Review of Atua: Maori Gods and Heroes –Gavin Bishop

Gavin Bishop’s stunning, once-in-a-generation compendium introduces readers to the pantheon of Maori gods, demigods and heroes, and explores Aotearoa’s most exciting legends from the Creation to the Migration.

Meet the gods, demigods and heroes of the Maori people of Aotearoa in this breathtaking, large-scale illustrated book for children.
Before the beginning there was nothing.
No sound, no air, no colour – nothing.
TE KORE, NOTHING.
No one knows how long this nothing lasted because there was no time.
However, in this great nothing there was a sense of waiting.
Something was about to happen.
Meet the gods, demigods and heroes of the Maori world, and explore Aotearoa’s exciting legends from the Creation to the Migration. Fascinating, beautiful and informative, this once-in-a-generation compendium deserves a place on every bookshelf.

Atua: Maori Gods and Heroes

Gavin Bishop

Picture Puffin

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jan Butterworth

This book is stunning!

It tells the story of how the gods came to be and explains who each one is and their responsibilities.   This is cleverly displayed on paged that fold out to create a page twice the size of the book – which is a good size anyway.

It shares the stories of creation and explains them, like how man gained the three kete of knowledge and two sacred stones  all that is needed to create wisdom in the world – and explains what each holds, as well as how we got sandflies mosquitoes

The artwork uses bold colours and is very detailed.  I found it very hard to read some of the text as the lettering was blue on a black background or a faded black on a white background.

There’s a glossary in the back that explains what the Maori words mean – and what a kete is – and the credit section is an interesting read.

This was very interesting read that helped me find out more about Maori legends and explained words and concepts in simple language, such as tikanga and why food is offered as a gift.  I only had a vague notion of what they were or why it was done.  Knowing why some thing is done is good knowledge to have.

I would recommend this for any te reo speaker, those looking to increase their knowledge of Maori legends, anyone interested in mythology…..  Growing up in the 80s, I never heard these stories and am glad I have now.