Authors: Paul Moon Publisher: Te Papa Press

The photographer Ans Westra, who died in 2023, took hundreds of thousands of images over her long career. Together, those images constitute what is arguably a photo album of Aotearoa. Her dedication and determination sometimes came at a cost but she was focused and driven, overcoming a difficult childhood in the Netherlands and later complex adult relationships to forge her own path.

9 May 2024

Authors: Keith Newman Publisher: Oratia Books

The Ratana movement gains national coverage every February as politicians make the pilgrimage to its headquarters near Whanganui, yet the history and workings of the religion are less widely recognised. In this new edition of his standard biography, Keith Newman reveals the life and times of Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana and the movement he founded in 1918…

7 May 2024

Author: Raewyn Peart Publisher: David Bateman

In 1971, there was little in the way of protection for Aotearoa New Zealand’s unique natural heritage. Progress was the imperative for government and councils, with the land, rivers and coasts simply seen as resources to be exploited. This is the story of how a small organisation took on the establishment and won.

Author: Scott Bainbridge Publisher: David Bateman

Did New Zealand have a secret poisoner? In 1992, builders demolishing a Devonport home stumbled across a skeleton, triggering an investigation that sent shockwaves across the community. The remains belonged to a woman who had died in the 1930s, and whispers soon emerged of the deadly legacy of Nurse Elspeth Kerr.

Authors: Major Lindsay Rogers Publisher: John Douglas Publishing

WAR BRINGS strange fates to many men but to none more than Lindsay Rogers, a New Zealand surgeon who had been serving with the Eighth Army in the desert. He volunteered for special service in S.O.E. and then found himself set down on one dark night on the Isle of Vis, off the Dalmation coast. His job was to work as a surgeon among Yugoslav partisans; to fight with them, to tend the wounded and to act as an unofficial liaison officer between them and the Allied troops. For many months to come, in caves and deep in forests, up mountains, he brought all his skill as a surgeon, his staunch- ness and bravery as a serving soldier to his strange job. He was soon attached to the British Mission under Fitzroy Maclean, and was interviewed by Tito, who held him in the highest regard. In Guerilla Surgeon he tells his story it is an inspiring and intensely exciting one.

25 March 2024

Authors: Rebecca Rice, Matiu Baker, Katie Cooper , Michael Fitzgerald Publisher: Te Papa Press

The New Zealand Wars of 1845-72 were a series of bitter and bloody conflicts between Maori and Pakeha that extended from Wairau to the Bay of Islands, and from Taranaki to the East Cape. They are as important to New Zealand as the civil wars were to England and to the United States. Land and sovereignty were at their heart. This richly illustrated book, developed in partnership with iwi, delves into Te Papa's Matauranga Maori, History and Art collections to explore taonga and artefacts intimately connected with the key events and players associated with the New Zealand Wars, sparking conversation and debate and shedding new light on our troubled colonial past. Contributing essays from Basil Keane, Arini Loader, Danny Keenan, Jade Kake, Mike Ross, Paul Meredith, Monty Soutar, Puawai Cairns and Ria Hall.

14 March 2024

Author: Richard Shaw. Publisher: Massey University Press

After Richard Shaw published his acclaimed memoir The Forgotten Coast in 2021, he made contact with Pakeha with long settler histories who were coming to grips with the truth of their respective families' 'pioneer stories'. They were questioning the foundation of aggressive acts of colonisation and land confiscation on which those stories had been constructed. The Unsettled weaves those stories with Shaw's own and features New Zealanders who are trying to figure out how to live well with their own pasts, their presents and their possible futures. They may be unsettled, but they are doing something about it.

It is an indispensable companion for the journey towards understanding the complex and difficult history of the New Zealand Wars and their ongoing aftermath.

14 March 2024

Authors: Buddy Mikaere and Cliff Simmons Publisher: Upstart Press

The 29 April 1864 Battle of Pukehinahina-Gate Pa resulted in the astonishing defeat of a force of 1700 Imperial British soldiers, sailors and a few militia, who were supported by the largest artillery battery assembled at any time during the New Zealand Wars. Their defeat was at the hands of a group of Maori irregulars just over 200 strong.

8 February 2024

Author: Catherine Comyn. Publisher: Economic and Social Research Aotearoa

Described as “Theoretically sophisticated, historically precise, and politically urgent” by Max Haiven, this book reveals the financial instruments and imperatives that drove the British colonial project in the nineteenth century. This is a history of the joint-stock company, a speculative London property market that romanticised the distant lands of indigenous peoples, and the calculated use of credit and taxation by the British to dispossess Māori of their land and subject them to colonial rule.

November 19 2022