The Parihaka Woman

A wonderfully surprising, inventive and deeply moving riff on fact and fiction, history and imagination from one of New Zealand's finest and most memorable storytellers. There has never been a New Zealand novel quite like The Parihaka Woman. Richly imaginative and original, weaving together fact and fiction, it sets the remarkable story of Erenora against the historical background of the turbulent and compelling events that occurred in Parihaka during the 1870s and 1880s. Parihaka is the place Erenora calls home, a peaceful Taranaki settlement overcome by war and land confiscation. As her world is threatened, Erenora must find within herself the strength, courage and ingenuity to protect those whom she loves. And, like a Shakespearean heroine, she must change herself before she can take up her greatest challenge and save her exiled husband, Horitana.

&‘You approach family stories with caution and care, especially when a thing long forgotten is uncovered in the telling.'In this deft memoir, Richard Shaw unpacks a generations-old family story he was never told: that his ancestors once farmed land in Taranaki which had been confiscated from its owners and sold to his great-grandfather, who had been with the Armed Constabulary when it invaded Parihaka on 5 November 1881.Honest, and intertwined with an examination of Shaw's relationship with his father and of his family's Catholicism, this book's key focus is urgent: how, in a decolonizing world, Pakeha New Zealanders wrestle with, and own, the privilege of their colonial pasts.

'Eleven years have passed since that winter of 1986 when I put down my pen on the story of the woman who wore pearls in her hair, my grandmother the matriarch, Riripeti Mahana nee Pere, whom some called Artemis . . .' So begins The Dream Swimmer, Witi Ihimaera's gripping sequel to The Matriarch, acclaimed winner of the Wattie Award. The Dream Swimmer continues the odyssey of Tama Mahana, grandson and heir to the matriarch, as he assumes the mantle of leadership and, with it, his grandmother's battles with the Pakeha. But at every step Tama is thwarted – by deception and intrigue, and by the woman whose destiny has intersected Riripeti's and his. She is the enigmatic Tiana, his mother, the woman of no account. Ihimaera continues to dazzle as he negotiates this story of great breadth and breathtaking climaxes, combining the heart of his early work with the deft experimentalism of his more recent novels and short stories. At once an incisive character study and a deeply moving family saga, The Dream Swimmer is sure to enchant and delight. 'Part oracle, part memorialist, Ihimaera is an inspired voice, weaving many stories together. The effect if epic, operatic., - David Eggleton, Metro Also available as an eBook

'The events that took place in and around Parihaka particularly from about 1860 to 1900 have affected the political, cultural and spiritual dynamics of the entire country'. - Human Rights Commission, 2010 Over the past forty-years or so, we in New Zealand have watched our history being systematically re-invented, not based upon documented evidence of real-events that actually occurred on the ground, but solely to serve a modern-day need for made-to-order propaganda. One of the foremost of the churned-out, manufactured-myths surrounds the mid-19th century creation of a cultist-community called 'Parihaka', now represented, in typical Marxist-speak, as some kind of a Gandhi-inspiring bastion of righteousness and (yawn) passive-resistance against imperialist tyranny. The 'colonial invasion' of Parihaka in 1881 and the arrest of its self-styled 'prophets' Te Whiti and Tohu, have become a major part of the New Zealand narrative that has been revised to inculcate a guilt complex into European, especially British-descended, New Zealanders in the interests of tribal agendas. As such, the Parihaka legend ranks alongside America's 'Wounded Knee' and South Africa's 'Sharpeville' as part of a world-wide offensive against the past, present and future of European-descended peoples. Dr Kerry Bolton delves deeply into the huge body of extant historical documentation, contemporary to Parihaka's founding prophet, and lays the entire, lame-fantasy bare for all to see.

A humorous tale with a surprising ending, Witi Ihimaera's inaugural children's book is set in a Grimm-fairytale forest in New Zealand.

A stunning collection of stories from one of New Zealand's favourite authors. What's new? * A young woman utters her favourite mantras to take on the world. * An old woman lives like a diva, re-enacting Casablanca. * In a rewrite of a play, a singer becomes a rock chick in London. * Moby Dick is reincarnated as an iceberg. * Darwin’s giant tortoises on the Galapagos Islands are re-encountered. * A young man adds a twist to his intriguing heritage. In this richly imaginative and compelling collection of longer stories, Witi Ihimaera makes a playful and delightfully unique nod to influences from the past. Ranging across an intriguing and innovative variety of styles, subjects and settings, they defy the expected to reaffirm Ihimaera as one of New Zealand’s finest technicians and storytellers.

"The themes of Woman far walking involve the survival, struggles and resilience of the Maori people, as shown through the life of one woman"--Introd.

This is the first volume of Witi Ihimaera's enthralling, award-winning memoir, packed with stories from the formative years of this much-loved writer. Witi Ihimaera is a consummate storyteller — one critic calling him one of our ‘finest and most memorable’. Some of his best stories, however, are about his own life. This honest, stirring work tells of the family and community into which Ihimaera was born, of his early life in rural New Zealand, of family secrets, of facing anguish and challenges, and of laughter and love. As Ihimaera recounts the myths that formed his early imagination, he also reveals the experiences from real life that wriggled into his fiction. Alive with an inventive, stimulating narrative and vividly portrayed relatives, this memoir is engrossing, entertaining and moving, but, more than this, it is also a vital record of what it means to grow up Maori. Winner of the Ockham New Zealand Book Award 2016 for the General Non Fiction category.