Associate Professor Poia Rewi has won the NZ Society of Authors E H McCormick Award for the Best First Book of Non-Fiction for his book Whaikōrero: The World of Māori Oratory. The award is part of the New Zealand Post Book Awards.

Rewi leads Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga’s Te Pae Tawhiti: Te Kura Roa, investigating the value of te reo Māori to New Zealand development.

The judges said Rewi’s book “managed the difficult feat of being both a valuable record and manual of Māori oratory for practitioners, and an accessible overview for anyone interested in this ubiquitous cultural practice.”

Published by Auckland University Press, Director Dr Sam Elworthy said “Poia Rewi is set to become one of this country’s leading Māori scholars and we feel very lucky to have worked with Poia on his first book, a work of deep insight into Māori language, history and culture.”

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