This Pākehā Life


Book Description

'This book is about my making sense here, of my becoming and being Pākehā. Every Pākehā becomes a Pākehā in their own way, finding her or his own meaning for that Māori word. This is the story of what it means to me. I have written this book for Pākehā – and other New Zealanders – curious about their sense of identity and about the ambivalences we Pākehā often experience in our relationships with Māori.' A timely and perceptive memoir from award-winning author and academic Alison Jones. As questions of identity come to the fore once more in New Zealand, this frank and humane account of a life spent traversing Pākehā and Māori worlds offers important insights into our shared life on these islands.




Cannibal Jack


Book Description

In a frontier society full of colourful characters in early nineteenth century New Zealand, Jacky Marmon, more commonly known as Cannibal Jack, was more colourful than most. Jumping ship off the New Zealand coast, he first lived among Ngäpuhi at the Bay of Islands, where he acquired five wives and served his chief as a trader and white priest. Joining Hongi Hika's great Musket Wars campaigns against the Tamaki and Kaipara tribes, he claimed to have served as Hika's personal war tohunga. He survived to settle in the Hokianga from 1823 and was involved in Hone Heke's Flagstaff War of 1845. In this biography of a wonderfully curious character, the author of the bestselling Pakeha Maori traces Marmon's life and times, drawing on his own knowledge and research as well as on Marmon's own – not always reliable – personal accounts.




The Burning River


Book Description

In a radically changed Aotearoa New Zealand, Van's life in the swamp is hazardous. Sheltered by Rau and Matewai, he mines plastic and trades to survive. When a young visitor summons him to the fenced settlement on the hill, he is offered a new and frightening responsibility—a perilous inland journey that leads to a tense confrontation and the prospect of a rebuilt world.




The Forgotten Coast


Book Description

&‘You approach family stories with caution and care, especially when a thing long forgotten is uncovered in the telling.'In this deft memoir, Richard Shaw unpacks a generations-old family story he was never told: that his ancestors once farmed land in Taranaki which had been confiscated from its owners and sold to his great-grandfather, who had been with the Armed Constabulary when it invaded Parihaka on 5 November 1881.Honest, and intertwined with an examination of Shaw's relationship with his father and of his family's Catholicism, this book's key focus is urgent: how, in a decolonizing world, Pakeha New Zealanders wrestle with, and own, the privilege of their colonial pasts.




Imagining Decolonisation


Book Description

Decolonisation is a term that alarms some, and gives hope to others. It is an uncomfortable and often bewildering concept for many New Zealanders. This book seeks to demystify decolonisation using illuminating, real-life examples. By exploring the impact of colonisation on Māori and non-Māori alike, Imagining Decolonisation presents a transformative vision of a country that is fairer for all.




Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All


Book Description

"A multilayered, highly informative and insightful book that blends memoir, historical and travel narrative-vivid and meticulously researched."--San Francisco Chronicle




Redemption Songs


Book Description

A long-awaited digital edition of a book that has remained in steady demand since publication in 1995. Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki was one of the nineteenth century’s most significant leaders. In both war and peace, he sought to redeem his people and the land. Yet his reputation as a feared opponent of colonial forces obscured his achievements for generations. The causes of Te Kooti’s struggles are larger than personal injustice: he fought a war against land confiscation and illegal land purchases. This award-winning biography, published in 1995, shifted public perceptions of this remarkable man. Dame Judith Binney was honoured widely for her contribution to New Zealand history. Her particular place in the writing of Urewera history was recognised by Tūhoe leaders when she was given the name Te Tomairangi o Te Aroha. A Fellow of the Royal Society, she received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Non-Fiction in 2006.




All Who Live on Islands


Book Description

All Who Live on Islands introduces a bold new voice in New Zealand literature. In these intimate and entertaining essays, Rose Lu takes us through personal history—a shopping trip with her Shanghai-born grandparents, her career in the Wellington tech industry, an epic hike through the Himalayas—to explore friendship, the weight of stories told and not told about diverse cultures, and the reverberations of our parents' and grandparents' choices. Frank and compassionate, Rose Lu's stories illuminate the cultural and linguistic questions that migrants face, as well as what it is to be a young person living in 21st-century Aotearoa New Zealand.




Old New Zealand


Book Description




Tikanga Maori (Revised Edition)


Book Description

Tikanga Maori is the authoritative and accessible introduction to understanding the correct Maori ways of doing things as they were done in the past, as they are done in the present - and as they may yet be.In this revised edition, Hirini Mead has added an extensive new chapter on mana whenua, mana moana, Maori authority over land and ocean, and the different interpretations and applications of mana whenua and mana moana historically and today.Hirini Mead has also updated the section on tangihanga to include contemporary issues about cremation choices and what happens to the deceased in Maori/non-Maori partnerships where there are disputes about following tangi tikanga or Pakeha traditions.The remainder of the book explores how tikanga Maori may influence contemporary life and society, and Hirini Mead proposes guidelines to help us test appropriate responses to challenges that may yet be laid down.