The Migration of Religion to New Zealand in the Shipboard Diaries of Scottish Presbyterians

Abstract

Drawing upon a collection held at Toitū Otago Settlers Museum, this article studies expressions of religious belief and practices in the shipboard diaries of Scottish Presbyterians who emigrated to Otago, New Zealand, from the mid-nineteenth century. Through close reading, this article amplifies diverse migrant voices aboard these ‘floating villages’, albeit united by their remarkably literate denomination. Offering rare portholes into personal experiences of the voyage, this article explores, first, the religious impetus to emigrate to a new Presbyterian haven; second, the organised religious rituals throughout the ship’s passage to New Zealand; and third, manifestations of popular religion, which informed perceptions of morality, health and disease, literature, leadership, festivities, prayer and nature. This article strengthens recent challenges to the secular emphasis of nationalist histories of settler colonies wherein migrants somehow abandoned their religion in transit, instead underlining the ship as a space for Scottish migrants to concentrate their religious mindset.