The Colenso Project

The Colenso Project aims to ignite public and academic interest in the life, ideas and words of William Colenso, one of NZ’s great polymaths.

The Colenso Society, Victoria University of Wellington and Hawke's Bay Museum, Theatre, Gallery were partners in the Colenso Project. This exciting new initiative sought to build on the blossoming national and international interest in William Colenso's life and ideas as the result of the William Colenso Bicentenary Celebrations in Hawke’s Bay in 2011, and develop a body of new publications and research.

The intent of the Project was to ignite public and academic interest in Colenso's words – published, unpublished, private letters, journals – both in Māori and English, by sharing them with the world in digital form. We envisaged a hub for all things Colenso: a place to read documents in the original, explore his writing through transcriptions, and as a place to experiment with new research and interpretation methods.

The Colenso Project team included Dr Sydney Shep, Frith Driver-Burgess, Rhys Owen, Charlotte Darling, Meredith Paterson, and Dr Ian St George (The Colenso Society). Previous team members included Flora Feltham, Esta Chiang, Thomas Koentges, Melissa Bryant, Emma Chapman, Donelle McKinley and Jamie Norrish.

Find out more about this research at William Colenso and the Victorian Republic of Letters.