KING, Michael 1945-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born December 15, 1945, in Wellington, New Zealand; died in a car accident March 30, 2004, near Auckland, New Zealand. Historian, journalist, and author. King was considered a leading expert on the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand and was often credited with helping to ease tensions between the native peoples and European settlers. Originally, his goal was to become a journalist. Completing a bachelor's degree at Victorian University in 1967, he began his career at the Waikato Times in 1968. It was while writing stories about the native Maoris that his focus began to shift. He continued to write, as well as teaching journalism at the University of Papua New Guinea and Victoria University Extension Department, during the 1970s, while completing his doctorate at the University of Waikato in 1978. The 1970s also saw the publication of his first titles about the Maori, including Moko-Maori Tattooing in the Twentieth Century (1972) and Te Puea (1977). Having become a historian, King felt that, as a descendant of European settlers, in order to understand the Maori he would need to learn their language, which he did thoroughly. He became a sympathetic ear to the concerns of New Zealand's native people, who were often discriminated against by the white government, and he received wide praise of his balanced biographies and histories of the Maori. Among his many important works are New Zealand: Its Land and Its People (1980), Whina: A Biography of Whina Cooper (1983), New Zealand (1987), the autobiographical Pakeha: The Quest for Identity in New Zealand (1991) and Being Pakeha Now: Reflections and Recollections of a White Native (1999), and Wrestling with the Angel: A Biography of Janet Frame (2000). In 2003, he completed The Penguin History of New Zealand, which became a phenomenal bestseller in his native country, selling over seventy thousand copies. Named to the Order of the British Empire in 1988 for his services, King was considered a consensus builder, a living bridge between the Maori and European New Zealanders. In addition to his writing, he was a researcher at the University of Auckland in the 1980s and 1990s, conducting workshops there in the early 1980s, and worked for a number of nonprofit groups, such as the Auckland Institute and Museum Council, the Chatham Islands Conservation Board, the Waikato Conservation Board, and the Hahei Marine Reserve management committee. He also was a member of the Janet Frame Literary Trust and was a judge for literary awards.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Guardian (London, England), April 1, 2004.

Los Angeles Times, April 1, 2004, p. B11.

Washington Post, April 2, 2004, p. B9.