Liv Sisson attends An Evening with David Sedaris at Auckland’s Town Hall.
The last time I saw David Sedaris live, I was 15. My mom introduced me to his work, possibly as a way to say, “Look kid, our chaotic, sometimes neurotic, family is actually wildly entertaining, normal even”. It was a school night, so we didn’t stick around for the author’s famous signing line, but I’ve been a fan ever since.
I tried to craft a line that describes David Sedaris, but his website nails it: “With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent humour writers… a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.”
A Sedaris story can take you from a cottage in “singularly beautiful” Maine, to a grotty McDonald’s, to the trash filled streets of Cairo. In these tales Sedaris might be walking around Macy’s dressed as an elf, meeting the pope, or asking a stranger about the last time she touched a monkey.
No pics allowed, so here’s a bookmark and the crowd.
Last Friday, An Evening with David Sedaris kicked off at Auckland Town Hall. Would I find him as delightful as I did 14 years ago? The lobby was a complete cluster, jammed with people, many of whom looked a bit like David himself – gentlemen with slightly quirky style, passable for Ponsonby and/or the Upper East Side.
Sedaris entered stage left to an enthusiastic and long applause. He hadn’t been to New Zealand since 2012 and this was only his second visit. He opened with a short story about mispronunciations. The kind you and a pal might overhear then repeat until the end of time. Think “tortoise” but said as if you were Parisian.
The Town Hall must love a gig like David Sedaris. The set up was simple, but the show was nearly sold out. It was just Sedaris and a lectern. It feels novel that people are willing to pay to see a writer simply read their work in 2025, the age of short form and sensory overload.
When I tried to describe the evening to my aunty she said, “Ah, so he’s a comedian.” Sedaris’s Wikipedia page also describes him this way, but I wouldn’t. In his shows, he reads published material, new material that he’s testing and past entries from the diaries he’s been keeping for 40 years. He does ad lib a bit, but it’s not standup, and he’s not trying to make you laugh every second. It’s entertainment in its simplest and oldest form.
Auckland Town Hall shortly before the show started.
“I want to show you my outfit,” Sedaris said after his opening bit, emerging from behind the lectern. He was wearing black and white saddle shoes, knee high socks, billowy short pants, a sport coat and his iconic glasses. “I wrote something about these pantaloons,” he told us, then launched into a story he’d never read live before.
Before Sedaris sends a new story to his editor, he likes to read it live to an audience at least 20 times. As he read his pantaloon story, he was marking it up, based on our responses. By the time he submits a story, he’s worked out the awkward bits and identified the funniest bits – it’s a polished gem.
Sedaris then read ‘A long way home’ – a story published in The New Yorker last year. In it, Sedaris and long-time partner Hugh make their way home to New York City from Maine. As travel delays unfurl, Sedaris invites a lone female traveller to join them on their drive. She needs a ride and Sedaris needs a buffer from Hugh’s increasingly grumpy disposition. He also wants to be left alone on the drive to do Duolingo. His streak is now over 900 days.
I’d already read this story, but Sedaris’s live reading was such a treat. His voice is iconic. It’s been described as pleasingly strange and is truly part of his craft. When he finished, he told us about the relentless fact checkers at The New Yorker. They contacted the rental car company, for example, to confirm he had in fact ordered the car for the time he had written.
Some of the night’s biggest laughs were fuelled by a handful of diary entries Sedaris shared. These nuggets offered a glimpse into his role as chief observer of his own life. Many stemmed from conversations he has had with fans in his own signing lines over the years. “You know when your labia drops out?” one fan asked him when she got to the front of the queue. No, he said, then told the story she shared with him. Sedaris is always mining for stories.
It’s well documented that question time with writers can be punishing, but this crowd did well and asked (mostly) real questions. Do you consider your life interesting? What do you think about Trump? In response to the recent plane/helicopter crash in my home city, Sedaris noted that Trump was quick to blame Biden and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), “when he could have just said… poor skaters.” I accidentally laughed at this. Even in real-time, and on hard-time events, Sedaris’s comedic delivery is perfect. He exited stage left with three small curtsies.
The book, the signature/drawing, the fan.
After the show I joined a long queue to meet my hero. He famously spends a longer than average amount of time with each person and always gets through the entire line. On this night he signed and chatted for about as long as he read – three hours of performance all up.
When I made it to the front, Sedaris opened the conversation, “So tell me, Liv, do you waste a lot of money?” I don’t gamble, I replied, fumbling and being generally lame before recovering with “pedicures”. Sedaris then told me his family gives each other facials when they get together, and I told him I’d recently gotten a facial just outside the prison gates of the Hanoi Hilton. We chatted away, he signed my books and drew little pictures in them with his many coloured markers. It was magical.
It’s the most important document in our country. It frames all of our pasts, presents and futures. But how many of us can say we understand the why, when, where and what of Te Tiriti o Waitangi?
Our Waitangi 2025 coverage is possible because of the over 13,000 Spinoff members who regularly pay to support our work. If you aren’t supporting our work as a member yet, now is the time.
In 2024 we published a version of this list just as Roimata Smail’s Understanding Te Tiriti handbook was published. Since then Smail’s book has been posted off to every secondary school in the country (thanks to an act of generosity from an anonymous benefactor), and more books, videos and art works have sprung up.
The following updated Te Tiriti info guide is designed to support well-informed conversation with a list of articles and books to sort the basics first, then provide deeper reading (and watching, listening and doing) after that. The (Level) notes show degree of information: Level 1 being most simple, Level 5 being more complex.
This short video is a super clear summary of Te Tiriti o Waitangi narrated by journalist Liam Rātana, with excellent infographics, and is the perfect place to start to get the historic foundations sorted. (Level 1)
Tangata Tiriti means to be a person of the treaty. But how do we do that? Tina Ngata’s 10-point list is essential reading. Read it, share it, keep it in your bookmarks. (Level 1)
See also: this article (and podcast) in which two non-Māori share what being Tangata Tiriti means for them.
Dame Claudia Josepha Orange DNZM OBE CRSNZ is one of the foremost Pākehā historians on Te Tiriti. Her 1987 book The Treaty of Waitangi (adapted from her PhD thesis) is one of the seminal histories of Te Tiriti and has been published in multiple, revised editions (see below). This online resource, published on Aotearoa history website Te Ara, is a concise summary of key historical aspects of Te Tiriti and includes a reference list and footnotes. (Level 1)
See also: this video (approx. 40mins) of Claudio Orange and Dr Carwyn Jones talking about Orange’s work on Te Tiriti (produced by BWB).
The Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi – what are they?
The Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi have been developed since 1987 as a way to interpret and apply Te Tiriti. Tommy de Silva wrote this explainer on the Principles for The Spinoff. This Wikipedia article is a good, quick overview. Then this Te Ara summary in six-parts takes you through how the principles have been developed by the courts, by laws, by the Waitangi Tribunal and by the Crown. (Level 1)
Dr Moana Jackson (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Porou) was a trailblazing activist and renowned lawyer whose thinking has shaped and propelled progressive conversation in Aotearoa. In this interview he really gets to the heart of Te Tiriti. His answers are wise and insightful, for example: “… long before 1840 our people were treatying with each other, because that’s what independent bodies do. And in Ngāti Kahungunu, the phrase we use is mahi tūhono, and so treaties are seen as work that brings people together, and I think that’s a lovely description of what a treaty should be.” (Level 2)
Moana Jackson at Unity Wellington. (Photo: Unity Wellington via Facebook)
There’s a lot in here and to be honest this website can feel dense to navigate. A useful section though is this one on working as allies, which points to samples of a publication of interviews with people who are working for indigenous justice, and why and how they do it. (Levels 1 – 5)
This seven-part video series created by Treaty People (a Te Tiriti education service) is a guide to Te Tiriti, Māori Rights and Disability Rights, how to celebrate Te Tiriti, all in New Zealand Sign Language. (Level 1)
Short books for the basics
Understanding Te Tiriti – a handbook about Te Tiriti o Waitangi by Roimata Smail
Human rights lawyer and Te Tiriti educator Roimata Smail (Ngāti Maniapoto, Tainui, England, Scotland, Ireland). At just 32 pages this nifty guide is designed to backfill common knowledge gaps. (Level 2)
Te Tiriti o Waitangi, by Ross Calman, Mark Derby and Toby Morris (with Peter Adds, Hōne Apanui, Ian Cormack, Hinerangi Himiona, Jen Margaret, Dame Claudia Orange, Jock Phillips, Kate Potter, and Piripi Walker)
This graphic novel style bilingual book is a genius way to immerse in Te Tiriti. Perfect to have at home and in the classroom, there is also a downloadable teaching resource to go with it, and a brilliant 20-minute audio overview of Te Tiriti: “it’s about all of us and this means we need to understand it.” (Level 2)
Introducing Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Jared Davidson and Claudia Orange
This slim book(from the BWB Texts series) is a condensed version of the much larger illustrated Te Tiriti o Waitangi | Treaty of Waitangiby Claudia Orange. In it you’ll find the facts of what happened at Waitangi, what was at stake and the circumstances surrounding the agreement. (Level 2)
Imagining Decolonisation, Bianca Elkington, Moana Jackson, Rebecca Kiddle, Ocean Ripeka Mercier, Mike Ross, Jennie Smeaton, Amanda Thomas (a BWB Text)
This small but mighty book, published in 2022, has stayed on the bestsellers lists for literally years. It’s a genius collection of essays by generous thinkers who tackle what decolonisation actually is by first showing the effects of colonisation, and then by showing how that damage can be healed, why it should be, and how everyone’s lives could improve. (Level 3)
The authors of Imagining Decolonisation at the launch of the book at Unity Books Wellington. (Photo: Supplied)
In this book 12 non-Māori voices who have engaged with te ao Māori and have attempted to bring te Tiriti to life in their work, talk about the process, the impacts. “In stories of missteps, hard-earned victories and journeys through the complexities of cross-cultural relationships, Becoming Tangata Tiriti is a book of lessons learned.” (Levels 3 – 4)
Published by HUIA, this ground-breaking collection of essays by leading legal scholar Ani Mikaere (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Porou) is, importantly, very readable. The book covers over two decades of Mikaere’s experiences of teaching Māori and Western Law and the struggle to create a genuinely bi-cultural law school (at University of Waikato). The book shows the effects of colonisation on Māori lives by looking at the justice system and how it was built to benefit Pākehā, and marginalise Māori. It’s an invigorating, inspiring, and generous book. (Level 4)
This hugely influential book (first published in 1990 and revised in 2004) is a history of New Zealand from a Māori perspective. The Spinoff published this excerpt from the chapter called Tauiwi, which discusses the differences between the Māori and English versions of The Treaty / Te Tiriti. (Level 3)
Land of the Long White Cloud, video documentary series on RNZ This watchable seven-part series is about Pākehā confronting inherited privilege. The final episode is particularly interesting: it covers theatre makers Jo Randerson and Tom Clarke, who created a show imagining if Cook came back and saw, and reflected on, the impact of the colonisation that he spearheaded. (Level 4)
“This is the third volume in a series discussing the complexities of te Tiriti o Waitangi issues. Together, this group of essays takes a dynamic approach to understanding Tiriti relationships, acknowledging the ever-evolving interplay between the Crown and Māori through time. This is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of te Tiriti’s role in shaping Aotearoa New Zealand’s social, political and cultural landscape.” (Levels 4 – 5)
An expansive and illustrated history of Te Tiriti and its impact from early contact between Europeans and Māori, through to the signing of the treaty, and the revitalisation in the 20th Century, the founding of the Waitangi Tribunal, and present day debates. Comes complete with handy teacher resources, too. (Levels 2 – 5)
This 2011 documentary uses comedy and a bit of creative licence to dramatise the days leading up to the signing of Te Tiriti in 1840. It’s very watchable and fun for family viewing. Starring Jarod Rawiri as Hōne Heke, and co-written by Witi Ihimaera and Gavin Strawhan. (Level 3)
OK, look, this book is bigger than the Beehive and could endanger anyone who fell asleep while reading it in bed, such is its physical weight. Fletcher’s research into the British motivations for writing Te Tiriti has added another dimension to scholarship and thankfully there are some excellent reviews out there that illuminate its core contributions: Morgan Godfery did a heroic job of analysing the book for The Spinoff, here, and Michael J. Stevens did a brilliant job on the Ngāi Tahi website, here. (Level 5)
See also: Ned Fletcher gives fascinating talk about the book in this National Library of New Zealand recorded Zoom video on YouTube, here (about an hour long).
An Ockham-longlisted novel that, in part, explores the ongoing impacts of Colonisation. The main character, Māreikura, feels disconnected to her whakapapa and grapples with her own accidental activism as she’s navigating the reclamation of her language. A brilliant, nuanced story that offers a perspective on what it Aotearoa feels like from the perspective of a young Māori woman today. Read Tash Lampard’s close reading of Kino’s novel on The Spinoff, here.
A poem for Waitangi Day by Te Kahu Rolleston
Performance artist Te Kahu Rolleston’s 2015 poem speaks to ongoing inequalities that show that Te Tiriti is not being upheld. “Can we at least be courteous and decent as Treaty partners?”
Cook Thinks Again by Barbarian Productions, an audio experience
You can download this walking-tour show that beautifully works with comedy to make us life while also making us think about what colonisation means, and is today. Here’s the show blurb: “Based on Barbarian’s award-winning live walking tour experience, this site-specific, historically accurate and contemporarily contextualised tour has Cook ‘thinking again’ about his contribution to Aotearoa New Zealand’s history. A fun and accessible opportunity for tourists and locals alike to reflect on the effect and legacy of colonisation.”
Rahurahu’s debut novel (also longlisted for the Ockhams) explores intergenerational trauma, in both land and people, through the lives of cousins Erin and Star who road trip across the North Island searching for connection. Read a review of Poorhara on The Spinoff, here.
A mammoth celebration and scholarly examination of Māori art from the time of the tūpuna to the present day. It is a stunning achievement and while not explicitly about Te Tiriti it is a book that leads the reader into te ao Māori over 500 pages and 600 images of art. Read an article on the making of the book by Brown and Ellis, right here on The Spinoff.
This satirical sci-fi novel published by Lawrence & Gibson in 2023 was, and is, a huge hit: it’s funny, it’s inventive, and it’s based on Baker’s (Raukawa te Au ki te Tonga, Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangatira) own experiences of working in the Public Service. This article on e-Tangata tells you why he wrote it, and this review on The Spinoff gives you a glimpse into what it’s about. If you’re in Wellington on 25 February you can go to this event and listen to Tīhema talk about this book, and the experiences behind it, at the Aotearoa NZ Festival of the Arts.
Our Watch Now by Witi Ihimaera, a poem
This poem is one of a few offered to teachers as part of learning materials made by National Library of New Zealand for He Tohu. Witi Ihimaera shows, through a series of imaginings, what Aotearoa might be like if Te Tiriti was honoured. Beautiful, stirring, and includes this banger: “Māori Earth … not / Middle Earth”.
This is a (non-exhaustive) list of organisations that provide Te Tiriti training in-person and online: Aotearoa-wide, (educators can travel) / online options:
