History of Physical Therapies in 19th Century New Zealand
Excuse the shameless plug, but I'm giving a public lecture on Thursday night (NZ time) on the History of Physical Therapies in 19th Century New Zealand, and it will be live streamed and recorded, so I thought some of you might be interested in seeing it.
New Zealand offers an interesting case study because, in contrast to Europe and North America, where treatments like massage, mobilisation, hydrotherapy, electrotherapy and exercise were some of the most popular 'medical' remedies, physical therapies were almost invisible.
New Zealand was a frontier colony for much of the 19th century, and a lot of settlers had little enough food to live on never mind indulging in such luxuries.
The exception to this was the spa at Rotorua which became a centre for physical therapy at the turn of the century.
In the lecture, I look at some of the traditional Māori healing practices and examine the impact of settler culture, before looking at some of the therapists that did make a living in New Zealand in the years before 1900.
My analytic focus is on the connection between physical therapies and the ideas of luxury and surplus, and the research has led to some interesting thoughts about physiotherapy in the 21st century.
The lecture is scheduled for 17:30 on Thursday 27th August 2015 (NZ time).
Post update: Follow this link to watch a recording of the lecture via AUT website.