ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the changing representations of 'nature' and 'the native' in the specific context of New Zealand by examining the evolution of two notable and markedly different representations of urban nature in Christchurch: the Christchurch Botanical Gardens and Riccarton Bush. While Christchurch Botanic Gardens is a fundamentally colonial project, the uses of and meanings associated with it have transformed in postcolonial times. Whereas botanic gardens were once the center of colonial science and knowledge production, they increasingly serve hybrid purposes. Christchurch, founded during the second wave of the British Empire and in the thick of the Industrial Revolution, was in part a representational project that aimed "to promote a special colony in New Zealand, an English society free of industrial slums and revolutionary spirit, an ideal English society." Postcolonial transformations to Christchurch Botanic Gardens and Riccarton Bush reflect and project contemporary ideas about what constitutes nature/the natural as well as concerns about life on a rapidly urbanizing planet.
