This is historical fiction concerning a specific set of events in North Island, New Zealand instigated by the English who began reasonably well for the colonials. But ended up as a tragedy for all concerned. eventually depriving the Maori of most of their land with some of the Europeans trying for genocide. This was between 1840, when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed and 1974 or so when the  (?)  I really knew nothing about that – not any specifics -basically only that not a lot of Maoris were left after it “ended.”  The author is part Maori. There are many New Zealanders who claim partial ancestry from New Zealand.  

The Parihaka Woman ~ 
by Witi Ihimaera 2016
2011 / 404 pages (with 25 pages of Notes) 
Read by: Jim Moriarty, Shavaughn Ruakere: 9h 59m
Rating: 7.5 / historical fiction
(Both listened and read) – YA?

I was reading along and at some point I got quite interested in the history.I knew enothing about the Maori wars of New Zealand. There are very good Notes with sources as well as digressions and commentary.  They’re all mixed together but not noted in the narrative itself and not linked in any way.    

As I started looking into the actual history I become more and more interested in that and Googled a bit.  I decided I should maybe start the book over and I did.  But … this is basically a Young Adult plot stuck onto some Maori oriented history with a seriously intrusive narrator who might or might not be fictional.  

 Here’s the history behind the story.  
From: https://tinyurl.com/5cuykjy3

NEW ZEALAND HISTORY
Nga korero a ipurangi o Aotearoa
Invasion of pacifist settlement at Parihaka 5 November 1881

I tried to catch up while reading, but I think it must have been originally written with New Zealanders high school kids in mind.  Although a book may be labeled as historical fiction the reader is often simply let loose in a book having to do his own research wondering what’s true and what’s not. In this book there are pages of notes which Ihimaera describes as “Chapter Notes” but are a mix of Source Notes and content notes and a few digressions and opinions.  I love this!  

 I see that much of Ihimaera’s  historical information was obtained from the works of Dick Scott, NZ historian (1923 – 2020). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Scott_(historian) 
 The inspiration was historical and the events followed the history, even the plot line itself was possibly modeled on true events – real wives searching for their real husbands without naming specific names.  ?? –   I think they got as close as they could because real names might be unknown by now or “erased” by the invaders.   

Religion is very important to the native Maori and there are many references to their prayers and songs.  

 The narrator was great.