Checkerboard Hill

When a family member dies in Australia, Ria flies from New Zealand and returns to the family and home in Australia

she suddenly left decades before as a teenager. Waiting for her return are her husband and son in New Zealand.

Neither family has met the other, and Ria has always kept her Māori, Australian, New Zealand identities and lives

separate. But the family tensions, unfinished arguments, connections to places and meeting of former friends, lead

Ria to revisit her memories and reflect on the social and cultural tensions and racism she experienced, and the

decisions she made. The novel confronts the complexities of families, secrets and trauma and the way these play

out across generations. It also explores the ways in which Māori cultural traditions and tikanga are transmuted

and transformed across the Tasman, across time and space.