Subject Guides: Ao Māori: Top 150 Books

Te Reo Rangatira: Māori Language

The journeys of besieged languages by Day, D. et al
ISBN: 9781443870870
Publication Date: 2017
This book shares the voices from fourteen languages, most of which are indigenous and endangered, that have been “besieged” by more dominant languages. Oceanic languages include Hawaiian, Tahitian, Māori, and Barngarla (an Australian aboriginal language). The other languages span the rest of the globe: Hebrew, Piedmontese, Romani, Kashubian, Kernewek (Cornish), Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Kalaallisut (Greenland), Cree and Ojibway.
A korao no New Zealand by Kendall, T.
Publication Date: 1815
The first book printed in Te Reo Māori was published in 1815, A Korao no New Zealand was ‘written’ by Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionary Thomas Kendall but drew almost entirely on the knowledge of the young Ngare Raumati chief, Tuai from the Bay of Islands. Thomas Kendall was sent by Samuel Marsden, Chaplain at Parramatta, to be the school teacher at New Zealand’s first mission established in 1814 at Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands under the patronage of chiefs Ruatara of Te Hikutu and Hongi Hika of Ngai Tawake.
Maranga Mai! Te Reo and Marae in Crisis? by Kawharu, M.(Editor)
ISBN: 9781775587330
Publication Date: 2014
From the time of the Māori renaissance of the 1970s and 1980s, Māori made huge efforts to reinvigorate te reo and the life of marae as the twin cornerstones of Māori identity. Māori television and radio stations were set up, the Māori Language Commission established and kōhanga reo, kura kaupapa and wananga emerged.
My Language, My Inspiration by Winitana, C.
ISBN: 9781869693794
Publication Date: 2011
Outlines the determined struggle to bring the Māori language back from the brink, providing a range of interviews with those who were active in the fight for the Māori language and includes photographs of key events and people.
Māori-English tutor and vade mecum by Stowell, H.
Publication Date: 1911
Henry Matthew Stowell was born in Waimate North, Bay of Islands in 1859, the son of John Stowell and Huhana, a high-born woman of Ngāpuhi. Maori-English Tutor and Vade Mecum is the first Māori grammar written by a Māori author and was intended as a book for ready reference. As well as Māori grammar, the book contains an array of Māori customary topics such as; ailments and diseases, sport and past times, tohunga, the lore of tapu, marriage customs and land tenure.

Te Ao Hurihuri: Changing World

Ethnographies in Pan Pacific Research by Rinehart, R.(Ed.)
ISBN: 9781138857070
Publication Date: 2015
The contributors describe and discuss a variety of topical areas of interest, from Facebook to memory work, from children's sexuality to urban racism, from meanings of Indigenous knowledge to how communities can come together to retain what is valuable to themselves. Co-edited by Rangi Mataamua (Tūhoe), the publication also includes contributions from leading Māori scholars such as; Te Ahukaramu Charles Royal, Hemi Whaanga, Priscilla Wehi, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku and Linda Nikora, among others.
The Fourth Eye by Hokowhitu, B. (Ed.)
ISBN: 9781452941745
Publication Date: 2013
The Fourth Eye is a term used to capture a number of complex questions, experiences, responses, and articulations that emerge at the intersection of media culture and indigenous lives: what are the indigenous experiences of being the subject of the media gaze? How does the media capture, articulate, and rearticulate the lives of indigenous people? How do indigenous people use, transform, and tactically use the media to subvert certain modalities of power relations?
A hidden economy: Māori in the privatised military by Bargh, M.
ISBN: 9781775502654
Publication Date: 2015
Workers in the privatised military industry very rarely, if ever, give interviews about their work or details about their pay. However, this book includes five interviews with Māori who have worked or are still working in the privatised military industry and explores how they articulate themselves as Māori in the industry, giving a glimpse at this secret world and how Māori operate in it.
Māori Television by Smith, J.
ISBN: 9781869408572
Publication Date: 2017
“One cannot understand the impact and significance of Māori Television without understanding the longer history of Indigenous struggle in this country.” This is the electric opening to Jo Smith’s Māori Television: The First Ten Years (2016) an inciteful publication that examines the power the media plays in shoring up a sense of self and collective identity. This publication chronicles the first decade of Māori Television, launched in 2004 after years of protest, agitation and court hearings.
New Treaty new traditions by Jones, C,
ISBN: 9780774831703
Publication Date: 2016
Jones interweaves legal analysis with Māori language and storytelling traditions, revealing a new way of using indigenous knowledge to critique the assumptions of the West’s racist, colonial legal regimes and systems.

Kia Maumahara : Remembering

Autobiography of a Māori by Kohere, R. T.
Publication Date: 1951
Reweti Tuhorouta Kohere (1871-1954; Ngāti Porou) was an Anglican clergyman, newspaper journalist and editor, a farmer, writer and historian. He was also one of the foremost writers and speakers in te reo Māori and in 1951 towards the end of this life, published his autobiography. Kohere continued writing and publishing material such as whakatauāki, waiata and moteatea and accounts of Māori tradition up to the time of his death.
Gottfried Lindauer's New Zealand by Mason, N. & Stanhope, Z.
ISBN: 9781775588894
Publication Date: 2016
From the 1870s to the early twentieth century, the Bohemian immigrant artist Gottfried Lindauer travelled to marae and rural towns around New Zealand and – commissioned by Māori and Pākehā – captured in paint the images of key Māori figures.
He Kōrero: Words between us : first Māori-Pākehā conversations on paper by Jones, A. & Jenkins, K.
ISBN: 9781775502715
Publication Date: 2011
He Kōrero traces Māori engagement with handwriting from 1769 to 1826. Through images of beautifully reproduced written documents, the book tells rich stories about the first encounters Māori had with ink and paper and the first relationships between Māori and Europeans that established and maintained the earliest school.
Hongi Hika by Cloher, D.
ISBN: 0670045446
Publication Date: 2003
In this biography of Hongi Hika, Dorothy Urlich (Ngāpuhi) portrays Hongi as a warrior, leader, a visionary and a strategist as well as a husband, an artist and an advocate for his people as well as a worker of his land
Matters of the Heart by Wanhalla, A.
ISBN: 9781869407711
Publication Date: 2013
Matters of the Heart explores a surprisingly unspoken part of New Zealand’s history, the intimate relations between Māori and Pākehā, how they lived together and our changing attitudes to race, marriage and intimacy.
Renata's journey by Hogan, H.
Call Number: DU407 REN
ISBN: 9780908812363
Publication Date: 1994
Probably the earliest surviving Māori writing of significant size, this is an account by Renata Kawepo Tama Ki Hikurangi of an arduous journey undertaken in 1843-44, when he was among Bishop Augustus Selwyn’s party visiting Anglican mission posts throughout the North Island and Nelson province.
The Welcome of Strangers by Anderson, A.
Call Number: DU424.N4 AND
ISBN: 1877133590
Publication Date: 1998
The title of this book by Professor Atholl Anderson FRSNZ, The Welcome of Strangers, was taken from Thomas Brunner's 1847 comment ‘At Parika we received the welcome of strangers in a bountiful supply of fern-root, preserved wekas and fish.' Drawing on tribal knowledge as well as early written accounts, the author surveys the origins and migrations of the Waitaha and Kāti Mamoe peoples and the subsequent arrival and establishment of Ngāi Tahu.

Kia Tu Pakiri, Kia Whakaora: Resistance and revitalisation

Hikoi: Forty years of Māori protest by Harris, A.
Call Number: DU423.L35 HAR
ISBN: 1869691016
Publication Date: 2006
Māori protest is not the disorganised and isolated activity of a minority radical element of society. Hikoi: Forty Years of Māori Protest (2004) written by Dr Aroha Harris (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi) Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Auckland provides an overview of the contemporary Māori protest ‘movement’, a summary of the rationale behind the actions and a collection of photographs of the action—the protests, the marches and the toil behind the scenes.
Indigenous Identity and Resistance by Hokowhitu, B
ISBN: 9780947522414
Publication Date: 2017
Indigenous Identity and Resistance is an edited collection of essays that aims to draw attention to the multifaceted nature of Indigenous Studies by questioning in what ways local indigenous contexts relate to each other. The result is an accessible and thought-provoking collection of essays that provide a critical understanding of the ways in which Indigenous peoples are rearticulating their histories, knowledges and the Indigenous self.
Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou by Walker, R
Call Number: DU423.P63 WAL
ISBN: 0143019457
Publication Date: 2004
Dr Walker provides a uniquely Māori view, not only of the events of the past two centuries but also beyond to the very origins of Māori people.
Te Whiti o Rongomai and the resistance of Parihaka by Keenan, D.
Call Number: DU436.T2KEE
ISBN: 9781775501954
Publication Date: 2015
The book includes detailed information about the events which lead up to the 1881 invasion of Parihaka by armed colonial troops and the subsequent arrest and imprisonment of Te Whiti and Tohu. It also recounts his 1883 return to Taranaki after being detained in the South Island for two years.

Mana Wāhine: Powerful Women

He reo wāhine: Māori women's voices from the nineteenth century by Paterson, L. & Wanhalla, A.
ISBN: 9781775589280
Publication Date: 2017
During the nineteenth century, Māori women produced letters and memoirs, wrote off to newspapers and commissioners, appeared before commissions of enquiry, gave evidence in court cases, and went to the Native Land Court to assert their rights. He Reo Wāhine is a bold new introduction to the experience of Māori women in colonial New Zealand through Māori women’s own words – the speeches and evidence, letters and testimonies that they left in the archive.
Mana wahine Māori by Awekotuku, M.
Call Number: HQ1865.5 AWE
ISBN: 0908652631
Publication Date: 1991
Ngahuia Te Awekotuku (Te Arawa, Tūhoe) is a leading feminist writer, lesbian-rights activist and advocate for Māori sovereignty. She was at the forefront of the women’s liberation movement in New Zealand, her feminist principles firmly rooted in a longstanding Māori women’s movement. Mana Wahine is a collection of her memories, speeches, articles and essays.
The Old Time Maori by Makareti
Publication Date: 1938
This is the first comprehensive ethnographic account of Māori life by a Māori scholar. The Old-Time Māori is Maggie Papakura’s biography, the life-story of the old people she was raised by and to whom the book is dedicated. It reflects the self-awareness of its author who was at all times conscious of her lineage and responsibility to her people.

Ngā Toka Tūmoana: Anchors

The lore of the whare wananga by Whatahoro, H
Publication Date: 1913
Hoani Te Whatahoro Jury of Ngāti Kahungungu was born in 1841 at Rakaukaka, Poverty Bay. Educated at a mission school, Te Whatahoro became a prolific writer on Māori traditions and customs. At a large tribal gathering in 1858 the tohunga, Te Matorohanga assisted by Nepia Pohuhu and Paratene Te Okawhare consented to share their knowledge and a young Te Whatahoro transcribed the teachings.
Mauri ora: the dynamics of Māori health by Durie, M.
ISBN: 9780195584189
Publication Date: 2001
Mauri Ora: The Dynamics of Māori Health, tracks the advancement of Māori health in a world which is often indifferent to the attainment of good health and seldom ready to value culture and identity as foundations for health
Nga Pepeha a Nga Tipuna by Mead, H.
Call Number: PN6519,M35
ISBN: 0864733992
Publication Date: 2002
Hirini Moko Mead brings together this unique collection of more than 2,500 pēpeha, ‘sayings of the ancestors’, gathered and compiled from all over New Zealand, over a 20-year period. More than just proverbs, pēpeha include charms, witticisms, figures of speech and boasts, and they are featured in the formal speeches heard every day on the marae.
Ngā Moteatea by Jones, P. & Ngata, A. T.
ISBN: 1869403215
Publication Date: 2004
Originally published in 1928, this classic text is the largest and most comprehensive collection of Māori waiata and a unique contribution to New Zealand poetry. It is a rich resource for continuing research and scholarship in many fields, offers prime texts in the teaching of Māori language, literature and tribal history.
Tikanga Māori : Living by Māori values by Sidney M. Mead
ISBN: 9781775500742
Publication Date: 2003
Professor Hirini Moko Mead's comprehensive survey of tikanga Māori is the most substantial of its kind. Ranging from topics of the everyday to the esoteric, it provides a breadth of perspectives and authoritative commentary of the principles and practice of tikanga Māori past and present.
Vikings of the sunrise by Buck, P.
Publication Date: 1938
Vikings of the Sunrise covers the history, navigational knowledge and traditions associated with the early waves of Polynesians who settled Tonga, the Cook Islands, New Zealand, Easter Island, Samoa, Hawaii and the Marquesas.

Ao Māori: Top 150 Books

Te Takarangi: Celebrating 150 Māori publications

Te Reo Rangatira: Māori Language

Te Ao Hurihuri: Changing World

Kia Maumahara : Remembering

Kia Tu Pakiri, Kia Whakaora: Resistance and revitalisation

Mana Wāhine: Powerful Women

Ngā Toka Tūmoana: Anchors