Kāwai: For Such a Time as This, the first in the Kāwai series by respected historian and author Monty Soutar (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Ngāti Kahungunu) has been a familiar sight in the bestseller charts ever since its 2022 publication.

A recipient of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to Māori and historical research, the series draws on Soutar’s lifetime of research into the whakapapa and oral traditions of his ancestors and brings pre-colonial Aotearoa New Zealand to life in a thrilling way.

He joins Shilo Kino (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Te Ata, Ngāti Maniapoto) to reflect on the first novel’s impact, and discuss the second: Kāwai: Tree of Nourishment. Spanning raids by musket-wielding war parties to heightened internecine warfare; from the influx of whalers, traders and Christian missionaries to the signing of The Treaty of Waitangi, it strikes hard and deep into the heart of the impact of colonisation on Māori.