Horouta out now

M E D I A    R E L E A S E

28 November 2012

HOROUTA

The History of the Horouta Canoe, Gisborne and East Coast

Rongowhakaata Halbert

A classic of tribal history back in print

Few works in New Zealand publishing rival the scope of Horouta, the definitive history of the descendants of those voyaging canoes that brought the first settlers from Polynesia to the lands that stretch from East Cape to northern Hawke’s Bay.

Horouta looks back over a thousand-year period to tell the origins of iwi including Ngati Porou, Rongowhakaata, Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Ngati Kahungunu and Ngai Tahu. Its three parts respectively present a narrative history, whakapapa, and maps of lands settled, in a fine, jacketed hardback.

Rongowhakaata Halbert (1894–1973) devoted his life to compiling Horouta, but died before it could be completed. Family members led by the late Te Nonoikura Haronga brought the work to publication in 1999; the present edition brings Horouta back into print.

This outstanding work of scholarship will be in bookstores from the end of November, and will have a formal launch at the Mangatu Block conference hall in Gisborne on 13 December.

Release Date: 30 November 2012  | ISBN: 978-1-877514-32-6 | RRP $120

496 pages