Awards

• Long-listed for Ockham New Zealand Book Awards - General Non-Fiction 2016.
• Shortlisted for Ockham New Zealand Book Awards - General Non-Fiction 2016.
• Winner of Ockham New Zealand Book Awards - General Non-Fiction 2016
• Winner of Ockham New Zealand Book Awards - General Non-Fiction 2016.

Overview

This is the first volume of Witi Ihimaera's enthralling, award-winning memoir, packed with stories from the formative years of this much-loved writer. This is the first volume of Witi Ihimaera's enthralling, award-winning memoir, packed with stories from the formative years of this much-loved writer. Witi Ihimaera is a consummate storyteller - one critic calling him one of our 'finest and most memorable'. Some of his best stories, however, are about his own life. This honest, stirring work tells of the family and community into which Ihimaera was born, of his early life in rural New Zealand, of family secrets, of facing anguish and challenges, and of laughter and love. As Ihimaera recounts the myths that formed his early imagination, he also reveals the experiences from real life that wriggled into his fiction. Alive with an inventive, stimulating narrative and vividly portrayed relatives, this memoir is engrossing, entertaining and moving, but, more than this, it is also a vital record of what it means to grow up Maori. Winner of the Ockham New Zealand Book Award 2016 for the General Non Fiction category.

Full Product Details

9781869797263

Table of Contents

Reviews

Maori Boy: A Memoir of Childhood is a big book in many ways. Literally so, because, at 370 pages plus, it brings us only to the author's late teens. Figuratively also, because it encompasses not just one boy's life, but a community's whakapapa, history and mythology. . . The book both describes a culture and inscribes that culture in its structure, which frequently turns back through generations and epochs of time, in order to move forward . . . I knew it was true to a way of life and a way of thinking and seeing the world. This seems an important thing to preserve, and it has been preserved well . . . And there were many pleasures to be found in the prose itselt. The voice on the page is very much the voice of the man: eloquent, endearing, cheeky, somehow proud and humble at the same time, willing to put it all out there. --NZ Books An honest, moving book, which examines what it means to be Maori in a Pakeha-dominated environment without losing the sense of self that comes from Maori tradition. --Wanganui Chronicle In both its content and its form the book provides a rare experience of a culture that the Anglo-American literary tradition does not know. As a bonus, it offers to anyone who knows Ihimaera's fiction the pleasure of recognising characters, motifs and even entire scenes that appear in such novels as The Matriarch, The Dream Swimmer, The Uncle's Story, Bulibasha and The Whale Rider, and in some short stories. --Otago Daily Times A rich, powerful, multi-layered and totally unique story that leaves us with such a strong sense of what it means firstly to be Maori; and secondly, to be Maori growing up in a Pakeha world. For this reason, it is something every New Zealander should read. What comes through is a strong sense of identity and to know Witi is to know his whakapapa and also our country. --Gisborne Herald

Author Information

Witi Ihimaera was the first Maori to publish both a book of short stories and a novel, and has published many notable novels, collections of short stories and in 2020 published his substantial nonfiction work, Navigating the Stars. Described by Metro magazine as 'Part oracle, part memoralist,' and 'an inspired voice, weaving many stories together', Ihimaera has also written for stage and screen - including libretti - edited books on the arts and culture, as well as published various works for children. His best-known novel is The Whale Rider, which was made into a hugely, internationally successful film in 2002. His novel Nights in the Garden of Spain was also made into a feature film, and was distributed internationally under the name of Kawa. The feature film White Lies was based on his novella Medicine Woman. And his novel Bulibasha, King of the Gypsies inspired the 2016 feature film Mahana. His first book, Pounamu, Pounamu, has not been out of print since its first publication in 1972. His works have received many awards over the years, such as the Wattie Book of the Year Award and the Montana Book Award, and most recently the Ockham Award for best non-fiction in 2016 for his first volume of memoir, Maori Boy. The second volume, Native Son, was published in 2019, the same year Purakau was released, which he co-edited- editing volumes celebrating the work of other writers has also been an important part of Witi's focus. He has also had careers in diplomacy, teaching, theatre, opera, film and television. He has received numerous awards for his contribution to literature, including the inaugural Star of Oceania Award, University of Hawaii, a laureate award from the New Zealand Arts Foundation 2009, the Toi Maori Maui Tiketike Award 2011, and the Premio Ostana International Award, presented to him in Italy 2010. In 2004 he became a Distinguished Companion of the Order of New Zealand, in 2017 France made him Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the same year he received the NZ Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement. Receiving the Maori arts award Te Tohutiketike a Te Waka Toi, Ihimaera said, 'To be given Maoridom's highest cultural award, well, it's recognition of the iwi. Without them, I would have nothing to write about and there would be no Ihimaera. So this award is for all those ancestors who have made us all the people we are. It is also for the generations to come, to show them that even when you aren't looking, destiny has a job for you to do.'

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