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Best Of Both Worlds The story of Elsdon Best and Tutakangahau by Jeffrey Paparoa Holman

In 1895, a meeting took place in the rugged Urewera ranges, Tuhoe country. This meeting had lasting effects on our views of traditional Maori society.

Elsdon Best, a self taught anthropologist and quartermaster on the road past Lake Waikaremoana, met leading Tuhoe chief, Tutakangahau of Maungapohatu., when the chief took him and others to the lake The stories he gave to Best to be recorded for future generations are with us today. A friendship developed in which a large amount of information regarding Tuhoe and Maori lore and customs was passed on to Best. The significance of his work has long been recognised and questioned.

Best went on to become a noted New Zealand European authority on a people he would style as the last of the old-time Maori while Tutakangahau is virtually forgotten.

In his unique examination of this historically significant relationship, Holman poses many searching questions, further informing a vital debate on the shared identity and destiny of Maori and New Zealand Europeans. This book looks at both characters and the context in which they met. Unlike what Best portrayed, Tuhoe was already affected by print literacy and subsequently the Maori culture was already beginning to change. The book talks about these changes and gives us a good picture of what was happening in the time of Best’s work. It also helps the reader re-examine any pre-conceptions they may have about pre-European and early European Maori culture.

Jeffrey Paparoa Holman was born in London in 1947 and immigrated to New Zealand in 1950, living for most of his early years on the South Island’s West Coast. He has worked in saw mills, shearing gangs, as a social worker and bookseller before returning to study in 1997 at the University of Canterbury, graduating with a PhD in Maori Studies. He is also an award winning poet and is currently working on a new book of poetry.

RRP $40.00
Published and distributed by Penguin Group

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