Once Were Warriors

By: Alan Duff

Narrated by: Jay Laga'aia

Once Were Warriors is Alan Duff's harrowing vision of his country's indigenous people 200 years after the English conquest. In prose that is both raw and compelling, it tells the story of Beth Heke, a Maori woman struggling to keep her family from falling apart, despite the squalor and violence of the housing projects in which they live. Conveying both the rich textures of Maori tradition and the wounds left by its absence, Once Were Warriors is a masterpiece of unblinking realism, irresistible energy, and great sorrow.

©1990 Alan Duff (P)2013 Bolinda Publishing

Critic reviews

"Duff (himself the son of a Maori mother and a white father) shows amazing facility with language in the intense, fast-paced, choppy internal monologues he gives his characters.... Duff shows courage in attacking the view that assimilation is the first step out of poverty, and he does so by spinning a compelling tale." ( Kirkus Reviews)

"Alan Duff's first novel bursts upon the literary landscape with all the noise and power of a new volcano." (Michael Gifkins, New Zealand Listener)

"This is the Haka, the rage of the people who, yes, once were warriors.... A kick to the guts of New Zealand's much vaunted pride in its Maori/Pakeha race relations. A breathless, fearless debut." (Witi Ihimaera)

4000X better then the movie

A sad reality that is not to far from home for many. A glimpse into a life you may not understand but you can connect with them by family, hope, spirit, and love.

For people who never get up from the bottom

*minor/suggestive spoilers* I watched this movie in college for a Women's Studies course. The movie left me crying and shaking; the book wasn't any happier. Jake and Beth Heke, two thirty something year old (36 and 34, if you're really interested) parents to six children (five in the home until the end) who live with no one, but each other their own failed dreams for company. Jake, a descendant of slaves, is in fact enslaved by his own anger, the drink, and wanting to be 'the man' but he's only taking up space. He's unemployed, a wife-beater, and so common that even as the reader that dislikes him, you feel compassion for his struggle anyway. The author was very brilliant in that regard. Beth, the woman who loves/loved him for all the years they married is a descendant of warriors but is always the submissive, trying to keep together a family, her family. She eventually realizes her own self worth, but at a great cost. If you watched the movie, it's not a surprise. The only issue I had with the book is that it reads a lot like a long run on sentence and sometimes you don't know that the speaker has changed (no quotations, no 'Grace said' or 'Beth states'), but it wasn't completely necessary. It's more like my preference. You just really have to pay attention for the character switches. The book 'Requiem for a Dream' is also like that; it's like the ongoing ramblings of one broken, hindered family. I recommend, but keep a box of tissues close.

Powerful, depressing, brilliant

Amazing writing and a truly tragic but profound story of intergenerational abuse and recovery. Absolutely classic!