Sam arrived at Laidlaw in January 2022. He teaches into the College’s history curriculum and is researching and writing on early Christianity in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Sam graduated from the University of Auckland with Law and Arts degrees in 2002 and practised law for several years. After completing an MA thesis (history) he worked as an historian for the Waitangi Tribunal, followed by the Office of Treaty Settlements, the Crown Law Office and, most recently, Te Arawhiti (Office for Māori Crown Relations). In 2021, he completed a PhD thesis exploring texts that reshaped ideas of political community and authority in nineteenth century Māori and European worlds.

Sam’s research interests include the history of political thought and religion in the British world and empire, European colonization (or colonialism) and indigenous peoples, and Georgian and Victorian politics and letters.

In relation to the field of New Zealand history, he has a special interest in the intersections of Christian missions and te Tiriti o Waitangi, the implications of this history for the church, treaty settlements, and wider societal reconciliation.

Sam grew up in Pukekohe, where his Cornish ancestors have lived since the early 1870s. He often identifies as Ngāti Pākehā or Ngāi Te Tiriti (or ‘Tangata Tiriti’, the people here by right of the Treaty – as per Sir Eddie Durie’s now commonly-used concept).

Sam is married to Hana (Ngāi Te Tiriti), and they have four children ranging in ages from 17 down to 4 (Tom, Henry, Rose, Reuben).

He was a founding trustee of Karuwhā Trust in 2005, a charitable trust which facilitates haerenga (pilgrimages) to Waitangi and other significant locations, and fosters conversations on the Aotearoa New Zealand story: www.karuwha.org.nz.