Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Peter Wells' Journey to a Hanging launch report


Peter Wells' Journey to a Hanging was launched last night/ on Monday 7 July 2014 at the Old Church Restaurant, near Napier among a warm crowd of friends, fans and followers.
The Old Church has resonance as it was the church of Sister Aubert who spent the last night of Kereopa Te Rau's life in his cell, in Napier Prison comforting him before his execution in 1872. He was charged with murdering missionary CS Volkner in Opotiki.
The subject matter of Peter's book is lively as Kereopa was given a Crown pardon in April of this year.
Wells spoke about the echoes of a difficult and painful past reaching into the present. 'The book is about how we come to terms with the present and how we understand - and misunderstand the past.' 
The violent and bloody death of Rev Volkner in 1865 was the breaking of a great tapu - the killing of a man of God - and the event, taking place during the land wars, had divided New Zealand bitterly.  "Just as I felt, writing this book, I was pulled in different directions at different times. But I was also trying to be empathetic - but without being conned into a false sympathy. And this was what I came up with in the end. There are many paths to understanding. There are many ways to see the same thing. Other people might and will see things differently. But this book is a single writer's honest attempt to make his own path towards understanding.'

Like his book on Colenso, Journey to a Hanging is a contemporary journey back into the complexities of Aotearoa's past.

Maori TV were present to film the event.

The launch was supported by Napier City Council through the auspices of MTG Hawke's Bay Tai Ahuriri, The Old Church Restaurant Meeanee, Ngatarawa Wines and Random Penguin New Zealand. 

 Images MTG Hawke's Bay Tai Ahuriri, photographer David Frost.







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