Paul Spoonley is the Research Director for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Massey University. His research has focused on the nature and politics of identity in New Zealand. He has edited or authored more than 20 books on matters such as political extremism and anti-Semitism, Pākehā, Māori and Pacific identities, and immigration. His latest book is a biography of Ranginui Walker, Mata Toa (May 2009).
BOOKS
Mata Toa: the Life and Times of Ranginui Walker
Academic, author, biographer, historian, commentator, controversialist, activist, iwi consultant, mover and shaker – Dr Ranginui Walker has been in the headlines for decades, ever since the beginnings of the Maori political and cultural renaissance in the 1970s. Walker is one of the few Maori leaders to take on the responsibility of crossing the cultural/racial divide and making the Maori world intelligible to Pakeha readers. Articulate and forthright, he has had a major influence on how Pakeha view Maori in the twenty-first century. It is a task he has deliberately accepted, and it has often made him a controversial figure (although only on the Pakeha side – to most Maori he remains highly respected, and he remains heavily involved in many Maori organisations).