Whatua te Kākahu: Christianity, the Māori World and Colonialism in Aotearoa New Zealand

Since the early nineteenth century Māori and Christian worldviews in Aotearoa have both co-existed and clashed. Against the backdrop of colonisation, some Māori began to knit together Christianity and tikanga in powerful new ways.

In this significant collection of essays, scholars and experts ask: How did Christian missionaries understand Māori culture? How did Māori make sense of the Bible, and how did they weave it into their world? What precisely were the relationships between Christianity and colonialism? And how do these processes continue to shape our religion, politics and culture today?

Whatua te Kākahu reveals anew the story of te ao Māori and Christianity. Weaving together history and cultural analysis, these essays trace the evolving relationship between spirituality and identity in Aotearoa.

Samuel D. Carpenter is Lecturer in History and Research Fellow at Laidlaw College / Te Wānanga Amorangi (Auckland, New Zealand). He worked for a decade in Treaty settlements, including for the Waitangi Tribunal, the Office of Treaty Settlements, and the Crown Law Office. His PhD in history (Massey University, 2021) explored early New Zealand political thought in both European and Māori worlds. His recent publications include ‘Reconciling the Treaty/te Tiriti Through the Discourse of Civil Government/Kāwanatanga’, Journal of New Zealand Studies 39 (2025): 44–64. He is currently preparing a manuscript, Karuwhā: A Life of Henry Williams, for publication. His personal research page is nzhistorian.com.

Bradford Haami is connected to Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Kahungunu and Kāi Tahu iwi. He serves as Chair of Te Rūnanga Amorangi, the Māori Council for Laidlaw College. He is a lecturer in biculturalism and holds a Graduate Diploma in Theology. His research and writing focus on mātauranga Māori, Māori history and biography, biculturalism, and the intersection of Māori traditional cosmology and biblical theology. His publications include True Red (2004), Ka Mau Te Wehi (2013), The River of the Waters of Life (2016), Urban Māori (2018) and Bringing Culture into Care (2019).

Tony Ballantyne is a Poutoko Taiea Distinguished Professor in the History Programme at the University of Otago Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka. His research has explored the development of colonial knowledge, especially changing understandings of language, religion and race, in the modern British empire. He has also published on the history of missions and Christianity in New Zealand, including Entanglements of Empire: Missionaries, Māori, and the Question of the Body (Duke University Press and Auckland University Press, 2014). His most recent publication is Captain Cook and the Unsettled Afterlives of Empire (Bridget Williams Books, 2026).

Cover: Todd Atticus