The words of our ancestors
Finding mātauranga in library and archival collections
An intimate knowledge of an area or whenua comes from ahikāroa, keeping the fires burning for generations.
The words of our ancestors that encapsulate this mātauranga include place names, pepeha of identity, waiata, and written accounts such as Māori Land Court minutes and manuscripts in collections such as those of the Alexander Turnbull Library.
Dr Mere Whaanga was awarded a Friends of the Turnbull Library Research Grant to explore major 19th-century New Zealand Wars conflicts in the greater Māhia/Wairoa area. Based on her research, she is planning a book that aims to redress some of the imbalance of currently available historiography.
All of her writing is from a rural Māori perspective. Mere has a passion for our land and its people.
About the speaker
Dr Mere Whaanga (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngati Rongomaiwahine, Ngāti Pāhauwera) is an author, illustrator, historian, and academic. Her children’s books include The Legend of the Seven Whales of Ngāi Tahu Matawhaiti (1988), Tangaroa’s Gift: Te Koha a Tangaroa (1990) and The Singing Dolphin: Te Aihe i Waiata (2017). In 2005, the tribal history A Carved Cloak for Tahu (2004) was a finalist in the History section of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. In 2019, she was awarded the Creative NZ Michael King Fellowship where she wrote 21 Generations of Taipōrutu, due for release later this year.
Other works include entries for Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, inventories and a map book for six claimant groups of Te Tira Whakaemi o Te Wairoa, the expert witness statement for Rongomaiwahine’s Takutai Moana claim, and chapters in several edited publications. Dr Mere’s PhD was about the effect of Māori Land Law on Ahikāroa (Waikato, 2014).
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