Moe mai rā e te rangatira, ko Tā Toby Curtis

Dr Sir Noble Tamihana (Toby) Curtis
1939–2022

Kua hinga te tōtara ki te Wao Nui a Tāne. The totara has falled in the forest of Tane.

Moe mai, moe mai, moe mai rā e te rangatira. Rest in peace, chief.

  

Oratia Books joins with the Curtis whānau, friends, colleagues and Te Arawa iwi in mourning Dr Sir Toby Curtis (Ngāti Rongomai, Ngāti Pikiao), who passed away on 17 August. 

 

Knowing that he was unwell, over the past year Sir Toby worked with friend and colleague Dr Lorraine Berridge McLeod to record his life story and views on key areas from his stellar career — especially Māori education and leadership, and his experience of racism. 

 

His unique memoir intersperses biography with text boxes that analyse key issues like the loss of te reo, religious colonisation, educational underachievement and broadcasting policy.

 

As Tā Toby’s health failed, Toby, Lorraine and the Oratia team pulled forward publication of his book. Sadly time was against us publishing before he passed, but at least he saw the book away to the printers. 

 

Toby Curtis — Unfinished Business: Ki hea āpōpō will publish on 17 November this year, three months after Toby’s passing. 

 

It will stand as his legacy to the nation he loved, and sets out a wero (challenge) — as the subtitle indicates, he felt his life’s business to be unfinished. The book concludes by enjoining coming generations to carry on his work, quoting Te Arawa orator, Kepa Ehau:

 

Whaia ko te mātauranga 

Hai whitiki mo te iwi 

Me ngā uri

Ka toa ai.

Pursue the wisdom of knowledge 

So your efforts and achievements 

May be the springboard

For future generations to thrive and prosper.

Important tribal histories Horouta and Te Arawa available once more

Oratia Books is delighted to welcome back into print two major works of Māori history, which will be available to readers from this Wednesday 27 July. 

Horouta: The History of the Horouta Canoe, Gisborne and East Coast and Te Arawa: A History of the Arawa People are works of great mana that retain relevance to descendants of these waka groupings, and are of interest to readers far and wide.

Horouta is the definitive history of the descendants of the voyaging canoes that brought the first settlers from Hawaiki to the lands that stretch from East Cape to northern Hawke’s Bay.

Assembled through painstaking historical and genealogical research over more than 70 years by Rongowhakaata Halbert and his family, the book includes detailed chapters based on oral and written history about the settlement of the East Coast, along with extensive genealogy charts and detailed maps relating to the region.

Published in partnership with the Rongowhakaata Halbert Trust, this reprint marks ten years since the launch of this edition.

Te Arawa is the major work by Don Stafford, one of the leading historians of pre-European New Zealand who was also the official historian of Rotorua. 

The book tells the complete history of the Te Arawa waka and its descendants until the late nineteenth century. Its import is summed up in the preface to this 2016 edition by Te Arawa descendant and scholar Paora Tapsell:

Amongst all the tribal histories Te Arawa is unique. It goes to the very heart of identity of a people reaching back to ancient times deep in the Pacific. Those who control history control the world. In no small way Te Arawa stands proud today due to Don Stafford’s words. Te Arawa is his memorial to our people, our nation, whom he loved and who in turned loved him like a father.

This monumental work of scholarship is also an impressive physical artefact that includes photographic pages on glossy paper and extensive whakapapa.

The authors

Rongowhakaata Halbert (1894–1973) was an authority on East Coast genealogy and history, renowned for his command of te Reo Maori. Of Rongowhakaata, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki and Te Whakatōhea descent, he was a member of many eminent boards, and adviser on Maori issues and language to bodies including the Maori Land Court, the Polynesian Society and the Department of Education. Horouta, his life’s work, was brought to publication after his death by his descendants, led in the last stages by the late Te Nonoikura Haronga and the late Peter Gordon. See https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4h4/halbert-rongowhakaata-pere

Don Stafford (1927–2010) was an historian and writer who dedicated his life and work to Rotorua and its environs. Through a long and distinguished career, he wrote over 20 books on Rotorua and its history. Fluent in te reo Māori, Don travelled on foot to every corner of Te Arawa’s rohe, and played a significant role in preservation of historical sites and objects. He was Rotorua’s official historian, and received honours including an MBE, CBE and honorary doctorate. See https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/don-stafford

Back in print: 27 July 2022  

HOROUTA   ISBN: 978-0-947506-20-9 | RRP $125

Jacketed hardback, 280 x 210 mm portrait, 496 pages

TE ARAWA   ISBN: 978-0-947506-10-0 | RRP $98

Jacketed hardback, 240 x 15o mm portrait, 616 pages

Pūkaki — the comet returns in sparkling te Reo translation

Out in time for Māori Language Week 2017 (from 11 September), Pūkaki – Te Hokinga Mai o te Auahitūroa is a significant body of work in te Reo that will serve readers for years to come.

First published in English in 2000, Pūkaki – a comet returns won Paul Tapsell a Best First Book Award in the Montana Book Awards 2001. 

A grant from the Ngati Whakaue Education Endowment Trust has enabled the work to be revised — Paul has added a new chapter to bring it up to the present day – and then fully translated into Māori by TV presenter, author and te Reo advocate Scotty Te Manahau Morrison.

A page spread from Pūkaki

Scotty's translation of this large, colour work has been a significant undertaking that reflects the regional Reo of the Rotorua area.

Pūkaki — Te Hokinga Mai o te Auahitūroa records the life and transformations of Pūkaki, ancestral father of Ngāti Whakaue of Te Arawa. From mortal rangatira to icon in the Te Maori exhibition, the book follows Pūkaki on his return home to Rotorua in 1997, his representation on New Zealand’s 20-cent coin, and his subsequent relocation to the Rotorua Museum.

An asset for present and future generations of Māori speakers, Pūkaki will be blessed and presented at meeting of the Pukaki Trust in Rotorua on 14 September, during Māori Language Week. It is on sale now at all good booksellers.

Click here for more information. 

Professor Paul Tapsell

Scotty Morrison

Publication Date: 14 September 2017  |  ISBN: 978-0-947506-25-4  |  RRP $39.99

Paperback, 248 x 248 mm, 188 pages colour

Back in the bookstores: A Wild Wind from the North

Hongi Hika’s invasion of the Rotorua area in 1823 is one of the most dramatic and daring assaults ever in New Zealand. Yet like much of our early history, the details are unknown to many New Zealanders.

Don Stafford
(photo © Kerrie Grant)

The late Don Stafford committed himself to redress that imbalance – arguing throughout his distinguished career that events like the Musket Wars deserve to be studied no less than the Napoleonic Wars of the same period.

The distinguished historican dedicated his life and work to the Rotorua district, writing over 20 books on Rotorua and its history, including the monumental Te Arawa (published in a new edition last year by Oratia). 

In A Wild Wind from the North: Hongi Hika's 1823 invasion of Rotorua, Stafford tells how Hongi’s Ngāpuhi forces roamed the North Island from the late 1810s seeking utu (revenge) for past slights. 

Te Arawa, inland and with their island stronghold of Mokoia on Lake Rotorua, felt impregnable. 

They did not count on Hongi’s epic portage of canoes to the lake shores, from which an attack on Mokoia became inevitable.

A Wild Wind from the North not only tells the story with Stafford’s flair and, but is also richly illustrated, including modern photos of the locations depicted. 

This new printing in a handsome hardback keeps true to Don's commitment to the great stories of our past. Click here for more info. 

A Wild Wind from the North

Publication Date: 18 May 2017  |  ISBN: 978-0-947506-23-0 |  RRP $39.99

Hardback, 180 x 140 mm, 160 pages b&w (including 8 pages colour)

New edition of Te Arawa profiled in the Rotorua Daily Post

It's now a week until the launch of Te Arawa, our new edition of Don Stafford's classic history of the Arawa people of Rotorua and the central Bay of Plenty.

The launch at the Rotorua Museum will be presided over by Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick, with representatives of local iwi and Don's family among the distinguished guests.

Don, who passed away in 2010, was a much-loved and respected figure in Rotorua - as evidenced by an article in the Daily Post on Monday.

The article, which you can see via this link, conveys the sense of anticipation ahead of the book's release.

For more about Te Arawa, see the book's page on the Oratia website.