Foreword / Roger Maaka -- 1. / Talking history -- 2. / Moeraki people and places -- 3. / Growing up at Moeraki -- 4. / Starting fishing at Moeraki -- 5. / Manuhiri fisherman at Kaikoura -- 6. / The kia ora years -- 7. / The last years of fishing -- 8. / A friend of the Land Court -- 9. / Genealogy and southern history -- 10. / Māori issues in Southland -- App. / Syd Cormack's whakapapa -- App. Syd / Cormack's Māori informants -- App. / Place names and their Māori history
Summary
Fishing tales abound in this book, as Syd Cormack was a commercial fisherman in Moeraki and Kaikoura for much of his adult life. Even when he moved to Southland to farm, he continued fishing. But there was another side. He describes himself as being 'four generations from Maoridom' because he was descended from an influential Moeraki woman and a European whaler. Yet his father spoke Maori and from him Syd caught the habit of collecting stories of his people, simply because he was interested. Eventually he became a recognised authority and respected kaumatua, widely and frequently consulted on issues of land and genealogy
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-214) and index
