Tôtara: A Natural and Cultural History

A wonder of evolution, the big tree of the forest, the wood behind Māori carving and Pākehā fence posts: the ‘mighty tōtara’ is New Zealand’s tree and this book tells its story.
The ‘mighty tōtara’ is an extraordinary tree. Among the biggest and oldest trees in the New Zealand forest, the heart of Māori carving and culture, trailing no. 8 wire as fence posts on settler farms, clambered up in the Pureora protests of the 1980s: the story of New Zealand can be told through tōtara.
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 Māori life and lore, their uses by Pākehā, and their current status in the NZ environment and culture. By doing so, Simpson illuminates the natural world and the story of Māori and Pākehā in this country.
The largest NZ trees, the kauri Tāne Mahuta and the tōtara 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. Tōtara has been central to life in NZ for thousands of years. This book tells a great tree’s story.