Eruera The Teachings of a Maori Elder [First Edition Hardback]

Eruera: The Teachings of a Maori Elder by Eruera Stirling as told to Anne Salmond.

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1980. FIRST EDITION. VERY SCARCE IN HARDBACK.

Very good hardback with jacket. Binding tight. A little bumping to spine ends; no inscriptions; pages excellent, minor mark to last end-paper. Jacket has a faded spine with chipping, creasing and rubbing. Small tear at bottom corner of back cover.

288 pages with photos and illustrations.

Eruera Stirling was an elder of the Whanau-a-Apanui tribe, who lived in Auckland. This outstanding autobiography arises from his determination to pass on the traditional knowledge entrusted to him in his childhood by tribal elders, and from his wish to explain to a younger generation the deeper meanings of an ancestral way of life. In an outline of tribal history and of recent events in New Zealand race relations, he discusses such traditional concepts as mana (spiritual power), matauranga (knowledge), and whakapapa (genealogy), and he explains the customs of the rahui (reserve), taua (raiding party), and haka (war dance). There is a vivid description of life in the Bay of Plenty in the era of whaling, maize-cropping, and kumara growing, and an account of his work with Sir Apirana Ngata. In speaking of his life in Auckland where he has been a prominent elder since the 1950s, Eruera provides an inside view of the Maori Land March, the disputes over the Raglan golf course, and Bastion Point, and the clash between Engineering students and 'He Taua' at the University of Auckland.

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