Audio: Belize

In this episode of 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast we’ll be talking about the Central American country Belize, formerly known as British Honduras.  This small country on the Yucatan Peninsula. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. This region was a stronghold of the Maya Heartland from around 1500BC up to the arrival of Europeans, namely the Spanish, in the 1600s. A tussle between Spain and Britain developed in subsequent decades, and Belize became a British colony in 1840, and a Crown colony in 1862, before achieving full independence in 1981. The country has an area of 22,970 square kilometres (8,867 sq mi) and a population of just over 410,000, making it similar in size to Wales, Djibouti or the US state of New Jersey, but the least densely populated nation in Central America. This is a very diverse place, ecologically, culturally and linguistically. The official language is English, but there are many other communities such as Maya, Garifuna, Creoles and even Mennonites, who speak a variety of tongues. Belize has over 400 islands or Cays off its coastline, as well as one of the world’s largest marine sinkholes, the Blue Hole, which is 318 m (1,043 ft) across and extends to a depth of 124 m (407 ft). The country also boasts the second largest barrier reef in the world after the one everyone’s heard of in Australia.

Your hosts, as always, are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly in Wexford, Ireland, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 in Toronto, Canada, and Joe Byrne @anbeirneach in Dublin, Ireland. Our theme music and other stings come from Thomas O’Boyle @thatthomasfella.

Some further reading material is provided below:

• A History of Belize (1973) by Narda Dobson; A History of British Honduras (1946) by William Arlington Donohoe
• Belize Travelcast episode on the origins of Belize culture
• Some details about archaeology and Maya civilisation can be found in: “Preceramic Occupations in Belize: Updating the Paleoindian and Archaic Record”, DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/25063047; “Prehistory of Belize” by Norman Hammond, https://doi.org/10.1179/009346982791504571; O. Nigel Bolland Country Study of Belize
• Maya Jade Head; Mayan Ruins website about Lamanai;
• University of Cincinnati’s Brief History of Belize (timeline); BBC’s Belize timeline
• Ambergris Caye “Early History” webpage
• Creating ‘Belize’: the he Mapping and Naming History of a Liminal Locale – Matthew Restall https://doi.org/10.1080/00822884.2019.1573962
• Details on the Battle of St Georges Caye
• Video about Logwood (YouTube)
• Some details about the independent Maya state Chan Santa Cruz that arose after the the Caste War of Yucatán (1847–1901)
• Belizean involvement in World War I anecdotes, and BBN Article on the 1919 Revolution in Belize city.
• Belizean Foresters in Scotland during World War II
• Video of an interview with George Price (YouTube), the ‘father of Belize’
• Information on the Great Blue Hole
• Groups in Belize include Creoles/Kriols, Garifuna, Maya (Yucatec, Mopan and  Q’eqchi’), Mestizo/Spanish-speaking and Mennonites
• Phrasebook in Yucatec Maya, one of the many languages spoken in this country, in addition to English, the official language

Music relevant to Belize includes:

• Music archaeology video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RRDLs63vKs 
• Leonardo Acal – Maya harp music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfzuKSXMOCg 
• Garifuna womens group music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7w4B5dWFTc 
• Leela Vernon – Creola Kulcha/brukdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfxXVYS_F30&list=RDQMlehP_mBHioM&index=2 
• Garifuna music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUddieZoQyY 
• Belize Creole drumming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N45WtarFrpo

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Audio: Wellington

LISTENER SURVEY

In this episode of 80 Days: An Exploration Podcast we’ll be talking about Wellington, New Zealand. Located at the south end of the country’s North Island, Wellington is the third largest city, and capital of New Zealand. Māori oral tradition tells that Kupe discovered and explored the region in about the 10th century, before Maori people settled the country from around 1280, making New Zealand the world’s last major landmass to be occupied by humans. Maori named the natural harbour that forms here named the harbour Te Whanganui-a-Tara. As they tend to do, Europeans eventually showed up and began to colonise, in this case in the 1830s, inevitably coming into conflict with the Maori, and eventually renaming the settlement for Sir Arthur Wellesley, hero of Waterloo. Wellington was declared a city in 1840, and was chosen to be the capital city of New Zealand in 1865, making it the world’s southernmost capital of a sovereign state. Today, Wellington is home to around 420,000 people, giving it a similar population to Oakland, California or Manchester, England. It is well-known for its coffee culture, its natural beauty, its booming film industry and its extreme winds. Wellington is the world’s windiest city, with an average wind speed of 27 km/h (17 mph)

Your hosts, as always, are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly in Dublin, Ireland, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 in Toronto, Canada, and Joe Byrne @anbeirneach in Dublin, Ireland. Our theme music and other stings come from Thomas O’Boyle @thatthomasfella.

We also had a huge amount of help from Thomas Rillstone for this episode. He’s the legend behind the History of Aotearoa New Zealand Podcast. You should check out his show for far more info on New Zealand than we could ever hope to know, and for much more accurate pronunciations than we could ever manage.

Some further reading material is provided below:

• We referred a number of times in this episode to the official government site on Wellington’s history, which you can find here.
• Another great source is the Wellington Museum. Did we mention there’s a lot written down in this one? The episode was well over three hours before it was edited!
• There’s also an episode of Absolute History all about the history of the city, which touches on some of the points we made and also gives a good tour around the city. Featuring Peter Jackson!
• We also recieved an absolute treasure trove of info from the good people of r/Wellington.
• More info on Te Rauparaha and the Ngāti Toa can be found here.
• The Radio New Zealand Black Sheep Podcast was a fantastic overview of the dastardley Wakefield clan and their misdeeds — check it out.
• Want more on the Treaty of Waitangi? See here.
• The Wakefield Memorial we discussed has its own Wikipedia page. It doesn’t improve the memorial much.
• For more on the Musket Wars, check out Kiwi Codger on YouTube
• Thomas Le Bas’ The Lost History of the Flag of Wellington is available on Medium.
• More info on the Wahine Disaster is available on the official government site, and you can find news coverage from the period on YouTube.
• For anyoen who hasn’t seen the All-Blacks perform the Haka before — check this out.
• The Flat White? Wellington all the way.

Music includes:

• You can find some of the chants we used here and here on YouTube
• The music in the intro ‘Tau Mai e Kapiti’ and is here on YouTube.
• The outro song is ‘You Can’t Beat Wellington on a Good Day‘ by The Datsun Violets

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Thanks to all our patrons who support the show. We really appreciate your continued backing of us. If you want to join them, more information is available at www.patreon.com/80dayspodcast