Novel
Once Were Warriors
Alan Duff · 1990
Synopsis
In Pine Block, a run-down social housing estate in Two Lakes, an invented town modelled on Rotorua, the Māori Heke family lives in poverty, unemployment, alcohol and violence. Beth, the mother, drinks, gambles the household money and takes the beatings of her husband, Jake, a hot-tempered man who rules only by force. Their daughter Grace, thirteen, watches the lives of the well-off neighbours; their son Nig lives with his girlfriend Tania, and young Boogie is placed in care by the courts.
Context
The author's first novel, published in 1990 by Tandem Press in Auckland, the book draws on Duff's childhood in Rotorua. It is written in juxtaposed interior monologues, in the spoken language of the characters, and sets the life of the Hekes against that of a well-off Pākehā family. It won the PEN Best First Book award and second place in the Wattie award. Its raw picture of urban Māori life was praised for its power but also accused of feeding stereotypes. Lee Tamahori made an award-winning film of it in 1994; Pierre Furlan translated it into French in 1996.
Who it is for
For a hard and powerful novel about poverty and domestic violence on Māori housing estates.
Prizes and reception
Awarded a prize the year after its publication, it aroused as much admiration as criticism for its portrait of urban Māori life.