Huia come home / J. Ruka.

Includes bibliographical references.

Tuatahi: The huia. The day of the huia call -- The huia: Building a nest in our imaginations -- Tuarua: History. Waking up to the past -- A prophetic beginning -- The power of the book -- Tarapīpipi Wiremu Tāmihana: The kingmaker -- Piripi Taumata-a-kura: An East Coast legend -- Tuatoru: The Treaty. The roots of the Treaty -- The night the Treaty came to be -- Te Tiriti and linguistic license -- Tuawhā: Worldviews. Transforming worldviews -- Wairua -- Whenua -- Whakapapa -- Tuarima: The chicken. The sign of Walter Buller -- The great commission and the great colonisation -- Land and the love of money -- Chicken crisis -- Tuaono: Home. Huia come home.

"Huia e huia, tangata kotahi! Huia, your destiny is to bring everyone together! Once the sacred guardian of New Zealand's native forests, the huia was a symbol of the land's unique beauty and spirituality. The rare bird's tragic extinction in the early 1900s represents a shot to the heart of Aotearoa and is a potent metaphor for a country's conflicted history. Using the story of the untimely extinction of the huia, Jay Ruka offers a fresh perspective on the narrative of Aotearoa; a tale of two cultures, warring worldviews, and the things we lost in translation. Revisiting the early missionaries, the transformative message of the gospel and the cultural missteps of the Treaty of Waitangi, Huia Come Home invites us to reconnect with the unique story offered by the indigenous Māori lens. In relearning the history that lies in the soil of Aotearoa, we might just find a shared hope for the future and a recovery of national treasures once thought to be extinct"--Back cover.