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Ngä Kupu Ora Book Awards 2009
Massey University is marking this year’s Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week) by celebrating excellence in Māori publishing.
Books on Māori topics published in 2008 or 2009 have been reviewed and shortlisted for the University’s inaugural Ngä Kupu Ora Book Awards. While mainly targeted at staff and students, anyone can view the short-listed finalists online and at the campus libraries to vote for the winners.
Kaihautū Māori (Māori Library Services Manager) Spencer Lilley says that the idea for organising book awards recognising Māori literature was a result of other major book awards consistently failing to include Māori items in their awards. “The only other book awards that has a regular Māori award is the Library and Information Association New Zealand Aotearoa Children’s Book Awards – Te Kura Pounamu Award, which recognises excellence in te reo Māori children’s books,” Mr Lilley says.
“Unfortunately a shortage of published Māori fiction in 2008 and 2009 precluded us from having a fiction category”, says Mr Lilley. “The short-listing process also highlighted a general lack of quality items published in te reo Māori aimed at fluent and sophisticated readers.” He thinks this might be due to “publishers perceiving the market for such items was small and unprofitable”.
2009 Winners & Shortlisted
2009 categories | Art, Architecture and Design | Biography | History | Sports & Recreation |Te Reo Māori | Book of the Decade
Te Reo Māori
• Winner: Tähuhu Körero: The Sayings of Tai Tokerau – Merata Kawharu and Krzysztof Pfeiffer
• Te Ngäkau: He Wänanga i te Mätauranga: Kia Puta He Aroha, He Märamatanga – Te Ahukaramu Charles Royal• He Pätaka Kupu – Te Taura Whiri o Te Reo Mäori
• He Püranga Täkupu a Taranaki 2008 – Te Reo o Taranaki
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Winner: Mäori Architecture: From Fale to Wharenui and Beyond – Deidre Brown- A landmark achievement in New 
Zealand history, Maori Architecture charts, for the first time, the genesis and form of indigenous buildings in Aotearoa New Zealand. It explores the vast array of Maori-designed structures and spaces - how they evolved over time, and how they tell the story of an ever-changing people. Throughout this captivating story, the book looks at facets of early Polynesian settlement, the influence of Christian and western technology, more
• The Carver and the Artist: Mäori Art in the Twentieth Century – Damian Skinner- This exciting book by a leading younger art historian charts the growth and development of the Maori modernist art that emerged from the rapid urbanisation of Maori in the midtwentieth century and the complex transition of Maori cultural and social structures from a rural to an urban setting. Artists like Arnold Wilson, Para Matchitt and Selwyn Muru, encouraged by Gordon Tovey and the Education Department, constructed a Maori art that reacted against the customary culture championed by Ngata and attempted to respond to the modern world in which they lived... more
• Toi Ora: Ancestral Mäori Treasures – Arapata Hakiwai and Huhana Smith- This exceptional book highlights over 120 taonga tuku iho (ancestral Maori treasures) from Te Papa's collections. Rich images of these precious objects, are accompanied by stories from the artists who created the taonga, the people who used them in daily life, and their living descendants. Items include traditional carvings, weapons, waka huia (treasure containers), jewellery, and taonga such as puppets used by tohunga (ritual experts) and tools for tamoko (customary skin marking).
• Ralph Hotere – Kriselle Baker and Vincent O’Sullivan
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•Winner: Tohunga Whakairo: Paki Harrison: The Story of a Master Carver – Ranginui Walker- Paki Harrison is widely regarded as New Zealand's greatest living master carver, a man with a huge reputation as a leading tohunga of the art form. He possesses immense knowledge about the traditional arts of the carver, extending way beyond the actual physical arts to include its most ancient aspects - the symbolism contained in Maori art, to its role in transmitting old tribal history. More
• Mata Toa: the life and times of Ranginui Walker – Paul Spoonley - Academic, author, biographer, historian, commentator, controversialist, activist, iwi consultant, mover and shaker - Dr Ranginui Walker has been in the headlines for decades, ever since the beginnings of the Maori political and cultural renaissance in the 1970s. Walker is one of the few Maori leaders to take on the responsibility of crossing the cultural/racial divide and making the Maori world intelligible to Pakeha readers. Articulate and forthright, he has had a major influence on how Pakeha view Maori in the twenty-first century. More
• He Iti, He Taonga: Taranaki Mäori Women Speak – Kerensa Johnston
• Ratana: The Prophet – Keith Newman- Throughout history, certain individuals with a rare passion for justice and a gift of insight have been able to rally and motivate people through periods of great social change, sometimes defying all odds and being greatly misunderstood in the process. Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana was such a man, called to prominence at a pivotal time, with a message for the Maori people and for the wider world. After a profound vision he became a healer of people's physical ailments and a lifter of ancient curses; and he was also a leader in healing the 'land sickness' of the Maori, after decades of land confiscation by the Government and the Crown. More
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Winner: Ngä Tama Toa: The Price of Citizenship – Monty Soutar - The fascinating story of C Company, Maori Battalion told through personal recollections, eyewitness accounts, numerous anecdotes and fantastic photographs. At times heart-rending, at times heart-warming, this impressive book captures the special 'spirit' of the Maori Battalion - an amazing story that documents the stories of those who were actually there.
• The Beating Heart: A Political and Socio-Economic History of Te Arawa – Vincent O’Malley and David Armstrong. More
• Mäori Tribes of New Zealand - Ministry of Culture and Heritage
• Ngäi Tahu: A Migration History: The Carrington Text – Te Maire Tau- More
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• Winner: Beneath the Mäori Moon: An Illustrated History of Mäori Rugby – Malcolm Mulholland
• 100 Years: Mäori Rugby League: 1908-2008 – John Coffey and Bernie Wood
• Ngä Taonga Täkaro – Mäori Sports and Games – Harko Brown - Harko Brown writes about the revival of more than 20 ancient games and sports of the Maori - including poi, stick games, kites, ball games, memory games, and board games. He traces the history and legend behind each game, and gives clear instructions on how to play, the rules of the game, and how to create the equipment used. The games are illustrated with action colour photographs throughout, to enhance readers' understanding of these indigenous sports.
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Winner: Mau Moko: The World of Mäori Tattoo – Ngahuia Te Awekotuku - In the traditional Maori world, the moko, or facial or body tattoo, was a sign of great mana and status. Male warriors wore elaborate tattoos on their faces and bodies; women took more delicate chin tattoos. After almost dying out in the twentieth century, Maori tattooing is now experiencing a powerful revival,
• Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka Volume II: Te Ara Hou - The New Society – Hilary and John Mitchell
• Te Tü a Te Toka: He Ieretanga nö ngä Tai e Whä – Huriana Raven and Piripi Walker (Editors)
• Tü – Patricia Grace - In this new novel acclaimed Maori novelist Patricia Grace visits the often terrifying and complex world faced by men of the Maori Battalion in Italy during the Second World War. Tu is proud of his name - the Maori god of war. But for the returned soldier there's a shadow over his own war experience with the Maori Battalion in Italy.
• Whetu Moana – Albert Wendt, Reina Whaitiri and Robert Sullivan (Editors) - "Whetu Moana" is a historic work - the first anthology of contemporary indigenous Polynesian poetry in English edited by Polynesians. It is a broad anthology, showcasing a wide range of contemporary Pacific writing by both established poets and younger voices. This is a companion
• Tai Tokerau Whakairo Räkau – Deidre Brown
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• Ngä Pëpeha a Ngä Tïpuna: The Sayings of the Ancestors – Hirini Moko Mead and Neil Grove - This unique collection of more than 2,500 pepeha, "sayings of the ancestors, " were gathered and compiled from all over New Zealand over a 20-year period. More than just proverbs, pepeha include charms, witticisms, figures of speech, and boasts, and they are featured in the formal speeches heard every day on the marae and in the oral literature handed down from past generations. The pepeha also provide a rich source of language, using metaphor and an economy of words to show language that enriches the textbook Maori of today.
• Eruera Manuera – Te Onehou Phillis
• Parihaka: The Art of Passive Resistance – Te Miringa Hohaia, Gregory O’Brien and Lara Strongman (Editors)- A bestseller in New Zealand since 2000, when an exhibition at City Gallery in Wellington broke new ground in the study of Maori art and history, this is a new paperback edition of the exhibition catalog. More than 120 paintings, written accounts, and photographs from the time, following the English invasion in 1881 chronicle the story of brave leaders Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi, and celebrate the strength and spirit of the Parihaka community, even under colonial rule.
• Ralph Hotere: Black Light – Ian Wedde (Editor)
• Pukaki: A Comet Returns – Paul Tapsell - Exploring the legacy of Pukaki, the ancestral father of Ngati Whakaue, a hapu (sub-tribe) of Te Arawa
