Raumoa Ormsby

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ormsby, Raumoa (1948- ) is a novelist.

Raumoa Ormsby was born and raised in Napier. He spent his early years living in the small Māori community Kohupatiki Paa. Ormsby was educated in Wellington, where he attended both Wellington Teachers College and Victoria University. Thirty years later he returned to Kohupatiki Paa and lives there today.

In his first novel, Dreams Lost, Never Walked (Vintage, 2003), Ormsby is concerned with Māori culture and values, which, as he says, is about ‘keeping faith with traditions and holding dear the good things which flowed from our ancestors.’ Ormsby explores his culture and its complicated relationships in a rural world not dissimilar to Kohupatiki Paa.

Michael Larsen in the Weekend Herald, describes Dreams Lost, Never Walked, ‘As a first novel, this still stands as a must-read tale that describes what you don’t read in the papers. It has warmth and humour amid the brutality, and you leave a better person than when you entered this tight-knit world.’