"One White Man I Like Very Much”: Intermarriage and the Cultural Encounter in Southern New Zealand, 1829–1850

This article examines the interracial relationship of one indigenous woman in southern New Zealand during the first half of the nineteenth century. Irihāpeti Pātahi entered into a relationship with a whaler, Edwin Palmer, in 1829, defying the wishes of her people. She was eventually abandoned by her European partner, who undertook a Christian marriage with a European woman in the early years of British settlement in southern New Zealand. Personal stories of interracial relationships in the early years of contact, while difficult to access, provide important insights into the indigenous experience of encounter, and importantly, open up this era of history to women’s voices, as well as the complex range of relationships that thrived in resource economies. While the relationship began on the basis of mutual love and attraction, it was a marriage that also entailed disruption and emotional trauma. Pātahi suffered the loss of a partner and the desperation of being unable to see her children, while her kin and community continued to marginalize her after her abandonment by Palmer. Interracial relationships were undertaken for a range of purposes and could take many forms, and their consequences were also diverse. In Pātahi’s case, interracial marriage resulted in emotional devastation and a life lived on the margins of her society.