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Bulibasha: King of the Gypsies
Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso
293 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
22 people are currently reading
682 people want to read
About the author
Witi Ihimaera
86 books352 followersWiti 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
March 5, 2020
Have you ever wondered what life is like in New Zealand?
Have you seen the iconic images of snow-tipped mountains, the photos of endless rolling green hills, the pictures of rivers whose water is as clear as cold, liquid air, so pure that the trout appear to be suspended in their chill flow? Have you imagined how it would be to live in such an Eden?
Or perhaps you have wondered how life is for the native Maori people of Aotearoa New Zealand, how colonization effected them, how it is to live in a nation that was stolen from you, where to speak your language at school was to invite a caning?
If you have, then Witi Ihimaera’s Bulibasha will pull back the veil and show you both the stunning beauty and harsh truth of life in New Zealand, along with a family saga that is truly gripping.
Having grown up in New Zealand, Bulibasha took me right back to the green forests and towering mountains of my childhood, to barely-driveable country roads, rivers whose pure water you could cup in your hands and drink, and a nation whose economy rode on the backs of millions of sheep. (Today’s New Zealand rides on the backs of dairy cows - sheep farming having become less profitable - and drinking the river water is no longer advisable).
Three decades before my time, in the deceptively bucolic setting of the 1950s Kiwi countryside, Bulibasha’s story plays out. The Mahanas are a shearing family, working the farms of New Zealand’s East Coast under the dictatorial eye of Tamihana Mahana, known throughout the district as ‘Bulibasha’, king of the gypsies.
How Tamihana came into this name is the subject of the novel’s first few pages, and a beautiful, lyrical beginning it is. The Mahanas have been engaged in a struggle with rival family the Poatas for decades, their patriarch - Rupeni Poata - is Tamihana's sworn blood enemy, and contemptuous stories of Poata treachery and inferiority are part of of Mahana lore. Both families run shearing gangs, both compete for cultural and sporting acclaim, and their enmity is deep and bitter.
Among the Mahana's Bulibasha’s word is law. His sons (literally) kneel before him, and his favor (of lack therof) determines who runs the shearing gangs, who marries whom, and who is given their own plots of land to live on. But not everyone in the family accepts Bulibasha’s iron rule. His grandson, Simeon, chafes under Bulibasha’s tyranny. Simeon's father is Bulibasha’s youngest son, and as such, receives the meanest wag of all his brothers, and has received no land, living as a virtual servant under his father's roof.
And so the story unfolds, a saga of a great family, and the two powerful, unyielding personalities within it who will clash and clash again, until their struggle remakes their lives.
This conflict, and the world of shearing and family rivalries around it, makes for pretty riveting reading. The history of the Mahanas and Poatas runs parallel with the first half of the 20th century in New Zealand, with World War One, the growth of great sheep stations and racial divides all playing roles in shaping the two rival families.
Of course, the noble history of the family as told by Bulibasha is somewhat different from the reality, and the slow revelations of how the Mahana dynasty really rose to prominence adds another interesting angle to the conflict between grandfather and grandson.
It's great story, magnificently told, and it's well worth your time. There are however, a few (slight) bum notes in this family opera.
There are a series of sporting engagements in the story, where Mahana face off against Poata and other rivals, which drag a bit, and feel a bit like segments of an old ‘Boy’s Own’ annual. You know, breathless descriptions of scoring, the bog-standard triumph over adversity hip-hip-hooray-good-old-Mahana-won kind of stuff. These sections drag a tad, and I couldn't help feeling that much of what filled several pages here could have been covered in a paragraph.
There’s also a rather weird interaction between Bulibasha and Simeon near the novel’s end that was well… a bit molest-y and weird, and not really in keeping with the rest of the story.
Other than these flaws though, this is a great New Zealand novel, a book that brings a place and an era to vivid life. I could feel the cool water of the crystal rivers of my childhood on my skin while reading this one, and hear once again the shrieks of the summer cicadas in the evergreen forests of the far-flung nation I grew up in.
Four years-long generational battles out of five.
Have you seen the iconic images of snow-tipped mountains, the photos of endless rolling green hills, the pictures of rivers whose water is as clear as cold, liquid air, so pure that the trout appear to be suspended in their chill flow? Have you imagined how it would be to live in such an Eden?
Or perhaps you have wondered how life is for the native Maori people of Aotearoa New Zealand, how colonization effected them, how it is to live in a nation that was stolen from you, where to speak your language at school was to invite a caning?
If you have, then Witi Ihimaera’s Bulibasha will pull back the veil and show you both the stunning beauty and harsh truth of life in New Zealand, along with a family saga that is truly gripping.
Having grown up in New Zealand, Bulibasha took me right back to the green forests and towering mountains of my childhood, to barely-driveable country roads, rivers whose pure water you could cup in your hands and drink, and a nation whose economy rode on the backs of millions of sheep. (Today’s New Zealand rides on the backs of dairy cows - sheep farming having become less profitable - and drinking the river water is no longer advisable).
Three decades before my time, in the deceptively bucolic setting of the 1950s Kiwi countryside, Bulibasha’s story plays out. The Mahanas are a shearing family, working the farms of New Zealand’s East Coast under the dictatorial eye of Tamihana Mahana, known throughout the district as ‘Bulibasha’, king of the gypsies.
How Tamihana came into this name is the subject of the novel’s first few pages, and a beautiful, lyrical beginning it is. The Mahanas have been engaged in a struggle with rival family the Poatas for decades, their patriarch - Rupeni Poata - is Tamihana's sworn blood enemy, and contemptuous stories of Poata treachery and inferiority are part of of Mahana lore. Both families run shearing gangs, both compete for cultural and sporting acclaim, and their enmity is deep and bitter.
Among the Mahana's Bulibasha’s word is law. His sons (literally) kneel before him, and his favor (of lack therof) determines who runs the shearing gangs, who marries whom, and who is given their own plots of land to live on. But not everyone in the family accepts Bulibasha’s iron rule. His grandson, Simeon, chafes under Bulibasha’s tyranny. Simeon's father is Bulibasha’s youngest son, and as such, receives the meanest wag of all his brothers, and has received no land, living as a virtual servant under his father's roof.
And so the story unfolds, a saga of a great family, and the two powerful, unyielding personalities within it who will clash and clash again, until their struggle remakes their lives.
This conflict, and the world of shearing and family rivalries around it, makes for pretty riveting reading. The history of the Mahanas and Poatas runs parallel with the first half of the 20th century in New Zealand, with World War One, the growth of great sheep stations and racial divides all playing roles in shaping the two rival families.
Of course, the noble history of the family as told by Bulibasha is somewhat different from the reality, and the slow revelations of how the Mahana dynasty really rose to prominence adds another interesting angle to the conflict between grandfather and grandson.
It's great story, magnificently told, and it's well worth your time. There are however, a few (slight) bum notes in this family opera.
There are a series of sporting engagements in the story, where Mahana face off against Poata and other rivals, which drag a bit, and feel a bit like segments of an old ‘Boy’s Own’ annual. You know, breathless descriptions of scoring, the bog-standard triumph over adversity hip-hip-hooray-good-old-Mahana-won kind of stuff. These sections drag a tad, and I couldn't help feeling that much of what filled several pages here could have been covered in a paragraph.
There’s also a rather weird interaction between Bulibasha and Simeon near the novel’s end that was well… a bit molest-y and weird, and not really in keeping with the rest of the story.
Other than these flaws though, this is a great New Zealand novel, a book that brings a place and an era to vivid life. I could feel the cool water of the crystal rivers of my childhood on my skin while reading this one, and hear once again the shrieks of the summer cicadas in the evergreen forests of the far-flung nation I grew up in.
Four years-long generational battles out of five.
November 15, 2015
Completely biased opinion of course because I got to know Witi while writing the screenplay adaptation of this book - a fabulously energetic and event-filled account of growing up in rural New Zealand. Its a sprawling family saga but at its heart is the contest of wills between a young man, Simeon, and his overbearing, religious, all-providing grandfather, Bulibasha, who founded the Maori family's sheep shearing dynasty. Its sort of a companion piece to "Whale Rider" about a young woman's coming of age, and her struggle against traditional patriarchy. The film which will be released next year - entitled "Mahana" - and produced/directed by Robin Scholes and Lee Tamahori - the team behind "Once Were Warriors."
August 25, 2015
A fabulous author's fantasy autobiography, this humorous coming-of-age novel features memorable Maori characters in a huge family tribe, a feud worthy of Maori blood feuds of a 100 years previous, sheep (well it is New Zealand), and sports. I stayed up all night to finish this one!
October 3, 2012
Bulibasha is probably my favourite Ihimaera story; the writing is lyrical and the characters compelling. There are hints of "Whale Rider" and "The Beginning of the Tournament" woven in through the text and, like most Ihimaera stories, you feel that you are reading fictionalised recollections of his own life.
The characer of Bulibasha himself was very well crafted and I enjoyed reading of Simeon's growing determination to follow his own path, deviating from the one that was predetermined by his grandfather. The David and Goliath power struggle between the two characters reflects the many societal power struggles in existence within the novel's historical context, issues that are still prevalent in contemporary New Zealand. The triumph of the underdog is a recurrent theme throughout the book and perhaps in places it is overplayed, but the catharsis that is felt by the reader every time Bulibasha is proven wrong is enough to forgive this.
Although the novel isn't an autobiography, features of this genre are evident in the writing. The episodic nature of the text is something I didn't really enjoy, but the development of the relationship between Simeon and Bulibasha linked ther events together relatively seamlessly.
Overall, I enjoyed reading the book. It's an absorbing tale that highlights one of life's greatest truths - there is a fine line between love and hate, respect and scorn, leadership and dictatorship, and it is up to us to distinguish the difference.
The characer of Bulibasha himself was very well crafted and I enjoyed reading of Simeon's growing determination to follow his own path, deviating from the one that was predetermined by his grandfather. The David and Goliath power struggle between the two characters reflects the many societal power struggles in existence within the novel's historical context, issues that are still prevalent in contemporary New Zealand. The triumph of the underdog is a recurrent theme throughout the book and perhaps in places it is overplayed, but the catharsis that is felt by the reader every time Bulibasha is proven wrong is enough to forgive this.
Although the novel isn't an autobiography, features of this genre are evident in the writing. The episodic nature of the text is something I didn't really enjoy, but the development of the relationship between Simeon and Bulibasha linked ther events together relatively seamlessly.
Overall, I enjoyed reading the book. It's an absorbing tale that highlights one of life's greatest truths - there is a fine line between love and hate, respect and scorn, leadership and dictatorship, and it is up to us to distinguish the difference.
November 19, 2014
Set in rural New Zealand in the 1950s, this novel deftly evokes a bygone era. Although old-style sheep-shearing, and a long-standing feud between two extended Maori families might not sound like material capable of sustaining 300 pages, author Witi Ihimaera's colorful descriptions are more than up to the task. And as might be expected in an honest and realistic portrayal of family dynamics, the book delves into a number of universal themes: life/death, love/hate, solidarity/jealousy, respect/disaffection, success/failure tradition/modernity, old/young, etc. And all this is leavened by some splendid humor, which includes a bunch of raunchy aunts, and three transvestite cousins who temporarily join the family hockey team.
Ihimaera is perhaps best known in the U.S. for his novel Whale Rider, which was made into a well-regarded movie. Bulibasha may be harder to find, but it's worth the effort.
Ihimaera is perhaps best known in the U.S. for his novel Whale Rider, which was made into a well-regarded movie. Bulibasha may be harder to find, but it's worth the effort.
June 22, 2022
Wow. Okay.
Read this for a class, and enjoyed it much, much more than I thought I would.
FULL REVIEW (contains spoilers)
I’ve never had a great love for NZ fiction, so Bulibasha by Witi Ihimaera was not a book I was expecting to enjoy – yet I loved it. It’s a story about legacy and family set on the East Coast of New Zealand in the late 1950s, and our narrator is Simeon Mahana, whose grandfather, Tamihana Mahana, is the leader of their whanau. These two men, a modern young boy and his deeply traditional grandfather, share a tense, strained relationship, and their struggle to understand one another drives the narrative in this incredible novel.
The important thing to preface with is the legendary mana that Tamihana, known by his adopted title ‘Bulibasha’, has cultivated in his community. To his whanau, the Bulibasha is a god-like figure. He has made a name for himself as a star athlete, a ferocious sheep-shearer, and a champion of the hearts of women, and his reputation precedes him all throughout the East Coast. It is this powerful imagery that Tamihana uses to control his family; his children love him, but their love is stained by a fearful reverence. The word of the Bulibasha is law, and no one is to challenge it. Rather in the style of Milton’s Lucifer, Simeon questions the arbitrary nature of his grandfather’s power: why does the verdict of the Bulibasha overthrow the input of every other member of the family? He sees his grandfather as a tyrant, and Tamihana reciprocates this dislike. His grandson is a nuisance, disobedient and rebellious, “too big for his boots” – ‘whakihihi’ is the Māori word used, meaning know-it-all. Their conflict is in their inability to understand each other: two stubborn people locked in combat and refusing to budge. Simeon feels that his grandfather’s legacy should not give him ultimate power over the family; Tamihana maintains that his insubordinate grandson must pay respect to his status and place.
As Simeon grows older, he begins to develop an understanding of his grandfather’s worldview and traditions. In his youth, his contempt for the Bulibasha is more baseless, a defiant reaction to being told what to do. The older he becomes, the more critical of an understanding Simeon develops of how the Bulibasha has created his image, and the more he challenges the mysticism of the Bulibasha’s legacy. Set as it is in the late 1950s, the novel shares history with a key turning point in the New Zealand literary canon. In 1954, the first Māori author was published in English, and although this has little relevance to the story itself, it brings context to the time period in which Simeon and Tamihana are struggling to form their relationship: the world is changing, and only one of them is willing to change with it. Simeon begins to empathise with the Bulibasha, and not only that; he begins to pity him. He realises that while he may be able to accommodate, or at least understand, why his grandfather thinks the way he does, Tamihana will never be able to empathise with his grandson or see things from his point of view.
And as Simeon begins to understand his grandfather, it also becomes clear that despite their differences, Tamihana and Simeon are actually alike. For one thing, they are both stubborn to a fault, unwilling to put themselves in the other’s shoes. But Simeon and Tamihana also share a common story arc: they manipulate people and events to achieve their own preferred outcome. The Bulibasha trades in the currency of manipulation and deceit. At a hockey tournament, he tries to swap out members of the squad competing in the finals to create what he thinks is the strongest team -- if they lose, his mana will take a hit. At a sheep-shearing competition, he tries the same again, even after being told that doing so could result in disqualification – as he informs Simeon, “Rules are made to be broken. I am the law” (p.224). Even the story he tells his children about how he met their mother, which has taken on folklore status within the family rhetoric, is a lie made to satisfy his own personal vision of how the truth should appear. It is actions like this that energise Simeon’s contempt for his grandfather, yet it is this quality that Simeon unwittingly shares. In the climax of the novel, we learn that Tamihana’s wife, Ramona, did not fall in love with him at first sight and leave her husband-to-be at the altar for him, as their children and grandchildren have been told all their lives. In fact, Tamihana stole her from the altar, locked her in a shed, and raped her into submission. After Tamihana’s death, Ramona reveals the truth and asks her children if she may return to her first love. When Simeon suggests that they take it to a vote and, upon reading the voting slips, discovers that his grandmother is two votes away from her true love, he takes matters into his own hands to achieve what he believes is right. In a powerful passage, Simeon realises just how alike he and his grandfather really are:
My manipulation has changed the course of family history for ever. There
was something arrogant in the notion, something God-like in the assumption
[...] I could play with people as if they were toys. There was not so much
difference, after all, between me and my grandfather, the Bulibasha (p.282-3).
This slow coming to terms with the fact that these two diametrically opposed characters are actually fundamentally the same is what makes this book so phenomenal. I love the way the story unfolds to reveal the complexity of this relationship, demonstrating the divide between tradition and change and the way this divide bridges itself in unexpected ways. This is an incredible book, compelling and engaging and immensely thought-provoking. I am so glad to have read it – it is the first book I have read for a class that I have genuinely and completely loved.
Read this for a class, and enjoyed it much, much more than I thought I would.
FULL REVIEW (contains spoilers)
I’ve never had a great love for NZ fiction, so Bulibasha by Witi Ihimaera was not a book I was expecting to enjoy – yet I loved it. It’s a story about legacy and family set on the East Coast of New Zealand in the late 1950s, and our narrator is Simeon Mahana, whose grandfather, Tamihana Mahana, is the leader of their whanau. These two men, a modern young boy and his deeply traditional grandfather, share a tense, strained relationship, and their struggle to understand one another drives the narrative in this incredible novel.
The important thing to preface with is the legendary mana that Tamihana, known by his adopted title ‘Bulibasha’, has cultivated in his community. To his whanau, the Bulibasha is a god-like figure. He has made a name for himself as a star athlete, a ferocious sheep-shearer, and a champion of the hearts of women, and his reputation precedes him all throughout the East Coast. It is this powerful imagery that Tamihana uses to control his family; his children love him, but their love is stained by a fearful reverence. The word of the Bulibasha is law, and no one is to challenge it. Rather in the style of Milton’s Lucifer, Simeon questions the arbitrary nature of his grandfather’s power: why does the verdict of the Bulibasha overthrow the input of every other member of the family? He sees his grandfather as a tyrant, and Tamihana reciprocates this dislike. His grandson is a nuisance, disobedient and rebellious, “too big for his boots” – ‘whakihihi’ is the Māori word used, meaning know-it-all. Their conflict is in their inability to understand each other: two stubborn people locked in combat and refusing to budge. Simeon feels that his grandfather’s legacy should not give him ultimate power over the family; Tamihana maintains that his insubordinate grandson must pay respect to his status and place.
As Simeon grows older, he begins to develop an understanding of his grandfather’s worldview and traditions. In his youth, his contempt for the Bulibasha is more baseless, a defiant reaction to being told what to do. The older he becomes, the more critical of an understanding Simeon develops of how the Bulibasha has created his image, and the more he challenges the mysticism of the Bulibasha’s legacy. Set as it is in the late 1950s, the novel shares history with a key turning point in the New Zealand literary canon. In 1954, the first Māori author was published in English, and although this has little relevance to the story itself, it brings context to the time period in which Simeon and Tamihana are struggling to form their relationship: the world is changing, and only one of them is willing to change with it. Simeon begins to empathise with the Bulibasha, and not only that; he begins to pity him. He realises that while he may be able to accommodate, or at least understand, why his grandfather thinks the way he does, Tamihana will never be able to empathise with his grandson or see things from his point of view.
And as Simeon begins to understand his grandfather, it also becomes clear that despite their differences, Tamihana and Simeon are actually alike. For one thing, they are both stubborn to a fault, unwilling to put themselves in the other’s shoes. But Simeon and Tamihana also share a common story arc: they manipulate people and events to achieve their own preferred outcome. The Bulibasha trades in the currency of manipulation and deceit. At a hockey tournament, he tries to swap out members of the squad competing in the finals to create what he thinks is the strongest team -- if they lose, his mana will take a hit. At a sheep-shearing competition, he tries the same again, even after being told that doing so could result in disqualification – as he informs Simeon, “Rules are made to be broken. I am the law” (p.224). Even the story he tells his children about how he met their mother, which has taken on folklore status within the family rhetoric, is a lie made to satisfy his own personal vision of how the truth should appear. It is actions like this that energise Simeon’s contempt for his grandfather, yet it is this quality that Simeon unwittingly shares. In the climax of the novel, we learn that Tamihana’s wife, Ramona, did not fall in love with him at first sight and leave her husband-to-be at the altar for him, as their children and grandchildren have been told all their lives. In fact, Tamihana stole her from the altar, locked her in a shed, and raped her into submission. After Tamihana’s death, Ramona reveals the truth and asks her children if she may return to her first love. When Simeon suggests that they take it to a vote and, upon reading the voting slips, discovers that his grandmother is two votes away from her true love, he takes matters into his own hands to achieve what he believes is right. In a powerful passage, Simeon realises just how alike he and his grandfather really are:
My manipulation has changed the course of family history for ever. There
was something arrogant in the notion, something God-like in the assumption
[...] I could play with people as if they were toys. There was not so much
difference, after all, between me and my grandfather, the Bulibasha (p.282-3).
This slow coming to terms with the fact that these two diametrically opposed characters are actually fundamentally the same is what makes this book so phenomenal. I love the way the story unfolds to reveal the complexity of this relationship, demonstrating the divide between tradition and change and the way this divide bridges itself in unexpected ways. This is an incredible book, compelling and engaging and immensely thought-provoking. I am so glad to have read it – it is the first book I have read for a class that I have genuinely and completely loved.
June 26, 2017
Another book I had to read for a school assignment.
Movie leaves out a lot of detail in the story but pinpoints the important stuff. Inequality between two races, struggles against colonisation, tradition and modernity...a lot of New Zealand past/present societal issues.
I'm just glad to be done with class. And happy this contributes towards my reading goal :P
Movie leaves out a lot of detail in the story but pinpoints the important stuff. Inequality between two races, struggles against colonisation, tradition and modernity...a lot of New Zealand past/present societal issues.
I'm just glad to be done with class. And happy this contributes towards my reading goal :P
September 9, 2014
Bulibasha was my choice of Maori title for Indigenous Literature Week at ANZ LitLovers because I had three books by Witi Ihimaera on my TBR, and this one was the earliest one. It won the Montana Book Award for Fiction in 1995.
It’s a coming-of-age novel set in sheep country on the east coast of New Zealand. Simeon is the narrator, looking back at his younger self in conflict with his tyrannical grandfather and the family that was subservient to him.
"In those days, if you wanted to get to Waituhi from Gisborne, you had to cross the red suspension bridge over the Waipaoa River just past the Bridge Hotel. The hotel is still there but the bridge was long ago replaced.
"Dumped on land now owned by the region’s premier vintner, Matawhero Wines, the bridge is a worrying reminder that things shrink as you get older. I remember it as an imposing superstructure which cast shadows over our Pontiac as we drove across. When the river ranged in winter the swollen silt-laden waters slammed tree trunks against its pontoons. In reality, the bridge was very small and short, redolent of the times before constant flooding of the Gisborne River lowland compelled engineers to slash shortcuts across each S-bend and to open out the river’s width like a gutted stomach. Back then the river had a narrow course – a slender eel threshing toward the delta at the sea.
"Something else happened when human engineers simplified that complex landscape of river bends. With every sculpting movement of bulldozer and grader, they stripped the river of its mythology".
The family mythology is controlled by Tamihana, Simeon’s grandfather. He is the leader of the great Mahana clan of sheep-shearers, and his word is law. Drawing together elements of Maori cultural practice and the Mormon religion that he has adopted, he brings the entire family together each Sunday for ritual retellings of the family story: how in 1919 with foresight and hard work Tamihana took advantage of a scheme to help Maori farmers and built a successful business that is rivalled only by the enemy Poata clan with whom the family has a bitter feud.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2012/07/04/bu...
It’s a coming-of-age novel set in sheep country on the east coast of New Zealand. Simeon is the narrator, looking back at his younger self in conflict with his tyrannical grandfather and the family that was subservient to him.
"In those days, if you wanted to get to Waituhi from Gisborne, you had to cross the red suspension bridge over the Waipaoa River just past the Bridge Hotel. The hotel is still there but the bridge was long ago replaced.
"Dumped on land now owned by the region’s premier vintner, Matawhero Wines, the bridge is a worrying reminder that things shrink as you get older. I remember it as an imposing superstructure which cast shadows over our Pontiac as we drove across. When the river ranged in winter the swollen silt-laden waters slammed tree trunks against its pontoons. In reality, the bridge was very small and short, redolent of the times before constant flooding of the Gisborne River lowland compelled engineers to slash shortcuts across each S-bend and to open out the river’s width like a gutted stomach. Back then the river had a narrow course – a slender eel threshing toward the delta at the sea.
"Something else happened when human engineers simplified that complex landscape of river bends. With every sculpting movement of bulldozer and grader, they stripped the river of its mythology".
The family mythology is controlled by Tamihana, Simeon’s grandfather. He is the leader of the great Mahana clan of sheep-shearers, and his word is law. Drawing together elements of Maori cultural practice and the Mormon religion that he has adopted, he brings the entire family together each Sunday for ritual retellings of the family story: how in 1919 with foresight and hard work Tamihana took advantage of a scheme to help Maori farmers and built a successful business that is rivalled only by the enemy Poata clan with whom the family has a bitter feud.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2012/07/04/bu...
July 30, 2019
This is my first book about Maori family traditions and culture, written by the author of Whale Rider.
Despite struggling with a number of Maori words and phrases (not all of which I was able to translate with Google's help), I enjoyed the narrative thoroughly and also learned a lot about sheep shearing....
Despite struggling with a number of Maori words and phrases (not all of which I was able to translate with Google's help), I enjoyed the narrative thoroughly and also learned a lot about sheep shearing....
May 10, 2020
This is an absorbing story by one of NZ’s best known novelists. It’s set in mid-20th century Aotearoa/ NZ in a rural Māori community and explores concepts of whānau, mana, love and loyalty. Unlike Witi Ihimaera’s later works, this is a story that sticks with 1 family and 1 place, and explores the family history through stories told to the children. Like many of Ihimaera’s other works, family violence is also a pivotal part of the dynamic. This, at times, makes for grim reading, but the strength, hope, and resilience of the main character shines through all of it. Ihimaera’s humour is also apparent throughout, so overall it’s an interesting exploration of what it means to have mana.
May 15, 2013
This novel starts of as a gritty, sad tale of growing up at the bottom end of a poor rural Maori hierarchy in the 50's. What starts off in the genre of tragedy becomes interspersed with uplifting scenes and story-lines that seem almost cut-and-pasted out of classic Hollywood films. As well as an insight into the poverty and its impact that still exists within New Zealand, the novel is also I think a personal account of how movies were a form of escape, indeed a solace for the author whilst growing up. If only life was like a Hollywood movie....
April 26, 2012
Awesome twist to this story.
January 21, 2013
One of my favourite books ever. Read it 16 years ago and finally got a copy to re-read. I even received a bonus copy by accident!
November 11, 2022
Loved every page -- the North Island pastoral, the gradations of power, the drama. At times a lot of fun, though the more I think about it the darker it feels.
April 25, 2019
Il est compliqué de parler de mon expérience de lecture sans spoiler. Ce livre traite d'une famille maori dans laquelle le patriarche (Bulibasha) fait régner sa loi : mélange de traditions maoris et de traditions mormones. Siméon, le narrateur de cette histoire, est le petit-fils de Bulibasha et va se rebeller contre l'ordre établi.
Les thèmes sont nombreux : Comment faire naitre de la justice dans une société basée sur la tradition. L'opposition entre manuel et intellectuel. La place de l'intellectuel dans une société où il représente également l'oppression colonial. La culture maori. Le poids de la famille. L'émancipation par la nécessaire lutte. Le besoin de reconnaissance même par son bourreau.
J'ai le sentiment qu'il m'a manqué des bases sur la culture maori pour appréhender correctement cette histoire, il reste que les scènes de travaux en famille, de rencontres sportives ou de concours de danse/haka/chant m'ont beaucoup plus. Passé les 50 premières pages un peu laborieuses, je n'ai plus réussi à lâcher le livre : Je voulais voir la victoire de Siméon, de ses parents et de ses sœurs et de pas mal d'autres membres de sa famille contre l'oppresseur.
L'écriture de Witi Ihimaera est agréable est pleine d'humour. Je suis un peu perplexe en ce qui concerne le traducteur qui a choisi de traduire certaines phrases de la langue maori au français et pas d'autres: Comme je n'ai pas fais maori 3ème langue, ça a été un peu frustrant par moment...
Un très bon livre qui m'a donné envie de découvrir la culture maori pour pouvoir mieux comprendre les réactions de protagonistes auxquels je me suis beaucoup attachée.
Les thèmes sont nombreux : Comment faire naitre de la justice dans une société basée sur la tradition. L'opposition entre manuel et intellectuel. La place de l'intellectuel dans une société où il représente également l'oppression colonial. La culture maori. Le poids de la famille. L'émancipation par la nécessaire lutte. Le besoin de reconnaissance même par son bourreau.
J'ai le sentiment qu'il m'a manqué des bases sur la culture maori pour appréhender correctement cette histoire, il reste que les scènes de travaux en famille, de rencontres sportives ou de concours de danse/haka/chant m'ont beaucoup plus. Passé les 50 premières pages un peu laborieuses, je n'ai plus réussi à lâcher le livre : Je voulais voir la victoire de Siméon, de ses parents et de ses sœurs et de pas mal d'autres membres de sa famille contre l'oppresseur.
L'écriture de Witi Ihimaera est agréable est pleine d'humour. Je suis un peu perplexe en ce qui concerne le traducteur qui a choisi de traduire certaines phrases de la langue maori au français et pas d'autres: Comme je n'ai pas fais maori 3ème langue, ça a été un peu frustrant par moment...
Un très bon livre qui m'a donné envie de découvrir la culture maori pour pouvoir mieux comprendre les réactions de protagonistes auxquels je me suis beaucoup attachée.
January 5, 2020
Bulibasha is written from the perspective of the grandson teenager Simeon of Tamihana or Bulibasha, and the struggles against his grandfather while growing up in the East Cape of Aotearoa. The whanau (family) have been sheep shearers since Tamihana started the first gang and the book explores a time where the patriarch / male leader was the Maori grandfather and then goes to levels of first born son, second etc.
Whakahihi (know-it-all) was my favourite idea of this book as Simeon was given this name by his grandfather a lot, it really resonated with how Maori were made to feel that they should not be smart and all play the part of being ignorant in the English education system. I still think to this day it is a struggle for educated Maori to remove the stigma.
I didn't enjoy some of the detail about shearing but overall the Maori history touched in the book was excellent and makes it a good read - the twist at the end being something that I could not have imagined.
Whakahihi (know-it-all) was my favourite idea of this book as Simeon was given this name by his grandfather a lot, it really resonated with how Maori were made to feel that they should not be smart and all play the part of being ignorant in the English education system. I still think to this day it is a struggle for educated Maori to remove the stigma.
I didn't enjoy some of the detail about shearing but overall the Maori history touched in the book was excellent and makes it a good read - the twist at the end being something that I could not have imagined.
November 17, 2015
A story with biblical, literary and mythic overtones. There are echoes of the Scriptural story of Jacob and Laban throughout the novel.
Simeon opposes his grandfather’s iron rule of the family, only to discover that, in his large extended family, he is the only one like his grandmother.
She, abducted on the way to her wedding by Bulibasha on a white horse, has twelve children by a man she doesn’t love. The family is brought up to hate that of her intended groom, Rupeni. They form a shearing business and in the Golden Fleece competition, it is the “servants” of the family, the tail-enders, Mahana 4 who triumph over their esteemed brothers.
Bulibasha makes one of the hands serve a year for Miriam, then like Laban insists he take the older sister. He serves another year. Like Jacob, Bulibasha wrestles with an angel – and becomes a Mormon!
Simeon opposes his grandfather’s iron rule of the family, only to discover that, in his large extended family, he is the only one like his grandmother.
She, abducted on the way to her wedding by Bulibasha on a white horse, has twelve children by a man she doesn’t love. The family is brought up to hate that of her intended groom, Rupeni. They form a shearing business and in the Golden Fleece competition, it is the “servants” of the family, the tail-enders, Mahana 4 who triumph over their esteemed brothers.
Bulibasha makes one of the hands serve a year for Miriam, then like Laban insists he take the older sister. He serves another year. Like Jacob, Bulibasha wrestles with an angel – and becomes a Mormon!
May 13, 2007
I identified with the patriarchal organisation of the Maori culture clashing with the individualistic pursuit of the Pakeha/European/Western culture. The first chapters were thick mud to wad thru, it seems.
July 4, 2010
I was skeptical about this book because I didn't like the cover (yes, I'm one of those people), but I got into it quickly. I liked the cultural background as I really knew nothing about Maori culture.
October 14, 2015
Definitely not my kind of book and that makes me sad and uncultured swine.
March 16, 2018
I was not sure about this book. I am generally not so fond of coming-of-age stories, but I like stories about family dynasties and I devoted my graduate studies to Maori culture, so there was really no way around this one. I am glad I read it. I had a hard time taking to Simeon, but Ihimaera managed to craft a detailed picture of rural life in New Zealand of the fifties, as seen from a Maori perspective. This book does not aim to please, but shows family life with all its good and bad sides. Bullying Bulibasha is a highly unlikable character, but does not seem too far-fetched. As he depends on holding his large family together, he rules with an iron hand. The end offers an interesting twist, at once tragic and yet rewarding.
October 22, 2017
I absolutely adored this book. Sad, deep, but also surprisingly funny. I have never read anything like it. 10/10. Will look into more of his works.
July 18, 2018
LOVED IT! A phenomenal and gripping story
July 24, 2018
Amazing, wonderful!
September 7, 2018
Excellent, with some great twists
September 16, 2018
An incredible piece of writing!
March 17, 2019
I was loving this book, until the ending which broke the suspension of disbelief.
March 10, 2020
I panui au tenei pukapuka i te tau 2007 <3 tenei tetahi pukapuka pai rawa ki au.
March 9, 2021
Enjoyed this, more content than the movie but I can see why the movie left bits out
July 12, 2021
Another great novel by Witi Ihimaera. If you want to read a family saga and learn more about what it means to grow up Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand, read this. The novel explores patriarchal family dynamics and how they change over time. What I found most compelling is that the stories we're told as children about our elders are not always true. Maybe this is a way to save face or maintain mana, but Bulibasha's secret rewrites the family's story. You'll have to read it to find out for yourself what the secret is!
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