The Huia & Our Tears

The beautiful forest-dwelling huia, presumed extinct, hold a special place in the affections of New Zealanders. The old forests are silent now to the call of these beautiful birds, the male with its strong, sharp beak, she with her beak so gracefully curved. All that is left can be found in museums. The Huia & Our Tears is Ray Ching's memoir of these birds in his studio in the 1960s, their specimen skins and feathers, and his meeting and conversations with the man who had trapped and shot them fifty years earlier. Featuring extracts from The Book of the Huia by W J Phillipps (1963).