Background

Michael King was born on December 15, 1945, in Wellington, New Zealand. He was a son of Eleanor and Commander Lewis King, one of four children.

Education

Born and raised in a suburb north of Wellington, near Porirua harbor, King attended Sacred Heart College in Auckland and St. Patrick's College, Silverstream. He gained a bachelor's degree from Victoria University of Wellington in 1967, before moving north to Hamilton for postgraduate study and to embark upon a career as a journalist. He became a Master of Arts in 1968 at the University of Wackato, and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1978. In 1997 he became a Doctor of Literature at Victoria University of Wellington.

Career

While working at the Waikato Times newspaper as a senior journalist in 1968-1971, Michael King reported on Maori culture and news, which brought him into close contact with the Tainui iwi (tribe) in Ngaruawahia, among the people and subjects that he would spend much of the rest of his life studying as a historian.

After a brief spell as a lecturer in journalism at Wellington Polytechnic in 1972-1974 and at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1976, King turned to writing full-time and published ground-breaking biographies of influential Maori figures, such as Dame Whina Cooper, the veteran community leader. Cooper's leadership of the 1975 land rights march is credited with the rebirth of Maori political aspirations in the 1970s and 1980s, and King's academic and journalistic output was perfectly placed to explain the sudden and, to some, frightening social changes the country was undergoing.

In particular, King's 1985 autobiographical Being Pakeha: An Encounter With New Zealand And The Maori Renaissance - using the Maori noun for European immigrants - was an important attempt to deal with the dilemma of being a descendant and beneficiary of earlier colonial migrants, and the question of what the nation's identity was to be.

In 1974-1979 he was a conductor of workshops in professional writing at Victoria University Extension Department. In 1978 he was a research fellow in the Centre for Maori Studies and Research at the University of Waikato. He also was a post-doctoral fellow in history at the University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand (1980), and a conductor of workshops in the department of continuing education, 1980-1985, senior research fellow in humanities, 1996-1997 there.

In 1980-1981 he was a member of New Zealand Copyright Council, New Zealand Authors’ Fund advisory committee (1980-1992), Frank Argeson Trust (1982-2004), Auckland Institute and Museum Council (1989-1990), Chatham Islands Conservation Board (1990-1993), Waikato Conservation Board (1993-1995), Hahei Marine Reserve management committee (1993-1995), Janet Frame Literary Trust (1999-2004).

King's work "brought Maori leaders into the sitting rooms of New Zealand in a way that had never been done before." King's personal attempt to bridge the comprehension gap was to learn to speak Maori early in his career, at a time when many of his peers would have regarded him as eccentric for doing so.

King was a judge for literary awards, including New Zealand Book Awards and American Express Short Story Award; participant in radio and television current affairs and arts programs, including Writing, Checkpoint, Viewpoint, and Looking at the Arts.

By Michael King were researched, scripted, and presented Tangata Whenua, a series of six documentaries on Maori topics, produced by Television New Zealand, 1974; scripted and fronted documentary Princess Te Puea, produced by South Pacific Television, 1977: scripted Whina, Te Whaea o te Motu (documentary), produced by TVNZ. 1992. He was a script advisor and interviewer for Perfectly Frank, a documentary on Frank Sargeson, TVNZ, 1998.

Achievements

• The author and editor of 34 books, King made New Zealand history accessible to a wide audience, especially the history of the Maori, thanks to his fearless and balanced description of the conflicts and tensions between the Maori and European immigrants. Unafraid of exploding long-held national myths or taking sides on controversial issues, King had become New Zealand's most popular historian. In October 2003, his latest work, The Penguin History Of New Zealand, sold out of its first print run of 10,000 copies within a few days of going on sale. After six months, it had run into seven editions and sold a total of 70,000 copies - a phenomenal figure for a country with a population well below 4 million.
  
  Among his achievements are Katherine Mansfield fellowship (1976), Winston Churchill Fellowship (1980), Victoria University writer’s fellowship (1983), New Zealand Literary Fund non-fiction bursary (1987), Fulbright visiting writer’s fellowship (1988), National Library fellowship (1990), Waikato University fellowship in humanities (1991-1993) and writers’ fellowship (1994), University of Otago, Bums Fellowship (1998-1999) and others.
  
  The New Zealand Herald named him New Zealander of the Year for 2003.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Silence Beyond

    (The Silence Beyond is a wide-ranging and often personal c...)

    2011
  • The Penguin History of New Zealand

    (This bestselling book, the triumphant fruit of careful re...)

    2003
  • Moriori: A People Rediscovered

    (This award-winning, trail-blazing book by Michael King re...)

    1989
  • Moko: Maori Tattooing in the Twentieth Century 1972
  • Face Value A Study in Maori Portraiture 1975
  • Maori: A photographic and social history 1996
  • Being Pakeha 1985
  • Hidden places 1992

Views

King himself was characteristically honest about the state of race relations in New Zealand and supported the consensus built up over the past 20 years, in which the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 between the British crown and Maori leaders, was the fundamental basis for any lasting settlement between Maori and pakeha.

That consensus has recently been threatened by the playing of the "race card" by the leader of the rightwing National Party, Don Brash. For Brash, the decision to threaten the consensus may be a crude political calculation to win votes, but the effect may undo the goodwill built up over many years by King and other interlocutors.

King, though, was convinced that New Zealand's race problems could be overcome, given an honest attempt by all parties. His Penguin History Of New Zealand ends on an optimistic note: "Most New Zealanders, whatever their cultural backgrounds, are good-hearted, practical, commonsensical and tolerant. Those qualities are part of the national cultural capital that has in the past saved the country from the worst excesses of chauvinism and racism seen in other parts of the world. They are as sound a basis as any for optimism about the country's future."

Membership

Michael King was a member of Amnesty International (national executive, 1972), CARE, United National Association, PEN (national president, New Zealand Centre, 1979-80), Australian Society of Authors, Archives and Records Association of New Zealand, Forest and Bird Protection Society, New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Waikato Archaeological Society (vice president, 1969-70), Ruapehu Ski Club, CORSO.

• United National Association , New Zealand

• 

  national president, New Zealand Centre, 1979-1980

  New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) , New Zealand

• 

  The Australian Society of Authors was formed in 1963 as the organization to promote and protect the rights of Australia's authors and illustrators.

  Australian Society of Authors , Auctralia

• Archives and Records Association of New Zealand , New Zealand

• 

  Forest and Bird Protection Society , New Zealand

• 

  New Zealand Historic Places Trust , New Zealand

• vice president, 1969-1970

  Waikato Archaeological Society , New Zealand

• Ruapehu Ski Club , New Zealand

• 

  Amnesty International

• 

  CARE is a major international humanitarian agency delivering emergency relief and long-term international development projects. Founded in 1945, CARE is nonsectarian, impartial, and non-governmental. It is one of the largest and oldest humanitarian aid organizations focused on fighting global poverty.

  CARE

Personality

Michael King was a serious man who loved gossip. The historian used to feed human morsels to magazine columnist Felicity Ferret. His supply of tales never seemed to run low, says his daughter Rachael. She listened to him all her life "and I never heard him tell the same anecdote twice."

This careful man, so scrupulous in print about the facts, "never let them get in the way of a good story," she says. Michael once gave a speech about being repeatedly mistaken for famous others. "Congratulations on The Lord of the Rings, Peter," one man told him. "I hear it's doing very well."

Physical Characteristics: King was a diabetic and had the post-polio syndrome. He received six weeks of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for throat cancer discovered in October 2003, which was in remission by 2004.

Interests

• fishing

• Sport & Clubs

  ski

Connections

Michael King married Maria Jungowska on October 17, 1987. He had two children: Jonathan Michael and Rachael Frances.

Father:

Lewis King

Mother:

Eleanor King

Son:

Jonathan Michael King

Daughter:

Rachael King

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vol. 194
  2010