Monty Glyn Soutar ONZM (born 1961) [1] is a New Zealand historian and author.
Soutar lived in Ruatoria, Kawerau and Palmerston North as a child. [2] [3] He then attended Hato Paora College, which he credits for instilling pride in academic achievement and interest in the Maori side of his heritage. [2] Soutar is affiliated with the Māori tribes of Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki and Ngāti Kahungunu.
Soutar attended Palmerston North Teachers' College from 1980 to 1983. [1] He holds degrees from Massey University and Victoria University. [1] [4] [5]
Soutar taught for two years at Manutahi Primary School, followed by two years working through historical records at the Māori Land Court in Gisborne to create a local history resource for schools on the East Coast. [2] He also spent four years in the Territorials and New Zealand Army. [2] [3]
He was a senior lecturer in Maori studies at Massey University. [1]
Soutar was appointed to the Waitangi Tribunal in 2002 for a three-year period, [6] and from 2006 to January 2010 was Director of the Tairawhiti Museum in Gisborne. During his time there he negotiated an increase in museum funding and initiated a project which involved upgrading collection documentation and rehousing the museum's collection. [7] He was appointed one of the Guardians of the Alexander Turnbull Library in 2006 [8] and was on the National Archives Council.
Since 2011 Soutar has been a Fellow in Maori History at the Ministry of Culture and Heritage. In the 2015 New Year Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Māori and historical research. [9] At that time he was also World War One Historian in Residence at Auckland War Memorial Museum.
In 2021 Soutar was awarded the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writer's Fellowship worth $100,000 to enable him to complete a historical novel trilogy. [10] The first novel in the trilogy, Kāwai, was published in 2022, and was the best-selling New Zealand fiction novel of the year. [11] It was shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. [12]
Gisborne is a city in northeastern New Zealand and the largest settlement in the Gisborne District. It has a population of 38,800. Gisborne District Council has its headquarters in the central city.
Ruatoria is a town in the Waiapu Valley of the Gisborne Region in the northeastern corner of New Zealand's North Island. The town was originally known as Cross Roads then Manutahi and was later named Ruatorea in 1913, after the Māori Master female grower Tōrea who had some of the finest storage pits in her Iwi at the time (Te-Rua-a-Tōrea). In 1925 the name was altered to "Ruatoria", although some texts retain the original spelling.
Mount Hikurangi is a 1,752 m (5,748 ft) peak in the eastern corner of New Zealand's North Island, about 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Gisborne, and 50 kilometres (31 mi) southwest of the East Cape Lighthouse. On a spur of the Raukumara Range in the Waiapu Valley, it is the North Island's highest non-volcanic peak.
The Waiapu River is a river in the Gisborne District of the North Island of New Zealand, with a total length of approximately 130 kilometres (81 mi). Found in the north-east of the Waiapu Valley, it flows north-east from the joining of the Mata River and the Tapuaeroa River, then passes by Ruatoria before reaching the Pacific Ocean at Rangitukia. Other tributaries of the Waiapu River include the Mangaoporo, Poroporo, Wairoa, Maraehara rivers, and the Paoaruku stream. It is the most well-known river in the region and lies within the rohe (territory) of Ngāti Porou, the largest iwi on the East Coast, and second largest in New Zealand. The area was the site of hostilities during the New Zealand Wars from June to October in 1865, both between Pākehā and Māori, and between factions of Ngāti Porou.
Tikitiki is a small town in Waiapu Valley on the north bank of the Waiapu River in the Gisborne Region of the North Island of New Zealand. The area in which the town resides was formerly known as Kahukura. By road, Tikitiki is 145 km (90 mi) north-northeast of Gisborne, 20 km (12 mi) northeast by north of Ruatoria, and 24 km (15 mi) south by east of Te Araroa. The name of the town comes from the full name of Māui, Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga. State Highway 35 passes through the town at the easternmost point of the New Zealand state highway network.
Whangara is a small community in the northeast of New Zealand's North Island, located between Gisborne and Tolaga Bay, five kilometres southwest of Gable End Foreland and two kilometres east of State Highway 35.
Sir Mason Harold Durie is a New Zealand professor of Māori Studies and research academic at Massey University. He is known for his contributions to Māori health. In 2020, he was appointed to the Order of New Zealand, the highest honour in New Zealand's royal honours system.
Te Kapunga Matemoana "Koro" Dewes was a kaumātua of the Ngāti Porou iwi of New Zealand. He was a pioneer of Māori education and an advocate for the Māori language.
The New Zealand Pioneer Battalion (NZPB), later known as the New Zealand (Māori) Pioneer Battalion or New Zealand Māori (Pioneer) Battalion, was a battalion of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) that served during the Great War. The battalion was formed in Egypt in March 1916 upon New Zealand Divisional Orders of 20 February, and drawn from surplus officers and other ranks of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles (NZMR), the Otago Mounted Rifles (OMR) and the New Zealand Native Contingent (NZNC) then serving in Egypt with the New Zealand Infantry Brigade. It consisted of Māori, Pākehā and Pacific Islanders. "By the end of the war, 2227 Maori and 458 Pacific Islanders had served in what became known as the Maori Pioneer Battalion. Of these, 336 died on active service and 734 were wounded. Other Maori enlisted in other units."
Waipiro Bay is a small coastal settlement in the Gisborne District on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The name also refers to the bay that the settlement is built on. It was named Waipiro by Chief Paoa, which translates literally to "putrid water", referring to the area's sulfuric properties. It is in the Waiapu ward, along with nearby towns Te Puia Springs, Tokomaru Bay, and Ruatoria. It is located 15 km (9 mi) south of Ruatoria, 77 km (48 mi) north-east of Gisborne, and 41 km (25 mi) south-west of the East Cape Lighthouse, the easternmost point of mainland New Zealand. By road, it is 103 km (64 mi) from Gisborne, and 231 km (144 mi) from Ōpōtiki. Waipiro Bay is governed by the Gisborne District Council, and is in the East Coast electorate.
Waiapu Valley, also known as the Waiapu catchment, Waiapu River valley or simply Waiapu, is a valley in the north of the Gisborne Region on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is the catchment area for the Waiapu River and its tributaries, and covers 1,734 square kilometres (670 sq mi). The Raukumara Range forms the western side of the valley, with Mount Hikurangi in the central west. The towns of Ruatoria and Tikitiki are in the north-east of the valley.
Akuaku, also known as Aku Aku, was a settlement about halfway between Waipiro Bay and Whareponga in the East Coast region of New Zealand's North Island. A traditional landing point for waka taua, the town is most notable now as the former home of Major Ropata Wahawaha NZC, as well as the ancestral home of Te Whānau-a-Rākairoa.
Te Whakaruruhau o Ngā Reo Irirangi Māori is a New Zealand radio network consisting of radio stations that serve the country's indigenous Māori population. Most stations receive contestable government funding from Te Māngai Pāho, the Māori Broadcast Funding Agency, to operate on behalf of affiliated iwi (tribes) or hapū (sub-tribes). Under their funding agreement, the stations must produce programmes in the Māori language, and must actively promote Māori culture.
Terri Te Tau is a New Zealand contemporary artist and writer. She is a member of the Mata Aho Collective. In 2017, the collective represented New Zealand at documenta, a quinquennial contemporary-art exhibition held in Kassel, Germany. This was the first time New Zealand artists had been invited to present their work at the event.
The Gisborne District or Gisborne Region has a deep and complex history that dates back to the early 1300s. The region, on the East Coast of New Zealand's North Island, has many culturally and historically significant sites that relate to early Māori exploration in the 14th century and important colonial events, such as Captain Cook's first landfall in New Zealand.
Whiti Hereaka is a New Zealand playwright, novelist and screenwriter and a barrister and solicitor. She has held a number of writing residencies and appeared at literary festivals in New Zealand and overseas, and several of her books and plays have been shortlisted for or won awards. In 2022 her book Kurangaituku won the prize for fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and Bugs won an Honour Award in the 2014 New Zealand Post Awards for Children and Young Adults. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand.
Sir Derek Arana Te Ahi Lardelli is a New Zealand tā moko artist, painter, carver, kapahaka performer, composer, graphic designer, researcher of whakapapa and oral histories and kaikōrero. He affiliates to the Ngāti Konohi hapū of Ngāti Porou, and the Ngāi Te Aweawe hapū of Rongowhakaata, and lives in Gisborne, where he is pouwhirinaki/principal lecturer at Toihoukura at Eastern Institute of Technology.
Anaura Bay is a bay and community in the Gisborne District of New Zealand's North Island. It is located just south of Tokomaru Bay and north of Tolaga Bay.
Sir Tīmoti Samuel Kāretu is a New Zealand academic of Māori language and performing arts. He served as the inaugural head of the Department of Māori at the University of Waikato, and rose to the rank of professor. He was the first Māori language commissioner, between 1987 and 1999, and then was executive director of Te Kohanga Reo National Trust from 1993 until 2003. In 2003, he was closely involved in the foundation of Te Panekiretanga o te Reo, the Institute of Excellence in Māori Language, and served as its executive director. He is fluent in Māori, English, French and German.
Robert Hans George Jahnke is a New Zealand artist and educator, well-known for his graphic and sculptural artwork. He is a professor at Massey University, founding Toioho ki Āpiti in 1991, the Māori visual arts degree programme in New Zealand.