‘Ratana Revisited: an Unfinished Legacy’ has not been an easy story to research and write and has been even more difficult to finish…’ begins Keith Newman’s landmark work on the hidden history of T.W. Ratana and the movement he founded.

Very little has previously been written about the Ratana movement and few understand the pivotal role Ratana himself played in reviving the Maori spirit during the two world wars. T.W. Ratana was many things: a healer; a prophet; a political visionary; and advocate of the Treaty of Waitangi. He spoke prophetically of World War Two, of the bombing of Hiroshima, of New Zealand hosting an influx of Asian people, a Labour government led by a woman prime minister and a time when the Treaty of Waitangi would be on everyone’s lips.

Inspired by his own brushes with the Ratana movement, Keith Newman has researched this history meticulously, getting to the heart of the Ratana story. Surprised by the lack of information available on Ratana, he began gathering information for this work in the 1980s. His position as a Pakeha outsider, he says, was both his greatest asset and obstacle. After being given an official ‘no’ by church elders in response to his request to access documents about the movement, he was later given unprecedented access to information by Uri Whakatupuranga (New Generation Trust) – the unofficial archivists of the Ratana movement. Much of the information Newman has drawn on has never before been translated from te reo Maori and was, for a long time, inaccessible to many within the movement as well as those outside it.

Motivated by a desire to restore to Ratana’s morehu (faithful survivors) a sense of their own heritage and destiny, Newman has gifted all New Zealanders a detailed and comprehensive account of part of their history that has previously been inaccessible.

This is an engrossing read which draws the reader in and is illustrated with fascinating images by renowned photographer Ans Westra, taken at Ratana Pa between 1962 and 2005.

Keith Newman is a journalist with over 30-years experience writing for trade and mainstream publications covering a variety of subject matter from business and telecommunications to culture and music. He has published several book of poems, and produced about 20 radio programmes on New Zealand musicians for Radio New Zealand’s Musical Chairs segment. He has won numerous awards for this work writing about the information technology and telecommunications industry including, Best Magazine Feature Writer, IC&T; Qantas Media Awards 2004 and the TUANZ Journalist of the Year 2004. Keith lives in Titirangi, Auckland.

A new friend (above)  who came up and led me by the hand as we walked around the Ratana marae in January 2006 pointing out the pictures I should take