Montana New Zealand Book Awards - History - 2007 winner and finalists

The Montana New Zealand Book Awards are organised and administrated by Booksellers New Zealand, the trade association for booksellers and publishers.

Vaka Moana: Voyages of the Ancestors Edited by K. R. Howe, David Bateman Ltd Winner

Kerry Howe discusses the settlement of the Pacific in the context of the spread of modern humans across the world from their beginnings in Africa and examines early western ideas about the origins of the Pacific peoples. Rawiri Taonui, head of the School of Maori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Canterbury, shows how Polynesian oral traditions indicate a shared, migratory past. Geoff Irwin of the University of Auckland’s Department of Anthropology discusses the evidence pointing to the likely settlement routes and the likely strategies used by early voyagers. Auckland Museum’s Curator of Ethnology, Roger Neich, contributes a chapter on Pacific voyaging after the era of exploration. American anthropologist Ben Finney looks at the ocean-going canoes and navigation, and at the modern cultural renaissance which renewed interest in them has helped foster. Anne Salmond outlines the first contact between Pacific Islanders and Western explorers in the sixteenth century and what happened when these two maritime cultures met.

Chiefs of Industry: Maori Tribal Enterprise in Early Colonial New Zealand Hazel Petrie, Auckland University Press

This fascinating book explores the entrepreneurial activity of Maori in the early colonial period. It focuses on two industries, coastal shipping and flourmilling, where they were spectacularly successful in the 1840s and 1850s. Hazel Petrie shows how quickly and effectively Maori society adapted to accommodate and develop such capital intensive investments, harnessing tribal ownership, existing skills and a keen eye for commercial advantage. She also charts the sudden decline of Maori economic success by the 1860s. The book draws on a wide range of sources in both languages.
Description from the publisher, Auckland University Press

Luca Antara: Passages in search of Australia Martin Edmond, East Street Publications

Luca Antara is a rich tapestry of history and the present. Essentially, it parallels the life of the author, an emigre to Sydney, and the life of an historical figure, Antonio da Nova, the servant of a Portuguese explorer who in the 1600s sends him to find out more about Luca antara (now Australia). New to Sydney, Martin Edmond finds himself impoverished and displaced. He earns money as a taxi driver but spends his spare time frequenting second hand bookshops trying to learn more about the history of Australia and the wider region. The people Edmond encounters in his taxi and in his search for rare books are varied and strange, offering the reader a voyeuristic glimpse into Sydney's sub-culture. Sent to discover more about Luca antara, Antonio da Nova's crew mutinied and dumped him on the West Australian coast. He is found by Aborigines who take him on an epic walk across northern Australia to a place frequented by Chinese trepang fisherman who, the Aborigines quite rightly predict, take him back to Malacca and eventually to his master in Portugal who awaits news of his explorations. Edmond's reading centres upon da Nova, but each book he reads leads to another and the subject becomes broader and increasingly fascinating. The lives of the two men and the strange customs and unique social mores of each man's culture and time intertwine throughout the book. It ends with Edmond literally walking in the footsteps of da Nova across northern Australia.