Australian & Pacific History

The Chief and the Empire uncovers the extraordinary true tale of Te Tai Tokerau rangatira Te Pahi - the first influential Māori leader to cross the Tasman - whose curiosity about the Pākehā world forged alliances, saved lives, and ultimately cost him his own. On a visit to Sydney in 1805, Te Pahi was feted as a celebrity, building close...

A brilliant memoir of adolescence in New Zealand and of the migration of European manuscripts to the far side of the world. Christopher de Hamel is one of the world's best-known scholars and writers on illuminated manuscripts. He was mostly brought up in the south of New Zealand, where his family moved when he was four. This book magically evokes...

Updated Edition 2025 This new edition contains a completely up-to-date timeline. Winner of four major awards.Brilliantly written by award-winning journalist Rebecca Macfie. 'Devastating account of a needless tragedy' - Otago Daily Times'Lucid, exhaustive, enraging' - New Zealand Listener'Compelling account of what went wrong' - Weekend Herald'Highly readable, sometimes shocking' - The Press'Compulsory reading for directors, managers and business students' -...

The definitive and bestselling history of Aotearoa New Zealand by one of our leading historians, continuously in print for 20 years. This bestselling book by the late Michael King is the unchallenged contemporary reference on the history of New Zealand. First published in 2003 and hailed as a triumph of careful research, wide reading and judicious assessment, it has been...

Be Brave

Victorian Wellington street by street In 1891, a remarkable map of Wellington was made by surveyor Thomas Ward. It recorded the footprint of every building, from Thorndon in the north and across the teeming, inner-city slums of Te Aro to Berhampore in the south. Updated regularly over the next 10 years, it detailed hotels, theatres, oyster saloons, brothels, shops, stables,...

A revised edition of the best-selling book containing two new chapters covering the last decade and a half. Struggle Without End by Dr. Ranginui Walker is a compelling history of Aotearoa, New Zealand, viewed from a distinctly Māori perspective. Dr. Walker meticulously traces the journey of the Māori people from their Polynesian origins, through the arrival of European settlers in...

"Andrew Crowe has produced a masterful synthesis of the remarkable voyaging history of the Polynesians." Prof Patrick V. Kirch, Chancellor's Professor Emeritus and Professor of the Graduate School at the University of California at Berkeley. Pathway of the Birds casts light on a neglected epoch of world history, one that saw Polynesians expand their territory across the world's largest ocean....

After her father's death, Katrina Kittel opens his old Globite suitcase and finds tiny photos, postcards in beautiful handwriting from a mysterious Swiss woman, and memorabilia from his war. Katrina Kittel's father, Colin Booth, was captured during the disastrous July 1942 attempt to take Alamein's Ruin Ridge. He was among 80,000 Allied soldiers sent to camps in northern Italy as...

A new edition of the bestselling short history on New Zealand, updated to include the Helen Clark years, the rise of John Key, the Christchurch earthquakes and the 2011 Rugby World Cup!

Bible & Treaty: Missionaries Among the Maori is a complex and colourful adventure of faith, bravery, perseverance, and betrayal that seeks to recover lost connections in the story of modern New Zealand. It brings a fresh perspective to the missionary story, from the lead-up to Samuel Marsden's first sermon on New Zealand soil, and the intervening struggle for survival and...

'A signally important text in the canon of Maori history.' - Michael Stevens The dynamics of an evolving southern world are mapped by distinguished archaeologist Atholl Anderson in a new edition of his groundbreaking book from 1998. The Welcome of Strangers traces the early migrations of Waitaha and Kati Mamoe people and the later arrival and settlement of Ngai Tahu....

Ko Te Kooti Te Turuki Rikirangi tētahi o ngā maunga teitei o te wā – he kōkōrangi i ngā rā pōuri, he tokotoko i te awa kōpaka. I tū ia hei toa i te whare o Tūmatauenga, engari ki te Hāhi Ringatū, he poropiti – he matakite nāna i hāpai ngā moemoeā, ngā tūmanako, me ngā wairua o te iwi...

The Unsettled explores what it means to own your past. After Richard Shaw published his acclaimed memoir The Forgotten Coast in 2021, he connected with Pākehā individuals possessing long settler histories. These individuals were beginning to confront the truth behind their families' 'pioneer stories', questioning the foundations of aggressive acts of colonisation and land confiscation upon which these narratives were...

He toi whakairo, he mana tangata. Through artistic excellence, there is human dignity. Toi Te Mana is a landmark account of Māori art from the time of the tupuna (ancestors) to the present day. In 600 pages and over 500 extraordinary images, this volume invites readers to climb onto the waka for a remarkable voyage—from ancestral weavers to contemporary artists...

Shortlisted, 2024 NSW Premier's History Awards, Anzac Memorial Trustees Military History Prize On 9 August 1918, at Chipilly Spur overlooking the Somme River, an entire British Army Corps is held up by German machine gunners. The battle has raged for 30 hours and more than 2000 men have fallen. Then, two Australian sergeants, Jack Hayes and Harold Andrews, go absent...

In a book that is both deeply personal and highly political, Melani Anae recalls the radical activism of Auckland's Polynesian Panthers - the movement modelled on the US Black Panther Party but without guns. The Polynesian Panthers was founded in response to the racist treatment of Pacific Islanders in the era of the Dawn Raids. Central to the group was...

"You were made a Pakeha, and the name of England was given to you for your tribe. I was made a Maori, and New Zealand was the name given to me. You forgot that there was a space fixed between us of great extent - the sea. You, forgetting that, jumped over from that place to this. I did not...

Shortlisted for the Society of Women Writers NSW Book Awards Esther only just escaped the hangman in London. Aged 16, she stood trial at the Old Bailey for stealing 24 yards of black silk lace. Her sentence was transportation to the other side of the world. She embarked on the perilous journey on the First Fleet as a convict, with...

From convict colony to great democracy Australia is one of the world's great success stories: a land long hidden from outsiders, chosen as a convict dumping ground, where—since 1788—people from many backgrounds have built one of the most free, fair, and prosperous countries on earth. By the standards of a harsher time, the early governors tried to respect the original...

A political betrayal. A constitutional crisis. A hidden correspondence. Gough Whitlam was a progressive prime minister whose reign from 1972 proved tumultuous after 23 years of conservative government in Australia. After a second election victory in May 1974, when a hostile Senate refused to vote on his 1975 budget, the political deadlock that ensued culminated in Whitlam's unexpected and deeply...

“From the helicopter I could see the property's waterholes surrounded by paperback trees, its red-stone cliffs lit by the rising sun. And grass, endless seas of grass. Here was the vision splendid—Nat Buchanan's grass castle. Gurindji country. And my country, Australia.” This is big country, the outback, home to the largest cattle and sheep stations in the world. Yet few...

He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni / The Declaration of Independence of New Zealand was signed by fifty-two rangatira from 1835 to 1839. It was a powerful assertion of mana and rangatiratanga, made after decades of Māori and European encounters that had been steadily expanding - both within Aotearoa New Zealand and elsewhere on the globe as Māori...

In 1840, over 500 Māori leaders put their names to a significant new document: Te Tiriti o Waitangi or the Treaty of Waitangi. Through their signatures, moko or marks, they were making an agreement with the British Crown, represented by Consul and Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson. At stake was the sovereignty of the country, the governance of the land. The meanings...

The New Zealand Wars | Nga Pakanga o Aotearoa by Vincent O'Malley delves into one of the most significant series of conflicts in New Zealand's history. This comprehensive work meticulously examines the wars that were fought between the British Crown and various Māori groups from 1845 to 1872. Through vivid narrative and incisive analysis, O'Malley brings to life the battles...

Tamatea Dusky by Peta Carey is a captivating exploration of one of New Zealand’s most remote and beautiful regions. The book delves into the rich history, stunning landscapes, and unique wildlife of the Dusky Sound area. Carey's insightful narrative takes readers through the area's extensive past, from its first Polynesian explorers to its early European settlers and its subsequent role...

In 1990 those living on Chatham Islands/ Rekohu/ Wharekauri faced crisis. Annexed to New Zealand by a London proclamation, the Islands had experienced 150 years of New Zealand control. Years of muddlement, some good intentions, financial waste exploitation and theft, and failure to deliver democratic rights and basic infrastructure. The after-effects of Rogernomics had produced a government decision to “walk...

An entertaining history of rural life in Aotearoa, told through artefacts, gadgets and ephemera that tell a story that goes deeper than the objects themselves. The most fun you'll ever have learning about rural life in New Zealand. Told through a varied selection of items from the everyday (apples, Red Band gumboots, milk tankers and ride-on mowers) to the weird...

Regardless of upheavals at the highest political level, the narratives and analyses in this book demonstrate that the Treaty relationships built on the ground may continue to develop and persist. This is the third volume by leading scholars and researchers in a series discussing the complexities of te Tiriti o Waitangi issues. Together, this group of essays takes a dynamic...

Built in Calcutta (Kolkata), India, in 1853, the Edwin Fox is the only remaining vessel of her kind and has made a unique and unmatched contribution to world maritime history. The ship's importance is acknowledged by Heritage New Zealand, which has designated it as Category 1—the highest level of protection. Built in Calcutta (Kolkata), India, in 1853, the ship is...

Gordon McLauchlan tempts our imagination with 46 little-known tales from New Zealand's past. Here you will discover that: Auckland applied twice to the Colonial Office to be a separate colony from the rest of New Zealand, more about the man who wanted to be James Cook, when drinking beer legally became an 'art' on the West Coast, whether Kupe was...

Following the ongoing success of A Short History of New Zealand, Great Tales of New Zealand History, and Great Tales of Rural New Zealand — all reprinted and still going strong — Gordon McLauchlan has turned his masterful storytelling skills to one of the most important periods in this country's history. Published to coincide with New Zealand's first national day...

In 1877, Kate Edger became the first woman to graduate from a New Zealand university. The New Zealand Herald enthusiastically hailed her achievement as 'the first rays of the rising sun of female intellectual advancement'. Edger went on to become a pioneer of women's education in New Zealand. She also worked tirelessly to mitigate violence against women and children and...

These untold stories, that are absent from our history books, include New Zealand families refusing to let their boys be child soldiers, a Kiwi peacemaker guiding prominent adversaries away from the vicious cycle of revenge, and an entire culture practising non-violence. These are captivating tales showing the immense courage, strength, creativity, and discipline that peacebuilding demands. Hidden Stories of Heroism...

They were airbrushed out of history. Official historian Charles Bean claimed the first Australian ashore at the Gallipoli landing on 25 April 1915 was an infantry officer. But Bean wasn't there, and a group of Australian and New Zealand army engineers were. Even today, the army is reluctant to accept that sappers were among the very first ANZACs ashore. This...

Remarkable stories of twenty-four inspirational tupuna of Te Tai Tokerau.

Stories and yarns about my favourite bits of Down Under Paul Hogan's ancestors were a couple of Irish blow-ins who arrived in the colony of New South Wales by boat, with a little assistance from the judges of the Old Bailey. Blow-ins from everywhere have been coming ever since, and while it hasn't always been a walk in the park,...

We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future. On 26 May 2017, after a historic process of consultation, the Uluru Statement from the Heart was read out. This clear and urgent call for reform to the community from...

In a city that has forgotten and erased much of its history, there are still places where traces of the past can be found. Deep histories, both natural and human, have been woven together over hundreds of years in places across Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland, forming potent sites of national significance. This stunning book unearths these histories in three iconic landscapes: Pukekawa/Auckland...

Winner of the Nonfiction Award 2020 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature Winner of the 2019 NSW Premier's History Award: Australian History Prize Winner of the 2019 Prime Minister's Australian History Prize Winner of the 2019 CHASS Australia Book Prize Australian Christian Book of the Year in 2018 Koby Abberton emerges like a shark on to the sand at Maroubra Beach....

'We were to go through and take on targets of opportunity, to shoot up anything we could. Never at any stage can I remember any plan of us coming back, none of that was ever talked about ... We felt it was a suicide mission.' July 1942: the North African campaign rages and the Allies have been forced to retreat...

For most New Zealanders, Manapouri is associated with the country's largest and most successful environmental protest, but there is another, less well-known narrative of this time. The struggle to drill a tailrace tunnel under a rocky mountain at Manapouri, blast out a cavernous machine hall at West Arm, and carve a road over the treacherous Wilmot Pass is a powerful...

In a major research project, Glyn Harper and the National Army Museum combined official war photographs with more informal images to provide a moving visual history. Originally published in 2008, Images of War has now been beautifully redesigned as a stunning large-format hardback. While primarily drawn from the Museum's collection, many photographs from private sources were included. From more than...

A magical, substantially true narrative of piracy, zoology, anthropology, danger and adventure in the seventeenth-century Caribbean, Pacific and East Indies The first great English-language travel book, A New Voyage Round the World (1697) is an incomparably vivid, chaotic and fascinating account by the pirate, explorer and naturalist William Dampier of his many adventures. The world he describes sprawls all the...

1973: The incredible true story of the Blythe Star disaster, which left ten men shipwrecked and alone on the wild Southern Ocean off Tasmania. Almost two weeks later they were found on a remote trail on a southern peninsula, and their story would stun the nation ... and leave a powerful legacy in its wake. When the coastal freighter MV...

A captivating and incisive account of New Zealand's Land Wars - from a Māori perspective. From the earliest days of European settlement in New Zealand, Māori have struggled to hold on to their land. Tensions began early, arising from disputed land sales. When open conflict between Māori and Imperial forces broke out in the 1840s and 1860s, the struggles only...

Award-winning and best-selling, Mau Moko is the closest there has ever been to a 'complete' book on moko. 'Very likely to become the definitive work on the subject . . . a big, beautiful, important book.'— Warwick Roger, North and South Taia o moko, hei hoa matenga mou . . .Take your moko, as a friend forever . . ....

The Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a central document in New Zealand history. This lively account tells the story of the Treaty from its signing in 1840, through the debates and struggles of the nineteenth century, to the gathering political momentum of recent decades. The third edition of The Story of a Treaty/He Korero Tiriti takes the narrative...

Dazzling, poetic and vivid storytelling from one of Australia's greatest writers, which tells the bloody, brutal and enthralling story of the epic journey of the First Fleet. Originally published as a multi-part serial in The Australian, By Sea & Stars tells the story of the epic voyage which led to the founding of our nation, as told from the point...

The Great War for New Zealand by Vincent O'Malley is an authoritative and stirring account of a pivotal chapter in New Zealand history. This monumental work delves into the Waikato War of 1863-64, a conflict that profoundly shaped the course of the nation. O'Malley meticulously chronicles the origins, impact, and aftermath of this significant war, providing readers with a comprehensive...

A breathtaking collection of 200 photographs expertly colourised by Aotearoa New Zealand's premier colourist, Brendan Graham, with commentary from award-winning historian Jock Phillips ONZM Our Land in Colour celebrates the rich story of Aotearoa through the restoration of images never before seen in colour. Two hundred images have been meticulously colourised, opening a window back in time with remarkable detail....

Welcome to our story, this history. Whichever part of the world the bones of your ancestors lie, wherever their ashes may have been dispersed, here you will find traces of them, and of yourself. It is a story of colonisation and resistance – and a history that has never stopped repeating itself. The New Zealand Wars of the mid-nineteenth century...

Gordon McLauchlan is a master storyteller adept at recognising a good yarn when he sees it. Following the success of his Great Tales from New Zealand History, his new collection leads us down uncharted country lanes and tempts us with many little-known tales from New Zealand's farming and rural past, and also explores many aspects of New Zealand and being...

An epic, award-winning account of Pakeha-Maori relations immediately following Captain Cook's voyages to New Zealand. 'Vivid, convincing and utterly memorable.' —Michael King, North & South Anne Salmond's extraordinary Between Worlds begins with the arrival of Cook's second expedition in 1773 and takes the story through to 1815, with the establishment of the first British missionary settlement in the Bay of...

Neighbours presents a new vision for Australia's relationship with the Pacific. Australia has a long history in the Pacific. Many Australians might have forgotten it, but the region has not forgotten us. This book provides a new way of relating to our Pacific neighbours, replacing amnesia with storytelling that emphasises common ancestors, interests, and language. It encourages recognition, humility, and...

The Samoan Islands are virtually unique in that tattooing has been continuously practised with indigenous techniques: the full male tattoo, the pe'a, has evolved in subtle ways in its design since the nineteenth century, but remains as elaborate, meaningful, and powerful as it ever was. This cultural history is the first publication to examine 3000 years of Samoan tatau. Through...

Joseph Kinsey is not a name many of us know— or not as well as we know the name Robert Falcon Scott. But from his base in Christchurch, Kinsey—book and art collector, philanthropist, science enthusiast, businessman—forged deep connections with the Antarctic expeditions and the explorers themselves through his tireless work as the agent for various expeditions. Two other New Zealanders...

In the first major national history of Aotearoa New Zealand to be published for 20 years, Professor Michael Belgrave advances the notion that New Zealand's two peoples - tangata whenua and subsequent migrants - have together built an open, liberal society based on a series of social contracts. Frayed though they may sometimes be, these contracts have created a country...

As a boy, Tony had drawn maps and diagrams and medieval battle scenes. He'd read fairy tales and been enchanted by local sites of Māori history. As a young man, he was a vagrant on the streets of Paris, was twice imprisoned, spent time in a mental hospital, battled destructive addictions, and experienced unrequited love and loneliness. All of this...

In the Atlas of the New Zealand Wars, five decades of maps and plans from 1834 to 1884 provide remarkable new insight into the deep conflicts running through nineteenth-century Aotearoa. Beginning with early skirmishes off the Taranaki coast and at the Chathams, Volume One follows the tracks inland from the Bay of Islands towards the Hokianga in the Northern Wars;...

Celebrating over three decades of Māori scholarship, essays from Maranga! Maranga! Maranga! The Call to Maori History, edited by Aroha Harris and Melissa Matutina Williams, draws on work published by the collective Te Pouhere Kōrero in the journal of the same name. Writers include Rawinia Higgins, Melissa Matutina Williams, Arini Loader, Nēpia Mahuika, Alice Te Punga Somerville, Rachel Buchanan, Aroha...

It is estimated up to 100,000 people died in the frontier wars that raged across Australia for more than 150 years. This is equivalent to the combined total of all Australians killed in foreign battles to date. However, there are few memorials marking these first, domestic wars. The Australian Wars was conceived by Rachel Perkins following her award-winning documentary series...

No symbol better conveys the intrepid spirit of Australia than the flying kangaroo. Whether it's glimpsed on a red-eye flight to an interstate business meeting, before leaving for adventure or holidays, or when longing to return home, that sweep of red defines air travel in Australia. Qantas has always been about connection. It began by connecting Australians across western Queensland's...

'Graham Seal has the knack of the storyteller.' - Warren Fahey AM Graham Seal takes us back to Australia's ignominious beginnings, when a hungry child could be transported to the other side of the globe for the theft of a handkerchief. It was a time when men were flogged till they bled for a minor misdemeanour, or forced to walk...

Shortlisted for the 2025 Tasmanian Literary Awards Premier's Prize for Non-fiction Longlisted for the 2024 Green Family Tasmanian History Award All families have their secrets, and a convict ancestor or an illegitimate birth were shames that families once buried deep. Among the best-hidden stories in Australia's history are those of the convict orphans. Agnes arrived on a convict transport aged...

Just a girl, but when it came to chasing wild horses nobody questioned Rachel Kennedy's skill in a saddle. What raised eyebrows was the type of saddle she used: a man's. Rachel Kennedy was a colonial folk hero. Born in the wild and remote Warrumbungle mountains of western New South Wales in 1845, she was described by Duke Tritton of...

In fifty years … nobody will then know anything about our troubles. 1939: Paul Kurz – engineer, refugee from Vienna and Dunera Boy – is separated from his wife, Paula, and his mother at the outbreak of World War II and interned in Australia. Late 1960s: An Australian student from an Irish Catholic family, railing against his father, struggling with...

The History of a Riot presents a compelling microhistory of collective revolt. In 1843, the New Zealand Company settlement of Nelson was disrupted by the revolt of its emigrant labourers. Over 70 gang-men and their wives united to resist their poor working conditions through petitions, strikes, and, ultimately, violence. Despite the significance of this struggle, it has often been overshadowed...

'Behind the foreground narratives of justification, real or symbolic wounds are stored in the archives of cultural memory.' From curriculum to commemoration to constitutional reform, our society is in the grip of memory, a politics and culture marked by waves of loss, grief, absence, and victimhood. Why are certain aspects of the past remembered over others, and why does this...

The content of this short book is derived directly from the larger illustrated publication, foregoing all illustrations to suit the BWB Texts format. In 1893, New Zealand became the first country in the world with universal suffrage: all New Zealand women now had the right to vote. This achievement owed much to an extraordinary document: the 1893 Women's Suffrage Petition....

In a collection spanning her career, highly regarded art historian and curator Christina Barton reminds readers of the art writer’s essential quandary: how to put the visual, material, sensory, and temporal into words. The project of art writing is at once argumentative and invested, she writes, self-doubting and ambitious, flawed yet with its own beauty (at its best). Published in...

This book is a collection of essays arising out of the Zealandia's Great War conference organised by the New Zealand Military History Committee in November 2003. In 32 essays by distinguished military historians from New Zealand and around the world, various aspects of New Zealand's involvement in World War One are discussed. Subjects include the Pioneer Maori Battalion, women who...

On how our sense of balance has defined us as a nation and will safeguard our future. In the years that John Howard served in the national parliament, he came to understand the special character of Australia; to appreciate its strengths and weaknesses; and most importantly, to respect the sense of balance in the formulation of public policy that has...

From Rhodes Scholar to union leader to political powerhouse: how Bobbie became Bob, the iconic PM. The new biography from award-winning historian David Day sheds fresh light on the formative years of Australia's most charismatic leader, who became a political legend. David Day's biography of the young Bob Hawke takes readers on a journey, from his humble beginnings as the...

The companion volume to Young Hawke: The Making of a Larrikin from the award-winning historian and author of Curtin and Chifley. Hawke PM details the life of Bob Hawke, who was one of the most influential Australians of the twentieth century. Initially, he was Australia's most powerful trade union leader in the 1970s, before becoming the longest-serving Labor prime minister...

From one of Australia's leading military historians and biographers, Peter Rees, comes Guts and Glory, an enthralling history of the way in which sport is ever present in the wars fought by, or involving, our Australian defence forces. The spirit of Australia can be seen so clearly in how we play and how we fight. From the famous cricket match...

From Gallipoli to Kokoda and beyond - the story of our greatest general and the power, politics and tragedy of command. General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander-in-Chief of Australian Military Forces during World War II, was our highest-ranking soldier and arguably our most controversial. Blamey was an abrasive and shrewd commander, who could act both decisively and brutally, creating enemies within...

Who are the Māori of New Zealand? How did they get here and how did they settle the country? What are the main tribal groups in New Zealand, and where are they based? The first publication to come out of the online Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand project tells the story of the tangata whenua of Aotearoa, from their...

Introducing Maori Culture by Don Stafford provides a comprehensive exploration of the rich history and culture of the Maori people. This book delves into key questions such as: When was Aotearoa discovered? How was Maori society organised in pre-European times? What is traditional Maori art? How does the Treaty of Waitangi affect us today? From the great Polynesian migration to...