Māui Street' by Morgan Godfery – BWB Texts
Everyone lives a messy, unusual life. There is no normal. The sooner our politics understands this, the better off we
will all be.
Morgan Godfery is one of New Zealand’s most energising young thinkers. In just a few years he has become a leading voice in the
country’s social and political life. Starting out under his own banner, ‘Māui Street’, his writing now appears across
national and international publications.
This curated selection brings together the best of Godfery’s writing. The book opens in Kawerau, Godfery’s home, re-counting the lives of his
parents – a Mongrel Mob father and a teenage mother. From here it moves into blogs, columns, and essays examining New
Zealand and the Pacific, from Winston Peter’s 'race talk' to Disney’s Moana.
The book closes with a ‘Poroporoaki – remembering’ section. This section includes an original and very personal essay by
Godfery on his life and family, called That’s How the Trees Feel.
Read together, the collection charts the emergence of a significant New Zealand voice.
About the author: Morgan Godfery, Te Pahipoto (Ngāti Awa), Lalomanu (Samoa), is a writer and trade unionist. He is the editor of The Interregnum, published by Bridget Williams Books in 2016, is a contributing writer at the Spinoff, and was a nonfiction judge for
2017’s Ockham New Zealand Books Awards and the Ngā Kupu Ora Awards: Celebrating Māori Books and Journalism. Morgan also
regularly appears on radio and television as a political commentator, has authored numerous academic chapters and
peer-reviewed journal articles, and sits on the board of the Legal Issues Centre at the University of Otago. Morgan
graduated in law at Victoria University in 2015.