The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s True Story of the Life-changing Magic of Compassion & Mindfulness by James Doty (Hodder … Read more
The Marae TV journalist tells the origin story of her debut novel, a young adult book releasing this week. Patricia Grace wrote a story called “It used to be green once” and every year my Pākehā teacher would pull it out in English class and everyone would laugh at the poor Mowri family with 10 … Read more
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man by Mary L. Trump (Simon & Schuster, … Read more
While we stand in solidarity with Black and indigenous communities experiencing ongoing violence overseas, we have plenty of work to do here in Aotearoa too. These 10 seminal anti-racism texts by Māori authors are a great place to start. George Floyd’s death as the result of police violence has sparked protests around the world, including … Read more
Matariki Williams is Te Papa’s Mātauranga Māori curator. In an extract from Te Manu Huna A Tāne, she writes about how honouring the kiwi became a lesson in honouring her own heritage. This essay has been abridged by Williams and its original title is Into the Void. There is a photo on my sideboard. It … Read more
This powerful collection of photographs and essays catalogues three generations of Ngāti Torehina ki Matakā learning to pelt North Island kiwi. Nāu, nā te Pākehā te kurī me te ngeru nāna i huna ngā kai o te motu nei, te weka, te kiwi, te kākāpō, te piopio, me te tini o ngā manu o te … Read more
We’ll get to the Top 10s in a minute but first a note on cleaning books, from Dr Siouxsie Wiles: “I’d say wiping covers is a good idea, and just making sure to wash your hands after you’ve been reading a book others have used is the way to go. Infection mainly requires repeated close … Read more
An excerpt from an essay by Treaty and constitutional law expert Dr Moana Jackson, taken from Imagining Decolonisation, the latest in the BWB Text series from Bridget Williams Books. James Cook’s belief that he could take this country for England in 1769 because he had ‘discovered’ it, and the whole discourse in the 1830s about … Read more
A surge of Māori internet memes have appeared on Instagram in the past year tackling topics from land theft to a shared love of fry bread. They’ve been around since the dawn of the internet, but in the last few years memes have become intrinsic to popular culture. They’ve also become increasingly political. Indigenous groups … Read more
Let’s disentangle the prized day of casual clothing from its colonial connotations, writes historian Katie Pickles. As another school year starts up around the country, getting into uniforms is compulsory for most pupils. It’s only the occasional mufti day that brings the chance to ditch the conformity. But little do most mufti day organisers and … Read more
Histories of colonisation ought to be remembered, including the horrors and atrocities, but also the endurance and empowerment found in trenchant resistance and the fight for sovereignty, writes Radhika Reddy. India and Aotearoa are both grappling with decolonisation. In this ongoing struggle to wrest free from the legacies of colonialism, each society can learn from … Read more
And in the effort to decolonise, each can learn from the other, writes Gaurav Sharma, editor of the Multicultural Times. For nation-states that emerged from centuries of brutal colonial rule, decolonisation is needed, in all its forms. The coloniser left India in 1947, and still the country is struggling. In Aotearoa, the coloniser coexists with … Read more
Māori food systems are rich with potential, and whānau-based food producers across the country are looking to traditional ways to ensure their communities thrive in the future. Alice Neville reports from the Eat New Zealand Food Hui. In recent years there has been much talk – in food business, hospitality, tourism and food media circles … Read more
Dudley Benson premieres his new video ‘Zealandia’ and speaks to Hussein Moses about his high concept political album of the same name that’s been eight years and $90,000 in the making. The day after Dudley Benson sent off his new album Zealandia to be mastered, he was back singing again, only this time it was … Read more