Angela Wanhalla begins her story in Maitapapa, Taieri, New Zealand, the mixed-descent community where her great-grandparents, John Brown and Mabel Smith, were born. As her book took shape, a community emerged from the records, re-casting history and identity in the present. Drawing on the experiences of mixed-Maori/White families, Wanhalla examines the early history of southern New Zealand. There, Ngäi Tahu engaged with the European newcomers on a sustained scale from the 1820s, encountering systematic settlement from the 1840s, and fighting land alienation from the 1850s. The evolving social world was one framed by marriage, kinship networks, and cultural practices – a world in which inter-racial intimacy played a formative role.

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Angela Wanhalla is an award-winning scholar and lectures in history at the University of Otago. Publishing in international periodicals and engaged in research, Wanhalla draws on a strong theoretical framework for her writing on Maori society.