Mō tātou, ā, mō kā uri a muri ake nei. For us and our children after us.
Tāngata Ngāi Tahu, Volume Two remembers and celebrates the rich and diverse lives of the people of Ngāi Tahu. Spanning time, geography and kaupapa, fifty biographies bring Ngāi Tahu history into the present. The people in this book have contributed to their iwi, hapū and whānau in myriad ways: here are wāhine toa, matriarchs and marae stalwarts, rangatira and tohunga, community leaders, activists and scholars, fishermen and food-gatherers, adventurers and authors, weavers, musicians and many more. All are descendants of Waitaha, Ngāti Māmoe and Ngāi Tahu; united by whakapapa, they are Tāngata Ngāi Tahu.
Produced by the Ngāi Tahu Archive Team, this second volume builds on the success of the award-winning Tāngata Ngāi Tahu, Volume One. With a strong emphasis on mana wāhine, more than half of the biographies in Volume Two celebrate the stories of Ngāi Tahu women. The book is beautifully and generously illustrated with hundreds of photographs sourced from the Ngāi Tahu Archive, external institutions and whānau collections. Together these images constitute a tribal family album: a taonga tuku iho.
Te Pae Kōrako (the Ngāi Tahu Archive Advisory Committee) has guided this publication, which is the second in a series of continuing biographical volumes.