Monty Soutar

[2][3] He then attended Hato Paora College, which he credits for instilling pride in academic achievement and interest in the Maori side of his heritage.

[1] Soutar was appointed to the Waitangi Tribunal in 2002 for a three-year period,[6] and from 2006 to January 2010 was Director of the Tairawhiti Museum in Gisborne.

In the 2015 New Year Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Māori and historical research.

In 2021 Soutar was awarded the Creative New Zealand King Writer's Fellowship worth $100,000 to enable him to complete a historical novel trilogy.

[11] It was shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.