A kaumātua reflects in poetry and prose, in te reo and English, on his journey from te ao Māori on the East Coast to contemporary Auckland.

Haare Williams grew up a rural, te reo-speaking childhood, with his Tuhoe grandparents on the shores of Ohiwa Harbour, It was a world of Tane and Tangaroa, Te Kooti and the old testament, of Nani Wai and curried cockle stew. Like many Māori of his generation, Williams learnt English at school and entered a new world moving to Auckland. Through the Māori arts movement, through protest and the rise of Māori broadcasting, Williams has witnessed and played a part in the changing shape of Māoridom. And in his poetry, in te reo and English, he has a way of capturing both the wisdom in te ao Māori and the transformation of that world over the last 50 years.

Edited and introduced by Witi Ihimaera, this book brings together Haare Williams’s poetry, talks, writing, and photography to produce a work that is a biography of the man—and his times—in poetry and prose.

ISBN

9781869409043

Publisher

Auckland University Press