Shrink-wrapped, vacuum-packed, disassembled, sold for parts,butt of jokes, scapegoats, too this for that, too that for this,gravy trains, too angry, special treatment, let it go . . .&‘ Always italicise foreign words' , a friend of the author was advised. In her first book of poetry, Maori scholar and poet Alice Te Punga Somerville does just that. In wit and anger, sadness and aroha, she reflects on &‘ how to write while colonised' &– how to write in English as a Maori writer; how to trace links between Aotearoa and wider Pacific, Indigenous and colonial worlds; how to be the only Maori person in a workplace; and how &– and why &– to do the mahi anyway.I wanted to pick up baby, and I wanted to pick a fight:The eternal Waitangi Day dilemma.

Ku and Hina—man and woman—were the great ancestral gods of heaven and earth for the ancient Hawaiians. They were life's fruitfulness and all the generations of mankind, both those who are to come and those already born. The Hawaiian gods were like great chiefs from far lands who visited among the people, entering their daily lives sometimes as humans or animals, sometimes taking residence in a stone or wooden idol. As years passed, the families of gods grew and included the trickster Maui, who snared the sun, and fiery Pele of the volcano. Ancient Hawaiians lived by the animistic philosophy that assigned living souls to animals, trees, stones, stars, and clouds, as well as to humans. Religion and mythology were interwoven in Hawaiian culture; and local legends and genealogies were preserved in song, chant, and narrative. Martha Beckwith was the first scholar to chart a path through the hundreds of books, articles, and little-known manuscripts that recorded the oral narratives of the Hawaiian people. Her book has become a classic work of folklore and ethnology, and the definitive treatment of Hawaiian mythology. With an introduction by Katherine Luomala.

" ... An official collection of Māori historical traditions"--BIM.