Ko Taranaki Te Maunga
Parihaka was a place and an event that could be lost and found, over and over. It moved into view, then disappeared, just like the mountain.
In 1881, over 1,500 colonial troops invaded the village of Parihaka near the Taranaki coast. Many people were expelled, buildings destroyed, and chiefs Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi were jailed.
In this BWB Text, Rachel Buchanan tells her own, deeply personal story of Parihaka. Beginning with the death of her father, a man with affiliations to many of Taranaki’s eight iwi, she describes her connection to Taranaki, the land and mountain; and the impact of confiscation. Buchanan discusses the apologies and settlements that have taken place since te pāhuatanga, the invasion of Parihaka.
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BWB Texts are short books on big subjects by great New Zealand writers. Spanning contemporary issues, history and memoir, new BWB Texts are released regularly, and the series now amounts to well over fifty works.
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Table of contents
1. Time zones
2. Paper mountain
3. The very long sorry
4. Beating shame
5. The translator
6. Ko Taranaki Te Maunga
Notes
About the author
About BWB Texts
Preview
Search inside
Media
Dr Rachel Buchanan: 'The shame of Parihaka is so great it can never end', Te Ahi Kaa, RNZ, 4 November 2018.
'Books of the week', Stuff, 6 October 2018.
'Parihaka - the time for apologies is over', Standing Room Only, RNZ, 16 September 2018.
'Rachel Buchanan, author of Ko Taranaki Te Maunga', RadioLive, 15 September 2018.
'Apology fatigue sparks Parihaka rethink', Radio Waatea, 11 September 2018.
'New book weaves author's personal story of Parihaka with its history of loss and reconciliation', Deena Coster, Stuff, 10 September 2018.
'Rachel Buchanan: Ko Taranaki Te Maunga', e-Tangata, 9 September 2018.
'Rachel Buchanan Author', Rachel Buchanan interviewed by Dale Husband, Radio Waatea, 7 September 2018.
Comment
'In this short but powerful text, Rachel Buchanan uses the tools of an archivist to scale what she calls the paper mountain – the records and documents surrounding the events at Parihaka – to give new meaning to the echoes of invasion that still sound throughout Taranaki.'
- Paul Moenboyd, BooksellersNZ, 29 October 2018.
'A very powerful amalgamation of personal memoir and history. So, we don’t get this level very often. I think this is really very up-there....It’s a dream to read....It’s a personal story but it’s of national interest.'
- Tilly Lloyd, RNZ, 12 October 2018
