‘When we’re young, we learn the stories of others.
When we’re adults, we create our own story.
When we’re old, we tell our story.’
From the beginning, Tainui Stephens has been finding stories. In people, in place, and in the shifting shape of Māori life in Aotearoa. And through a career in filmmaking, broadcasting and cultural advocacy, he has been finding himself. Kua Tau gathers up a kete of his best writing on these subjects, drawing from his much-loved essays for the online magazine E-Tangata.
From the turbulence of the 1970s and 1980s to the powerful iwi Māori of today, Stephens writes about the people who shaped him. Kaumātua of the old world. Marae aunties. Rangatahi finding their place. Activists, artists, whānau and friends. The essays travel through reo and tikanga, identity, leadership, racism, grief and joy.
Warm, direct and deeply grounded, this is writing from a superb storyteller, and a book about the stories that make us whole.