author
James Cowan
1870–1943
A vivid storyteller of New Zealand’s past, this journalist and historian became known for bringing frontier life, the New Zealand Wars, and Māori traditions to a wide readership. His work drew on firsthand interviews and a deep familiarity with the places and people he wrote about.
3 Audiobooks
Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand
by James Cowan
About the author
Born in East Tāmaki, Auckland, on 14 April 1870, James Cowan grew up in the Waikato region on land close to the site of the Battle of Ōrākau. That setting shaped his lifelong interest in New Zealand history. He learned to speak Māori from an early age and later became known for collecting oral histories from both Māori and Pākehā communities.
Cowan worked as a journalist before building a reputation as one of New Zealand’s most widely read non-fiction writers in the early twentieth century. He wrote more than 30 books and many newspaper and magazine articles, often focusing on colonial history, travel, and Māori life and tradition. His best-known work is The New Zealand Wars: A History of the Māori Campaigns and the Pioneering Period (1922–23), which remained an important account for many years.
Remembered as a lively popular historian as well as a reporter, he had a gift for turning research and reminiscence into readable narrative. He died on 6 September 1943, leaving behind a body of work that helped shape how generations of readers imagined New Zealand’s past.