Paperback
Māori and Christian worlds entwined: a story of faith, culture, and identity.

Whatua te Kākahu

Christianity, the Māori World and Colonialism in Aotearoa New Zealand

$31.20

  • Paperback

    336 pages

  • Release Date

    5 November 2026

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Summary

Since the early nineteenth century Māori and Christian worldviews in Aotearoa have both co-existed and clashed. Against the backdrop of colonisation, some Māori began to knit together Christianity and tikanga in powerful new ways.

In this significant collection of essays, scholars and experts ask: How did Christian missionaries understand Māori culture? How did Māori make sense of the Bible, and how did they weave it into their world? What precisely were the relationships between Chri…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9781776923274
ISBN-10:1776923278
Author:Samuel D. Carpenter, Bradford Haami, Tony Ballantyne
Publisher:Te Herenga Waka University Press
Imprint:Te Herenga Waka University Press
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:336
Release Date:5 November 2026
Dimensions:156mm x 235mm
A-Format
B-Format
C-Format
Whatua te Kākahu by Samuel D. Carpenter - ISBN: 9781776923274
156 × 235 mm
A4
mm / in
About The Author

Samuel D. Carpenter

Samuel D. Carpenter is Lecturer in History and Research Fellow at Laidlaw College / Te Wānanga Amorangi (Auckland, New Zealand). He worked for a decade in Treaty settlements, including for the Waitangi Tribunal, the Office of Treaty Settlements, and the Crown Law Office. His PhD in history (Massey University, 2021) explored early New Zealand political thought in both European and Māori worlds. His recent publications include ‘Reconciling the Treaty/te Tiriti Through the Discourse of Civil Government/Kāwanatanga’, Journal of New Zealand Studies 39 (2025): 44–64. He is currently preparing a manuscript, Karuwhā: A Life of Henry Williams, for publication.

Bradford Haami is connected to Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Kahungunu and Kāi Tahu iwi. He serves as Chair of Te Rūnanga Amorangi, the Māori Council for Laidlaw College. He is a lecturer in biculturalism and holds a Graduate Diploma in Theology. His research and writing focus on mātauranga Māori, Māori history and biography, biculturalism, and the intersection of Māori traditional cosmology and biblical theology. His publications include True Red (2004), Ka Mau Te Wehi (2013), The River of the Waters of Life (2016), Urban Māori (2018) and Bringing Culture into Care (2019).

Tony Ballantyne is a Poutoko Taiea Distinguished Professor in the History Programme at the University of Otago Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka. His research has explored the development of colonial knowledge, especially changing understandings of language, religion and race, in the modern British empire. He has also published on the history of missions and Christianity in New Zealand, including Entanglements of Empire: Missionaries, Māori, and the Question of the Body (Duke University Press and Auckland University Press, 2014). His most recent publication is Captain Cook and the Unsettled Afterlives of Empire (Bridget Williams Books, 2026).

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