No Dreadlocks No Cry

by Angus Gillies, Tui Gillies (Illustrator)

No Dreadlocks No Cry is the second in author Angus Gillies’ series, Ngati Dread, about the Ruatoria Rastafarians, who terrorised the East Coast town from 1985 to 1990. The Rastas had a mission to return local land to the original Ngati Porou owners and in that period more than 30 buildings were burned, including houses, a police station, a fire station, businesses, a school, churches and a marae. No Dreadlocks No Cry covers most of the major fires and revisits the famous trial of five detectives for the kidnap and assault of Rasta Dick Maxwell, who claimed police had cut off his dreadlocks. It also includes a fascinating interview with Dion Hutana, the man convicted of escaping from prison and burning down Ngati Porou Marae.

307 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 7, 2014

About the author

Angus Gillies is the author of the Ruatoria Killings series of non-fiction investigations. He has worked as a journalist and producer at TV3 for 20 years, and has written biographies of Matthew Ridge, Adam Parore, Justin Marshall and John Rowles.

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Reviews

[Cheryl Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I’ve skimmed some of this book it, and the others in the trilogy make an excellent and important record of the people and a time in our history.

I particularly appreciated the insights into and understanding of the actions and actors, particularly where Heeney explains the philosophy of being.

An important book.