Best of Both Worlds: The: Story of Elsdon Best and Tutakangahau

Author(s): Jeffrey Paparoa Holman

History

In 1895 a meeting took place in the rugged Urewera ranges - Tuhoe country - that would have lasting effects on our views of traditional Maori society. Elsden Best, a self-taught anthropologist and quartermaster on the road past Lake Waikaremoana, was sought out by a leading Tuhoe chief, Tutakangahau of Maungapohatu. The stories he gave to Best to be recorded for future generations are with us today. Best went on to become a noted Pakeha authority on a people he would style as the last of 'the oldtime Maori'. How much did the old man tell him? Was it freely given? Can Best's writings - so pervasive today in our understanding of Maori culture - be truly relied upon? In his unique examination of this historically significant relationship, Jeffrey Paparoa Holman poses such searching questions, further informing a vital national debate on the shared identity - and destiny - of Maori and Pakeha. First published March 2010.


Product Information

General Fields

  • : 9780143008422
  • : Penguin Books
  • : Penguin Books
  • : March 2010
  • : 230x150mm
  • : New Zealand
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Jeffrey Paparoa Holman
  • : Paperback
  • : 306.092
  • : very good
  • : 344
  • : Illustrations, map