Celebrating a collection of 150 Māori non-fiction books

Royal Society Te Apārangi

For immediate release

16 October 2018
Celebrating a collection of 150 Māori non-fiction books and authors

Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga and Royal Society Te Apārangi are to celebrate 150 Māori non-fiction books and their authors at an event at Parliament this evening.

The launch of the Te Takarangi project marked Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga’s 15th anniversary as New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence and the society’s 150th anniversary since the passing of the Act that established the New Zealand Institute.

From 13th February 2018, a book was profiled on the Royal Society Te Apārangi website and social media each day of the working week accumulating with the final entry from the list during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2018. Tonight’s event is a celebration of all 150 books.

The list of 150 books has been curated by Co-Director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Professor Jacinta Ruru (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Ranginui), Jeanette Wikaira (Ngāti Pukenga, Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāpuhi) and Associate Professor Angela Wanhalla (Ngāi Tahu).

“This is a powerful opportunity to celebrate together with Te Apārangi the long history of Māori scholarship that exists in Aotearoa. The cumulative weight of the research these books embody is outstanding, representing an incredible collection of voices of Māori inspiration for this nation, talking to us from the past and charting a pathway forward into the future,” says Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Chair Tā Tīpene O’Regan.

“We are thrilled to be working together with Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga to acclaim these Māori authors and their publications, with this special project that flows on from our 150th celebrations. The books we are promoting represent only a sample of the Māori scholarship that is available to us, but this small selection provides an excellent insight into the depth and breadth of Māori academic excellence and mātauranga that we hope will inspire young and old alike,” says Royal Society Te Apārangi President Professor Wendy Larner.

“We greatly appreciate the work of NPM Co-Director Professor Jacinta Ruru, Associate Professor Angela Wanhalla and Jeanette Wikaira for curating the list and preparing short pieces on each book. It is an excellent piece of work which we are privileged to be able to jointly sponsor,” says Larner.

Many of the original books will be on display and a large number of the authors and publishers will be present at the event.

The full list of publications can be found here: https://royalsociety.org.nz/150th-anniversary/tetakarangi/

More information about the project is available here: https://royalsociety.org.nz/150th-anniversary/tetakarangi/about-te-takarangi/

ends

© Scoop Media