Wars Without End: New Zealand's Land Wars - A Maori Perspective

Description

A captivating and incisive account of New Zealand's Land Wars - from a Maori perspective. From the earliest days of European settlement in New Zealand, Maori have struggled to hold on to their land. Tensions began early, arising from disputed land sales. When open conflict between Maori and Imperial forces broke out in the 1840s and 1860s, the struggles only intensified. For both sides, land was at the heart of the conflict, one that casts a long shadow over race relations in modern-day New Zealand. Wars Without End is the first book to approach this contentious subject from a Maori point of view, focusing on the Maori resolve to maintain possession of customary lands and explaining the subtleties of an ongoing and complex conflict. Written by senior Maori historian Danny Keenan, Wars Without End eloquently and powerfully describes the Maori reasons for fighting the Land Wars, placing them in the wider context of the Maori struggle to retain their sovereign estates. The Land Wars might have been quickly forgotten by Pakeha, but for Maori these longstanding struggles are wars without end.

Danny Keenan is of Ngati Te Whiti ki Te Atiawa descent. He was born in New Plymouth and educated at Pungarehu Primary, New Plymouth Boys' High School and Massey University. Keenan has a public service background, mainly the Department of Maori Affairs from 1981 to 1989. When the Department was disestablished in 1989, he returned to Massey University, completing a PhD in history in 1994. Appointed lecturer in New Zealand history, he became senior lecturer in 2004. He was a founding member of Te Pouhere Korero, the Maori historians network. In 1995, he was granted a Fulbright Postdoctoral Award to study in the Centre for the History of the American Indian at the Newberry Library, Chicago. Keenan was granted a further Fulbright Senior Scholar Award in 2009 to teach New Zealand history at Georgetown University, Washington DC. Keenan has published widely on Maori and New Zealand history. His most recent book, Te Whiti O Rongomai and the Resistance of Parihaka, received a Nga Kupu Ora Maori Book Award in 2016. He is now a full-time writer, living in Whanganui.