Birds of Aotearoa, a natural and cultural history
by Margaret Orbell, 198pp limpbound, Reed, Auckland 2003, RRP$39.95. The title indicates this is something other than the usual pictorial guide to birds. Anthropologist Margaret Orbell is concerned with native birds and the
Maori traditions relating them. She presents the basic facts about each bird today, then traces back through times of early European settlement to Maori beliefs. The sounds the birds make are often rendered in Maori and related to the origins of their Maori names. The sayings of orators relative to a bird are often recorded, along with references in song or poetry. The various signs and portents provoked by the appearance of a certain bird add to the richness of the collection. Her book introduces a heritage of traditional relationships between people and birds. Each bird story is accompanied by monochrome illustrations and there is also a 32-page colour section halfway.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/FORBI20040201.2.32.2
Bibliographic details
Forest and Bird, Issue 311, 1 February 2004, Page 42
Word Count
152Birds of Aotearoa, a natural and cultural history Forest and Bird, Issue 311, 1 February 2004, Page 42
Using This Item
For material that is still in copyright, Forest & Bird have made it available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0). This periodical is not available for commercial use without the consent of Forest & Bird. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this magazine please refer to our copyright guide.
Forest & Bird has made best efforts to contact all third-party copyright holders. If you are the rights holder of any material published in Forest & Bird's magazine and would like to discuss this, please contact Forest & Bird at editor@forestandbird.org.nz
Log in