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. Recent among them is Pathway of the Birds: The Voyaging Achievements of Māori and their Polynesian Ancestors (Bateman/University of Hawaii Press, 2018); between the US and New Zealand, this won four awards, providing a primary research source for TVNZ/ Scotty Morrison's Origins Season 2.

Genre:

  • Non-Fiction

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

New Zealand history books (including the recent award-winning Tangata Whenua) continue to claim that Māori reached Aotearoa – New Zealand by accident, holding to a widely held belief 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 & REVIEWS for this book

■ 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'
Skilfully traces the migration paths of our Polynesian tūpuna and highlights their mastery, ingenuity and determination – Te Karaka
A highly readable and lucid account of the early Polynesians' epic saga – NZ Listener
Bridges the gap between academic researchers and the general audience – Journal of the Polynesian Society
An accessible, well-documented reference book that not only establishes the voyaging expertise of the Māori but also serves as a remarkable introduction to the entire region conventionally termed "Polynesia" – The Contemporary Pacific
Very well written... I highly recommend [it] – International Journal of Maritime History
A veritable mine of information – Journal of Anthropological Research
A necessary contribution to the existing literature – The Globe Journal
A major feat of scholarship. Highly recommended – Choice Reviews
Shames highly trained archaeologists and anthropologists in its deeply engaging narrative of the peopling of the world's most remote islands... A must-read for all scholars of Polynesia – Andrew Shamoo, Digital Library Curator, University of California
Accessible to the lay reader yet also required reading for the serious scholar – Patrick Vinton Kirch, Chancellor's Professor Emeritus, University of California.

THE TITLE

The book's title is inspired by a traditional Tuamotuan voyaging chant of the same name, as illustrated by this clip (left) showing the spring migration of some 20 million tītī (sooty shearwaters) to Aotearoa, thus highlighting the deliberate and skilled nature of Polynesian exploration, navigation and settlement.

HINEMOANA ON THE COVER

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. Following publication, this 22-metre waka hourua went on to play a prominent role in the re-enacted arrival of Captain James Cook off Whitianga 250 years earlier, an event that sought to highlight the 'remarkable achievements of Polynesian sailors'.

INDIGENOUS RENAISSANCE

The author supports 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).
WEBINARS about the book available at Te Toki Voyaging Trust, and Sarasota Audubon, Florida ♦ AUTHOR INTERVIEWS at Radio New Zealand National and The Lovepost ♦ BOOK TRAILER at Guided by Birds

鳥行之徑：毛利及其玻里尼西亞祖先的壯闊航程

PATHWAY OF THE BIRDS is available in ENGLISH worldwide and now also in CHINESE: New edition launched in Taipei 29 February 2024 by the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) of Taiwan (left) and available from Taiwan Government Books, SMC Bookstore, Got1shop Bookstore, Kingstone, Sanmin, Books.Com Taiwan, Wunan Books, Taiouan.com, PChome Online, 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

Andrew's career as a writer began with this field guide, which originated from his experience of surviving in the native forest without food supplies, relying for his 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 published again as a hardback by Godwit in 1997, then reprinted many times by Penguin from 2004. It still 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'.

 

Andrew Crowe is also a Member of Read NZ Te Pou Muramura

and the Storylines Trust Te Whare Waituhi Tamariki