This book is about unfinished business. Travelling
around the country to launch his successful
Becoming Pākehā: A journey between two
cultures (HarperCollins 2022), he met many
people who found the name Pākehā not fit
for purpose and who were anxious about the
future of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. That anxiety has
translated into turmoil with our new coalition
government’s policies on things Maori and a
wider than ever ethnic divide.
Living on the Fault Line tries to address this
crisis time that’s triggering Maori anger and
Pakeha silence. It explores what a Kiwi identity
might look like that keeps faith with Te Tiriti
and celebrates the shared culture that makes
and breaks us in Aotearoa.
Pākehā themselves are divided between
those who dream of a tiriti-based future, with
shared language and entangled cultures and
those who fear that future, branding it as unfair,
unequal, imposed. John Bluck, speaking for
and to Pākehā, makes what one early reviewer
calls “an eloquent and impassioned plea for a
Pākehā voice that is confident enough to join
the debate about this country’s future without
being defensive about or disconnected from
the history we have to own."