Author(s): Elsdon Best

Te Ao Māori

Ethnologist Elsdon Best spent many years documenting the culture, beliefs, customs and whakapapa of the Ngai Tuhoe people - whom he described as 'the children of the mist'. This monumental two-volume work comes back into print with the guidance of Dr Rapata Wiri (Ngai Tuhoe, Ngati Ruapani). This volume contains the genealogies and maps.

As with Volume One, Elsdon Best compiled the material for this volume of Tuhoe: The Children of the Mist as he travelled through the Urewera, holding countless first-hand sessions with kaumatua, principally Paitini Wi Tapeka of Ruatahuna and Tutakangahau of Maungapohatu. Volume Two contains the detailed whakapapa (genealogies) and fold-out map of this rugged corner of Te Ika-a-Maui (the North Island).

Now in its fifth edition, Tuhoe ranks as one of the greatest tribal histories of New Zealand. This is a facsimile of the book first published in 1925 by the Board of Maori Ethnological Research on behalf of Best and the Polynesian Society.

As Dr Rapata Wiri writes in the preface to Volume 1, the social and anthropological contexts for Best's research have changed significantly in the intervening hundred years, but their value endures: 'Although this book is a product of its time, it significantly contributes to our understanding and knowledge of the tribal traditions and history of Tuhoe and Te Urewera, its lands and its people. To celebrate, we are proud to reprint Tuhoe: The Children of the Mist in 2025, a century after its first publication.'