Tuhoe: The Children of the Mist: 1

(Hardback, 5th New edition)

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Now in its fifth edition,Tuhoeranks as one of the greatest tribal histories of New Zealand. This first volume painstakingly details the history, tikanga, lore and beliefs of the last generation of kaumtua to have lived in the old ways, including his principal informantsPaitini Wi Tapeka of Ruathuna and Ttakangahau of Maungaphatu.

It tells the story of the tribes of the Urewera through to the coming of the Europeans and the riri Pkeh, the fighting that ensued. Traditions, beliefs and practices of the Mataatua tribes make up the second half of the book, leading on to volume 2, which contains the detailed whakapapa (genealogies) and fold-out map of this rugged corner of Te Ika-a-Mui (the North Island).

As Dr Rapata Wiri writes in the preface to this edition, the social and anthropological contexts for Bests research have changed significantly in the intervening hundred years, but their value endures: Although this book is a product of its time, it significantly contributes to our understanding and knowledge of the tribal traditions and history of Thoe and Te Urewera, its lands and its people. To celebrate, we are proud to reprintThoe: The Children of the Mistin 2025, a century after its first publication.

Author Bio

Elsdon Best was born at Porirua in 1856, later moving to Wellington with this family. He passed the junior civil service examination and entered the office of the Registrar-General. Indoor life did not appeal to the young man. He worked on a sheep station in Poverty Bay, joined the constabulary at the time of the Parihaka affair, spent some time in Hawaii, California and Texas, returned to New Zealand, and after working for several years in the Urewera country joined the Lands and Survey Department. During this period, while living among the Tuhoe people, he filled endless notebooks with information which took shape in the present book. Eventually he became an officer of the Dominion Museum, where he compiled the many bulletins, monographs, and ethnological papers for which he is famous. He was a foundation member of the Polynesian Society, and in 1914 was awarded the Hector medal for research in ethnology. Nine years before his death in 1931, Sir Apirana Ngata said of him, There is not a member of the Maori race who is fit to wipe the boots of Elsdon Best in the matter of knowledge of the lore of the race to which we belong.