The stories that Pākehā have told themselves about the origins and nature of Māori.

Since Europeans first set foot in New Zealand they have speculated about where Māori people came from, how they made their way to New Zealand and how they lived when they arrived here. Theories have abounded: some of them have hardened into accepted truth. The result has been an accumulation of Pākehā myths about Māori origins.

The process of this mythmaking is the subject of Sorrenson’s book – from Cook and the explorers, through Percy Smith, Edward Tregear and Elsdon Best, and on to the present. The author writes: ‘Should any reader remain unhappy that I have not solved the age-long problem of the whence of the Māori, my only reply is that such was not my intention. For this is a study of the quest itself, of the numerous “solutions” offered by others; an essay in an aspect of New Zealand’s intellectual history. It is not an attempt to find an original or even a Pacific homeland for the Māori. I leave that task to the many others who are happily engaged on it.’