The Whale Rider. Auckland: Heinemann, 1987.

WITI IHIMAERA (b.1944)
The Whale Rider. Auckland: Heinemann, 1987.
First edition, signed and annotated with 2,833 words on 44 pages, many of the annotations including sketches. The most-translated work by a New Zealand author, The Whale Rider is a retelling of the myth of Paikea in a 1980s setting in a Maori community in New Zealand's North Island, telling the story of Kahu, who develops the ability to communicate with whales. Ihimaera's playful annotations, in English and Maori, often loop and coil into Koru, the Maori symbol for new life and growth: they include memories of the beginnings of his life as a writer, of the genesis and writing of the book itself and of the filmed adaptation, and of its links to people and places in Ihimaera's own life, and to 'Maori values' and broader Pacific culture. The sketches include whales, a self-portrait and motifs from the book.

Octavo. Original black cloth, gilt lettering to spine, pictorial dust wrapper. [With:] signed copies of an illustrated children's edition in French, Kahu, fille des baleines (Pirae, Tahiti: Editions au vent des îles, 2018) and of the 20th anniversary edition (Auckland: Reed, 2007).

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