May 08, 2018
Justice in Unity award for Grace
Wellington bookshop Unity Books has honoured authors Patricia Grace and Peter Wells with special awards as a way of marking its 50th birthday.
The $20,000 awards recognise not just their lifetime bodies of work but their social justice activism.
Unity co-owner Tilly Lloyd says it is authors who have helped the bookshop to flourish, and the pair stand out not just for their literary achievement but for the way they have pushed for what Aotearoa NZ is and could be about.
Patricia Grace has been a champion on Maoritanga and land rights, including her conducting a long running and ultimately successful fight to stop her family land at Waikanae being taken for the Kapiti Expressway.
"I dealt with it in my own way I suppose when I thought something was not right and not fair. A lot of my work is really to do with land and language issues as well," she says.
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