The immersive, inspiring and long-awaited memoir by legendary activist and scholar Ngahuia Te Awekotuku
Ohinemutu, the 1960s. On a pa on the western edge of Lake Rotorua, a young girl is adopted into a world of boiling mud and hissing steam. Raised by a kuia and mother skilled in weaving and haka, the girl is different - nose always in a book, Miss Too Big for Her Boots - and longs to be accepted by her community for who she really is.After gaining a scholarship to study at university, she discovers an educational and legal system that ignores her, and is determined to fight for justice. Ngahuia stokes resistance as a founding member of Nga Tamatoa and Women's and Gay Liberation movements, becoming a critical voice in protests around the country, from Waitangi to the steps of parliament.In this transporting, fiery and inspiring memoir by one of New Zealand's most legendary activists and scholars, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku tells her story of re-defining what was possible for a working-class girl from the pa. Roaming between the beauty and violence of the 60s and 70s, the personal and the political, Hine Toa is a coming-of-age story about a girl who grew up with the odds stacked against her, but who had the strength and courage to carve a path of her own.
