Tuamaka The Challenge of Difference in Aotearoa New Zealand

What is 'the trick of standing upright here' in Aotearoa New Zealand? What sort of rope can modern New Zealanders weave to haul themselves to their feet? In this book renowned anthropologist Dame Dr Joan Metge identifies the Treaty, the words and the stories upon which New Zealanders - both Maori and non-Maori - can stand and flourish. The Treaty of Waitangi is New Zealand's founding narrative, Dame Joan suggests - and she tells a story of cultures meeting, arguing and then dealing with diversity. Maori and English, increasingly used in the same sentence, are the languages of New Zealanders and she shows how we can use and abuse words from utu (revenge) to koha (donation). Finally, the art of storytelling - from myths of discoverers Maui and Captain James Cook to New Zealand's own whakapapa (genealogy) - is how the land and the people are understood. Dame Joan ends the book with a personal reflection on her life as a New Zealander and as an anthropologist living deeply within two very different cultures over six decades of field work. In this book, New Zealand's leading anthropologist provides an engaging and moving manifesto for living for modern times.

Joan Metge is an anthropologist and the author of The Maoris of New Zealand: Ruatahi, New Growth from Old, and Talking Past Each Other.