New Zealand Geographer (2008) 64, 79–90
Book Reviews
Book Reviews
Reviews
Blackwell Publishing Asia
MÅori peoples of New Zealand:
NgÅ Iwi o Aotearoa
The encyclopaedia of New Zealand. Te Manatu
Taonga/Ministry for Culture and Heritage,
Wellington, and David Bateman Ltd, Albany,
2006. 294 pp. ISBN 10: 1-86953-622-3.
Who are the Maori peoples of New Zealand?
How did they get here and how did they settle
the country? Who are the main tribal groups,
and where are they based? When was New
Zealand settled?
Some answers to these questions lie within
the covers of this attractive and unique book;
unique because it replicates reference material
originally commissioned and published by
the New Zealand government for Te Ara, the
national online digital encyclopaedia. Thirty-
four scholars have contributed concise articles
(4 – 6 pages) using language that is easily under-
stood by secondary school students. The liberal
use of headings, subheadings, colourful illustra-
tions, images, topic boxes, stories, whakapapa
(genealogy charts) and maps all add to the
book’s appeal.
As a Maori geographer involved in teaching
about Maori land and communities and hapu
relationships to place, I welcomed the chance
to review this book as a possible class text. It
is comprehensive, contains useful information
and has many redeeming features; however, it
also has some shortcomings. One is its structure.
The book is divided into two parts.
Chapters 1 to 4 of Part 1 focus on Pacific
migration and scientific theories, while Maori
views of creation, Hawaiki and origin do not
emerge until Chapters 5 to 7. Given that the
book is entitled Máori Peoples of New Zealand,
I would have expected these three chapters to
introduce the book and establish the context
before bringing in topics such as Pacific migra-
tion, canoe navigation, Pacific connections and
scientific theories.
© 2008 The Authors
Journal compilation © 2008 The New Zealand Geographical Society Inc. Published by Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
doi: 10.1111/j.1745-7939.2008.00131.
Part 2 introduces readers to 36 major iwi.
Tribal sayings, location, ancestry, history and
population figures are included for each iwi.
Unfortunately a number of traditional iwi are
not mentioned. The impression one gets from
viewing the map on page 6 is that some areas
have no iwi, which of course is incorrect. For
example, although Ngati Te Ata, Ngati Tahinga,
Tainui, Ngati Te Wehi, Ngati Marurangi,
Ngati Hikairo and Ngati Mahuta are hapu and
iwi of the West Coast lands stretching from
Port Waikato to Kawhia, they do not appear
on the North Island map. Similarly, Ngati
Poutini, Waitaha and Ngati Mamoe do not
appear on the South Island map.
Listing iwi alphabetically rather than
grouping them according to hapu relationships
or whakapapa has resulted in repetition in
some of the stories as several key characters
are eponymous ancestors of different tribes.
Ranginui Walker rightly acknowledged that
the iwi list is not definitive (p. 9) and that
further iwi will be added later, presumably after
the government negotiates a treaty settlement
with each group.
As Maori people are the subject of this
book and as Maori is an official language of
New Zealand, it would have been appropriate
to give priority to the Maori title Ngá Iwi o
Aotearoa as the main heading with its translation
in English in smaller print.
The final paragraph states that 20% of
Maori no longer know which tribe they are
from. The insistence by the government that
Maori become part of large natural groupings
for treaty settlement negotiation purposes,
may be partly responsible for contributing to
this outcome.
The brief reference to DNA research and
Maori women was fascinating, but I was unable
to pursue this further as there was no citation
or reference in the bibliography.
The book provides some answers to questions
which continue to fascinate New Zealanders.
80
Although comprehensive in its coverage,
Ngá Iwi o Aotearoa is merely an appetizer to
the longer and more complex iwi and hapu
histories that readers may feel compelled to
explore at a later date. I would certainly con-
sider using this book as a class text.
Angeline Greensill
Department of Geography, Tourism
and Environmental Planning
University of Waikato
Fiji: An encyclopaedic atlas
Crosbie Walsh. University of the South Pacific
Press, Suva, 2006. 420 pp. ISBN 978-982-01-
0752-6.
For anyone with an interest in delving into
details concerning Fiji’s history, society and
economy, this ‘encyclopaedic atlas’ is literally
brimming with information. Although few
would want to read it cover to cover, many –
from students and academics to development
practitioners and government employees – will
find something valuable within. The atlas is
organized into 17 major sections, including
discussions of population, urbanization, racial
and ethnic groups, religious groups, social and
economic activities, history and politics. While
drawing on the work of a number of relevant
scholars and with special contributions from
Paul Geraghty (ethnic Fijian languages),
France Mugler (languages of Indo-Fijians) and
Robbie Robertson (politics and elections),
Crosbie Walsh has written most of the atlas
himself.
Crosbie Walsh is a development geographer
whose passion for this subject was evident as
much in his dogged determination to establish
the initial Development Studies programme in
New Zealand (at Massey University) and then
at the University of the South Pacific in Suva,
as in his continued commitment to publishing
academic works during his supposed ‘retirement’
to the tiny New Zealand town of Tokomaru.
He completed his PhD in the 1970s at the
height of the quantitative revolution, and since
that time has combined a strong sense of social
justice with a fascination for facts and figures.
© 2008 The Authors
Journal compilation © 2008 The New Zealand Geographical Society
Book Reviews
This was evident to me and my classmates in
the 1980s who were subject to Crosbie’s infamous
5% ‘spot quizzes’ which could be sprung upon
us at any time. This atlas would provide much
potential fodder for such a quiz: what are Fiji’s
top earners of foreign exchange? how much
outmigration of Indo-Fijians occurred in the
1990s? and what year did Fijian soldiers first
serve as UN Peacekeepers?
Crosbie’s intention in preparing this atlas
was to map census data in a user-friendly
manner and to provide text which could help
to explain the data. He has done this well,
structuring most topics according to a two-
page spread with a map on the left page and
text plus additional figures and/or tables on the
right. There is a very good level of detail in the
maps due to the fact that most of them present
information down to the level of tikina, which
are subdivisions of provinces. It is just a shame
that much data comes from the 1996 Census
and thus might be seen as somewhat out of date.
It is pleasing, however, to note the attention
that has gone into exposing gender and ethnic
differences in many of the figures and tables.
At the end of the atlas there are two appendices
which will be very valuable for researchers,
one of which provides a historical timeline,
while another lists contact information for a
wide range of non-governmental and civil
society organizations.
There is a great deal of demographic
information in the first part of the atlas, but I
was more drawn to the social and economic
information that is presented later in the book.
There is much here of general interest, from
the numbers of people engaging in subsistence
employment to the proportions of ‘old’ and
‘new’ Christians in different parts of the
country; from data on households with access
to electricity to those built using traditional
materials; from land tenure to squatter housing.
Less well-known data are also brought to the
fore. For example, even though I have written
about backpacker tourism in the Pacific, I was
not aware that the Fiji Bureau of Statistics
collected detailed information on backpacker
tourists to this country – information that I
will certainly draw upon in future.
The quality of the maps and other figures is
generally good, although their presentation is
more functional than elegant. For example,