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Rere Atu, Taku Manu! Discovering History, Language & Politics in the Māori-Language Newspapers—Jennifer Curnow, Ngapare K. Hopa and Jane McRae (Eds) (2002)

This collection was the first dedicated to the rich history of Māori-language newspapers, stretching back to the early 1840s. Contributors to the collection highlight the variety of Māori writing and bring attention to a rich, but largely overlooked, Māori-language archive.

Publication details

Curnow, J., N. K. Hopa and J. McRae (Eds). Rere Atu, Taku Manu! Discovering History, Language & Politics in the Maori-Language Newspapers, Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2002.

About the book

This work is the result of a three-year research and translation project into 19th- and early 20th-century Māori language newspapers. Rere Atu, Taku Manu is the first book about the Māori language newspapers, of which some 35 were produced between 1842 and the 1930s by government, churches and independent Māori and Pakeha.

The newspapers are a substantial but little tapped source of Māori and NZ history and a remarkable record of an indigenous language in print in colonial times. It comprises 12 essays on topics ranging from linguistics to politics, loosely two groupings of language and literature and social and political history. As an epilogue, it also covers the late 20th-century reproduction of these newspapers on the internet.

Further information 

  • Out of print

 

This publication is part of the series Te Takarangi: Celebrating Māori publications - a sample list of 150 non-fiction books produced by a partnership between Royal Society Te Apārangi and Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga.