Novel
Tangi
Witi Ihimaera · 1973
Synopsis
Tama Mahana, a young Māori living in Wellington, learns of the death of his father, Rongo, and returns to Waituhi, on the east coast, for the tangi, the funeral rites of his people. The narrative follows its course and interweaves two times: the present mourning, and the childhood spent at Waituhi among the whānau. Tama's grief is set within his family's history and within the myth of the sky father and the earth mother, Rangi and Papa.
Context
Its author's first novel, written at twenty-nine, it followed a collection of short stories published the year before. His publisher had told him that Māori did not read, and critics of the time regretted not understanding the language. Jean-Pierre Durix translated it into French for Belfond in 1987. In 2023 the author issued a revised version from Penguin, which keeps the characters and the structure.
Who it is for
A novel translated into French in 1987. Two times are interwoven in it, mourning and childhood, to the rhythm of the funeral rites.
Prizes and reception
First prize at the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards in 1974; the first novel published by a Māori, it marks a milestone in the country's literature.