He Korero: Words Between Us. First Maori-Pakeha Conversations on Paper

Author(s): Alison Jones and Kuni Jenkins

Maori Books

This book traces Maori engagement with handwriting from 1769 to 1826. Through beautifully reproduced written documents, it describes the first encounters Maori had with paper and writing and the first relationships between Maori and Europeans in the earliest school. The book tells an image-led story about the earliest relationships between Maori and Pakeha based around the written word and sheds light on a larger story of the first attempts of Maori and Europeans to live together in the early 1800s, the negotiation of the relationship through conversations and correspondence, and frustrations of Maori at the limits of the teaching Europeans offered. Key people link the stories as the written words between Maori and Pakeha are tracked through documents such as Maori vocabularies, a map, letters, the alphabet, signatures, the first school roll, copybook pages and the first letter written independently by Maori.


Product Information

Winner of PANZ Book Design Awards: Best Educational Book 2012 and CLL Educational Publishing Awards: Best Book in Higher Education Publishing 2012.

Alison Jones is a professor of education at the University of Auckland. She has worked with Maori scholars and students in the field of education for twenty-five years and has a fascination with the complexities of Maori-Pakeha educational relationships. Kuni Jenkins is a professor with Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi where she teaches and conducts research. She has had a long-term interest in literacy, and her PhD involved archival study of early Maori written documents and the relationships between Maori and Pakeha. Both authors have written a number of books in the area of sociology of education and Maori education.

General Fields

  • : 9781869694784
  • : Huia Publishers
  • : Huia Publishers
  • : 0.525
  • : December 2011
  • : 260x180mm
  • : New Zealand
  • : December 2011
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Alison Jones and Kuni Jenkins
  • : Paperback
  • : English
  • : 993.01
  • : 242
  • : Colour illustrations