Books Nga Pukapuka

WORDS: ANNA KNOX

Ngātokimatawhaorua: The Biography of a Waka

Jeff Evans

RRP $50 HB │ Massey University Press

Ngātokimatawhaorua, the waka championed by Te Kirihaehae Te Puea Hērangi (Princess Te Puea) for the 1940 Te Tiriti o Waitangi centennial celebrations, is currently housed at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. At 37.5 metres long, the waka taua is the largest in existence and of great value and significance, especially for northern iwi and to the Polynesian waka revival movement. As Pita Tipene explains in his foreword, the waka shares its name with the ancestral Ngātokimatawhaorua in which Kupe returned to Hawaiki, so is also a tupuna, and its story therefore a biography.

The book moves chronologically, beginning in 1937, as master waka builder Rānui Maupakanga searches Puketi Forest for two kauri trees large enough to fit the vision of Te Puea (Jeff finds what could possibly be one of the stumps). The first half is engrossing, detailing the felling of the trees, the shaping, transportation and carving of the enormous vessel, the training of kaihoe and, finally, the centennial celebrations.

We follow Jeff into the forest, zoom up close to the men working under the karakia of the tohunga as they learn and teach the ancient skills of waka building, and watch with 10,000 awed spectators as Ngātokimatawhaorua makes its way into Hobson Beach. This textured and vibrant history is supported by the film and photography work of Jim Manley, whom Te Puea sanctioned to document the project, despite the tapu nature of the work.

The second half of the book, charting the fate of Ngātokimatawhaorua after the centennial, moves faster, and at times the biography of the waka is subsumed by the larger waves of its contexts. But as Pita Tipene observes, “for such an important taonga … it is a mystery why there is so little written information about this storied waka”. Jeff Evans has given us some.

Through Shaded Glass: Women and Photography in Aotearoa New Zealand 1860–1960

Lissa Mitchell

RRP $75 HB │Te Papa Press

The story of women’s lives in the 19th and 20th centuries is commonly one of repression, struggle and second-class citizenship. All true, but in telling it we sometimes silence the rich and varied stories of individuals who worked and thrived in those eras. Lissa Mitchell’s Through Shaded Glass is a feat of resuscitation in this sense and does the important and fascinating work of telling some of those stories, challenging the idea that women, for centuries, did little but survive.

The hard-backed, linenbound, glossy-paged compendium about – as the subtitle says – women and photography in Aotearoa New Zealand between 1860 and 1960 also showcases hundreds of their photographs in generous reproductions. While loosely chronological, the approach is deeply biographical, focused on individual women and their contributions in the field –from hand-colouring portraits to running studio businesses,

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 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.

Katherine Mansfield’s Europe: Station to Station

Redmer Yska

RRP $50

Over time, Katherine Mansfield has become a poignant figure infused with a holy glow in the popular imagination, inspiring much gravitas along with a fair amount of bad writing. Redmer Yska sets all that to rights in his energetic and chatty account of Katherine’s years in Europe, returning to us a gun-slinging, chain-smoking, erratic and sometimes (frankly) bratty Mansfield.

Redmer visits the continental pensions, hotels, spas and villas where Katherine lived, worked, travelled, convalesced and died. His descriptions of these places have a luxurious vitality and, accompanied by excellent photographs, come vividly to life, as does an eerie link between past and present. At times, the non-chronological approach confuses, but the joyful moments where Redmer’s and Katherine’s timelines merge seamlessly –such as on a train journey into the Swiss Alps – are worth it.

Woven through the biography and travelogue is the story of the legend of Katherine Mansfield, and how it grew, especially in France, and of the plaques, events, places and ceremonies scattered throughout Europe that commemorate her – and some that have disappeared.

A pedestrian route once signposted ‘Allée Katherine Mansfield’ leads to the site of the chalet where Katherine lived in 1921. Now there’s a luxury golf hotel with “a golf ball the size of a Mini plonked by their well-clipped entrance”.

“Katherine would have been unimpressed,” writes Redmer. “She detested golf.”

Other titles of interest

Bateman Illustrated History of New Zealand (Third edition)

$59.99 (Bateman)

History of New Zealand from the arrival of Polynesians to a fully rewritten section covering the years from the late 1970s, including the neoliberal ‘revolution’, the 2010s earthquakes and the Covid-19 pandemic. Features over 600 paintings, maps, sketches and photographs.

Living Between Land and Sea: The Bays of Whakaraupō Lyttelton Harbour

Jane Robertson

$75 (Massey University Press)

Illustrated history of the people who settled in the many bays of Whakaraupō Lyttelton Harbour. Includes maritime history and dramatic rescues, farming and trade, wartime experiences and quarantine stations, tourism and recreation.

Vikings of the Sunrise

Te Rangi Hīroa (Sir Peter Buck)

$49.99 (Oratia)

Long-awaited reissue of one of the greatest books written about the peopling of the Pacific. Told through oral history, scholarship and personal reflections.

Sure to Rise: The Edmonds Story

Peter Alsop, Kate Parsonson, Richard Wolfe

$59.99 HB (Canterbury University Press)

The story of Thomas Edmonds – an innovative and progressive individual who came to New Zealand with his wife in 1879 and, from a small grocery store and a box of baking powder, grew what is now our most iconic baking brand.

The Forgotten Prophet: Tāmati Te Ito and his Kaingārara Movement

Jeffrey Sissons

$49.99 (BWB)

The story of Tāmati Te Ito Ngāmoke, a renowned Taranaki prophet who led the Kaingārara movement in 1865 and initiated ‘Taranaki iconoclasm’, where followers built huge bonfires into which treasures, carvings and other tapu objects that had been associated with atua were thrown. Te Ito eventually joined Parihaka in 1872 as a respected leader.

The Dressmaker and the Hidden Soldier

Doug Gold

$37.99 (Allen and Unwin)

The true story of New Zealand soldier Peter Blunden, who was captured in Crete in World War II and jumped from a train to escape from his Nazi captors. Hiding in the house of a Greek dressmaker who is secretly a resistance fighter, he falls in love.

In This Place, From

This Place: St Luke’s Presbyterian Church

Remuera–Newmarket 1875–2022

Allan K Davidson

$50 (The Community of St Luke’s)

This well-illustrated and comprehensive book explores the rich and varied history of St Luke’s since its beginnings in 1875 and provides a wide-ranging account of people of faith.

A Spirit Companion: Celebrating the First 50 years of the Spirit of Adventure Trust

Roger McDonald

$60 HB (Oratia)

Stories from over 70 people who have made ‘the Spirit’ part of their lives – from those who have worked for the Spirit of Adventure Trust to the young people whom it has introduced to sailing and self-recognition. Clothbound hardback with illustrations by Sue Fisher.

Rugby League in New Zealand: A People’s History

Ryan Bodman

$59.99 (BWB)

A history of the game told through its communities, Ryan’s account draws on oral history interviews, rugby league memorabilia and captivating illustrations to tell the fascinating stories and highlight the cultural significance of the sport in New Zealand. n