Abstract
•Identifies farm fencelines as an under-investigated socio-material object.•Situates fencelines as a key element in the assemblage of modernist farms.•Examines the historical case of the colonisation of Aotearoa New Zealand.•Traces the eradication of indigenous land management through the erection of fences.•Reveals the power of fences to enact social, political and ecological effects in colonising landscapes.