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Sleeps Standing

Sleeps Standing

A Story of the Battle of Orakau

by Witi Ihimaera and Hemi Kelly
Hardback
Publication Date: 28/08/2017

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$29.99
Both fiction and fact, this fascinating book is a kaleidoscopic exploration of the Battle of Orakau.

During three days in 1864, 300 Maori men, women and children fought an Imperial army and captured the imagination of the world. The battle marked the end of the Land Wars in the Waikato and resulted in vast tracts of land being confiscated for European settlement. Instead of following the usual standpoint of the victors, this book takes a Maori perspective. It is centred around Witi Ihimaera's moving novella, Sleeps Standing, which views the battle through the eyes of a 16-year-old boy named Moetu.

Alongside the novella are non-fiction narratives from Maori eyewitnesses, together with images and a Maori translation by Hemi Kelly, further giving voice to and illuminating the people who tried to protect their culture and land.

It is estimated that, at the height of the battle, 1700 immensely superior troops, well-armed and amply resourced, laid siege to the hastily constructed pa at Orakau. The defenders were heavily outnumbered with few supplies or weapons but, when told to submit, they replied-

'E hoa, ka whawhai tonu matou, ake, ake, ake!'
'Friend, I shall fight against you for ever, for ever!'
ISBN:
9780143771111
9780143771111
Category:
Warfare & defence
Format:
Hardback
Publication Date:
28-08-2017
Publisher:
Random House New Zealand Ltd
Country of origin:
New Zealand
Pages:
224
Dimensions (mm):
203x140x25mm
Weight:
0.4kg
Witi Ihimaera

Three-time winner of the Wattie/Montana Book of the Year award, Katherine Mansfield fellow and playwright Witi Ihimaera is one of New Zealand’s most prolific and accomplished writers. Witi’s first novel, Tangi, won the Wattie Book of the Year Award in 1974, a feat he repeated with The Matriarch in 1986.

His celebrated novel Bulibasha, King of the Gypsies, now adapted as the film Mahana, won the Montana Book of the Year award in 1995. Witi’s other novels and short story collections include The Whale Rider (also adapted as an internationally successful film); Dream Swimmer (sequel to the award-winning The Matriarch); Pounamu, Pounamu and Nights In The Gardens of Spain. In 2015 he published the first volume of his autobiography, Maori Boy.

Hemi Kelly

Hemi Kelly is of Ngati Maniapoto and Ngati Tahu-Ngati Whaoa descent. He started learning te reo Maori as a young teenager and naturally progressed into teaching roles after study. Hemi is a full-time lecturer in te reo Maori at the Auckland University of Technology. His academic research and writing focus largely on the revitalsation of the Maori language and translation studies.

Hemi is a licensed translator and graduate of Te Panekiretanga o Te Reo (The Institute of Excellence in the Maori Language). In 2017, Hemi translated Witi Ihimaera’s novella in Sleeps Standing and published his first book A Maori Word a Day in 2018. In 2019, Hemi published his first creative writing piece in English in Purakau, a collection of Maori myths retold by Maori writers.

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