Ngāi Tahu

"Te Maire Tau writes: 'I first came across the Carrington typescript in 1987 when, as an under-graduate, I was researching our tribe's history in the Alexander Turnbull Library. Reading the text, I was captured for the rest of the day. Besides the exhilaration that historians always feel on coming across an old and little known manuscript, the story that Carrington told read differently from the standard histories of Ngai Tahu written by nineteenth-century scholars...' Journalist Hugh Carrington wrote a history of Ngai Tahu in the 1930s, drawing on the knowledge of Oaro elder Hariata Beaton-Morel and earlier scholars. This text has been framed and edited by Te Maire Tau and Atholl Anderson, creating a history of Ngai Tahu's migration from the Wellington region through to Rakiura. Complementary traditions, in particular those recorded by Thomas Green, are also included. This remarkable account presents oral tradition alongside archaeological evidence and narrative history. The editors both have extensive experience in researching the past of southern New Zealand, particularly Ngai Tahu." --Publisher's description.