by Joanna Kidman, Vincent O’Malley, Liana MacDonald, Tom Roa, Keziah Wallis. Published by Bridget Williams Books, 2022. (NZD 14.99). Reviewed by Jenny Collins

So much of our history is remembered from a “colonial” perspective. Yet if we fail to fully understand the defining conflicts in our nation’s history it is easy to buy into myths that our country was colonised peacefully and that we have the best race relations in the world.

Fragments from a Contested Past is a little book on a big topic. Seven chapters weave a tapestry of insights into key places and events; Māori responses to the arrival of the replica of the Endeavour in Turanganui-a-Kiwa (2019); Ōrākau (1863), the final battle in the Waikato wars — forgotten by Pākehā but deeply embedded in tribal memory; and the 2014 call by Otorohanga College students for history to be taught in schools.

The writers, many of them from communities invaded during the 1860s, reflect on connections between past and present and important gaps in our remembered past. How many of us know the history of Great South Road, built in the 1860s to enable the invasion and confiscation of lands belonging to Māori in the Waikato? This is an important book that challenges many “accepted” ways of thinking about our past. It also reminds us that we need to confront our history, even if we find it painful.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 272 July 2022: 27