Māori Boy: A Memoir of Childhood

by Witi Ihimaera

This book tells of the family and community into which the author, Ihimaera, was born, of his early life in rural New Zealand, of family secrets, of facing anguish and challenges, and of laughter and love. As Ihimaera tells of the myths that formed his early imagination, he also reveals the experiences from real life that wriggled into his fiction. The book is a record of what it means to grow up Maori in present-day New Zealand.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Biography Memoir, Indigenous, Family, Queer

400 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2014

About the author

Witi Ihimaera is a novelist and short story writer from New Zealand, perhaps the best-known Māori writer today. He is internationally famous for The Whale Rider.

Ihimaera lives in New Zealand and is of Māori descent and Anglo-Saxon descent through his father, Tom. He attended Church College of New Zealand in Temple View, Hamilton, New Zealand. He was the first Māori writer to publish both a novel and a book of short stories. He began to work as a diplomat at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1973, and served at various diplomatic posts in Canberra, New York, and Washington, D.C. Ihimaera remained at the Ministry until 1989, although his time there was broken by several fellowships at the University of Otago in 1975 and Victoria University of Wellington in 1982 (where he graduated with a BA).[1] In 1990, he took up a position at the University of Auckland, where he became Professor, and Distinguished Creative Fellow in Māori Literature. He retired from this position in 2010.

In 2004, his nephew Gary Christie Lewis married Lady Davina Windsor, becoming the first Māori to marry into the British Royal Family.

Reviews

[Kerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Every approach to Waituhi is a rebirth. This is the womb of my life, and from that womb has come generation after generation of ancestors. Whenever I return, my blood always starts to sing."

This has been one of my most anticipated reads ever since it was released in 2014. I didn't intend to wait six years to read it (I've owned a copy since it's release date) but somehow that much time has passed. Sometimes I have a copy of a book that I feel like I almost care too much about, and can't quite bring myself to read it. Although I haven't read all of his books (yet) Witi Ihimaera has been one of my favourite authors for many years. 'Favourite' isn't really a strong enough, or quite accurate word. There is something about his writing that I have always been drawn to. Like many, for me it all started with The Whale Rider, which I read in primary school. I think a lot of what was said in that story flew right over my head, but I loved it fiercely. It resonated deeply. I don't think I started reading his other books until I was in high school. I wrote a paper about him and three of his books (The Whale Rider;Bulibasha, King of the Gypsies;Nights in the Gardens of Spain). It was a perfectly average paper. I hadn't yet learned the difference between facts and my opinion. I never managed to convey any of the things I wanted to. But it was an enjoyable process to work on it. I loved reading the books, and I developed an almost obsessive interest in reading/listening to any interview with Witi Ihimaera that I could find online.

While the list of published works helpfully included at the end of this memoir has reminded me that I have some catching up to do reading wise, the books I have read have stayed with me, each one highly valued and thought of often. What prompted me to finally start reading this memoir was the release of it's follow up volume, Native Son: A Writer's Memoir. It felt like the right time, and I am planning to read that next one early in the new year.

Māori Boy: A Memoir of Childhood is one of the most unusual autobiographies I have ever read. As well as childhood memoir, it feels like a lesson New Zealand history, Māori mythology, Whakapapa (Whakapapa ([ˈfakapapa], ['ɸa-]), or genealogy, is a fundamental principle in Māori culture. A person reciting their whakapapa proclaims their Māori identity, places oneself in a wider context, and links oneself to land and tribal groupings and the mana of those*.) and so much more. The blurb of the book describes it as "a vital record of what it means to grow up Māori." It was fascinating and complicated. Occasionally I lost track of things a bit, but I relaxed into it and by the halfway point I felt like a lot of things clicked into place and the earlier effort was rewarded. That's not to say that the book itself was difficult to read-- it wasn't. It was more that, as with most histories and mythologies, it is vast. In less than 400 pages I feel like I learned more than I might have from a vast array of books. I will note here that Witi Ihimaera has just released a book called Navigating the Stars: Maori Creation Myths which I will be reading after Native Son -- I feel it will great way to expand upon what I picked up in this book.

There were so many beautiful passages in this book -- my copy is liberally marked with sticky notes. Most of them are quite long, and I won't be typing those ones out. I especially appreciated wonderful exchanges with his grandmother Teria, a woman who I came to admire greatly. That's her holding his hand on the cover of the book.
He acknowledges the times when there is more than one version of an event.
"What really happened at the railway station? And which version possessed the emotional truth? None of us can assume to know. Certainly I don't assume that much.

Many of the quotes I have marked come later in the book. I'm not sure if the idea of spoilers applies to a nonfiction book, but I also don't want to take away the added poignancy that comes with context, so I think I will refrain from sharing too much.
It was fascinating to read of all the formative people, and experiences that helped shape one of New Zealand's most successful writers. Family members of course, especially his grandmother and mother, but also neighbours, friends, school, his piano teacher, traumatic events. His recollections and observations are detailed, interesting, sometimes funny, other times sad.

After I finished this, I listened to an interview that the author did at the time of the release. It discusses much of the book, in depth, and I found it a great addition. However, it does cover pretty much all the main points, so if you prefer to read a book without knowing, don't listen to it first! I'm including a link, though I must say that it is from a New Zealand site/station, so I'm not sure if it is accessible outside of the country.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/2...

*I copied this information from a Bing search. I'm not sure who to credit it to.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

To explain his childhood, Ihimaera needs to go back further and share the stories of his ancestors. This memoir in its telling is a great exploration of concepts of whanau and whakapapa. I think it would be a great idea for all New Zealanders to read this book to help them understand the effects of colonisation and its ongoing consequences. And also the differences and similarities between the Treaty partners' cultures.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must come clean and admit I fought this book for much of the first half. When I picked it up, I knew little about Maori culture, or Ihimaera, and I just figured that I would learn more by reading him talk about his experiences as a child. Only this book is not written like that, because Ihimaera knows you can't understand his life without his whakapapa. So this book spirals around the stories of Ihimaera and his ancestors and family, moving around in time and following various threads. The start offers a handy chart of ancestors, to keep the characters straight, but reading late at night (or in the middle of it) I soon gave up trying to track who was who and just focused on what Ihimaera was trying to tell me. At times this felt like listening to a rambling elderly relative, and my body kinda vibrated with "get to the point" vibes. But as the book progressed, I found myself looking forward to the reading, and I also realised that I had understood more about Maori worldviews than I could easily articulate. At the end, I found myself going back to the beginning, aware finally of the significance of the start of the book in a way I simply hadn't appreciated before I read the rest of it.
So I think I might be a bit smarter for having read it, and many of the experiences stay with me. I watched Whale Rider again this week and was amazed at how much more depth I recognised having spent this time with Ihimaera's book. Themes around the grandparents' role with the eldest son of the eldest son; the experience of learning culture and language from a respected grandparent, and how your perspective on gender might be changed if that g'parent is a different gender to you all come through.
The slices of life juggling farm work, schooling, shearing, and a seasonal lifestyle are also fascinating, as are the different experiences of being the only Maori kid in class vs going to mostly Maori school. I wouldn't recommend it for an easy read, but it scores high on rewarding.

[Caryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book and looking forward to the next one. Found the way it was written confusing at times as things are not described in a traditional Western oldest to newest chronology. Instead, ancient Maori myths were interwoven with descriptions of Ihimaera's childhood and genealogy. As a New Zealander, I learnt so much about our country's heritage through reading this book.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

To know Witi Ihimaera, you have to know his whakapapa, or who his ancestors were. So in this very ‘meaty’ memoir of a childhood, you get to know about Witi’s parents (and the three tellings of how they met)and his grandmother, a huge influence in Witi’s life. You also get a good grounding in Maori history, we learn about the Maori in the Great War, and about Te Kooti, when he founded the Ringatu religion and escaped from the Chatham Island’s. We go back further still, into the mists of time as Ihimaera likens the stories of Rangi and Papa, and Maui, to the creation stories of other great cultures. It is Witi Ihimaera’s family and whakapapa that establishes who he is in today’s context.
Maori Boy is the story of Ihimaera’s childhood in 1950s Gisborne. It is about his family and his place within the whanau. An integral part of the story is the three verisions of how his parents met. It is only when we hear the third telling that we get to the truth…which changes Witi’s life forever.
A thoroughly enjoyable read – if you liked Ihimaera’s earlier fiction stories (particularly The Matriarch), then you will definitely enjoy Maori Boy. Recommended.

[Jayne Downes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this memoir which was a fascinating window on Witi Ihimaera's life and family up to the time he was at secondary school. There were a lot of details about his ancestors and family so it was difficult to keep track of everyone, however it didn't get boring because of his anecdotes about the people.The photos were also interesting and added to the stories. Ihimaera gives many examples of how Pakeha ethnocentrism has affected himself and his family so it was a very thought provoking book.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will easily make its way onto my favorites of the year list. Witi Ihimaera tells his whakapapa (genealogy), the story of his growing up years, and maybe a little of New Zealand whakapapa too. He illustrates how our history remains part of us, even when we don't realize it, and how knowing our history helps us know ourselves.

Life is not about waiting for someone to come and rescue you, but about finding instead the courage to strike out for that distant shore, wherever it is.

[Kiwiflora · Rating 4 out of 5]

NZ national treasure, consummate story teller, weaver of myth and reality, deeply in touch with his inner soul and able to put so eloquently into words the richness of his imagination, Witi has begun telling his own story. And what a story it is. This is the first of three memoirs Witi has written about his life, covering his first sixteen years. It is a joy to read, a privilege to be granted entry into such an intricate, unique and personal family history.

His own personal story is told in parallel to the story of his origins - his whakapapa - where he came from, who came before him shaping him into the boy and man. He goes as far back as the first stories told by Maori about the origins of the world, the gods, how the land of Aotearoa came to be, how his forbears sailed from Hawaikii some centuries ago, the later arrival of the white man, the NZ wars, the two world wars - almost a potted history of New Zealand itself.

It is all part of him learning about his self, where he came from, what and who has made him, with much of the story telling revolving around his four grandparents and the incredibly strong influence they directly or indirectly wielded on the young Witi. Witi himself becomes an independent young lad, well able to stand up for himself in his rural East Coast upbringing. Money was tight, families large, jobs often hard to come by but above all they had pride and self-belief, coming from the strong and tight-knit connections within the extended family structure.

As shown in his early works - Pounamu Pounamu, Whanau and Tangi - he has told many stories drawn from his rich upbringing, and the reader can easily see where the ideas, and stories within his published works come from. The novel The Whale Rider comes from the local story of Paikea, an ancestor who came from Hawaiki, so called because a whale helped him escape an assassination attempt by his half brother.

Effortlessly weaving the distant past with the more recent past of the last couple of hundred years with Witi's own early life, this is a tale of considerable imagination, a childhood that while not idyllic and at times horrible, has given us this special disarmingly honest and humble man who seems to glide between reality and fantasy, gifting us with truly beautiful writing and story telling.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compulsory read for Witi Ihimaera fans - it gives a real insight into his childhood and the reasons he can hold his own in both the Māori world and the Pākeha world. The inspirations for his much-loved novels such as Bulibasha, The Matriarch and the Dream Swimmer also all become clear on reading "Māori boy". I really enjoy Witi's writing style and the way he weaves his remembered reality with family lore and traditional stories. A Pākeha may start their memoir with their earliest memory - Witi is true to his Māori heritage by beginning with the history of his people from his whānau's perspective. Even with local history forming the basis of this memoir it is a very personal history - every whānau or hāpu have their own take on shared events and "Māori boy" is a good reminder that there is no one "Māori" perspective or viewpoint.

[NBHS Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

To explain his childhood, Ihimaera needs to go back further and share the stories of his ancestors. This memoir in its telling is a great exploration of concepts of whanau and whakapapa. I think it would be a great idea for all New Zealanders to read this book to help them understand the effects of colonisation and its ongoing consequences. And also the differences and similarities between the Treaty partners' cultures.

[Pania · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend reading some of Witi Ihimaera's other works before diving into 'Māori Boy', as the real-life stories in this memoir lay the groundwork for the fictional stories in his other books. This book not only introduces readers to Witi's life but also explores the significance of Te Kooti, his ancestors, and his Whanau, which adds depth to the narrative. I appreciated how the memoir seamlessly shifts between Witi's story and those of the people important to him.

Despite our vastly different upbringings, I found myself relating to Witi's experiences as a Māori individual. The book resonated deeply with me, and I spent two weeks reading it whenever I could (even when my teachers were talking 😬). I couldn't stop talking about it to my family. I wholeheartedly believe that 'Māori Boy' is a must-read for all Māori and New Zealanders

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really, really enjoyed this. Ihimaera is such a brilliant writer - his prose is so beautiful. He paints such a vivid picture of the places and the people he grew up with.

It took me a while to read because, as well as being long, it's not told in a linear fashion, which my brain found a little harder to follow. But it was well worth sticking to.

[Zoe Chu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting memoir that gave such a good insight onto Māori family culture !!

[Isen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The core of the book is an autobiographical account of the author's childhood but, as the author argues that it is impossible to give an account of a Maori life without talking about the whakapapa, there are also extensive sections on Maori myth, history, and anecdotes of the happenings in the author's extended family. These are often not separate, but blend from one into another -- the author may have heard a myth from his mother, which leads him to talk about her. His mother was proud of her heritage, which ties into the history of the Maori. In his childhood the author came across echoes of this heritage, which brings it back to him, and then he may start on an extended metaphor that brings us back into the world of myth.

The structure of the narrative, if there is one, is very complex, and to me it felt more like a series of disconnected stories tied together with transitions, rather than a unified whole. Of these stories, the ones dealing with history I found the most interesting. I don't know a great deal about early New Zealand history, and what I do is mostly from the perspective of the European colonists, so it was interesting to hear the Maori account of the land wars, confiscations, religious movements, and so on. The stories dealing with the author's childhood had neat glimpses at life in 1950s New Zealand, when trains were a thing and places like Gisborne were centres of civilisation, rather than places like Gisborne. The stories dealing with the author's family were mostly dull. I couldn't get excited about what sports his father was good at, who his mother danced with, or what was going on between grandma and grandpa.

The constant shift of perspective made it difficult to develop any rapport with the characters, and there are a lot of them to boot. The big reveals of the story, such as the author's coming out and his father's affairs, had no impact on me as the build up to these, if there was any, was buried under dozens of pages of the account of a Maori prophet or the dismantling of a Marae. This is a pretty big flaw for an autobiography as there is no point in reading the story of one man's life if you never get to know or care about that man.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant memoir. Interesting style - there's the story, and then there's the tikanga, and it is such a clever way to remind the reader of the enormous importance of the ancestors in Witi's life. Highly recommended.

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did really like this memoir. It was honest and filled with the trappings of a different world to mine. It made me more interested in whakapapa and details a history far greater than just the one of Ihimaera. An interesting read.

[Kellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Start 20th

[Jill Mccaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't a quick read but it is a good one. A dense and authentic look at NZ life in the '50s. Fascinating and touching.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

"My ambition to be a writer was voiced that day. I said to myself that I was going to write a book about Māori people, not just because it had to be done but because I needed to unpoison the stories already written about Māori; and it would be taught in every school in New Zealand, whether they wanted it or not."

Our lives are made better because Ihimaera's words are in it. This memoir of a beautiful and broken childhood is incredibly evocative, bringing with it the nostalgia of young innocent bliss as well as the relief in the perspective that only hindsight and growth affords. His vulnerability, candour and sincerity prove himself to be a person of integrity through and through. Even in his young age, Ihimaera demonstrates immense insightfulness and honour, as we see in his address on the class trip to the court house. He is asked to thank the judge for the open day - a day which saw case after case of Māori being punished and ruled against:

"Sir, I mean no disrespect. All my life my parents have taught me what is right and what is wrong and I have appreciated their advice... This is why, Your Honour, while I thank you for allowing our class to visit I cannot thank you for what we have seen today... There is something wrong, Your Honour, with a place like this, if the majority of cases that come before you are Māori and are placed by Pākehā against Māori. I cannot thank you for being part of a court that enables this to happen, I cannot... How can I thank you for all the Māori people you have jailed or sentenced for one crime or another? All those names in your book, do you know I am related to them? Or that I know them? Sir, what is more, I know them as good people, not as names that you bang your hammer at or put in prison or make pay huge fines. That boy we met when we were just coming in, he was my cousin's boyfriend. And what was his crime? That he swore at his employer? You call that assault? Are you telling me that he should be sent to jail for that? If I thank you, what am I saying to all my relations in court today? My aunts, uncles and cousins? That our relations deserved it? They didn't... Therefore, Your Honour, I will not thank you."

Māori Boy is a frank and honest and deeply honouring telling of a boy growing up, navigating cultural lines, family relationships and personal development. It's no easy feat to bare everything for the world to read, but for this I am so very thankful.

[Satrina T · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always like to read a good memoir and this one I really enjoyed although it took me forever to get over the first chapters.

Favorite part: When I got to the chapters speaking about Ihimaera's childhood were absolutely captivating. I also enjoyed Maui's story.
Least favorite part: I know whakapapa is a very important concept -in a way, we Mexicans feel the same although not taking such good care to document it- but sometimes when Ihimaera was talking about many generations ago. I also didn't like when there were Maori phrases without translation.

It is a great book and I learned a bit more about Maori life and tradition

Read as part of Book Riot's 2019 Read Harder Challenge Task 8. An #ownvoices book set in Oceania

[Izzy]

An interesting way to experience growing up in 1950s Aotearoa, this memoir helped me learn more about Māori-Pakeha relations and the histories behind them.
The first chunk of the book was a bit of a struggle, with all the ancestors who are referenced once and then never again or the stories that don’t feel like they have much relevance to the book, but when he finally got to his parents I felt like I was able to follow more and became more invested.

[Sarah]

I gave up, this was too boring. I loved Ihimaera’s second volume of memoir, but this one did not pull me in at all mostly due to the fact that it concerned so many people, and the least of those people was Witi himself — the person I was most interested in learning about.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An memoir of a different type but quite a fascinating read.

[Sevgi Ikinci]

Thank you Witi Ihimaera

[Anita · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't connect to this.

[Arcturus-Willem]

i enjoyed it a lot but it was so slow, even for non-fiction (which is normally slow) this was slow

[Becky]

I struggled to get into this so I didn't finish reading it, but I hope to revisit it when I'm in a different mood.

[Tara]

READ HARDER: #ownvoices Oceana