Melissa Williams - Migration Myths

Often the story of urban migration is told in a linear fashion - a slow ebb into the cities ending in dislocation. The reality is more complex. A new book dislodges these ideas and tells of Maori urban migration and return, as a cultural continuum. Panguru and the City: Kainga Tahi, Kainga Rua, tells the urban migration history of rural Panguru - a community in the Hokianga harbour, Northland. The author is Melissa Matutina Williams, a lecturer in Maori History at Auckland University. Melissa is the daughter of a Panguru family, who grew up in Auckland - and this gave her impetus to write this account of migration.