Jeff is our fifth resident for the year and is the author of five books. His interest in Māori and Polynesian cultures has produced the titles Ngā Waka o Neherā: the first voyaging canoes, The Discovery of Aotearoa, Maori Weapons in Pre-European New Zealand, Waka Taua: Māori war canoe and the biography of Sir Hec Busby – Heke-nuku-mai-nga-iwi Busby: Not Here by Chance. He has previously written for a variety of magazines on subjects as diverse as sumo wrestling, trout fishing and rammed earth housing.
Jeff’s residency project is a work of creative non- fiction profiling 10 contemporary navigators from across Polynesia who use traditional non-instrument techniques to guide their voyaging canoes.
Each of the profiles will include a specific aspect of the contemporary voyaging story and combined they will describe how these remarkable men navigate their canoes using the position of the sun, moon, stars, along with the strength and direction of the winds and ocean swell to successfully find land thousands of miles away across the open ocean.
He lives in Auckland with his family.