Atlas of the New Zealand Wars: Volume One 1834-1864

Longlist — Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2026

Mapping the nineteenth-century wars that reshaped Aotearoa New Zealand.

In volume one of the Atlas of the New Zealand Wars, three decades of maps and plans from 1834 to 1864 provide remarkable new insight into the deep conflicts running through nineteenth-century Aotearoa.

Beginning with early skirmishes off the Taranaki coast and at the Chathams, Volume One follows the tracks inland from the Bay of Islands towards the Hokianga in the Northern Wars; it reveals the web of Te Rauparaha’s influence radiating out from Kapiti to Port Nicholson and across Cook Strait to the Wairau; it takes us inside the barracks and ramparts of the colony’s new towns; and concludes as the brewing unrest around Waitara in Taranaki explodes into war.

Through the maps, we meet the people: Hōne Heke and FitzRoy, Te Rangitāke and Pratt, warriors and missionaries; and we go where they went: from the flagpole at Kororāreka to Kawiti’s pā at Ruapekapeka, up the Hutt River to Boulcott’s farm, across Taranaki from Waitara to Kaitake pā. Through both tāngata and whenua we understand the conflicts and their consequences anew.

Based on thirty years of research, the Atlas of the New Zealand Wars reveals a complex series of challenges and misunderstandings, skirmishes and negotiations, battles and wars that have profoundly shaped the lives of Māori and Pākehā on these islands ever since.