David Hill reviews The Forgotten Coast for Kete:
‘Years back, Elizabeth Smither and I wrote a book about our home province of Taranaki. Around that time, there were proposals to change our mountain's name from Egmont back to Taranaki. Letters to our local paper (we reprinted several in the book) included these ‘gems’: “Why do the Maoris [sic] always get their own way?....How long before all our European heritage is gone?....Come on, you pakehas, stand up and be counted.....Taranaki is an ugly name with ugly meanings.”
Any attempt to return or acknowledge names, rights, land taken from tangata whenua still brings resentment, guilt, nastiness frothing forth. So, all commendation to Richard Shaw for this memoir, one motif of which is the injustice of growing up on Taranaki hectares confiscated from the people of Parihaka.’
Read the full review here.
