Mata Toa: The Life and Times of Ranginui Walker
Paul Spoonley
Penguin Books $40

Professor Ranginui Walker has lead conversations in cultural politics for decades, but when the possibility of a biography being published arose he was taken aback reportedly saying, ‘I’m not dead yet!’ He only conceded to the project when his wife Deirdre reminded him of the difficulties he’d encountered in writing the acclaimed biography of Sir Apirana Ngata, He Tipua. ‘Think how much better it would be with a live subject,’ she said. Thankfully he took the point and this fine book is the result.

Biographer and sociologist Paul Spoonley’s association with Walker began almost forty years ago and the resulting biography is being published today. ‘I’ve been an interested observer of his career since 1970,’ says Spoonley, describing Walker’s legacy as, ‘helping liberate New Zealand from a colonial mindset,’ and the roles Walker continues to perform in his professional life as educator, administrator, leader and advisor for Māori, and as communicator on issues of indigeneity and social justice for Pākehā.

In his introduction the author says that “for many the image of Walker will be one that appeared on their television screens after one incident or another as he deciphered what had happened in crisp, clear sentences. His demeanour often comes across as clinical, his words as radical and his criticisms aimed at the central institutions of New Zealand. As he himself notes, both how he is perceived and what he has to say is at odds with his own personal history and inclinations”.

That is certainly how I came away from this thoughtful, well-researched and detailed biography of one of the significant shapers of New Zealand society in the latter part of the 20th century. Excellent index, glossary and footnotes.

Mata Toa: The Life and Times of Ranginui Walker by Paul Spoonley will be launched at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on Thursday 14 May.

Footnote:
As a former publisher I must say it was pleasing to read of the close and warm working relationship between Ranginui Walker and his publisher at Penguin Books, Geoff Walker.
The publisher Walker gets a number of mentions in the book and I especially enjoyed this one explaining how Walker, the academic and writer came to be published by Penguin.
“He had indicated in a throwaway line during a radio interview, that he would write a book. He was contacted by a number of publishers but he settled on Geoff Walker of Penguin because he was “whanau” (a Walker) and he had played a major role in Springbok rugby tour protests”.