A hearty history of our rural kitchens

10:05 am on 9 August 2024

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The kitchen has long been considered the heart of the home, and in rural New Zealand that heart has undergone significant change since European settlement.

In 'Rēwena and Rabbit Stew' historian Katie Cooper explores 140 years of New Zealand's rural kitchens.

Her research into the cookhouses and coal ranges, the wharekai and hāngī pits, explores how food provisioning and preparation evolved with technological change from 1800 through until 1940.

Katie Cooper is Te Papa's Curator of New Zealand Histories and Cultures.

Historian Katie Cooper, author of 'Rēwena and Rabbit Stew: The Rural Kitchen in Aotearoa, 1800-1940'. Photo: Darren Knight / Auckland University Press