Māori Authors (YA)

If you’re looking for fiction written by Māori authors, for NCEA or just because they’re good, here are a few we recommend, along with one or two of their books (most have many more!). Note: we’d love to add to this – if you’ve got a favourite Māori author not here then email us their name and we’ll add them!

Updated June 19, 2024
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Wellington City LibrariesYouth team at Wellington City Libraries
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Once were warriors
Duff, Alan
Paper Book
Once Were Warriors is Alan Duff's harrowing vision of his country's indigenous people two hundred years after the English conquest. In prose that is both raw and compelling, it tells the story of Beth Heke, a Maori woman struggling to keep her family from falling apart, despite the squalor and...
The bone people
Hulme, Keri.
Paper Book
The powerful, visionary, Booker Award-winning novel about the complicated relationships between three outcasts of mixed European and Maori heritage "This book is just amazingly, wondrously great." --Alice Walker In a tower on the New Zealand sea lives Kerewin...
The whale rider
Ihimaera, Witi
Paper Book
Eight-year-old Kahu, a member of the Maori tribe of Whangara, New Zealand, fights to prove her love, her leadership, and her destiny. Her people claim descent from Kahutia Te Rangi, the legendary "whale rider." In every generation since Kahutia, a male heir has inherited the title of chief. But...
Aue?
Manawatu, Becky
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE JANN MEDLICOTT ACORN PRIZE FOR FICTION WINNER OF THE MITOQ BEST FIRST BOOK OF FICTION WINNER OF THE NGAIO MARSH AWARD FOR BEST CRIME NOVEL auē (verb) to cry, howl, groan, wail, bawl. (interjection) expression of astonishment or distress....
Dark souls : a novel
Morris, Paula.
Paper Book
Welcome to York, England. Mist lingers in the streets. Narrow buildings cast long shadows. This is the most haunted city in the world. . . . Miranda Tennant arrives in York with a terrible, tragic secret. She is eager to lose herself amid the quaint cobblestones,...
Tauhou
Nuttall, Ko?tuku Titihuia
Paper Book
Finalist, 2024 Amazon Canada First Novel Award Dear grandmother, I am writing this song, over and over again, for you. I am a stranger in this place, he tauhou ahau, reintroducing myself to your land.  Tauhou is an inventive exploration of Indigenous families, womanhood, and...
Call me Evie
Pomare, J. P
Paper Book
A seventeen-year-old struggles to remember the tragic night that changed her life forever in this twist-filled debut novel of psychological suspense for fans of Sharp Objects and The Last Time I Lied. Evie and her uncle Jim have just moved to an isolated cabin in a...
Greta & Valdin
Reilly, Rebecca K
Paper Book
A New York Times Editors' Choice * "A heartfelt portrait of a complex family." --People * "Laugh-out-loud-funny." --Harper's Bazaar * "Quintessential rom-com meets the delicious family sprawl of a Russian classic." --Vanity Fair An irresistible,...

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