Oliver Sutherland

This is a solid biography but extraordinarily rewarding. It is well-researched with excellent notes, bibliography and index. This biography by his son, traces the career and life of Ivan Sutherland, a New Zealand academic and scholar born in Masterton, New Zealand in 1897.

For this reader, 'Paikea' filled in so many details about life in New Zealand and particularly about working at the University of New Zealand in two of its colleges Victoria and Canterbury over three decades. Although this was not the book's aim, it does give a sympathetic picture of Thomas Hunter - the 'father of pyschology' in New Zealand.

Ivan Sutherland was a fore-sighted man and his work in describing the Maori people's situation in the nineteen-thirties, forties and fifties is crucial to an understanding of where we are at in New Zealand in the 21st century. Sutherland's role in that has been recognised and outlined in this book. Maybe in the future it will be celebrated.

I would have liked to find out more about the personal life of this man. Maybe there isn't more to know or maybe further research by a non-family member will uncover that. His tragic death by suicide in 1952 comes as a mystifying end to a successful academic career and a vibrant family life. After living with Ivan Sutherland for over 400 pages one feels deep sadness and regret. One searches his face in the photographs used to see if more will be revealed.… (más)