Kawai

It's 1818 on the East Coast of Te Ika-a-Maui, Aotearoa. Hine-aute, granddaughter of the legendary warrior Kaitanga, is feeling through the bush; a precious yet gruesome memento contained in her fishing net. What follows is the gripping tale of a people on the cusp of profound change that is destined to reverberate through many generations to come. The Europeans have arrived, and they've brought muskets and foreign diseases, ushering in a whole new world of terror and trouble. They've also brought a new faith, which will cause Maori to question everything they had believed to be true. Hine and her sons, Ipumare and Uha, are caught in the crossfire of change that is creating fractures in their close familial bonds and undermining everything they hold dear. From raids by musket-wielding war parties to heightened internecine warfare; from the influx of whalers, traders and Christian missionaries to the signing of The Treaty of Waitangi, Kawai: Tree of Nourishment strikes hard and deep into the heart of the impact of colonisation on Maori, and is guaranteed to leave readers stunned.

‘The themes which arise in this book will be recognised by indigenous people the world over. In many ways the colonial experience for them has been similar regardless of who the colonising power was.’
— Monty Soutar

Dr Monty Soutar (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Awa, Ngai Tai ki Tāmaki, Ngāti Kahungunu) has worked as a Senior Historian for the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, as Director of the Tairāwhiti Museum in Gisborne and as the World War One Historian in Residence at Auckland War Memorial Museum. In 2015, he was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori and historical research. He continues to serve on the Waitangi Tribunal.

Dr Soutar is the author of Whitiki Whiti Whiti E! Māori in the First World War, Ngā Tama Toa: The Price of Citizenship: C Company 28 (Māori) Battalion 1939–1945 and Kāwai: For Such a Time as This, the first title in the Kāwai series, which was shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. In 2021, Soutar was awarded the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writer’s Fellowship to write the Kāwai series. Soutar lives in Tairāwhiti with his wife and youngest daughter.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.