Paihia, 1823, and William Cook is injured, abandoned
by his whaling ship. He is nursed at the Mission by
Tiraha, whāngai daughter of the great chief Nene.
Fifty years later, this couple’s grandson meets his
grandparents for the first time and hears the story of
their long life together.
Abraham senses long-buried secrets as his grandfather
tells how, abandoned once again, this time with a
young family in the isolated deep south, he and Tiraha
drew on the knowledge and skills of both their cultures to survive, and to escape.
Pioneer shipbuilders on remote Stewart Island, and
making ingenious use of scarce resources, William
and Tiraha eventually cross the Tasman with their
growing family to deliver a new-built vessel for the
Weller brothers. They return, finally, to the Bay of
Islands to witness the coming of British law, the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and the Flagstaff Wars.
Despite the tensions from their own divided loyalties
in these turbulent times, William and Tiraha grow to
understand each other and the new country they are
helping to shape.
A first-person story inside a nineteenth-century
memoir, constructed as a novel – Michael Littlewood
has taken historical evidence and family lore and
produced a compelling work of biographical fiction for
adventure-seekers, seafarers and anyone intrigued by
the earliest days of Pākehā–Māori relations.