Story: Volcanic Plateau region

Once were warriors

Once were warriors

Once were warriors, a novel by the Rotorua-raised writer Alan Duff, later became a successful film. It is set in the bleak subdivision of Pine Block, a fictionalised version of Fordlands in Rotorua.

Download the document (17 KB) to read some of the first pages. Duff’s prose vividly conveys the divide between Pine Block and more affluent neighbourhoods, and the ways that ethnicity and class intersect in the town.

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New Zealand Film Commission

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How to cite this page:

Malcolm McKinnon, 'Volcanic Plateau region - Population and society', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/document/15186/once-were-warriors (accessed 26 April 2024)

Story by Malcolm McKinnon, updated 1 May 2015