Edited by Samuel Carpenter, Bradford Haami and Tony Ballatyne, Whatua te Kākahu: Christianity, the Māori World and Colonialism in Aotearoa New Zealand (Wellington: Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2026).
This weighty and significant collection of essays hit the bookshelves last week. Arising from the 2023 Waitangi wānanga-symposium, the book explores the entanglements of Christian missionaries with Māori culture, how Māori interpreted and applied the Bible, the dynamic and complex relationships between Christianity and colonialism, and how these processes continue to shape our religion, politics and culture today. Contributing authors are among Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading scholars of religion and Māori society: Bishop Te Kītohi Pikaahu, Hon. Justice Sir Joe Williams, Brian Stanley, Roshan Allpress, Tony Ballantyne, Sarah Penwarden, Samuel Carpenter, Bradford Haami, Richard Boast, Peter Lineham, Geoffrey Troughton, Allan Davidson, John Stenhouse, Ned Fletcher, Dominic O’Sullivan, Alistair Reese, and Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal.
The publisher’s page is here:
I would like to acknowledge the fantastic work on the book by all authors, my co-editors (Tony and Brad), and the editors at Victoria University of Wellington/Te Herenga Waka (particularly Jasmine Sargeant). Ngā mihi nunui ki a koutou katoa.
The book as a whole makes a significant contribution to understanding the complexities and realities of these historical relationships. It offers a critique of oversimplified accounts of missionary and Māori contexts and shows how colonization was a contested phenomenon.
The contents page can be viewed and downloaded here:
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