Congratulations to HistoryWorks Director Vincent O’Malley, whose book, Voices from the New Zealand Wars/He Reo nō ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa (Bridget Williams Books), last week won the hotly-contested General Non-Fiction category at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
The judges had this to say about Vincent’s book:
Vincent O’Malley’s book meets all the criteria for a great work of non-fiction. It is the fruit of close historical research and accessible to a wide readership. It tells us of the past but is relevant to the present when public debate feeds New Zealanders’ hunger to know how our country was formed. It is nuanced in its balance of both Māori and Pakeha voices and it respects the attitudes and assumptions of people who lived in an era different from our own. In bringing together these voices, O’Malley creates a coherent history of the New Zealand Wars, gives greater attention to wahine than earlier historians have, and deals carefully with contested events. The excellent book production is a credit to the publishers.
