Interview: Katie Cooper talks about Rēwena and Rabbit Stew

Katie Cooper grew up on a small sheep farm just out of Gore and is the daughter of an agriculture teacher and a history teacher. She completed her PhD in history at the University of Otago, and since 2016 has been a curator at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Katie’s research focus is the social and material history of nineteenth-century New Zealand, and she has been working to highlight women’s histories in Te Papa’s collections. Katie talks to NZ Booklovers.

Tell us a little about Rēwena and Rabbit Stew.

It is a social and cultural history of rural Aotearoa New Zealand, framed around food. It isn’t a book about gleaming kitchens and perfect meals - it is about lugging heavy pots and pans, butchering meat, sweating over smoky cooking fires, and telling stories at the kitchen table. I was trying to bring the kitchen to life through a range of personal stories, photographs, and objects.

What inspired you to write this book?

I was interested in learning more about rural women’s lives, and as I was scoping the project one of my lecturers mentioned a rural extension service run by the University of Otago Home Science School in the 1920s and 1930s. Funded by the Carnegie Corporation, the Home Science School provided a range of outreach services aiming to teach rural women about diet and nutrition, sanitation, and new household technologies. That sparked the idea of focussing on the kitchen, and the project grew from there. The fact that I grew up on a farm was also part of my inspiration – I wanted to write about rural New Zealand because, surprisingly, there haven’t been that many social histories focussing on rural areas.

What research was involved?

I think of the book a bit like a puzzle (I guess any writing is, really, with each paragraph a ‘piece’). I cast my net quite widely when looking for sources, and found really interesting evidence in magazines, diaries, autobiographies, official publications, images, and oral histories. The challenge was bringing all of those pieces together and creating a narrative, but there’s nothing quite like the feeling when you finally manage it.

What was your routine or process when writing this book?

The book is based on my PhD, completed at the University of Otago Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka in 2016, and I had the luxury of three years of dedicated research and writing time. The process of turning the thesis into a book was more involved than I’d first realised, and I found it hard to switch between day-to-day work and writing. In the end, I took a few blocks of leave so I could work on some of the gnarlier sections without interruption. I still tend to write notes by hand, so I had a very complicated system, discernible only to me, for filing and cross-referencing my notes. About halfway through my PhD I suddenly panicked about the possibility of losing it all in a fire or flood and spent a week digitising and filing everything in the cloud. So, not a particularly efficient process!

If a soundtrack was made to accompany this book, name a song or two you would include.

‘Food, Glorious Food’ from Oliver! and ‘Thank God I’m a Country Boy’ by John Denver.

What did you enjoy the most about writing Rēwena and Rabbit Stew?

What I really like about this project is that almost everyone can relate to it – everyone recalls a special meal they shared with whānau or a kitchen they loved spending time in. When I spoke to people about the book, they often shared those stories with me, and I just loved that.  

What did you do to celebrate finishing this book?

My partner and I took a week off and went to Northland for a holiday. It was right around Easter, so we ate chocolate, read books, went for walks, and took afternoon naps.

What is the favourite book you have read so far this year and why?

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I found it gripping, devastating, and beautiful. And I read it in one big gulp while on holiday, which made it all the better. 

What’s next on the agenda for you?

I am noodling around with an idea for another book, although it hasn’t firmed up in my mind yet. I am one of the history curators at Te Papa so thankfully there is plenty of other work to do in the meantime!

Auckland University Press