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Title: Kiwi A Curious Case of National Identity Author: Richard Wolfe ISBN: 978-1-99-004264-5 RRP: $45.00 Specs: 250 x 185 mm, PB, 208 pp, colour Publishing: 10 October 2024 Kiwi is a fascinating deep dive into New Zealand’s curious national identity. Cultural author and avid Kiwiana collector Richard Wolfe explores the evolution of ‘kiwi’ from the Māori name of a secretive bird to its many uses today — renaming a fruit native to China, signifying a New Zealander, and a powerful term in national and international branding. With extensive colour illustrations, photographs and ephemera, and the author’s keen eye for the curious, Kiwi presents some outlandish stories, tales of cultural appropriation and recognition of ‘Kiwi’ around the world. A popular study on New Zealand identity, this is an entertaining and important work for fans of all things kiwi and Kiwis themselves. -
Title: Ratana the Prophet Author: Keith Newman ISBN: 978-1-99-004258-4 RRP: $45.00 Specs: 230 x 153 mm portrait, PB, 284 pp, colour and b&w Published: 7 May 2024‘A life-changing vision in 1918 inspired an ordinary man to accept an extraordinary challenge. In championing a deep cultural shift among the decimated Māori people of New Zealand, Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana helped rechart the course of a nation.’ T.W. Ratana is a tōtara of modern history — the visionary founder of New Zealand’s largest homegrown religion, the Ratana Church and movement. Ratana the Prophet tells his life story, from his early days as a hard-working farmer, heavy drinker and gambler to the ‘divine’ encounters where he picked up the mantle of earlier Māori prophets, and championed the Treaty of Waitangi as the nation’s founding document. This new edition builds on Keith Newman’s decades of research into T.W. Ratana, updated to take in the events of the 2010s and early 2020s, and includes previously undisclosed and untranslated material. -
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Title: Those Who Have the Courage The History of the Royal New Zealand Armoured Corps Author: Matthew Wright ISBN: 978-1-99-004255-3 RRP: $95.00 Specs: Jacketed hardback, 280 x 215 mm portrait, 648 pp, colour and b&w Published: 3 April 2024 EBOOK AVAILABLE NOW! PRINT EDITION HAS SOLD OUT.‘Those Who Have the Courage will be a valuable resource for anyone who is interested in the military and social history of New Zealand. It is a comprehensive history of the Royal New Zealand Armoured Corps, the Mounted Rifles and predecessor units ...’ — Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro, from the Foreword The product of painstaking, multi-year research by esteemed historian and author Matthew Wright, this richly illustrated hardback is a must-have for the history reader. Part 1 covers the colonial cavalry that fought in the NZ Wars and Anglo-Boer War, then Part 2 moves to the Mounted Rifles distinguishing themselves in the First World War, at the end of which the tank came into play. Part 3 describes the Armoured Corps’ varied roles in the Second World War; Part 4 details what Wright calls an ‘armoured evolution’, through actions from the Korean War to Vietnam and Part 5 records action in East Timor and Afghanistan, and modern challenges, rounding out this readable story. The appendices include rolls of honour, lists of vehicles and organisational charts.E-book Available from
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Title: Vikings of the Sunrise Author: Te Rangi Hīroa (Sir Peter Buck) Foreword by Paora Tapsell ISBN: 978-1-99-004249-2 RRP: $49.99 Specs: PB with flaps, 210 x 140 mm portrait, 392 pp, b/w with 2 photo sections of 16 pp Published: 18 October 2023 Vikings of the Sunrise ranks as a masterpiece of Pacific studies. From the pen of one of the greatest Māori thinkers and writers of his generation, the settlement of the Pacific Ocean comes to life. The book ranges across the Pacific Ocean and the people who populated it, considering their physical and spiritual origins, and the ships they built to conquer this vast territory. It weighs evidence for different routes, retells myths of migration including the Māui series, recounts the author’s visits to islands and atolls across the South Pacific, and overall establishes the ‘vikings’ of the Pacific among the greatestever ocean voyagers. First published in 1938, Vikings of the Sunrise is here reproduced in an enhanced facsimile edition, including photos and maps compiled by the author on his voyages, and a new foreword by anthropologist Paora (Paul) Tapsell. Oratia Books is pleased to bring Vikings of the Sunrise back into print for modern readers as part of our NZ Classics series. -
Title: Te Kooti’s Last Foray Author: Ron Crosby ISBN: 978-1-99-004234-8 RRP: $49.99 Specs: 240 x 160 mm portrait, 288 pp (16 pp colour) Published: 8 August 2023 For Teacher Resource: click hereOn 7 March 1870 the prophet and rebel Te Kooti swept out of Te Urewera to Ōpape, east of Ōpōtiki, in what would be his last major action of the New Zealand Wars. His forces abducted 218 Whakatōhea (mostly women, children, and old men) and marched them into the bush to build a pā called Waipuna. Before long the government sent troops in pursuit — almost exclusively Māori.
In this captivating book, historian Ron Crosby draws on his decades of experience in Te Urewera and recently discovered diaries to recount this overlooked yet crucial episode in the New Zealand Wars — for the first time locating precisely where the events occurred, and telling what really happened. A foreword by Justice Joe Williams sets the scene …
Illustrated with detailed maps, sketches and photos, Te Kooti’s Last Foray sets straight the historical record of Ngāti Porou and Whanganui’s chase, casts new light on the character and abilities of Te Kooti, and brings to life an incredible story of hardship, endurance and conflicting loyalties in colonial New Zealand.
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Title: Auckland: The Twentieth-Century Story Author: Paul Moon ISBN:978-1-99-004235-5 RRP: $45.00 Specs: 240 x 160 mm portrait, PB, 360 pp, b&w Published: 5 April 2023 Auckland in 1999 would have been unrecognisable to the city’s residents at the beginning of the twentieth century — the result of dramatic changes in populations, cultures, beliefs, aspirations and senses of itself. Auckland: The Twentieth-Century Story journeys through the mosaic of cultures and lifestyles, anxieties and hopes, disasters and triumphs, virtues and vices that led to this transformation. Drawing on diaries, oral history, newspapers and other media, Paul Moon explores themes including housing, gardening, the harbours, tangata whenua struggles, shopping culture, the immigrant experience and the pervading sense that Auckland was simultaneously at the edge of the world yet at its centre. Readers across New Zealand will experience many ‘Where were you when …?’ moments as they explore the changing landscapes of our largest city. Moon’s crisp writing gives readers everywhere a sense of a city that has felt triumph and failure but continues to develop so its citizens can proudly call it home. -
Title: Footprints on the Land How Humans Changed New Zealand Author: Richard Wolfe ISBN: 978-1-99-004220-1 RRP: $45.00 Specs: 250 x 185 mm, PB, 184 pp, b&w with colour sections Published: 12 October 2022 The Book: Richard Wolfe eloquently summarises this book’s scope in his Introduction: For upwards of 800 years, humans have made New Zealand their home, modifying the landscape to suit their needs. Although there can be no going back to the land’s original pristine condition, an awareness of the history of these changes will provide both a background and surely improve understanding of our present circumstances and challenges. Footprints on the Land tracks those changes — from early settlement and wars through to state building, with railways, species introductions, milling, mining and farming. Later chapters recount the impacts of urbanisation, draining and flooding, and the car, before considering the threats and opportunities that now face New Zealanders as a result. Wolfe’s timely tour of the human place on these islands is distinguished by art and photography that display what we’ve created and what we’ve lost. -
Title: The Battlecruiser New Zealand Author: Matthew Wright ISBN: 978-1-526784-0-32 RRP: $59.99 Specs: Jacketed hardback, 234 x 156 mm portrait, 288 pp, b&w with colour Published: 16 November 2021 TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCKIn March 1909 New Zealand’s Premier Joseph Ward offered a ‘first-class battleship of the latest type’ to the British Navy as a contribution to the Empire (and to guard against the perceived threat of a newly rising Japan). Paid for by the people of New Zealand it would enter service in time to fight with distinction in all the major naval battles in the First World War. Born of the collision between New Zealand’s patriotic dreams and European politics, the tale of HMS New Zealand is further wrapped in issues of engineering, naval strategy and public opinion. Written as part naval history and part ‘biography’ of the vessel and its sailors, The Battlecruiser New Zealand is a fast-paced account of the ship’s career — brought to life through official documents, eyewitness accounts and new research. Extensively illustrated throughout with black & white and colour photos, plans and paintings, this attractive hardback will appeal to a wide audience, from naval enthusiasts to the general reader of New Zealand history. -
Title: Seven Lives on Salt River Author: Dick Scott ISBN: 978-1-99-004210-2 RRP: $39.99 Specs: 250 x 182 mm portrait, PB facsimile edition, 160 pp, b&w Published: 11 October 2021 WINNER: 1988 New Zealand Book Aw
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