Mabel Wharekawa-Burt

A contemporary story of love, rejection, and triumph as a young Māori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.

Will Bastion returns home from the army after an absence of 20 years to bury his father, the former chief of thee Maori tribe, Ngati Kaipuku. The eldest son, he is reluctant to inherit his fathers role, so it is taken more willingly by his younger brother, Kahu. Kahu is the leader of a band of drug dealers and trouble-makers who ride horses through the middle of town, wrecking peoples gardens. Under the guise of refusal of a land settlement, Kahu makes a large marijuana deal with some murdering city folk. Will must choose between loyalty for his brother and his father, Maori tradition, and contemporary financial issues.

A random act of violence leaves eight people in crisis, searching for hope and new beginnings, as the Matariki constellation (Maori New Year) rises in the Southern skies.

When a succession of ex-wives show up to out-do- each other at a tangi of a man who was beloved by many, a flamboyant display of karanga takes place.

When his estranged father dies, lawyer Will Carrington suddenly inherits half a house, guardianship of his half sister, half of a racing greyhound, and a complete live-in dog trainer.

Ma, Heps, Pua, Liz, and Taaps are your average group of twenty-something Māori and Pasifika living in Wellington. Together, this group of friends crash through the city, grappling first with their cultural identities and then with each other.