About the fund

Between 1990 and 2025, the New Zealand History Research Trust Fund granted Awards in History (renamed Whiria Te Mahara New Zealand History Grants in 2021). These grants supported historians, researchers and writers with non-fiction projects which would significantly enhance our understanding of New Zealand’s past.

The grants were established in 1989–90 using Lotteries funding of $1 million. The fund provided between 8 and 12 grants of up to $12,000 annually.

Outcomes

Over its 25 years of operation, this fund supported over 390 projects, delivering almost $3.8 million in funding to recipients.

The fund has supported many significant, award-winning publications that have helped shape our understanding of Aotearoa New Zealand’s past, including Angela Ballara’s Taua (2003), Giselle Byrnes’ Boundary Markers (2001), Sandra Coney’s Standing in the Sunshine (1993), Jared Davidson’s Blood and Dirt (2023), Brian Easton’s Not in Narrow Seas (2020), Hilary & John Mitchell’s Te Ara Hou (2007), Vincent O’Malley’s The New Zealand Wars (2019), Ben Schrader’s The Big Smoke (2016), Russell Stone’s From Tamaki-Makau-Rau to Auckland (2001) and Philip Temple’s A Sort of Conscience (2002).

While the majority of projects resulted in print publications, the fund also supported research and writing for radio documentaries, podcasts and web publications.