Crafting Aotearoa

'Crafting Aotearoa is ambitious, to say the least. Across 460-plus pages it surveys three centuries of craft in New Zealand and the broader Pacific, examining its role in defining cultural identity, and the tensions and transformations that occur as it engages with outside knowledge and practices ... a delight to dip into. For a significant work, it carries its load lightly' - New Zealand Geographic; 'Crafting Aotearoa charts it all, providing an important overview of all things cut and carved, stitched and sewn, hammered and hewn to build a uniquely New Zealand story of cultural change' - Sally Blundell, New Zealand Listener; '... first and foremost an acknowledgement of history as it should be acknowledged: a kind of retelling that is resolved to start a 'dynamic conversation' between Maori, Pakeha and wider Moana Oceania (Pacific) craftspeople and their work ... it's a wellspring of knowledge on what has constituted three centuries of making in New Zealand' - Urbis; 'An indispensable, encyclopaedic and comprehensive reference to three centuries of craft in New Zealand, Crafting Aotearoa manages the difficult task of marshalling the contentious categories of craft, art, folk art, design and indigenous practices in a way that will surely set the standard for future scholarship ... Although there have been sporadic books on craft in Aotearoa before, this is the first of its scope, and for a reference work it is surprisingly readable and not at all bogged down in its scholarship or the ever-volatile politics of craft' - Paul Wood.