Prodigious Birds: Moas and Moa-Hunting in New Zealand

Atholl Anderson was born in Hawera, New Zealand. He was educated at Canterbury, Otago and Cambridge universities. For 17 years he was on the staff of Otago University, eventually as Professor and Head of the Anthropology Department. During that time he directed numerous archaeological excavations and published a major work on moa-hunting Prodigious Birds: Moas and Moa-hunting in Prehistoric New Zealand and other books on the archaeology and early history of southern New Zealand (When All the Moa Ovens Grew Cold, 1983 and Te Puoho's Last Raid, 1986. For his research in New Zealand's prehistory he was awarded the Percy Smith Medal and the Elsdon Best Medal. The Welcome of Strangers: An ethnohistory of southern Maori A.D 1650-1850, published in 1998, is a milestone in scholarly literature. In 1993, he became Professor of Prehistory in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, where he researches the prehistoric colonisation of the Pacific islands. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In 2015 his title, Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History, made The New Zealand Best Seller List. This title won the 2015 Royal Society of New Zealand Science Book Prize and in 2016 it won the New Zealand Award illustrated nonfiction award. Atholl Anderson also made the Ernest Scott Prize 2015 shortlist with this title. This title won the 2015 Nga Kupu Ora Maori Book Award in te History category. Atholl Anderson was also named the John David Stout Fellow for 2016 at Victoria University of Wellington. The fellowship is hosted by the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies and funded by the Stout Trust. Atholl Anderson was also a recipient of a 2016 New Zealand Prime Minister¿s Award for Literary Achievement in the nonfiction category.