Totara

Author(s): Simpson Phillip

Illustrated Non-Fiction

The 'mighty totara' is one of our most extraordinary trees. Among the biggest and oldest trees in the New Zealand forest, the heart of Maori carving and culture, trailing no. 8 wire as fence posts on settler farms, clambered up in the Pureora protests of the 1980's: the story of New Zealand can be told through totara. Simpson tells that story like nobody else could. In words and pictures, through waka and leaves, farmers and carvers, he takes us deep inside the trees: their botany and evolution, their role in Maori life and lore, their uses by Pakeha, and their current status in our environment and culture. By doing so, Simpson illuminates the natural world and the story of Maori and Pakeha in this country. Our largest trees, the kauri Tane Mahutu and the totara Pouakani, are both thought to be around 1000 years old. They were here before we humans were and their relatives will probably be here when we are gone. Totara has been central to life in this country for thousands of years. This book tells a great tree's story, and that is our story too.

$75.00 NZD

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Product Information

Shortlisted for Ockhams Illustrated Non Fiction Award 2018

Philip Simpson is a botanist and author of Dancing Leaves: The Story of New Zealand's Cabbage Tree, Ti Kouka (Canterbury University Press, 2000) and P?hutukawa and Rata: New Zealand's Iron-hearted Trees (Te Papa Press, 2005). Both books won Montana Book Awards in the Environment category and Pohutukawa and Rata also won the Montana Medal for best non-fiction book. Simpson is unique in his ability to combine the scientific expertise of the trained botanist with a writer's ability to understand the history of Maori and Pakeha interactions with the environment. He was awarded the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writer's Fellowship to work on Totara: A Natural and Cultural History. Born, raised and now living in Takaka, Philip studied botany at Canterbury University and UC Santa Barbara. He worked in soil conservation, environmental education, and ecology in the public service before becoming a botanical consultant and author. Philip lives on a rural, bush property with his wife, wine scientist Wendy Parr, and he is father to five adult children and grandfather to eight.

General Fields

  • : 9781869408190
  • : Auckland University Press
  • : Auckland University Press
  • : 1.46057
  • : April 2017
  • : 260mm X 224mm
  • : July 2019
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Simpson Phillip
  • : Colour illustrations
  • : 634
  • : English
  • : Hardback