Woman Far Walking

A 161 year old woman gives a moving personal account of her long life, touching on some key events in New Zealand’s social history, and the survival, struggles and resilience of the Maori people.

It is the 6th February 2001 and Tiri O Waitangi Mahana is awaiting the arrival of another birthday telegram from the Queen. She takes us a journey through her life: childhood in her beloved Valley of the Rainbows; the New Zealand wars and her faithful following of Te Kooti; the 1918 flu epidemic which decimated her people; the violent protests against the South African Springboks tour of 1981, and finally her return in the mid 1990s to the valley of her early years to save it from developers.

On 6th Febraury 1839 the Treaty of Waitangi, the founding document of modern New Zealand was signed between the British crown and the Maori chiefs. Although much contested, it committed to a sharing of the land between both the Maori and British settlers (more widely known as the Pakeha "white people"), and respect of both English and Maori languages as official languages of the state. Woman Far Walking is a stunning work of imagination and memory by the acclaimed New Zealand writer Witi Ihimaera, through the creation of a character, Te Tiriti O Waitangi Mahana, born on the same day as the signing of the treaty. For the entire time that Maori and Pakeha have shared New Zealand, she has walked with them.

"This is a story which encapsulates 161 years of political history," says Ihimaera. "It’s important for women and it’s important for the Treaty. I think of myself as a storyteller and it’s important this story is told

Reviews

"Extraordinary....a huge step forward in the mapping of New Zealand culture" - Sunday Star Times