Andrew Crowe

Andrew Crowe was born in England to Irish immigrant parents, and reached New Zealand by ship at the age of twenty. After learning how to survive alone in the native forest, spending three years researching the topic, he put out his first book, A Field Guide to the Native Edible Plants of New Zealand. ‘My parents must have despaired about what I was doing with my life,’ he says. ‘How could learning to be at ease in the forest, pondering how Māori adapted from the tropics, and discovering how to live on very little equip anyone for a job?' To their surprise, and Andrew's too, he went on to become an award-winning author of some 40 non-fiction books, many of which seek to foster a deeper appreciation of New Zealand's natural world.


Genre:

  • Non-Fiction

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PATHWAY OF THE BIRDS: The Voyaging Achievements of Māori and their Polynesian Ancestors

New Zealand history books continue to claim that Māori reached Aotearoa – New Zealand by accident, holding to a widely held view that Polynesian voyagers were 'certainly heroic but not necessarily skilful'. In Pathway of the Birds, science writer Andrew Crowe reveals a very different story. His readable and wide-ranging summary of evidence concerning the country's founding history – and that of the Pacific as a whole – confirms the unique capabilities of Pacific seafarers, in particular their ability to find and re-find incredibly small and/or remote maritime targets. How? As Hawaiian master navigator Nainoa Thompson explains: 'Everything you need to navigate is in nature. The question is, can you see it?' In Pathway of the Birds, Crowe elaborates on the many ways in which an appreciation of the natural world does indeed provide a significant key to understanding one of the most expansive and rapid phases of human migration in prehistory – a relatively brief period during which an oceanic region the size of Africa (including New Zealand, the Hawaiian Islands and Easter Island and all the islands in between), was discovered and settled by a single race of people.

AWARDS
 New Zealand Heritage Book Award 2019
■ Two Ka Palapala Po'okela Awards 2019
Storylines Notable Book Award 2019
Top Reads of 2018 – NZ Weekend Herald
Top Ten Non-Fiction for 2018 – Auckland Libraries
Best of 2019 Radio NZ: 'Absolutely one of the best books I have ever read'
 
Pathway of the Birds (published in NZ by Bateman 2018, and in the USA by University of Hawaii Press) went on to provide a primary research source for TVNZ/ Scotty Morrison's Origins Season 2.

THE TITLE

The book's title emphasises the deliberate and skilled nature of Polynesian exploration, navigation and settlement and is inspired by a traditional Tuamotuan voyaging chant of the same name. The clip on the left illustrates just one of these bird pathways, the stunning spring migration to Aotearoa of some 20 million tītī (sooty shearwaters). ♦ See also book trailer at Guided by Birds

INDIGENOUS RENAISSANCE

Hinemoana, the traditional-style sailing waka featured on the book's front cover was purchased for Aotearoa by Dr Simon McDonald in response to an unpublished draft of this book. Since the book's release, 100% of the author's prize money and royalties from it has gone toward supporting an indigenous renaissance in Pacific voyaging. Photo left: Author with Anihera Black (who crewed from Aotearoa to Rapa Nui), and Mahu Rāwiri (who built and sails a traditional Hawaiian-style craft in Tīkapa Moana-o-Hauraki).

WEBINAR about the book can be viewed at Te Toki Voyaging Trust
AUTHOR INTERVIEWS at Radio New Zealand National and The Lovepost

鳥行之徑:毛利及其玻里尼西亞祖先的壯闊航程

Left, launch of the Chinese language edition by the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan in Taipei 2024. Now available from Taiwan Government Books, SMC Bookstore, Got1shop Bookstore, Kingstone, Sanmin, Books.Com Taiwan, Wunan Books, iRead (Airiti) and GPI

OTHER BOOKS BY ANDREW CROWE

Those Magnificent Voyagers of the Pacific

a collaboration with Ngāti Maru artist Rick Fisher

– published by Bateman Books 2023


■ Storylines Notable Book Award 2023
■ Top Children's Books of 2023 – NZ Listener
INTERVIEW with the artist and author in The Valley Profile
OPINION in E-Tangata
LOOK INSIDE — click on this link, then scroll down for a preview

A Field Guide to the Native Edible Plants of New Zealand

– published by Penguin


This field guide originated from Andrew's experience of surviving in the native forest without food supplies, relying for sustenance solely on wild plants for periods of up to ten days at a time. The book was first published as a hardback by Collins in 1981, redesigned and republished in paperback by Hodder & Stoughton in 1990, redesigned and issued by Godwit as a hardback in 1997, then was reprinted multiple times by Penguin from 2004. It remains in print today.

Which? series – published by Penguin


A range of award-winning beginners' field guides followed, featuring simple ID keys and a holistic view of the natural world.

  • AIM Children's Book Award 1995 (Winner)
  • LIANZA Book Award 2003 (Winner)
  • NZPost Children's Book Award 2008 (Winner)
  • AIM Children's Book Awards 1995 (Finalist)
  • NZLIA Book Awards 1996 (Finalist)
  • NZPost Children's Book Awards 2002, 2003 (Finalists)
  • Montana Book Awards 2002, 2003 (Finalists)

Life-Size Guides – published by Penguin


This led on to an innovative ID series, featuring life-size images, aimed to be still more widely accessible, appealing especially to reluctant readers.

  • LIANZA Book Award 1998 (Winner)
  • GP Book Design Awards 1998 (Finalist)
  • NZPost Children's Book Awards 1998, 2000, 2004, 2005 (Finalists)
  • LIANZA Book Awards 2004 (Finalist)

Mini Guides – published by Penguin


These were followed by a truly pocket-sized series of nature ID guides
  • NZPost Children's Book Awards 2008 (Finalist)

Nature Flip Guide series – published by Penguin

And a series of fold-out, all-weather ID guides that proved particularly popular in schools for shared use on nature outings and for display as classroom posters. Published 1998 & 2008

Wild Stories series – published by Heinemann Education

First four titles published as the Wildlife Readers series by Longman Paul 1988. Expanded series of 8 titles republished by Heinemann Education 1997

Patterns in Nature series – published by Longman Paul

In English in 1990 and in te reo Māori in 1991 as

Ngā Tauira Taiao


Nature's Alphabet

First published by Penguin 1998 (twice), 1999, 2003, 2008. Republished (with more te reo Māori) by Bateman 2022

  • NZPost Children's Book Awards 1998 (Finalist)

The Dalai Lama Story – published by Longacre 2007

  • Ashton Wylie Award 2005 (Winner – unpublished manuscript)

The Parks and Woodlands of London – Fourth Estate, London 1987


Earthkids – published by Penguin 1992

  • AIM Children's Book Awards 1993 (Finalist)

Margaret Mahy Medal


In 2009, Andrew Crowe received New Zealand's top honour for children's literature -- the Margaret Mahy Medal – the first non-fiction writer to receive this award. In the words of the judge, 'He has arguably done more to shape the format and accessibility of information in children’s non-fiction in New Zealand than any other author'.