Shirley Simmonds on Te Kōparapara, eds Michael Reilly et al
Sailing into the Wind
Tom Brooking on 100 Days that Mapped a Nation by Graeme Lay
At War, At Sea
Nicholas Reid on Tutu Te Puehu, eds John Crawford and Ian McGibbon; New Zealand and the Sea, ed Frances Steel
Confronting the Dark Past
Lachy Paterson on The New Zealand Wars by Vincent O’Malley
A History of Historicisation
Caitlin Lynch on Filming the Colonial Past by Annabel Cooper
How to ease the realm of pain?
Gerry Te Kapa Coates on Ko Taranaki te Maunga by Rachel Buchanan
A Vocal Wiri
Karyn Paringatai Tātai Whetū: Seven Māori women poets in translation, edited by Maraea Rakuraku and Vana Manasiadis (Seraph Press, 2018), 40 pp., $20 He tātai whetū ki te rangi, tū tonu. He tātai whetū ki te whenua, ngaro noa. The starry hosts of heaven abide there for ever. The hosts of humans on earth pass […]
Urgent Challenges
Giovanni Tiso Fair Borders? Migration policy in the twenty-first century, edited by David Hall (Bridget Williams Books, 2017), 240 pp., $14; Sea Change: Climate politics and New Zealand by Bronwyn Hayward (Bridget Williams Books, 2017), 120 pp., $14; Island Time: New Zealand’s Pacific futures by Damon Salesa (Bridget Williams Books, 2017), 256 pp., $14.99 The […]
Float, Float On …
David Geary Floating Islanders: Pasifika theatre in Aotearoa by Lisa Warrington and David O’Donnell (Otago University Press, 2017), 284 pp. $39.95 Our quest should not to be for a revival of our past cultures but for the creation of new cultures which are free of the taint of colonialism and based firmly on our own […]
A Superb Scrutiny
Briar Wood Tuai: A traveller in two worlds by Alison Jones and Kuni Kaa Jenkins (Bridget Williams Books, 2017), 288 pp., $39.99 James Barry’s fine 1818 portrait, Tooi, a New Zealand Chief, on the cover of this book, gives an indication of why the authors must have chosen to set out on this voyage of research about […]
Bridgehead and Beacon
Simon Cunliffe Dawn Raids by Oscar Kightley (Playmarket, Victoria University Press, 2017), 103 pp., $18 Twenty years on from its premiere in 1997, and more than 40 from the events it depicts, Oscar Kightley’s seminal play, Dawn Raids, continues to resonate – and perhaps for more than the obvious reasons. The raids, a shameful episode […]
Serious in Intent, Playful in Manner
Simone Oettli-van Delden Sleeps Standing Moetū by Witi Ihimaera with Hēmi Kelly (Vintage, 2017), 221 pp., $35 This book defies simple definition. Its inputs are multiple. Primarily it is a book about the Battle of Ōrākau, the final and decisive onslaught of the Waikato land wars, in which 300 Māori men, women and children are […]