Tangata Ngai Tahu / People of Ngai Tahu

Mo tatou, a, mo ka uri a muri ake nei. For us and our children after us.

Tangata Ngai Tahu, Volume Two remembers and celebrates the rich and diverse lives of the people of Ngai Tahu. Spanning time, geography, and kaupapa, some fifty biographies bring Ngai Tahu history into the present.

The people in the book have contributed to their iwi, hapu, and whanau in myriad ways: here are wahine toa, rangatira and tohunga, community leaders, activists and scholars, social workers, politicians, fishermen and farmers, sportspeople, adventurers, weavers, performers, and many more. All are descendants of Waitaha, Ngati Mamoe, and Ngai Tahu; united by whakapapa, they are Tangata Ngai Tahu.

Produced by the Ngai Tahu Archive Team, this second volume builds on the success of Tangata Ngai Tahu, Volume One. With a special emphasis on mana wahine, more than half of the biographies in Volume Two celebrate the stories of Ngai Tahu women. The book is beautifully and generously illustrated with hundreds of photographs sourced from the Ngai Tahu archive, external institutions, and whanau collections. Together, these images constitute a tribal family album that is a taonga tuku iho.

Te Pae Korako (the Ngai Tahu Archive Advisory Committee) has guided this publication, which is the second in a series of biographical volumes. Tangata Ngai Tahu / People of Ngai Tahu, Volume Two is published by Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu with Bridget Williams Books in time for the Ngai Tahu Hui-a-Iwi, in November 2021.