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Whaea Blue is a fierce, lyrical, and deeply original memoir by Talia Marshall, weaving together whakapapa, memory, grief, humour, and identity through a road trip across Aotearoa in a series of aging European cars.

As Polly, Wiki, and the kuia ride atop a battered Toyota Corona, Marshall journeys through landscapes both physical and spiritual — meeting ghosts, ancestors, lovers, and fragments of herself along the way. Time folds in on itself as she moves between past and present, tracing the lives of tipuna, whānau, and the men who shaped her story, from fathers and grandfathers to Kupe himself.

Yet at the heart of Whaea Blue are the wahine who carry her forward. Through sharp honesty and haunting prose, Marshall explores intergenerational trauma, colonial histories, loss, survival, and the elasticity of identity. Rich with Māori storytelling traditions, dark humour, and emotional intensity, the memoir becomes both a karanga to the past and a search for peace.

• Powerful memoir blending whakapapa, history, memory, and fiction-like storytelling
• Explores Māori identity, intergenerational trauma, grief, and resilience
• Richly layered with ancestors, ghosts, humour, and road-trip imagery
• A striking contemporary work of Māori literature

• Author: Talia Marshall
• Format: Soft Cover
• ISBN: 9781776920136

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