Te Arawa

Title: Te Arawa: A History of the Arawa People
Author: Don Stafford
ISBN: 978-0-947506-10-0
RRP: $98.00
Specs: HB, 240 x 150 mm portrait, 616 pp, 12 b&w photo sections, deluxe jacket
Publishing: 25 August 2016

The Book:
Te Arawa is the major work by one of the leading historians of pre-European New Zealand, the late Don Stafford.

The book tells the complete history of the Te Arawa waka and its descendants until the late nineteenth century. This relates the iwi’s origins in the South Pacific; migration and settlement in Aotearoa; the exploits of ancestors including Tamatekapua, Ihenga, Hatupatu, Tutanekai and Wahiao; development and relations among the Arawa confederation; the arrival of Europeans; Te Arawa’s participation in Māori–Pākehā warfare; and the campaigns involving Te Kooti.

Te Arawa was and remains a monumental work of research and writing, and as a 616-page hardback is also an impressive physical artefact. This handsome hardback edition includes photographic pages on glossy paper and extensive whakapapa (genealogies).