A book about five carved tōtara panels that were hidden in a Taranaki swamp and smuggled out of Aotearoa 150 years later has won a major Australasian book prize.

Dr Rachel Buchanan’s (Taranaki, Te Ātiawa) Te Motunui Epa was announced as the joint winner of the 2023 Ernest Scott Prize on Friday.

The prize is awarded annually to the most distinguished written contribution to the history of Australia or New Zealand, or to the history of colonisation.

Buchanan who shared the A$13,000 prize with Australian historian Alan Atkinson, author of Elizabeth and John: The Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm, was chosen as winner from 65 submissions.

Dr Rachel Buchanan. Photo / Te Ao Maori News

The judges said Buchanan’s book which was published last year was grounded in Te Ao Māori and a fine example of modern New Zealand writing.

“This beautiful book explores the journey of the Te Motunui Epa carved wooden panels across time, the meanings that have been attached to them, and the cultural continuity they represent.

“This book is partly a detective story, partly a public history, and also a crime narrative. Most importantly, this book demonstrates a deep engagement with a Te Ao Māori worldview and challenges orthodox views of perspective, voice and the narrative form itself.

‘This book is an exemplar of modern history writing in Aotearoa New Zealand; it is also elegant and sophisticated and a cracking good read.”

Buchanan, who wrote and researched Te Motunui Epa in Melbourne, acknowledged the indigenous nations on whose land she created the work.

 “This book is about a taonga that was buried in the earth in Taranaki, my tūrangawaewae but it was written and researched on the unceded lands of the Bunurong and Wurundjeri Peoples. I have been a manuhiri here for a long time and I am deeply grateful for the sustenance and support I have received from the land I am fortunate to live on, this special place now known as Melbourne,” Buchanan said in a release by her publishers, Bridget Williams Books.

She also paid tribute to Taranaki kaumātua Mahara Okeroa, a former Labour MP for Te Tai Tonga.

“My mentor, the Hon Mahara Okeroa, and I are humbled and delighted by the recognition of our work,” she said.

- Te Ao Māori