Five years ago, acclaimed author Witi Ihimaera released his memoir Maori Boy, with a focus on his childhood.
Now the writer of such books as Whale Rider has released part two of his story – Native Son: The Writer’s Memoir.
It begins where Maori Boy left off, with Witi, 15 years old, achieving School Certificate – just – and takes us through his life as a young man and onto becoming our first published Maori novelist.
Ihimaera joins Andrew Dickens, five years after they discussed the first part of his story, to talk how he came about writing his second part.
LISTEN ABOVE

I want to talk about history today and so I thought the best way to start was to talk about my history.
I was born in England in 1963 to an English Dad and a Kiwi Mum. In 1965 we came home. I have a British passport. I've lived in New Zealand for 54 years.
I went to Vicky Ave Primary. Remuera Intermediate. Then in 1976 I went to Auckland Grammar. Same year as Grant Fox, Martin Crowe and Professor Richie Poulton from the Dunedin study.
I remember being a turd. A third former. Sitting in Latin. It was compulsory. Amos, Amas, Amat. Bo bis Bunt. I knew Latin declensions when I was still a bit dodgy on English declensions in the first place. Villa est villa romana was the first Latin sentence I read.
1981 I went to uni as a Biology Science student wanting to do Law Intermediate. Very conflicted lad. And then I walked into Radio B.
1984 the uni threw me out for insufficient academic achievement but that might be because I'd been running the radio station so I went to ATI and studied journalism.
Then In 1985 I joined the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand and I went to a 1 month course in Wellington and they taught me how to pronounce English, German and French. Just in case I ended out working for Radio New Zealand Concert. And they taught me how to pronounce Maori.
To pass the course I had to read 150 word pieces in all those languages.
Here's the thing. That was the first time I was ever taught and then asked to speak Maori correctly. I was 22.
Now to history.
The first Prime Minister I really knew was Norman Kirk. That was because he died when I was on tour with the Auckland Boys Choir. We were in Hamilton. I remember the choirmaster telling us at 8 at night. I was 11. He said a man who loved people has gone too soon. Neil was in tears.
I remember Holyoake and Marshall and Kirk and Rowling. Particularly Rowling because of the teasing of everyone about how he was a mouse with a little voice which even as a kid I thought was cruel.
Then Muldoon and Lange. Bolger Shipley Clark and Key and now Ardern. My apologies to Palmer, Moore and English. You know why.
Ask your kids to identify any of those names. Let alone William Fox. Premier for times. That's a story. Who knows it.
So the point of my history is to point out how badly we know our own history and our language.
Name our first Prime Minister. Sewell. Ask any American to name their first President.
Say Whangarei. Say Ihumātao. Tell me the story of Rangiriri. Tell me about Ruapekapeka, the greatest pa of all time. Tell me about the New Zealand Wars. Tell me about the New Zealand Settlements Act of 1863
I play that game with my kids. And they can't because even they, who went through school in the last 10 years haven't learnt this stuff. They can tell me all about Gallipoli which is very important. But did that forge this nation or did all the stuff that happened on our land in our time?
New Zealand history has to be taught in primary schools. And there is no excuse to call Whangarei 'Wongaray'.

I want to talk about history today and so I thought the best way to start was to talk about my history.
I was born in England in 1963 to an English Dad and a Kiwi Mum. In 1965 we came home. I have a British passport. I've lived in New Zealand for 54 years.
I went to Vicky Ave Primary. Remuera Intermediate. Then in 1976 I went to Auckland Grammar. Same year as Grant Fox, Martin Crowe and Professor Richie Poulton from the Dunedin study.
I remember being a turd. A third former. Sitting in Latin. It was compulsory. Amos, Amas, Amat. Bo bis Bunt. I knew Latin declensions when I was still a bit dodgy on English declensions in the first place. Villa est villa romana was the first Latin sentence I read.
1981 I went to uni as a Biology Science student wanting to do Law Intermediate. Very conflicted lad. And then I walked into Radio B.
1984 the uni threw me out for insufficient academic achievement but that might be because I'd been running the radio station so I went to ATI and studied journalism.
Then In 1985 I joined the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand and I went to a 1 month course in Wellington and they taught me how to pronounce English, German and French. Just in case I ended out working for Radio New Zealand Concert. And they taught me how to pronounce Maori.
To pass the course I had to read 150 word pieces in all those languages.
Here's the thing. That was the first time I was ever taught and then asked to speak Maori correctly. I was 22.
Now to history.
The first Prime Minister I really knew was Norman Kirk. That was because he died when I was on tour with the Auckland Boys Choir. We were in Hamilton. I remember the choirmaster telling us at 8 at night. I was 11. He said a man who loved people has gone too soon. Neil was in tears.
I remember Holyoake and Marshall and Kirk and Rowling. Particularly Rowling because of the teasing of everyone about how he was a mouse with a little voice which even as a kid I thought was cruel.
Then Muldoon and Lange. Bolger Shipley Clark and Key and now Ardern. My apologies to Palmer, Moore and English. You know why.
Ask your kids to identify any of those names. Let alone William Fox. Premier for times. That's a story. Who knows it.
So the point of my history is to point out how badly we know our own history and our language.
Name our first Prime Minister. Sewell. Ask any American to name their first President.
Say Whangarei. Say Ihumātao. Tell me the story of Rangiriri. Tell me about Ruapekapeka, the greatest pa of all time. Tell me about the New Zealand Wars. Tell me about the New Zealand Settlements Act of 1863
I play that game with my kids. And they can't because even they, who went through school in the last 10 years haven't learnt this stuff. They can tell me all about Gallipoli which is very important. But did that forge this nation or did all the stuff that happened on our land in our time?
New Zealand history has to be taught in primary schools. And there is no excuse to call Whangarei 'Wongaray'.

National says you should have to pass to maintain your free year of tertiary education.
A third of tertiary students who took up the Government's flagship fees-free policy failed or withdrew from at least one of their courses last year, Ministry of Education data shows.
The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) did not have details on how much the Government had spent on courses students failed or withdrew from.
But based on the 13,770 students who failed to complete at least one course, and the average course cost of $2800 for Student Achievement Component, the figure could be as high as $40 million.
Further information from the TEC showed that fees-free students tended to be younger, more likely to be NZ European, and more engaged in university-level study than non-fees-free students.
The Ministry of Education released the failure and withdrawal numbers to the Herald on Sunday after a request under the Official Information Act.
National Party tertiary education spokesman Shane Reti told Andrew Dickens points to systems like Bursaries and Scholarships, which require a B-average to hang on to.
"So the concept of the state funding all of your tuition and therefore you needing to meet some performance metric is quite reasonable."
Reti says fees-free students may not care as much about passing because they have less skin in the game.
 
 
 

National says you should have to pass to maintain your free year of tertiary education.
A third of tertiary students who took up the Government's flagship fees-free policy failed or withdrew from at least one of their courses last year, Ministry of Education data shows.
The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) did not have details on how much the Government had spent on courses students failed or withdrew from.
But based on the 13,770 students who failed to complete at least one course, and the average course cost of $2800 for Student Achievement Component, the figure could be as high as $40 million.
Further information from the TEC showed that fees-free students tended to be younger, more likely to be NZ European, and more engaged in university-level study than non-fees-free students.
The Ministry of Education released the failure and withdrawal numbers to the Herald on Sunday after a request under the Official Information Act.
National Party tertiary education spokesman Shane Reti told Andrew Dickens points to systems like Bursaries and Scholarships, which require a B-average to hang on to.
"So the concept of the state funding all of your tuition and therefore you needing to meet some performance metric is quite reasonable."
Reti says fees-free students may not care as much about passing because they have less skin in the game.
 
 
 

Growing up in Pākehā-dominated Ōtautahi (Christchurch) made it difficult for Stacey Morrison to embrace her Māori side.
It was a trip to Japan and learning the language there that highlighted the "irony" of not speaking te reo.
Her husband Scotty, of Ngāti Whakaue descent, also didn't grow up with te reo in his Rotorua home, nor was it spoken in his wider family.
When he started teachers' training college, he took an introduction to te reo paper, and from there his passion grew, and being exposed to mentors like Sir Timoti Karetu and Wharehuia Milroy motivated him to take it even further.
The couple are at the forefront of the te reo revitalisation movement that is seeing thousands of adult Kiwis take up the kaupapa each year.
But they are more than aware of how fortunate their positions are.
"We are part of a generation that could have seen the language die," says Stacey, of Te Arawa and Ngai Tahu.

The Morrisons have both written books in te reo. Photo / Dean Purcell.
"But instead, we have seen it become mainstream, and that is why every time we are asked to do an interview, Scotty and I will turn up, because those people before us ensured there was still something to talk about."
She and Scotty have written six books on te reo between them - including Māori at Home together - selling over a hundred thousand copies.
They see their public and influential lives as broadcasters – Scotty with Te Karere and Marae, Stacey on The Hits and various Māori TV shows – as carrying a responsibility to help with revitalising te reo.
Next week is Māori Language Week and as part of that, the NZ Herald's masthead - along with NZME's five other daily newspapers - will be published in te reo.
The Government has a target of having one million New Zealanders speaking basic te reo by 2040, which is a long way off the 2013 Census that shows just 148,400 New Zealanders can hold a basic conversation in te reo - 84.5 per cent of whom are Māori.
But according to the Tertiary Education Commission, those numbers might soon be turning around.
The number of people enrolled in Māori language courses at polytechnics, universities and wānanga has grown from just over 16,000 in 2014 to nearly 25,000 in 2018.
Those taking beginner – level 1 and 2 – classes has nearly doubled in that time, from 7134 to 12,835. The majority of the growth has only occurred in the past three years.
About 7000 of those adult students across the country are enrolled at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, and chief executive Te Ururoa Flavell says despite being at capacity, demand is so high they can probably more than double that number.

Te Wānanga o Aotearoa chief executive Te Ururoa Flavell says demand is outstripping supply for te reo courses across the country. Photo / File
For one of next year's courses in Hamilton there is already a waiting list of more than 150 people.
"Kiwis are signing up in their thousands each year, so we need to work constructively to ensure those who want to be learning languages have the access."
While the majority of their students are in beginner classes, about 30 to 40 per cent carry on to higher levels.
Flavell is encouraging of recent government efforts to increase the number of teachers, and online tools, and also wants to see a funding cap on students enrolling lifted.
Scotty and Stacey make a conscious effort to raise their three children bilingual, and speak only Māori at home.
That experience has influenced Stacey's latest book, My First Words in Te Reo.
"Babies' brains are very open to everything. It is a beautiful experience being able to offer them two languages. It might just be few words, but there are huge benefits of opening neural pathways."
While speaking Māori with her children in a supermarket a few years ago, Stacey was told by a fellow shopper to stop speaking "that jungle language".
But those...

Growing up in Pākehā-dominated Ōtautahi (Christchurch) made it difficult for Stacey Morrison to embrace her Māori side.
It was a trip to Japan and learning the language there that highlighted the "irony" of not speaking te reo.
Her husband Scotty, of Ngāti Whakaue descent, also didn't grow up with te reo in his Rotorua home, nor was it spoken in his wider family.
When he started teachers' training college, he took an introduction to te reo paper, and from there his passion grew, and being exposed to mentors like Sir Timoti Karetu and Wharehuia Milroy motivated him to take it even further.
The couple are at the forefront of the te reo revitalisation movement that is seeing thousands of adult Kiwis take up the kaupapa each year.
But they are more than aware of how fortunate their positions are.
"We are part of a generation that could have seen the language die," says Stacey, of Te Arawa and Ngai Tahu.

The Morrisons have both written books in te reo. Photo / Dean Purcell.
"But instead, we have seen it become mainstream, and that is why every time we are asked to do an interview, Scotty and I will turn up, because those people before us ensured there was still something to talk about."
She and Scotty have written six books on te reo between them - including Māori at Home together - selling over a hundred thousand copies.
They see their public and influential lives as broadcasters – Scotty with Te Karere and Marae, Stacey on The Hits and various Māori TV shows – as carrying a responsibility to help with revitalising te reo.
Next week is Māori Language Week and as part of that, the NZ Herald's masthead - along with NZME's five other daily newspapers - will be published in te reo.
The Government has a target of having one million New Zealanders speaking basic te reo by 2040, which is a long way off the 2013 Census that shows just 148,400 New Zealanders can hold a basic conversation in te reo - 84.5 per cent of whom are Māori.
But according to the Tertiary Education Commission, those numbers might soon be turning around.
The number of people enrolled in Māori language courses at polytechnics, universities and wānanga has grown from just over 16,000 in 2014 to nearly 25,000 in 2018.
Those taking beginner – level 1 and 2 – classes has nearly doubled in that time, from 7134 to 12,835. The majority of the growth has only occurred in the past three years.
About 7000 of those adult students across the country are enrolled at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, and chief executive Te Ururoa Flavell says despite being at capacity, demand is so high they can probably more than double that number.

Te Wānanga o Aotearoa chief executive Te Ururoa Flavell says demand is outstripping supply for te reo courses across the country. Photo / File
For one of next year's courses in Hamilton there is already a waiting list of more than 150 people.
"Kiwis are signing up in their thousands each year, so we need to work constructively to ensure those who want to be learning languages have the access."
While the majority of their students are in beginner classes, about 30 to 40 per cent carry on to higher levels.
Flavell is encouraging of recent government efforts to increase the number of teachers, and online tools, and also wants to see a funding cap on students enrolling lifted.
Scotty and Stacey make a conscious effort to raise their three children bilingual, and speak only Māori at home.
That experience has influenced Stacey's latest book, My First Words in Te Reo.
"Babies' brains are very open to everything. It is a beautiful experience being able to offer them two languages. It might just be few words, but there are huge benefits of opening neural pathways."
While speaking Māori with her children in a supermarket a few years ago, Stacey was told by a fellow shopper to stop speaking "that jungle language".
But those...

September 1 marks Random Acts of Kindness Day in New Zealand, which is now celebrating its 15th year. 
Travel blogger Megan Singleton has taken off her adventuring hat and stepped into her duties as organiser of the annual event.
She joined Andrew Dickens to discuss the holiday.
LISTEN ABOVE

September 1 marks Random Acts of Kindness Day in New Zealand, which is now celebrating its 15th year. 
Travel blogger Megan Singleton has taken off her adventuring hat and stepped into her duties as organiser of the annual event.
She joined Andrew Dickens to discuss the holiday.
LISTEN ABOVE

Machete and the Ghost by James Griffin and Oscar Kightley.
A fictionalised account of the greatest AB’s who never lived. I have to be a bit careful with this one as can’t call them All Blacks, but what these guys have done is take all the tropes you’ve read in every other rugby biography and used them all for shameless comic effect. I am reliably informed by people who know a lot about rugby that it’s absolutely hilarious. Fantastic last minute present for the rugby mad Dad.
The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz.
He’s the author who has picked up Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series and is finishing it according to the plan that Larsson had – this is # 6 in the series and the 3rd to be written by him. The girl with the dragon tattoo is back – and mentor and protector is dead, so Mikael Blomkvist is plagued by the fear her enemies will now come after her – but he should perhaps be more worried for himself.