April 19, 2022
Ngāi Tahu shares histories of resiliance
![Watermark](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/logo-4.png)
![](https://waateanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/homemasternews_importersrcngai-tahu-tangata.jpg_1_Pub.jpg)
The co-editor of Tāngata Ngāi Tahu / People of Ngāi Tahu says the collected biographies tell a story of resilience among the South Island iwi.
The second volume in the series is out now, sharing the stories of 50 more Ngai Tahu men and women.
Michael Stevens says while he and co-editor Helen Brown wrote many of the entries, they also tried to get people from within whānau to share the stories of their tūpuna.
They made a conscious effort to include more women than in volume 1, which came out in 2017.
“Part of the difficulty of doing women’s history generally is a lot of your historical material, your archival stuff was produced by literate, overwhelmingly white men, so how you reclaim the stories and memories of women and especially women if colour is difficult but not impossible and we’ve shown that with this book,” Dr Stevens says.
He says for history to sing for Māori people, it needs the mix of the mamae and the katakata, so the book doesn’t shy away from the ugly things but it also brings in humour.
It includes people who are recongnisable across Te Ao Māori like Irihapeti Ramsden and Kūao Langsbury, and also people who were pōu in their villages.
“It’s this mixture of people who were pivotal in the Ngāi Tahu Claim, or in various mahinga kai – they were gun mutton birders or good oyster openers or expert eelers, they were marae builders, they’re religious servants, some of our mana wahine were key in the suffrage movement, but we also have the original solo mums, this was in a world without the DPB.
“What shines through is resilience and this is a wonderful message and theme to bring through to younger generations as they navigate their own difficulties in the here and now,” Dr Stevens says.
He says the lockdowns of the last two years have meant more time to source family photos from he biscuit tines under the beds and work on the design of the book.
Tāngata Ngāi Tahu: People of Ngāi Tahu, Volume Two is published by Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu with Bridget Williams Books.