M. P. K. Sorrenson (Pukenga, Wairaka and Toroa of Mataatua) began as a junior lecturer in the University of Auckland history department in 1958 and completed a DPhil at Oxford and further research in East Africa, before returning to Auckland in 1964. He taught at the University for the next 31 years. His other publications include Ko te Whenua te Utu: Land is the Price: Essays on Maori History, Land and Politics (AUP 2014) and Na To Hoa Aroha: From Your Dear Friend: The Correspondence Between Sir Apirana Ngata and Sir Peter Buck, three volumes (1986-1988). Sorrenson was president of CARE in the 1970s, sat on the council of the NZ Historic Places Trust for a decade and was a leading member of the Waitangi Tribunal for 25 years.