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haydenjweal's review
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Confronting and inspiring.
The majority of my reading about NZ history, and therefore NZ racial politics, comes from Pākehā writers and academics, and I've always felt comfortable with their harsh lens of colonisation and roseate view of Māori culture prior to the whitey's arrival. Duff comes out with a passionate and brusque counter view that took me by surprise.
Full of references and cited sources from trusted studies, as well as anecdotal experiences, A Conversation With My Country is full of good stuff. Some of it feels mean or discompassionate, but this shouldn't matter when the aim of the book is to be useful. First and foremost, Duff wants change. He wants elevation of Māori, and believes we should acknowledge and accept unsavoury truths in order to gain it.
He's also a huge fan of reading and literacy and his charity organisation Duffy Books has walked the walk. I've been a Duffy Hero for 7 years now and have visited over a hundred schools and thousands of kids, and I've seen firsthand the incredible and beneficial work it does. Perhaps because of that, I gave this book more consideration than I otherwise would have, and I appreciated the viewpoint on our country's inequality from an accomplished, intelligent Māori man.
The majority of my reading about NZ history, and therefore NZ racial politics, comes from Pākehā writers and academics, and I've always felt comfortable with their harsh lens of colonisation and roseate view of Māori culture prior to the whitey's arrival. Duff comes out with a passionate and brusque counter view that took me by surprise.
Full of references and cited sources from trusted studies, as well as anecdotal experiences, A Conversation With My Country is full of good stuff. Some of it feels mean or discompassionate, but this shouldn't matter when the aim of the book is to be useful. First and foremost, Duff wants change. He wants elevation of Māori, and believes we should acknowledge and accept unsavoury truths in order to gain it.
He's also a huge fan of reading and literacy and his charity organisation Duffy Books has walked the walk. I've been a Duffy Hero for 7 years now and have visited over a hundred schools and thousands of kids, and I've seen firsthand the incredible and beneficial work it does. Perhaps because of that, I gave this book more consideration than I otherwise would have, and I appreciated the viewpoint on our country's inequality from an accomplished, intelligent Māori man.
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