Angela Wanhalla begins her story in Maitapapa, Taieri, New Zealand,the mixed-descent community where her great-grandparents, John Brownand Mabel Smith, were born. As her book took shape, a community emergedfrom the records, re-casting history and identity in the present.Drawing on the experiences of mixed-Maori/White families, Wanhallaexamines the early history of southern New Zealand. There, Ngäi Tahuengaged with the European newcomers on a sustained scale from the1820s, encountering systematic settlement from the 1840s, and fightingland alienation from the 1850s. The evolving social world was oneframed by marriage, kinship networks, and cultural practices – aworld in which inter-racial intimacy played a formative role.