Bert Roth Award

The 2025 Bert Roth Award recognises two outstanding works of labour history, each bringing a distinctive approach to documenting workers’ struggles in Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific.

This year’s entries in the Bert Roth Award all make fascinating contributions.

The 2023 Bert Roth Award recognises two works that especially fit the award criteria.

Housing crises, racist immigration policies and practices, employers arguing that laws that lessen exploitation limit their freedom, this year’s short-list is full of explicit and implicit resonances for the strange and volatile times we find ourselves in.

2020 was a very strange year, with intense reminders of how much history matters.

The works examined this year demonstrate that labour history is alive and well in Aotearoa New Zealand in the many forms in takes. They all exemplify the argument made by James Green in his book Taking History to Heart.

The year 2018 was a strong year for labour history in New Zealand. As the shortlist below shows, the history of work and of struggles against exploitation by individuals and movements shows up in a diverse range of publications, innovative uses of social media, novels and film.

The 2018 Bert Roth Award winner and runner-up recognises two distinctive approaches to documenting working-class lives: a novel exploring the devastating 1986 Tasman Pulp and Paper strike, and a memoir chronicling a writer’s life shaped by class, craft and community.

This year’s Bert Roth Award short list shows the strengths of New Zealand labour history.  Over the last twelve months people have written books, directed movies, acted in plays and undertaken theses that explore the history of work and resistance in New Zealand.  The time periods depicted range from 1830 to the present day and describe the lives of miners and artists as well as discussing identify formation, resistance and state control inside and outside the workplace.

The judges’ reports show the strength of Labour History in New Zealand today.