Uprising: Walking the Southern Alps of New Zealand - Nic Low (2021)
Armed with Ngāi Tahu’s traditional oral maps and modern satellite atlas, Nic Low crossed Kā Tiritiri-o-te-moana, the Southern Alps, many times, trying to understand how his forebears saw the land. In a meditation on history and place, Uprising recounts these alpine expeditions and unlocks the stories living in the land.
Publication details
Nic Low. (Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2021).
About the book
Kā Tiritiri-o-te-moana, the Alps, form the backbone of the Ngāi Tahu tribe’s territory: five hundred kilometres of mountains and glaciers, rivers and forests. Far from being virgin wilderness, the area was named and owned long before Europeans arrived and the struggle for control of the land began.
Low talked with tribal leaders, dived into the archives and an astonishing family memoir, and took what he learned for a walk. Part gripping adventure story, part meditation on history and place, Uprising recounts his alpine expeditions to unlock the stories living in the land.
Uprising is an invitation to travel one of the world’s most spectacular landscapes in the company of Māori explorers, raiding parties, and gods.
Find out more or purchase the book here.
This book is part of a series marking the publication of Books of Mana (Otago University Press, 2025). It builds on the project Te Takarangi: Celebrating Māori publications and adds 30 titles to a selected list of 150 non-fiction books, led by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga in collaboration with Royal Society Te Apārangi.