Te Kīngitanga


Book Description

Since the mid-1800's Te Kingitanga has been a force in New Zealand society. The Maori King movement combines spiritual and political elements which conserve the "turangawaewae" (standpoints) of the past with practical leadership in the contemporary Maori world. This collection of 14 biographies of leaders has been put together to celebrate the settlement of the Tainui claim and the royal apology given by Queen Elizabeth to the Tainui people in 1995.










King Pōtatau


Book Description

This book details the background to the Kingitanga and also tells the story of the first king, Potatau Te Wherowhero. It details all the momentous events of Te Wherowhero's life from around 1775 to his death in 1860, including his status as Lord of the Waikato and the famous battles and conflicts with other tribes, his raising up as the First Maori King, and Mana Motuhake, the Maori Kingship, set apart as the symbol of the spiritual and cultural life of the Maori. Pei Te Hurinui's biography of King Potatau tells this story in a Maori voice employing waiata, poetry and whakapapa as well as prose text in English and English translations so that the book is accessible to both Maori language speakers and those with no knowledge of Maori.




The Great War for New Zealand


Book Description

Spanning nearly two centuries from first contact through to settlement and apology, ​this major work focuses on the human impact of the war in the Waikato, its origins and aftermath.




The Maori King


Book Description

Reprint of the original, first published in 1864. Or, the story of our Quarrel with the natives of New Zealand.




Dancing with the King


Book Description

After the battle of Orakau in 1864 and the end of the war in the Waikato, Tawhiao, the second Maori King, and his supporters were forced into an armed isolation in the Rohe Potae, the King Country. For the next twenty years, the King Country operated as an independent state – a land governed by the Maori King where settlers and the Crown entered at risk of their lives. Dancing with the King is the story of the King Country when it was the King's country, and of the negotiations between the King and the Queen that finally opened the area to European settlement. For twenty years, the King and the Queen's representatives engaged in a dance of diplomacy involving gamesmanship, conspiracy, pageantry and hard headed politics, with the occasional act of violence or threat of it. While the Crown refused to acknowledge the King's legitimacy, the colonial government and the settlers were forced to treat Tawhiao as a King, to negotiate with him as the ruler and representative of a sovereign state, and to accord him the respect and formality that this involved. Colonial negotiators even made Tawhiao offers of settlement that came very close to recognising his sovereign authority. Dancing with the King is a riveting account of a key moment in New Zealand history as an extraordinary cast of characters – Tawhiao and Rewi Maniapoto, Donald McLean and George Grey – negotiated the role of the King and the Queen, of Maori and Pakeha, in New Zealand.




The Penguin History of New Zealand


Book Description

New Zealand was the last country in the world to be discovered and settled by humankind. It was also the first to introduce full democracy. Between those events, and in the century that followed the franchise, the movements and the conflicts of human history have been played out more intensively and more rapidly in New Zealand than anywhere else on Earth. The Penguin History of New Zealand, a new book for a new century, tells that story in all its colour and drama. The narrative that emerges in an inclusive one about men and women, Maori and Pakeha. It shows that British motives in colonising New Zealand were essentially humane; and that Maori, far from being passive victims of a 'fatal impact', coped heroically with colonisation and survived by selectively accepting and adapting what Western technology and culture had to offer. This book, a triumphant fruit of careful research, wide reading and judicious assessment, was an unprecedented best-seller from the time of its first publication in 2003.




The Treaty of Waitangi


Book Description

"The Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 by over 500 chiefs, and by William Hobson, representing the British Crown. To the British it was the means by which they gained sovereignty over New Zealand. But to Maori people it had a very different significance, and they are still affected by the terms of the Treaty, often adversely.The Treaty of Waitangi, the first comprehensive study of the Treaty, deals with its place in New Zealand history from its making to the present day. The story covers the several Treaty signings and the substantial differences between Maori and English texts; the debate over interpretation of land rights and the actions of settler governments determined to circumvent Treaty guarantees; the wars of sovereignty in the 1860s and the longstanding Maori struggle to secure a degree of autonomy and control over resources." --Publisher.




Kinds of Peace


Book Description

Admirably clear and concise in its account of the aftermath of the land wars, Kinds of Peace examines the political, religious and other reactions among M&āori towards the coming of peace. It considers the effect of the wars on the M&āori people of Waikato, Taranaki, and Hawkes Bay, and draws heavily on M&āori sources. Special emphasis is given to leaders Te Whiti and T&āwhiao. Sinclair writes a challenging and eminently readable book. It is a major contribution by New Zealand's most distinguished historian to our knowledge of nineteenth-century M&āori history.