Rebuilding the Kainga: Lessons from Te Ao Hurihuri

Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2019. Faded spine, otherwise good secondhand condition.

An understanding of the ways of our tupuna, coupled with the best of new thinking from New Zealand and abroad, has significant potential for sustainable housing models.

Colonial settlement and the discriminatory policies of successive governments have challenged Maori connections to whenua and kainga. Today, home ownership rates for Maori are well below the national average and Maori are over-represented in the statistics of substandard housing.

Rebuilding the Kainga charts the recent resurgence of contemporary papakainga on whenua Maori. Reframing Maori housing as a Treaty issue, Kake envisions a future where Maori are supported to build businesses and affordable homes on whanau, hapu or Treaty settlement lands. The implications of this approach, Kake writes, are transformative.

BWB Texts are short books on big subjects by great New Zealand writers. Commissioned to unlock diverse stories, insights and analysis from the best of our past, present and future New Zealand writing.