Meeting Place: Maori & Pakeha Encounters, 1642–1840

‘In 1642 Māori discovered Europe.’

Vincent O’Malley’s account of the first meeting between Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri and Abel Tasman’s crew sets the scene for how two peoples navigated fraught beginnings to find a ‘meeting place’ in pre-Treaty Aotearoa.

Dr O’Malley tells the story of encounters between Māori and Pākehā in a turbulent landscape still shaped by Māori authority and evolving relationships. Early misunderstandings and violence gradually give way to mutual accommodation and adaptation. In this middle ground, people traded, intermarried, forged alliances and shaped each other’s ways of life – until this fragile balance was undone in the decades after 1840. Through people’s stories, O’Malley brings to life a time of extraordinary change.

Shortlisted for the New Zealand Post Book Awards (2013) in its first edition, this updated account from an award-winning and bestselling historian expands on the original with new research, including material on Te Waipounamu and an enriched visual narrative.