Caught in the crossfire of inter-tribal wars, witnesses to cannibalism and to scenes of both ethereal beauty and chilling terror - the early European explorers of New Zealand were a diverse group of individuals who undertook voyages of sometimes epic proportions through the country. In The Voyagers, Paul Moon tells dramatic stories of Europeans discovering and exploring New Zealand during the first half of the 1800s. Ocean adventures, cross-country trekking, imperial and spiritual conquests, first contacts with Maori, artists seeking the 'sublime', scientific discovery and commercial pursuits all intertwine to form a fascinating portrait of a land undergoing immense change. Jules Dumont d'Urville, Samuel Marsden, Ferdinand von Hochstetter and Charles Heaphy complement an array of lesser known but no less intrepid explorers - soldiers and sailors, travellers and settlers, missionaries, artists and officials - all of whom ventured from their homelands in search of new horizons. The Voyagers is a perceptive and absorbing account of nineteenth-century exploration, and of the very human characters who helped put New Zealand on the map. Also available as an eBook 'Fascinating and revealing . . . this well written and illustrated book is in keeping with the best of [Moon's] many works on New Zealand history.' --Waikato Times 'Offers particular insights into a largely unmapped land and its people . . . very accessible . . . a fascinating, cohesive story.' --Dominion Post

The archetypal story of Thomas Kendall, a self-torturing, struggling missionary in nineteenth century New Zealand, is also a remarkable history of cross-cultural experience. Posted to New Zealand in 1814, Kendall was immensely devout but entirely unprepared for dealing with Māori. He nonetheless helped produce the first Māori Grammar, but was hindered by rumours of an affair with a Māori chief’s daughter. Dismissed from his duties in 1823, he continued studying Māori culture until his death nearly a decade later. Long out of print, this work by a leading New Zealand historian tells an absorbing story of the difficulties and dangers of the evangelical mission.

‘Us Maoris used to practice slavery just like them poor Negroes had to endure in America . . .' says Beth Heke in Once Were Warriors. ‘Oh those evil colonials who destroyed Maori culture by ending slavery and cannibalism while increasing the life expectancy,' wrote one sarcastic blogger. So was Maori slavery ‘just like' the experience of Africans in the Americas and were British missionaries or colonial administrators responsible for ending the practice? What was the nature of freedom and unfreedom in Maori society and how did that intersect with the perceptions of British colonists and the anti-slavery movement? A meticulously researched book, Outcasts of the Gods? looks closely at a huge variety of evidence to answer these questions, analyzing bondage and freedom in traditional Maori society; the role of economics and mana in shaping captivity; and how the arrival of colonists and new trade opportunities transformed Maori society and the place of captives within it.

This book traces Māori engagement with handwriting from 1769 to 1826. Through beautifully reproduced written documents, it describes the first encounters Māori had with paper and writing and the first relationships between Māori and Europeans in the earliest school. The earliest Māori–Pākehā engagements were vividly recorded by both Māori and Pākehā in drawings and writing in the early 1800's. These beautiful archival images tell stories about how Māori encountered pen and paper, which gives us a new and exciting perspective on the past. Words Between Us – He Kōrero is a controversial and enlightening book that will stimulate fresh thinking about those first conversations between Māori and Pākehā.

The first comprehensive examination and comparison of the indigenous peoples of the five British dominions during the First World War.