Literature of the Pacific: Māori Literature

Developers are trying to build a resort on Maori land, involving the family of Roimata Kararaina and her husband, Hemi Tamihana.

Kerewin Holmes is a reclusive painter who is trying to pick up the pieces of her life. Joe Gillayley is a widower who maintains a love hate relationship with his adoptive son, Simon, who is a mute seven-year-old who is lovable but notorious for his sudden outbursts of violence and theft. When the three first come together, their lives are blissful. As time goes on, Joe’s violence towards Simon is revealed, prompting Kerewin to become more involved in the Gillayley family.

This novel tells the story of Beth Heke, a Māori woman struggling to keep her family from falling apart, despite the squalor and violence of the housing project in which her family lives.

After a devastating pandemic, Hoeria and Kevin travel through a decimated landscape to fulfill a promise. What they discover is a world where myth has become real.

Set in the near future (2110) in an airport lounge, the last person of Māori descent is about to leave Aotearoa.

In 1800s Mere yearns for independence. Ira wants the same but as the descendant of a slave, such things are hardly conceivable.

In this interesting, eclectic selection from eight of his books (plus some new poems), Tuwhare writes exuberantly of his native land. His skills include a colloquial bend to his language, a bawdy sense of humor, and a deep feeling for people and nature. His writing includes many poetic forms, from haiku to chants to elegies.

The waka is a container for the freight of history—personal, familial, tribal, national. The waka connects the pre-contact past with the urban present and sailing on towards a possible, if fancifully configured, extraterrestrial future.

Masonʻs poetry reflects her life of a person living in two worlds...."there is pagan faith, Christian beliefs, ancestors and dancers, customs and politics, migrants an immigrants...." Back cover

Today is Tiriʻs birthday...She is 160 years old, the oldest women in the world...a woman who has been at war all her life. This play is about history, women, how nations are made and how the human spirits survives to carry us through the new millennium.

"The year is 1965. A Māori family, recently migrated to the South Island from the North Island, prepares to celebrate a birthday with their Pākehā guests. This play explores the different interpretations of home and belonging.

"The Prophet takes place within the confines of a basketball court over three days. Five very different cousins from around the country meet up for the unveiling of a headstone for their cousin Joshua who has committed suicide a year earlier.

Makereti explores a world where mythological characters and stories become part of everyday life. Old and new worlds co-exist, cultures mingle, and magic happens. Familiar characters appear, but in these versions the gods live in a contemporary world and are motivated by human concerns.

A collection of short stories and poems populated by a centaur like tarantula, a rude doppelgancer, creatures from the mystic past, children masked an prophetic and forebears whose deeds live on in family stories and dreams.

Short stories, poetry, song and drama from Māori writers including Hone Tuwhare, Renee, Apirana Taylor and Kai Tainui. Works portray the Māori experience of retaining culture in a contemporary society.

A collection of short stories by the author of _Whale Rider_. It includes "The Makutu on Mrs. Jones" a short story about how Mr. Hohepa conquers the Pākehā mailmwomen, Mrs. Jones.