in Palestine and Israel.

By Scott Hamilton | 29th November, 2023

The fight at Rangiaowhia. (Image: Alexander Turnbull Library / Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1-W0475)

The first, forgotten Anzacs, more than 50 years before Gallipoli

Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or RSA.

By Scott Hamilton | 25th April, 2023

A Returned Services Association dance, 1920, probably in Christchurch (Photo: Webb, Steffano, 1880-1967: Collection of negatives. Ref: 1/1-004099-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22896946)

It’s time the RSA acknowledged its ugly history of racism

The organisation's early decades were marked by virulent racism, particularly against Asians.

By Scott Hamilton | 22nd April, 2021

Tannese men in the town of Yaohnanen holding portraits of Prince Philip following his death (Photo: Dan McGarry/AFP/Getty Images

Myth-busting the west’s coverage of Tanna’s Prince Philip movement

No, the late Duke of Edinburgh is not worshipped as a white god.

By Scott Hamilton | 16th April, 2021

All the things Michael Bassett got wrong in his noxious article

All the things Michael Bassett got wrong in his noxious article

A historian on the now-deleted Michael Bassett article: 'It wouldn’t be acceptable if it came from a first year undergraduate student.'

By Scott Hamilton | 6th March, 2021

Child with smallpox in 1904 (Photo: Te Ara) / Smallpox vaccination certificate (Photo: Archives New Zealand)

‘Let them starve’: The lockdown of 1913 and its lessons for today

History warns that we should be wary of the misuse of power in the name of public health.

By Scott Hamilton | 29th December, 2020

A statue is removed from its plinth on June 17, 2020 in Houston, Texas, UsA. (Photo: Mark Felix / AFP via Getty Images)

Four Pākehā heroes for empty plinths

Historian Scott Hamilton picks four heroic early New Zealanders of European descent.

By Scott Hamilton | 9th July, 2020

Child with smallpox in 1904 (Photo: Te Ara) / Smallpox vaccination certificate (Photo: Archives New Zealand)

‘Let them starve’: The lockdown of 1913 and its lessons for today

History warns that we should be wary of the misuse of power in the name of public health.

By Scott Hamilton | 2nd April, 2020

Ancient giants and old delusions: a history of mysticism and racism in Aotearoa

Ancient giants and old delusions: a history of mysticism and racism in Aotearoa

A group discovered to be digging for proof of a giant pre-Māori race in the limestone caves of Waikato have not lost their minds all of a sudden, but are continuing a legacy of religion-based racism in the area, writes Scott Hamilton.

By Scott Hamilton | 25th February, 2020