H.D., Woman and Poet

Michael King is a writer and scholar. He was born in 1945. He is New Zealand's foremost scholar on the history of the Maori people and their culture. King's book, 1000 Years of Maori History: Nga Iwi O Te Motu, examines the origins of the Maori, how their culture responded to the arrival of Europeans, and how it has continued to exist in the face of great odds. Maori: A Photographic and Social History is a comprehensive history using contemporary scholarship and a wide range of photographs to explore aspects of Maori life. King has also written God's Farthest Outpost, a study that traces Catholicism in New Zealand and chronicles the effects of French, Irish and Maori mingling on its development. King received an honorary degree as a Doctor of Literature from Victoria University of Wellington in May 1997.