Ihimaera traces the history of the Māori people through their creation myths. He follows Tāwhaki up the vines into the firmament, Hine-tītama down into the land of the dead, Maui to the ends of the earth, and the giants and tūrehu who sailed across the ocean to our shores ... From Hawaiki to Aotearoa, the ancient navigators brought their myths, while looking to the stars - bright with gods, ancestors and stories - to guide the way.

Andrew Crowe

This book tells of one of the most expansive and rapid phases of human migration in prehistory, a period during which Polynesians reached and settled nearly every archipelago scattered some 28 million square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean.

Douglas Sutton

Atholl Anderson

Thousands of years ago migrants from South China began the journey that took their descendants through the Pacific to the southernmost islands of Polynesia.

Tessa Copland and Fiona Oliver

Beautifully illustrated, with maps of each tribal area, this book is ideal for those who want to know more about Aotearoa and the people who live here.
Now with updated census data and information and designed & priced for the visitors’ market, this book combines great photos of scenic New Zealand with maps, Māori art and history.

Kaye Dragicevich

200 stories of pioneering families who came from Croatia in search of a better life.

Claudia Orange

The book is a comprehensive study, looking at the place of the Treaty in New Zealand history from its making in the early nineteenth century through to the renewed engagement of the late twentieth century. The story is told of the early negotiations that led to the Treaty signings around the country.

Ross Calman

Looks at the events that led up to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and how this document has played a key role in the nation’s history and sense of identity.

Network Waitangi (NZ)

Covering many historical and contemporary issues, it is for people who want to gain a basic knowledge about the Treaty of Waitangi and its implications, as well as for those who want to refresh and update their understanding.

Māori and the natural world: Te taiao.

By Jennifer Garlick, Basil Keane, Tracey Borgfield, Jock Phillips, Nancy Swarbrick.

In traditional Māori knowledge, the weather, birds, fish and trees, sun and moon are related to each other, and to the people of the land, the tangata whenua. In this richly illustrated book, Māori scholars and writers share the traditional knowledge passed down the generations by word of mouth.

Tells the story of the first European encounters with a new land. From the scant physical signs of first contact – including the early Cook voyages the history is traced through the ephemeral habitations of ‘sojourning settlers’ to the settlements of missionaries and colonisers, and on to the towns and government establishments of the mid nineteenth century.

By Eric Pawson, Tom Brooking

Environmental Histories of New Zealand presents an interdisciplinary account of one of the most rapid and extensive transformations of nature in human history: that which followed Maori and then European colonization of New Zealand's temperate islands. New Zealand is noted for its extraordinary environmental histories, but this is the first book from within the country to chart and analyse these histories for wider audiences.

The Archaeology of the Maori answers some of these questions, describing in detail the latest archaeological findings about the origins, physical type, technology, economy, warfare and art of the Maori.

Gordon Ell and Sarah Ell [editors]

First encounters samples early journals and reports – from first explorers Abel Tasman in 1642 and Joseph Banks in 1769, through to early settlers like John Logan Campbell in 1840. This collection of first-hand accounts and illustrations reveals a land vastly different from modern New Zealand.

David Horry

The First immigrants sailed to Aotearoa New Zealand in large double hulled waka built without any metal, using only natural materials and stone tools. Abel Tasman sailed up the West Coast of NZ in 1642. This book follows two voyages; that of Abel Tasman in the Heemskerck and Zeehaen, and the Polynesians in the waka Kurahuapo.