Notes:
Polish culture is imagined as plant growth on a particular land. Migrant Poles were uprooted from their native soil and somehow brought relics of their culture with them as baggage, that, during the act of settlement, was left to moulder in storage, becoming slowly forgotten. The baggage was irrelevant to these Adams and Eves as they laboured as peasant pioneers to provide for the family dynasties they generated. These families were swallowed or assimilated by the dominant Anglo-Celtic culture to eventually become New Zealanders. Historians, genealogists and new waves of Polish migrants are rescuing the cultural baggage, from old tumble-down sheds, so that the descendants can reclaim their birthright. This story, using imagery of baggage, does not fit my experience of descent from Polish migrants to Taranaki. In this essay, I aim to tell a story of the 1870s Polish migrants to Otago that is consonant with my experience and with recent New Zealand historiography. [excerpt from Introduction]
