First released 50 years ago, Tangi was Witi Ihimaera’s debut novel and the first to be published by a Māori author. A landmark literary event, it went on to win the James Wattie Book of the Year Award. He was just 29 years old at the time.

At the centre of the novel is the story of a father and son set within a three-day tangihanga. Those who love Pounamu Pounamu will immediately recognise that already present are the hallmarks of classic Ihimaera storytelling.

Revisiting the text for this special anniversary edition, Ihimaera has added richer details and developed the nascent themes that have continued to preoccupy him over a lifetime of writing. Return with him to where it all began.

‘… this is what Witi has always done: tell us stories about ourselves. In novels like Tangi and The Matriarch, he was teaching and entertaining us at the same time, navigating the boundaries separating the worlds of Māori and Pākehā, as well as the increasingly disengaged worlds of rural and urban Māori.’

— PAULA MORRIS, ACADEMY OF NZ LITERATURE