Radio NZ, The New Zealand Herald and The Beehive report that Judith Binney (1940–2011), who only recently survived being hit by a truck, passed away last night in her Auckland home, aged 70. Binney, who was Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Auckland and one of the most passionate historians I had ever heard, authored some groundbreaking work, especially on the Māori Ringatū faith and its key figures Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki and Rua Kenana, and on the Ngāi Tūhoe. Her last published book, Encircled Lands: Te Urewera, 1820–1921, deservedly won the New Zealand Post Book of the Year and General Non-fiction Award last year. Encircled Lands (which she speaks about in this fascinating interview aired on 28 November 2009) powerfully recalls the ‘lost history’ of Te Urewera, the Ngāi Tūhoe people and members of neighbouring iwi such as Ngati Whare. It truly is a magnificent acheivement, even if her devotion to her subject at times distorts the telling.

It was not that long ago that I read Ruben Gallego’s 2003 Russian Booker Prize-winning book White on Black wherein the author makes the comment that ‘there are books that change the way you look at the world, books that make you feel like dying or living differently’. In many ways, Judith Binney’s Encircled Lands makes one do something just like this. Binney’s Redemption Songs: A Life of Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki and Philip Temple’s A Sort of Conscience: The Wakefields too embody the power to make us radically reassess our past. Moreover, Encircled Lands invites an entire nation to first look and then to live differently as a result of what it sees. In many ways, this is Professor Binney’s public gift to the nation – the invitation to look, and to look again. What a gift!