Co-winner of the W.H. Oliver Prize for Best Book, NZHA 2021.
Winner of the Erik Olssen Prize for Best First Book, NZHA 2021.
Co-winner of the 2021 Ernest Scott Prize
Shortlisted for the General Non-fiction Award at the 2021 Ockham NZ Book Awards
Comment
'In Māori theological writings there are four distinguished publications. The first three are written by Rua Rakena, Māori Marsden and Pa Henare Tate. The fourth is Te Hāhi Mihinare by Hirini Kaa, which is a classic of its generation.'
Wayne Te Kaawa, NZJH (55:2, 2021)
Media
'Review: Te Hāhi Minihare: The Māori Anglican Church', John Stenhouse, History Australia, 19(1), 10 February 2022.
'Interview: Rev Dr Hirini Kaa', John Cowan, Newstalk ZB, 9 March 2021 (audio, 24'27").
'Kaa in with a prayer for book prize', Waatea News, 3 March 2021.
'National Portrait: Hirini Kaa, a Māori historian on life, death and religion', Philip Matthews, Stuff, 19 December 2020.
'Mihinare history breaks new ground', Anglican Taonga, December 2020.
'Hirini Kaa: Māori and the church', e-Tangata, 5 December 2020.
'Mihinare: 200 years of Māori and the Anglican Church', The Spinoff, 16 November 2020.
'A new heart', Mark Peters, The Gisborne Herald, 15 November 2020.
'National Portrait: Hirini Kaa, a Māori historian on life, death and religion', Stuff, 14 November 2020.
'Paakiwaha 2nd Nov 2020 - Full show', Hirini Kaa talks to Dale Husband. Radio Waatea, Paakiwaha. Interview starts around three-quarters into the programme. (Audio 10').
'Isolation helped Māori forge unique faith' Hirini Kaa, Waateanews.com, 11 November 2020.
'No law is racism-proof', Hirini Kaa, e-Tangata, 11 October 2020.
'The Māori Anglican Church', Radio Rhema
'Aotearoa Histories: Decolonizing and reindigenizing church and society in New Zealand', Hirini Kaa, Anglican Journal, June 1 2021
Comment
'Hirini Kaa presents an informative and perceptive study of Te Hāhi Mihinare ‘the Māori Anglican Church’ from its inception early in colonial Aotearoa New Zealand up until 1992 ... Kaa is able to guide readers through the complexities and challenges of iwi tikanga ‘tribal cultures’ and Anglican religious ideas, practices and internal politics.'
Michael Reilly, The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 130(4), December 2021
'This book should be compulsory reading for all studying for ministry in Aotearoa regardless of Hāhi or iwi, ethnicity or gender. It has much to teach those who read with an open mind and listening heart.'
Tui H L Cadigan, Te Karaka, 20 December 2020
'The conflict between marae and Anglican headquarters back "home" began early on and continued until years within recent memory over issues such as compiling a new Māori prayer book. This superficially unpromising topic turns out to be riveting in its twists and turns before the book finally appears in 1989.'
Paul Little, North & South, January 2021
'Kaa, the consummate historian, fleshes out history’s dry bones to create something vital and deeply relevant. Central to this is a quality he describes as “the notion of cultural change and cultural persistence coexisting”. It should be read by any New Zealander interested in this country’s past, present and future and the continuing interaction between Treaty partners.'
Chris Moore, NZ Listener, 12 December 2020.
'Engagingly and dramatically written, Hirini Kaa carries the reader with him as he traces the complexities of Māori history as well as the intricacies of Anglican structure and liturgy. Hirini Kaa’s book demands that the agency of colonised peoples is recognised as central to the emergence of new ways to understand faith.'
Judges' comments, Ernest Scott Prize (Shortlist), 20 April 2021