Amiria: The life story of a Maori woman by Stirling, Amiria Manutahi

Softcover, good condition, faded covers, minor shelf/edge wear ISBN 9780589009786 / 0589009788

Publisher: A H & A W Reed , 1976

Amiria Manutahi Stirling, and this is her life story, the remarkable account of a woman born on the East Coast eighty years ago. The story begins with Amiria’s birth at Tuparoa, a childhood spent in both her grandmother’s raupo hut and the magnificent Williams homestead Kaharau; it takes the reader through Amiria’s schooldays, her taumau (arranged) marriage to Eruera Stirling, farming on “The Coast” and latter days in Auckland, where the Stirlings still live as prominent elders. The autobiography is based on a collection of taped interviews by Anne Salmond, senior lecturer in Anthropology as the University of Auckland, whose book Hui: A Study of Maori Ceremonial Gathering was one of this country’s publishing in 1975. Amira and Eruera Stirling was the source of Hui, and it wasn’t a complete surprise then that Amira herself should become the subject of another more personal story. Her remembrances, told in a charming narrative style, form a significant, often moving, advance in ethnographic texts of this kind. It is authentic and cuts to the very heart of Maori experience, conveying to the reader a deep understanding of what it is to be Maori. Black & white photos throughout

All books are sent free by courier postage within New Zealand.

Home