What's New McNab

Beachcombing: A Guide to Seashores of the Southern Hemisphere. Ceridwen Fraser

This is a delightful book that guides us through all the weird and wonderful things, plants and creatures that can be found walking on our southern beaches. From old bottles to parts of space rockets, myriad varieties of seaweed and jellyfish to the birds and denizens of the deep that wash up from time to time. It is a practical guide that even includes a recipe for a kelp ragout!

He Kupu Taurangi: Treaty Settlements and the Future of Aotearoa New Zealand. Christopher Finlayson and James Christmas

Christopher Finlayson was Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations between 2008 and 2017, leading negotiations on behalf of the Crown. An unprecedented number of settlements were completed during this time including the ground-breaking Ngāi Tūhoe and Te Awa Tupua/Whanganui River settlements. These two settlements included legal innovations that recognised legal personality in the Whanganui River and Te Urewera. Finlayson and his former senior ministerial adviser James Christmas have written a very valuable overview of the Treaty settlement process and the challenges the future will bring.

Helen Kelly: Her Life. Rebecca Macfie

Rebecca Macfie’s biography of Helen Kelly, who died prematurely of lung cancer in 2016, aged 52, is a sympathetic and very well-researched account of the life of the former president of the Council of Trade Unions. It is also an excellent overview of the recent history of the trade union movement in New Zealand and the role the highly motivated Kelly played trying to restore the union movement’s centrality in society after the neoliberal assaults of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Kelly’s legacy will live on with the introduction of legislation for industry-wide Fair Pay Agreements in parliament this November, marking the beginning of a return to widespread collective bargaining.

The Lonely Islands: The Evolutionary Phenomenon that is New Zealand. Terry Thomsen

How did New Zealand’s unique biogeography come about? Most of New Zealand’s species are in endemic; they are found nowhere else on Earth. Thomsen’s book describes the processes involved in how animal and plant life came to be here and how they evolved in these remote islands.

Native Son: The Writer’s Memoir. Witi Ihimaera

In this, the second volume of his memoirs, novelist Witi Ihimaera picks up the story with his very close pass in his School Certificate examinations at Te Karaka District High School. 

“One mark less, and my life might have been entirely different.” - Witi Ihimaera

Reawakened: Traditional Navigators of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. Jeff Evans

Reawakened follows ten navigators, including three from Aotearoa New Zealand, who are reinvigorating the knowledge and traditions of the master navigators (Pwo) of the Pacific/Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. They share their experiences of traditional wayfinding via the stars, taught to them by legendary master navigator Mau Piailug, and the significance of receiving the title of Pwo from him.

Tūtira Mai: Making Change in Aotearoa New Zealand. Eds. David Belgrave and Giles Dodson

Belgrave and Dodson’s collection of essays cover a gamut of approaches to making progressive social change in Aotearoa New Zealand. Their organising principle is the concept of ‘active citizenship’. The book covers an eclectic range of activism and social movement campaigns, along with case studies of citizen activism, and aims to “help readers generate effective ways to make a difference.”