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September 06, 2022
Whānau trilogy aims for historical balance
Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira
Posted On September 6, 2022
Historian Monty Soutar says he’s trying to give an honest and balanced look at pre-colonial Māori society with his first foray into fiction.
Kawai: For Such a Time as This is the first in what’s intended to be a trilogy following one Maori whanau from the 1700s to the modern day.
Dr Soutar says making the shift to fiction was difficult, but his experience writing history gave him the confidence to write the story.
“I though if I was going to present the past, and as a historian I know it well, I needed to be fair and balanced and present it as it was. This is loosely based on true story. I wasn’t cherry picking at all. I was going to tell it as it was and give a balanced view of what society was like,” he says.
Kawai: For Such a Time as This is published by Bateman.
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