War and Peace

In the 1990s, Ross Calman (Ngāti Toa, Ngāi Tahu) stumbled on a manuscript in an archive: a 50,000-word biography of Te Rauparaha, handwritten in te reo Māori in the 1860s by his son Tamihana. Realising this was his ancestor's work, Ross set out to master te reo, and now, decades later, has translated Tamihana's words – complete with eyewitness accounts and ancient curses – as "He Pukapuka Tātaku i Ngā Mahi a Te Rauparaha Nui (A Record of the Life of the great Te Rauparaha)". Ross Calman and Dr Te Maire Tau discuss the life of Te Rauparaha, and the fascinating and turbulent times of warfare between Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Toa, and the peace marriages that came after. With taonga puoro accompaniment from Ariana Tikao.