The Weight of These Histories: An Ethnography of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Historical Interpreters in England, Turtle Island (USA), and Aotearoa

This thesis is a comparative, ethnographic study of the experiences of Indigenous and non-Indigenous historical interpreters working on the front line of British colonial histories education. I use the term “historical interpreter” to describe anyone who teaches history to public audiences, to encompass the breadth of professionals and volunteers involved in delivering the commemorative programme Mayflower 400 (England–Turtle Island), and the ambitious educational reform, the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum. I investigate the deeply personal and changing affective experiences of historical interpreters through an original Collaborative Consent Process inspired by the Indigenous Wampum belt. I demonstrate that historical interpreters’ work is shaped by colonial amnesia and nostalgia, as well as an underexamined affective detachment from colonial history, which I term affective amnesia. I define affect as it appears in the work of historical interpreters, as a form of historical knowledge, and as an embodied and cognitive ‘intensity’ shaped by personal background, and then mobilised, expressed, and transformed by the interpreter. I argue that engaging affectively with colonial history and its legacies is essential in order to dismantle colonial misrepresentations and improve historical understanding. I show how through Indigenous partnership, non-Indigenous interpreters confront British colonial and Indigenous histories as living, harmful, and sensitive. I show that Indigenous partners face an unequal affective challenge within these partnerships as they interpret deeply personal histories with lasting harm and navigate significant demands on their knowledge and skills. I argue that attention to the affective work of historical interpretation is essential to meaningfully redressing inequalities within colonial history education.