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Woven By Water Histories from the Whanganui River
This is a story of connections - of relationships between races, relationships between hapu and the relationships between people on what is arguably the most distinctively “Maori” river in Aotearoa New Zealand. This remarkable book begins in the early 1800s and traces oral and archival stories of the Whanganui River. Each chapter opens with a present day encounter with Maori informants who take the author back in time to explore another aspect of the history. Woven by Water "…gives us information and analysis plus feeling; it doesn't simply inform, it resonates... I commend it wholeheartedly" - Michael King Written when a ‘John David Stout Research Fellow’ Victoria University: 1987 Publisher: Huia Publishers |
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A review by Gordon Webley
Although a pakeha the author, through this work, confirms his enormous stature and thus remains one of the more influential in Aotearoa. This is in part due to the fact that this work palpably demonstrates huge respect for the mana and the maui of the tangata awa - the people of the river. Highly recommended reading, not only for the stories of the Whanganui, but also - albeit less directly - for the rest of the country.Get it read it treasure it and give it away to someone else to read. Then get another and start this cycle again because this book deserves multiple readings. Like all great books, this one belongs in a reader's hand and not on some dusty bookshelf. |
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