NGĀ PUKAPUKA • BOOKS
to travelling abroad for research and training in photography, to snapping shots with a Kodak No. 1 in their own homes. Lissa’s research is both broad and extraordinarily detailed, and includes stories of Māori, Pākehā, refugee and immigrant women. There are hundreds of them. There is plentiful detail about the production
WORDS: ANNA KNOX
Ngātokimatawhaorua: The Biography of a Waka
Through Shaded Glass: Women and Photography in Aotearoa New Zealand 1860–1960
process and photographic equipment, which will fascinate readers with an interest in photographic heritage, while many of the photos provide glimpses into the homes, studios and landscapes of a world gone by.
Lissa Mitchell RRP $75 HB (Te Papa Press)
Jeff Evans
The story of women’s lives in
RRP $50 HB
the 19th and 20th centuries is
(Massey University Press)
commonly one of repression, struggle and second-class
Ngātokimatawhaorua, the waka championed by Te Kirihaehae
citizenship. All true, but in
Te Puea Hērangi (Princess Te Puea) for the 1940 Te Tiriti o Waitangi
telling it we sometimes silence
centennial celebrations, is currently housed at the Waitangi
the rich and varied stories of
Treaty Grounds. At 37.5 metres long, the waka taua is the largest
individuals who worked and
in existence and of great value and significance, especially for
thrived in those eras. Lissa
northern iwi and to the Polynesian waka revival movement. As
Mitchell’s Through Shaded
Pita Tipene explains in his foreword, the waka shares its name with
Glass is a feat of resuscitation
the ancestral Ngātokimatawhaorua in which Kupe returned to
in this sense and does the
Hawaiki, so is also a tupuna, and its story therefore a biography.
important and fascinating
The book moves chronologically, beginning in 1937, as master
work of telling some of those
waka builder Rānui Maupakanga searches Puketi Forest for
stories, challenging the idea
two kauri trees large enough to fit the vision of Te Puea (Jeff
that women, for centuries, did
finds what could possibly be one of the stumps). The first half
little but survive.
is engrossing, detailing the felling of the trees, the shaping,
The hard-backed, linen-
transportation and carving of the enormous vessel, the training
bound, glossy-paged
of kaihoe and, finally, the centennial celebrations.
compendium about – as the
We follow Jeff into the forest, zoom up close to the men
subtitle says – women and
Katherine Mansfield’s Europe: Station to Station
working under the karakia of the tohunga as they learn and teach
photography in Aotearoa
Redmer Yska
the ancient skills of waka building, and watch with 10,000 awed
New Zealand between 1860
RRP $50
spectators as Ngātokimatawhaorua makes its way into Hobson
and 1960 also showcases
(Otago University Press)
Beach. This textured and vibrant history is supported by the film
hundreds of their photographs
and photography work of Jim Manley, whom Te Puea sanctioned
in generous reproductions.
Over time, Katherine Mansfield
to document the project, despite the tapu nature of the work.
While loosely chronological,
has become a poignant figure
the approach is deeply
infused with a holy glow in the
Ngātokimatawhaorua after the centennial, moves faster, and at
biographical, focused on
popular imagination, inspiring
times the biography of the waka is subsumed by the larger waves
individual women and their
much gravitas along with a
of its contexts. But as Pita Tipene observes, “for such an important
contributions in the field –
fair amount of bad writing.
taonga … it is a mystery why there is so little written information
from hand-colouring portraits
Redmer Yska sets all that to
about this storied waka”. Jeff Evans has given us some.
to running studio businesses,
rights in his energetic and
The second half of the book, charting the fate of
52 Raumati • Summer 2023 / Heritage.org.nz
