I got half way through this book and decided I needed a copy for myself, which was difficult as it's pretty rare. It's now on my bookshelf next to my other bible of southern Maori history, Athol Anderson's The Welcome of Strangers. I originally loaned it as a reference for my blog post on Abel Tasman's meeting with the Maori.

This is a wonderfully detailed history of the Maori of Nelson, starting from the legendary era up until the late 20th century. This is New Zealand history from a show more perspective new to me as a Pakeha, easily lured into the myth that the Waitangi Treaty settlements just suddenly cropped up out of nowhere. The later chapters were tough reading as the Nelson Maori were slowly disenfranchised of their last land holdings. Like Maori elsewhere, they tried numerous strategies to resist these encroachments - through the legal system, through the government, violent resistance, negotiation - and like Tiramōrehu said in 1849: “this is but the start of our complaining to you. We will never cease complaining to the white people who come here after”.

The Waitangi settlements only "came out of nowhere" to those who'd had the privilege of ignoring Maori grievances until that time. For the aggrieved parties, they were a culmination of a hundred and fifty years of protesting.

Reading this book gave me a lot of new places to visit, and I've already been to two of them, although I've not yet published the stories on my blog. First is the site of the Wairau Affray, and second is the Wairau River Mouth, site of an astonishing pre-European engineering project.

I am sure I'll be referencing this book for years to come. show less

Nov 2, 2023