The Last Living Cannibal – Airana Ngarewa

READ FOR NZ BOOK AWARDS

Set in the 1940s Taranaki, The Last Living Cannibal is narrated by an old man, Koko, from both the present and afterlife. It examines muru or the restoration of balance within an iwi or community, and is put to the test when a group arrive at Koko’s tangi to claim both the body and a grandchild.

We came from a long tradition of warriors. Righteous and covetous … Back in my day we had a clear enemy. Someone we could point to. Swing the thick end of a taiaha at. No-one nowhere in this country had warred as we warred against the Queen and her soldiers.

RACHEL:
In The Last Living Cannibal Ngarewa (Ngāti Ruanui, Ngā Rauru, Ngāruahine) investigates muru, a process of restorative justice undertaken traditionally on a Marae. The book informs us that “muru is not revenge. Muru is about balance. You put your hands on one of theirs and they had every right to take from you and yours whatever they meant to take, short of a life.”

Via lengthy family conversations, interactions and complex dynamics it examines topics of incarceration, trauma and survival by exploring how people carry inherited pain. The characters have lived through Parihaka, land wars, wrongful imprisonment and family trauma and it stays with them even into the afterlife.

Ngarewa builds a world that draws on both myth and history, grounding it in a distinct sense of place.  Descriptions of the natural environment reinforce the NZ setting. The writing is empathic as it confronts the brutalities of history and the choices that keep repeating through generations. It was an emotional and educational read.

Published 2025
Moa Press
290 pages