Landfall

Landfall Review Online: Aotearoa New Zealand books in review

A Remarkable Individual

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Richard Bullen

A Communist in the Family: Searching for Rewi Alley by Elspeth Sandys (Otago University Press, 2019), 324pp., $40

Even if he had achieved little else, surviving sixty years in China – from the Republican era prior to Japanese invasion to the first years of the open and reform period – would have marked Rewi Alley (1897–1987) as a remarkable individual. Yet, as his supporters recount, Alley’s record is astonishing across a number of fields, including literature. He is perhaps New Zealand’s most prolific author – fifty-three books of his own and thirteen works of translation, according to one count – best known for his poetry, travelogues and detailed descriptions of the early years of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). He produced countless articles on subjects ranging from Chinese agricultural implements and the rural paper industry, to the forms of ancient Chinese belt buckles and the Chinese in New Zealand. In the realm of literature, his best contributions are translations of classical Chinese poetry. Although his interest in material arts was not scholarly, the 1400 works he donated to Canterbury Museum form the largest collection of Chinese art in this country.  [Read more…]

Mate atu he toa, ara mai ra he toa! When one warrior dies, another arises to take his place!

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Vaughan Rapatahana

Whitiki! Whiti! Whiti! E!: Māori in the First World War by Monty Soutar (Bateman Books, 2019), 576 pp., $69.99 

He pukapuka tino nui tēnei. This is a very big book. Nearly 600 pages, a weight of 3kg and measurements of 286 x 210mm. You would need a lectern to hold it up for sustained periods of reading! The rest of the time it relaxes well on any coffee table.

He pukapuka tino pai tēnei. This is a very good book. Well presented, with dozens of maps and diagrams and hundreds of photographs, including many of the servicemen involved, a generous quotient of whom were Pasifika volunteers. It is also important to note that several toa wāhine volunteered to fight and were not happy about being declined. As Soutar says, ‘Given the Māori tradition that women accompanied their men to war, it was not surprising that women showed disdain for the military’s enlistment criteria’ (47).  [Read more…]

Quite a Ride

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Helen Watson White

Making History: A New Zealand story by Jock Phillips (Auckland University Press, 2019), 373pp., $45

In 1973 it was considered newsworthy that a couple of young postgrads, Phillida Bunkle and Jock Phillips (then called John), had come to teach at Victoria University of Wellington, sharing a four-course lectureship in the field of American history. Since few, if any, academics with ‘identical’ qualifications had occupied the same job before, in a small way they were making history, and on 16 June the Dominion made a note (and photo) of it. The couple’s motivations were a reflection of the times. Phillips is quoted as saying that in the US, where they had been living, the counter-culture had ‘launched an attack on American middle-class ambition and the emphasis on men “getting ahead”. Men are beginning to feel now that the job is not everything.’  [Read more…]

Hear Our Voices

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Giovanni Tiso 

The Broken Estate by Mel Bunce (Bridget Williams Books, 2019), 224pp., $14.99; Student Political Action in New Zealand by Sylvia Nissen (Bridget Williams Books, 2019), 168pp., $14.99

To receive reliable information about the world; and to be able to act on this information to change how society works. These basic conditions for democracy are the subject of two new books in Bridget Williams’ Texts series. Mel Bunce’s The Broken Estate explores the state of contemporary journalism, asking whether it is still (or ever was) equipped to fulfil its dual role of informing the public and helping to produce imagined communities. Sylvia Nissen’s Student Political Action in New Zealand examines the realities faced by young people undertaking university education and how these shape or constrain their political expression.  [Read more…]

A Cultural Journey

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Shirley Simmonds 

Te Kōparapara: An introduction to the Māori world, eds Michael Reilly, Suzanne Duncan, Gianna Leoni, Lachy Paterson, Poia Rewi, Lyn Carter and Matiu Rātima (Auckland University Press, 2018), 484 pp, $69.99

In the same way that we search a crowd for someone we might know, or scan a group photo for a familiar face, my eyes ran down the contents list on the inside pages of Te Kōparapara. Initially I was drawn not to the chapter headings, but to the names below each title.

Some I knew, some I knew of, and some I didn’t know but wanted to. Then I read the chapter headings for each to see what their particular kaupapa was, their contribution, their gift to this impressive and weighty compendium. [Read more…]

Sailing into the Wind

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Tom Brooking 

100 Days that Mapped a Nation by Graeme Lay (New Holland Publishers, 2019), 208pp, $65

This is the first Cook book I have ever reviewed, although I have managed a couple of large tomes on French exploration in the Pacific, and taught Honours courses on early New Zealand featuring the outstanding navigator from Yorkshire. Such books will appear relatively frequently over the next few months as the 250th anniversary of Cook’s arrival is commemorated. Unlike most recipe books, however, some of these publications are destined to be controversial. One of the reasons for the contentious nature of the Cook story is that some Polynesian historians, like Haunani-Kay Trask of Hawai`i, see Cook as personifying all the baleful impacts of colonisation upon indigenous peoples. Some Māori commentators, including descendants of Rongowhakata, the iwi settled around Gisborne, feel much the same way. They cite the killing of nine of their tīpuna and current problems – such as the high prison incarceration rates of Māori, on-going poverty and educational underachievement – in support of their claim that European colonisation of New Zealand has seriously damaged the indigenous people of the last major land mass on earth to be settled by humans. Such critics seem set on supporting the now rather outdated notion of the ‘fatal impact’ of colonisation, which portrays all indigenous people as hapless victims without any historical agency. [Read more…]