Mauri Ora: Wisdom from the Maori World by Peter Alsop

$30.00 NZD

Category: Maori | Reading Level: near fine

Pearls of wisdom contained in proverbs - whakatauk-I - have been gifted from generation to generation as an intrinsic part of the M-aori world. As powerful metaphors, they combine analogy and cultural history in the most economical of words. Short and insightful, they surprise, engendering reflection, l earning and personal growth. Mauri Ora links whakatauk-I to key personal virtues idealised across cultures and generations. The virtues - wisdom, courage, compassion, integrity, self-mastery and belief - stem from the science of positive psychology; the study of how to live a better life. Illustrated throughout with wonderful photographs from an old world, this book draws on traditional wisdom to provide a recipe for personal effectiveness and leadership, and a rewarding connection of M-aori knowledge to contemporary thinking about personal happiness and fulfilment. ...Show more

Mike McRoberts: Beyond the Firing Line by Mike McRoberts

$20.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

When news is often confined to sound bites and brief backgrounders, some of the best stories behind the news go largely untold. Here, without those constraints, Mike is able to give full, truthful and honest portrayals of these event. Admired for his credibility and willingness to go to the hot spots, i n a reporting career spanning 25 years, Mike is best known for his work in some of the world's most dangerous places, covering conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, East Timor and the Solomon Islands. He has also covered some of the world's worst natural disasters from tsunamis, to wildfires and earthquakes, including the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, and then, close to home, his informative and compassionate coverage of the Christchurch earthquakes in 2010 and 2011.About the author:Since 2005, Mike McRoberts has presented TV3's flagship six o'clock news bulletin, 3News, as well as reporting and presenting for the current affairs show 60 Minutes. He has won numerous journalism awards, including Qantas Television Award for TV Journalist of the Year in 2006. ...Show more

Conversations About Indigenous Rights: The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand by Selwyn Katene and Rawiri Taonui (eds)

$25.00 NZD

Category: Maori | Reading Level: very good

The UN declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples is a deeply significant document. In 2007, then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described its signing as an "historic moment when UN Member States and indigenous peoples reconciled with their painful histories and resolved to move forward together on the path of human rights, justice and development for all".This book reflects on the tenth anniversary of the UN General Assembly's adoption of the Declaration and examines its relevance in New Zealand. It shows the strong alignment between the Treaty of Waitangi and the Declaration, and examines how the Declaration assists the interpretation and application of Treaty principles of partnership, protection and participation. Starting from a range of viewpoints and disciplines, the authors agree that in Aotearoa New Zealand the journey to full implementation is now well underway, but warn that greater political leadership, willpower, resources and a stronger government commitment is needed. ...Show more

Windows on a Women's World: The Dominican Sisters of Aotearoa New Zealand by Susannah Grant

$30.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand Church History | Reading Level: near fine

The first 10 Dominican sisters arrived in Dunedin in 1871. The congregation expanded rapidly, establishing schools throughout Otago and Southland, and eventually reaching as far north as Auckland.For most of their first century in New Zealand the Dominican sisters were teaching nuns, living in large enc losed convents cut off from the outside world. In the mid-1960s the Second Vatican Council ushered in a period of radical change. The sisters moved out of their convents and into small homes in their local neighbourhoods; out of their schools and into new roles in education, social justice, pastoral care and spirituality. Today they are an ageing congregation that is diminishing in size.Susannah Grant was given full access to the congregations rich archives in order to write this book, from the point of view of an outsider. She has also completed a large number of oral histories with the sisters. In this moving and beautifully written book she chronicles the astonishing transformation of the New Zealand Dominican sisters from a strictly enclosed body of religious teachers to a congregation of religious women who are integrated in the wider community and engaged in a range of active ministries, while still remaining deeply committed to shared Dominican ideals. ...Show more

Pursuing Peace in Godzone: Christianity and the Peace Tradition in New Zealand by Geoffrey Troughton and Philip Fountain

$18.00 NZD

Category: Religion | Reading Level: near fine

This follow-up to Saints and Stirrers brings the history of the Christian-inspired peace movement up to the present. Quaker pacifism, nuclear testing in the Pacific, Maori land alienation and cultural dispossession, apartheid in South Africa, protests at Waihopai and changing attitudes to Anzac Day are some of the topics that are of intense contemporary interest. ...Show more

Feverish by Gigi Fenster

$15.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand Literature | Reading Level: very good

Swaziland is where you think, for the first time, maybe if I got brain fever I would be able to stop worrying. I'd lose control and, maybe then, I'd understand my friend's mind. In an attempt to break free from rationality and make her life a work of art, Gigi Fenster decides to induce a fever in hersel f. Fever, she surmises, is a `particularly writerly thing'. What follows is a captivating memoir of that attempt. Feverish ranges over Fenster's childhood in South Africa, her relationships with her psychiatrist father, her troubled friend Simon, and her mother and four siblings, through to New Zealand and her relationships with her two teenage daughters. As she traverses her life, Fenster asks questions about bravery, transgression, vulnerability and the value we place on art. This memoir is a witty, intelligent, original examination of what it means to be a compassionate human being. `Without empathy,' she writes, `one cannot tell the full story. There can be no proper care.' ...Show more

Matariki: Te Whetu o te Tau by Rangi Matamua

$20.00 NZD

Category: Maori | Reading Level: very good

In mid-winter, Matariki rises in the pre-dawn sky, and its observation is celebrated with incantations on hilltops at dawn, balls, exhibitions, dinners and a vast number of events. The Matariki tradition has been re-established, and its regeneration coincides with a growing interest in M?ori astronomy. Still, there remain some unanswered questions about how Matariki was traditionally observed. These include: What is Matariki? Why did M?ori observe Matariki? How did M?ori traditionally celebrate Matariki? When and how should Matariki be celebrated? Based on research and interviews with M?ori experts, this book seeks answers to these questions and explores what Matariki was in a traditional sense so it can be understood and celebrated in our modern society. ...Show more

Rugby: The Afterlife by Wynne Gray

$20.00 NZD

Category: NZ Sport History | Reading Level: near fine

Way back when there was a clear distinction between work and rugby, great names of the game spent their time working in an office or at a trade or out on the farm, all the while fitting in training and then playing at the weekends. That job/play distinction became hazier through the 80s and 90s until, i n the wake of Jonah Lomu's stunning exploits at the 1995 World Cup and pressure from media barons, the International Rugby Board declared rugby professional. Some players just missed that pay dirt, others straddled the crossover years while the rest have never known any different and have always written 'fulltime sportsman' on their tax returns as rugby threaded its way through two decades of professionalism. For all of these players, though, there was a finishing line, a final test appearance. Some made that choice, others had it made for them. Some All Blacks had planned strongly for life after rugby, many were pursued hard by companies while others had difficulties settling into the next chapter of their lives. How did they go about that transition? Did they wait for guidance, have a lightbulb moment, take on some serious study or retraining or did they have the security of going back into a family business? How did a lifetime in rugby protect or prepare them for experiences after the game and how and why did they make the choices they did? Rugby -- The Afterlife explores in great detail how a number of All Blacks coped with that transition and came out the other side. ...Show more

The World's Din: Listening to Records, Radio and Films in New Zealand, 1880-1940 by Peter Hoar

$25.00 NZD

Category: History | Reading Level: near fine

New Zealanders started hearing things in new ways when new audio technologies arrived from overseas in the late 19th century. From the first public demonstration of a phonograph in a Blenheim hall in 1879, people were exposed to a succession of machines that captured, stored and transmitted sounds throu gh radio, cinema and recordings. In The Worlds Din, Peter Hoar documents the arrival of the first such talking machines, and their growing place in New Zealanders public and private lives, through the years of radio to the dawn of television. In so doing, he chronicles a sonic revolution in how New Zealanders heard the world. The change was radical, signifying a defining break from the past. Human experience of the world changed forever during the late 19th and early 20th centuries because we learned to capture, store, and transmit sounds and moving images. Audio since then has been a continued refinement of the original innovation, even in the contemporary era of digital sound, with iPods, streaming audio and Spotify. The Worlds Din is a beautifully written account that will delight music-lovers and technophiles everywhere.Without further ado, it is time to crank the gramophone, or tune the wireless, or open the Jaffa box as the cinema lights dim, and hearken to the richness and variety of listening in New Zealands past soundscapes. ...Show more

Raglan County: Hills and Sea: A Centennial History 1876-1976 by C. W. Vennell and Susan Williams

$25.00 NZD

Category: Regional | Reading Level: very good

At the Crossroads: Three Essays by Jane Kelsey

$12.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand | Series: Streettalk Ser. | Reading Level: good

New Zealand stands at the crossroads: there are crucial choices facing the country's government and its people. This is a book about what we were promised, where we are now, and what might yet be - a book intended to provoke discussion about New Zealand's future. The essays: The Wobbly Bicycle - G lobalisation on the Precipice Global capitalism is in crisis. Its supporters say they must pedal the free-trade bicycle faster to keep it upright. Its critics are demanding alternatives based on social justice and democracy. The Third Way - A Road to Nowhere The election of a centre-left government in late 1999 was full of promise. But Labour has chosen a path of political management not transformation: that is unsustainable for New Zealand in the longer term. A Requiem for TINA - Taking the High Road This essay rejects market-led approaches to nation-building, and argues for strategies that put people at the centre. An exciting set of propositions outlines some pathways to just such a vision. ...Show more

Truth or Treaty by David Round

$14.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand | Reading Level: good

Commonsense questions about the Treaty of Waitangi 'The Treaty is a fraud' used to be a catch-cry of Maori activists - now, perhaps it should be shouted by Pakeha, argues David Round in this controversial new book. Following on from his thought-provoking series of articles on the Treaty and environmenta l issues in The Press, he examines the present enthusiasm for the Treaty as part of a wider revival of indigenous and local interests, the fragmentation and decline of the nation state and the West's loss of confidence in itself. Chapters consider the law relating to the Treaty, the nature of justice and particular questions concerning the conservation estate. This is no reactionary right-wing rant against all that is new, but a sensible, refreshing and at times surprising book by an acute commentator on social and political issues. ...Show more